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Dell Unity™ All Flash and Unity Hybrid Hardware Information Guide

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About converged network adapter (CNA) ports

Each SP contains two integrated CNA ports (labeled 4 and 5). These ports are PCI Express 3.0 x4 adapters that provide interfaces that can be configured as Ethernet, or Fibre Channel, but once set to a protocol, cannot be changed. If CNA ports are set to Ethernet, then you can use either 1Gb/s, 10Gb/s SFPs or Twin-AX for File (IP) or iSCSI Block access. If the ports are set to Fibre Channel, then you can use SFPs supporting 4, 8, 16 Gb/s FC multi-mode, or single-mode SFPs supporting 16Gb/s only.

NOTE:Once you set the network protocol on the CNA ports you cannot switch to a different network protocol. Additionally, the four CNA ports cannot be configured independently; they must all be configured with the same network protocol. For example, if you configure the CNA ports for 10Gb/s Ethernet you cannot then later switch these ports to Fibre Channel.
Table 1. CNA configurations
Speed Protocol Connection
1 Gb/s iSCSI and IP/file BASE-T RJ45 Ethernet
10 Gb/s iSCSI and IP/file SFP+ or Active/Passive TwinAx
4/8/16 Gb/s Fibre Channel 1SFP+ or OM2/OM3
4/8 Gb/s Fibre Channel SFP+ or OM2/OM3
16 Gb/s Fibre Channel (Single Mode2) SFP+ or OS1/OS2
1 - You may experience performance issues when directly attaching 16Gb/s FC ports to some 16Gb/s HBAs. See the Unity Family Release Notes for more details.
2 - If there is a synchronous replication port, it can be configured as single mode and the remaining ports can be configured as multi mode.
Figure 1. CNA port locations
CNA port locations

CNA port activity LED

The CNA activity port LED — a bi-color blue/green LED between the two CNA ports each connector — indicates the link/activity of the port. The port activity LED color depends on the protocol configured on the CNA.

  • Fibre Channel CNA ports use a blue LED
  • Ethernet CNA ports use a green LED

The following table describes the link/activity and connection speed associated with the CNA port LEDs.

Table 2. CNA port LEDs
LED Color State Description
Link/Activity Green On Ethernet link active
Blinking (1 Hz) Ethernet port fault
Blue On Fibre Channel link active
Blinking (1 Hz) Fibre Channel port fault
— Off Link inactive (Ethernet or FC)

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