Replacment NIC for M81KR

[alan.ambers]

Hi -

We have some older UCS B200M1(PID N20-B6620-1) with the NIC  PID 82598EB 10-Gig AF Dual Port Network Connection.  We are currently running the Nexus 1000 which we want to eliminate (cost and complexity).  The big pro of the Nexus-1000 is it handles the failover if we were to loose a network connection to one of our core Nexus 7010 switches.

We ended up decideding to use the M81KR as it has the 56 VNics and supports fabric interconnect failover.  We purchased two of them (at between $700 and $800 each) and installed them and all was well.

When we went back to purchase the other 14 NICs, Cisco had just EOS them and doubled the price.  That shot our budget so I am looking at options.

Is there another NIC that will work in a B200M1 server that has those specific features?  And at a price less than the new price of the M81KR?

Thanks in advance.

/alan

p.s. We are running UCS 1.4(3q)

[alan.ambers]

Just to further point out, I think the feature we want to use to elimnate the Nexus 1000 is the VM-FEX which exists on the M81KR.

[Robert Burns]

The M81KR is EOS which is why the price is increased.  This pushes people towards it's replacement the VIC 1280.  This 2nd Gen VIC is only supported on M2 and newer blades though.  There are limiations on VM-FEX, the 1000v is far more feature rich - depending on your needs, which also doesn't need the VIC specifically.  The 1000v is compatible with any NIC adapter.

Hopefully you're aware that the N1K is now free for the Essentials edition - gives pretty much all features except DAI, DHCPS and TrustSec.  This free-version licensing model changed with the 1000v as of version 2.1.

Regards,

Robert