added SFP 10G peer to peer direct connect with Windows on existing 1G network

Just wanted to post my success with using two Mellanox ConnectX2 cards I purchased from ebay for $40. It even came with two cables. Anyways I just installed the cards and made the following configuration settings.

1.  On Unraid box

a. Shut off all VMs and take your array offline

b. Go to Settings/Network settings and make sure you don’t have your new SFP card bonded to your primary nic

c. Go to your SFP "interface eth #" and…

i. Enable Bridge = No

ii. Interface Description = 10G SFP+ Mellanox ConnectX-2

iii. IP Address assignment = Static

iv. IP address = 10.10.10.1

v. Network Mask = 255.255.255.0

vi. Desired MTU "LEAVE BLANK"

vii. Enable VLANS = NO

d. APPLY

e. Make sure the Port is Up.

i. If the button to the right of Apply/Done says Port Down then your good.

f. DONE

2. On Windows Box

a. I did not need to install anything for this port/SFP/nic card to work properly

b. Control Panel - Network and Internet - Network Connections

c. Right Click your Mellanox SFP card and go to PROPERTIES

d. Scroll down and click on properties for  'INTERNET PROTOCOL VERSION 4 (TCP/IPv4)

e. Enter a static IP of 10.10.10.2

f. Enter a subnet Mask of 255.255.255.0

g. Leave default gateway blank

h. Open up a folder and in the address bar click 10.10.10.1

i. Your username and password are the same as the root access for your unraid.

i. Add your folders to your Start Menu or Quick Access and enjoy.

j. You can also login to your Unraid console by typing 10.10.10.1 in your web browser.

3. This should work exactly the same with any nic card, but I have not tested anything else.

Im on Unraid 6.2 BTW

P.S. after transferring some files on mechanical hard drives I have seen upwards of 5.2 gbs transfer speeds. I was wondering how a spinning hard drive could achieve this speed and thought maybe it was copying or reading from multiple discs as I use "High Water".

Thanks for this post. I have the identical setup. I'm having some serious problems getting files to copy. I can get file listings, but any attempt to copy a file from windows to unraid results in "unexpected error has occurred". Copying from unraid to windows copies for a second and then i get the same error: 0x8007003B: An unexpected network error occurred.

Did you face anything like this when you were setting up your LAN?

Any help is much appreciated.

Wellp, I switched the long cable I bought with a short one that came with the cards and it's working like a charm. eBay quality for you. Sorry for the false alarm, and thanks for the guide!