Mellanox Voltaire Grid Director 4036E 36-Port 40Gb/s QDR InfiniBand Edge Switch - VLT-30034
This InfiniBand edge switch is the Mellanox Voltaire VLT-30034, also known as the Grid Director 4036E, a fully managed 36-port QDR InfiniBand switch with an integrated Ethernet gateway. This is a refurbished unit, professionally tested and validated by T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS. It is NOT an FDR or HDR InfiniBand switch, and it does NOT support InfiniBand speeds above QDR (40 Gb/s per port).
Engineering Context
The VLT-30034 (4036E) provides 36 QSFP ports, each operating at 40 Gb/s QDR InfiniBand, for an aggregate switching capacity of 2.88 Tb/s (full bisection bandwidth). The switch is fully non-blocking with hardware-based low-latency forwarding. The integrated Ethernet gateway enables bridging between InfiniBand and 10 Gigabit Ethernet networks without requiring an external gateway appliance. The switch supports subnet management, VLAN segmentation, packet filtering, IPv4/IPv6, RADIUS authentication, and jumbo frames. It ships in a 1U rack-mountable form factor with redundant power supplies.
Deployment and Use Cases
The VLT-30034 is deployed as an edge or leaf switch in QDR InfiniBand fabrics for HPC clusters running MPI-based parallel workloads, financial trading systems requiring ultra-low latency interconnects, and research computing environments. The integrated Ethernet gateway enables storage access to iSCSI or NFS targets from InfiniBand-attached compute nodes without additional networking equipment. Legacy QDR clusters migrating to FDR or HDR can retain these switches at the edge tier for backward-compatible connectivity to older ConnectX-2 and ConnectX-3 HCA adapters.
Technical Specifications
Model: VLT-30034 (Grid Director 4036E)
Switch Type: InfiniBand QDR Edge Switch
Ports: 36x QSFP (40 Gb/s per port)
Aggregate Bandwidth: 2.88 Tb/s (full bisection)
InfiniBand Speed: QDR (40 Gb/s)
Ethernet Gateway: Integrated (10 GbE bridging)
Management: Fully managed (Subnet Manager, CLI, SNMP)
Features: VLAN, packet filtering, IPv4/IPv6, RADIUS, jumbo frames
Form Factor: 1U rack-mountable
Power Supply: Redundant
Condition: Refurbished
Compatibility and Hard Constraints
The VLT-30034 uses QSFP connectors and requires QSFP InfiniBand cables (passive copper or active fiber) rated for QDR speeds. It is NOT compatible with QSFP28 or QSFP56 cables at higher speeds (cables will negotiate down to QDR only). It does NOT support FDR (56 Gb/s), EDR (100 Gb/s), or HDR (200 Gb/s) InfiniBand speeds. It is compatible with Mellanox ConnectX-2, ConnectX-3, and ConnectX-3 Pro HCA adapters with QSFP ports. The VLT-30011 (4036) is the variant without the Ethernet gateway. Airflow direction must be matched with compatible fan and PSU modules. This switch was originally manufactured by Voltaire, which was acquired by Mellanox Technologies in 2010.
Why Choose T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS
T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS provides this VLT-30034 as a professionally refurbished unit with full functional testing, including port validation, management interface verification, and power supply confirmation. Technical consultation is available to verify compatibility with your specific InfiniBand fabric and cabling infrastructure. Global shipping is available with 1-3 business day handling time.