The Dolphin Express software stack is designed to run on all current cluster hard- and software platforms, and also supports and adapts to platforms that are several years old to ensure long-term support. Generally, Dolphin strives to support every platform that can run any version of Windows, Linux or Solaris and offers a PCI (Express) slot.
When ordering a Dolphin Express DX product from Dolphin you should expect to receive the following content:
DXH510 PCI Express Host Adapter
DXH510 PCI Express Host Adapter low profile PCI Express bracket
Handling Instructions Document
A high speed data cable is required to connect the DXH510 PCI Express Host Adapter to another devices . Dolphin provides the following cables to support the DX products.
Table 3.1. Dolphin DX cables
| Part Number | Description |
| DXC1M-A | 1 Meter copper cable |
| DXC3M-A | 3 Meter copper cable |
| FCDX10M-A | 10 Meter fiber optic cable |
| FCDX50M-A | 50 Meter fiber optic cable |
| FCDX100M-A | 100 Meter fiber optic cable |
Remove the DXH510 from its packaging
Ensure that you are properly grounded.
For cluster applications install at least one DXH510 HBAs in two or more host PCs using a PCI Express slot that support x8 or x16 peripheral cards. For expansion applications only one DXH510 is required in a host PC. Follow PC manufacturer’s instructions for installing peripheral cards.
Once installed in the host PC, you can now connect the host to another DX product. This is described in .Section 3.5, “Cluster Cabling”
For best performance, all machines that run Oracle RAC should be interconnected with Dolpin Express.
The Dolphin Express DX hardware (interconnect adapters) complies to the PCI industry standard PCI-Express 1.0a and will thus operate in any machine that offers compliant slots. Supported CPU architectures are:
x86 (32 and 64 bit)
However, some combinations of CPU and chipset implementations offer sub-optimal performance which should be considered when planning a new system. A few cases are documented in which bugs in the chipset have shown up with our interconnect as it puts a lot of load onto the related components.
If you have questions about your specific hardware platform, please compare with the known issues listed in Appendix D, Platform Issues and Software Limitations contact Dolphin support, www.dolphinics.com.
The hardware platform for the nodes should be chosen from the Supported Platforms as described above. Next to the Dolphin Express specific requirements, you need to consult your application vendor expert / consultant on the recommended configuration for your application.
Dolphin DX adapters are low profile cards with a full-height bracket; a half height bracket is included.
The power consumption of Dolphin Express adapters is between 5W and 15W (Consult the separate data sheets for detail).
The Dolphin Express interconnect is fully inter-operable between all supported hardware platforms, also with different PCI or CPU architectures.
The Dolphin Express software stack is currently available for Linux, Solaris and Windows.
The whole stack also runs on other operating systems like VxWorks™ (excluding SuperSockets) and can be ported to other operating systems . Contact Dolphin support with your requirements.
The Dolphin Express software stack can be compiled for all 2.6 kernel versions. A few extra packages (like the kernel include files and configuration) need to be installed for the compilation. Dolphin does only provide source-based distributions which are to be compiled for the exact kernel and hardware version you are using. Software stacks operating on different kernel versions are of course fully inter-operable for inter-node communication.
Dolphin Express fully supports native 32-bit and 64-bit platforms. On 64-bit platforms offering both 32-bit and 64-bit runtime environments, SuperSockets will support 32-bit applications if the compilation environment for 32-bit is also installed. Otherwise, only the native 64-bit runtime environment is supported. ,.
For more information refer to Chapter 13, FAQ,Q: 2.1.6
Please refer to the release notes of the software stack version you are about to install for the current list of tested Linux distributions and kernel versions. Installation and operation on Linux distributions and kernel versions that are not in this list will usually work as well, but especially the most recent Linux version may cause problems if it has not yet been qualified by Dolphin.
The Dolphin Express software stack operates on 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows 2003 Server, Windows 2008 Server, Windows Vista and Windows 7. We provide MSI binary installer packages for each Windows version.
The DX interconnect can be used with Solaris 10 and beyond. SuperSockets can be used starting with Solaris 11, OpenSolaris 2009.05 (or later), or the Solaris Express Community Edition (SXCE) build 106 (or later).
Solaris™ 2.6 through 9 on Sparc is supported by the D interconnect (excluding SuperSockets). MySQL Cluster can be used via the SCI Transporter™ provided by MySQL, using the SISCI interface provided by Dolphin.
Ask Dolphin for potential support of platform combinations not listed here.