HCL - OpenServer - Intel X550-AT2 - HPE brands

[Tobias_Moritz]

Happy New Year to all of you!

I guess there are some folks here running HPE OpenServer deployments.

From time to time, we struggle to buy HPE hardware based on Check Point HCL because they are already End-of-Sale on HPE-side while the replacement hardware is not on Check Point HCL yet.

So now again regarding 10GBase-T NICs.

Only the old 561 (HPE Ethernet 10Gb 2-port 561FLR-T Adapter) are listed but they are end-of-sale since a while.

The replacement are called 562 (HPE Ethernet 10Gb 2-port 562FLR-T Adapter), recently relabled to X550-AT2 (HPE Ethernet 10Gb 2-port FLR-T X550-AT2 Adapter).

However, these 562 or X550-AT2 are not on Check Point HCL.

But:

These cards are based on Intel X550-AT2 Chip and there is an original Intel NIC with this chip called "Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X550-T2“ (X550T2BLK). And this orginal Intel NIC is on Check Point HCL. Since March 8th 2020.

They share the same PCI Vendor- and Device-ID. Subsys-ID differs of course.

TLDR:

1. If you use OpenServer from HPE, how do you choose the NICs?
   1. Intel-NIC in HPE Server?
   2. HPE NIC in HPE Server while sticking to Check Point HCL (so cannot use modern NICs)?
   3. Whatever works, ignoring Check Point HCL
2. @Check Point: Do you plan to update HPE HCL regarding modern NICs?

[Marcel_Gramalla]

Hi,

we also use HPE Servers for our Check Point Infrastructure and use HPE NICs. We use primarily fiber NICs and we don't have any issues with the HCL as we have what we need (10G and 25G options). Of course it takes some time for new models to be officially supported by Check Point but as long as there are option that you can buy we have to live with that. There are pros and cons of using OpenServer and not Appliances. 

Regards

Marcel

[PhoneBoy]

If you rely on Open Server hardware, it is best to be in contact with your local office so your requirements can be accounted for and prioritized.