UCS 220 M5SX with Intel CNA X550-T2 not seeing FCOE boot option only iSCSI option

[adolfo.cadillo]

I have the UCS C 220 M5SX with CNA X550-T2 card and from the specs FCOE is supported.  When I boot the system up I am only seeing the iSCSI boot option menu and not FCOE option.   What do I need to do in order to get this card configured with the FCOE boot option?  

[Kirk J]

I don't believe that intel card actually has a FC type optionROM that would be required for BFS.

For FC boot from SAN you will want to either use the Cisco VIC cards, or a native FC cards on the spec sheet.

Kirk...

[adolfo.cadillo]

Well this is a CNA card so it can do both LAN/SAN and FCOE is a supported protocol.   

[Kirk J]

The Cisco Spec sheet just lists it as a NIC.

https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/products/collateral/servers-unified-computing/ucs-c-series-rack-servers/c220m5-sff-specsheet.pdf

May be that Cisco doesn't advertise it as CNA if it doesn't have full BFS options, but can do software FCOE once the OS is loaded.

I know on some of the 1Gb cards from Intel, you had to actually run a config util to change the Option rom from PXE to iSCSI, in order to use iSCSI BFS.  Maybe something similar is required for this card.

Kirk...

[adolfo.cadillo]

oh ok...I'll try that and hopefully that works.   It's so hard getting information from Intel.......

[Kirk J]

Take a look at https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000006727/network-and-i-o/ethernet-products.html

Kirk...

[jim_atkinson]

The Cisco HCL is fairly clear in regards to this specific adapter, and it's respective capabilities. I have found that just because "OEM" states capabilities of a device, it does not always translate when certified on another "OEM" hardware platform.