Dell QLogic FastLinQ QL41164HFRJ Quad-Port 10GbE RJ-45 10GBASE-T Network Adapter – PCIe 3.0 x8

Four 10GBASE-T ports with RDMA for virtualization and storage servers.

The Dell QLogic FastLinQ QL41164HFRJ is a quad-port 10GBASE-T network adapter with four RJ-45 ports on PCIe 3.0 x8. It brings 10GbE over Cat6a copper, plus Universal RDMA and NIC partitioning, to Dell PowerEdge servers running virtualization, hyperconverged and storage workloads.

Moving Servers to 10GbE Over Existing Copper

Gigabit links quickly become a bottleneck for virtual machine migration, backup windows and storage traffic. Moving to 10G with SFP+ often means new optics and fiber patching.

The QL41164HFRJ provides four 10GBASE-T ports that use standard RJ-45 copper cabling, so servers can move to 10G over Cat6a without optics. It also negotiates at 1G for gradual upgrades.

Universal RDMA (RoCE and iWARP) reduces CPU load for storage traffic such as SMB Direct and iSER, and NIC partitioning (NPAR) splits each port into multiple logical NICs for virtualization.

Key Features and Offloads

The QL41164HFRJ supports universal RDMA (RoCE, RoCEv2, iWARP), NIC partitioning (NPAR), SR-IOV, VXLAN/NVGRE offload and PXE/iSCSI boot. These capabilities reduce CPU overhead and improve consistency for virtualization, hyperconverged and storage servers.

Installation and Compatibility

It connects through a PCI Express 3.0 x8 and is designed for Dell PowerEdge servers with a free PCIe 3.0 x8 slot. Supported media: cat6a copper (10G up to 100 m).

How to Install the Dell QL41164HFRJ

1. Power down the server, disconnect power, and open the chassis following the server documentation.
2. Install the adapter in a free 3.0 x8 or wider slot and secure the bracket.
3. Connect cables or transceivers (Cat6a copper) to your switch, then power on the server.
4. Install or update the latest drivers and firmware for your operating system or hypervisor, then configure IP addressing, teaming, VLANs or RDMA as needed.