NVIDIA Mellanox® MBF2H536C-CESOT — BlueField-2 DPU 100GbE Dual-Port QSFP56

Technical Identity
The NVIDIA Mellanox® MBF2H536C-CESOT is a BlueField-2 P-Series Data Processing Unit (DPU) delivering dual-port 100GbE connectivity through QSFP56 ports. The card integrates the BlueField-2 SoC — a ConnectX-6 Dx network data path fused with 8 Arm A72 cores, 16GB onboard DDR4 memory, an integrated PCIe Gen4 switch, and hardware crypto / security engines (IPsec, TLS inline acceleration, indicated by the "C" designator). HHHL (Half-Height, Half-Length) form factor, PCIe 4.0 x16 host interface. Each unit ships Refurbished Grade A — bench-tested by T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS for link establishment, port-by-port traffic validation, firmware probe, and cosmetic inspection.

Specifications

OEM: NVIDIA Mellanox
Part Number (MPN): MBF2H536C-CESOT
Product Type: BlueField-2 Data Processing Unit (DPU)
ASIC / Family: NVIDIA BlueField-2 (BF2) SoC — ConnectX-6 Dx data path + 8× Arm A72 cores
Protocol: Ethernet only (this SKU; "CES" suffix)
Port Speed: 100GbE per port
Port Configuration: Dual-Port
Connector Type: QSFP56
Host Interface: PCIe 4.0 x16
Onboard Memory: 16GB DDR4
Crypto: Enabled — IPsec / TLS inline acceleration
Form Factor: HHHL (Half-Height, Half-Length)
Software Stack: NVIDIA DOCA SDK + BlueField OS image on DPU; MLNX_OFED / DOCA host driver on host
Condition: Refurbished Grade A — bench-tested by T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS


What This Is NOT

NOT a standard ConnectX NIC. The DPU embeds Arm cores running BlueField OS and must be provisioned via DOCA SDK before host services can consume its offloads.
NOT a switch. The DPU sits in a server PCIe slot and provides per-server offload — it does not aggregate or fan out traffic.
NOT VPI / InfiniBand. The "CES" suffix configures this SKU as Ethernet only at 100GbE per port. For VPI (Ethernet + InfiniBand) operation, use a different BlueField-2 SKU.
NOT plug-and-play. Firmware, BlueField OS image on the DPU, and a matching MLNX_OFED / DOCA host driver stack must be aligned before traffic flows.
NOT bundled with QSFP56 cables or transceivers — order interconnects separately.


Compatibility

Compatible switches (Ethernet): NVIDIA Spectrum-2 (SN3000-series) and Spectrum-3 (SN4000-series) 100GbE switches via QSFP56 / QSFP28 ports. Also interoperable with third-party 100GbE QSFP28 / QSFP56 switches from Arista, Cisco, Juniper.
Compatible interconnects: QSFP56 DAC (e.g. MCP1650-V00xExx), QSFP56 AOC (MFA1A00-Cxxx), QSFP56 optical transceivers (MMA1T00-CS, MMA1T00-VS). 100GbE QSFP28 DAC / AOC / transceivers also work with backward compatibility.
Host slot: PCIe 4.0 x16 required for full bidirectional 200Gbps host bandwidth. Operates in PCIe 3.0 x16 at reduced host throughput.
Software stack: NVIDIA DOCA SDK (current LTS), BlueField OS image flashed to the DPU, MLNX_OFED or DOCA host driver matched to firmware on the host.
Power: Slot-powered; no auxiliary power connector required for this SKU.


Deployment & Use Cases

Cloud / multi-tenant network offload: VXLAN, OVS, NAT, distributed firewall, micro-segmentation.
NVMe-oF target and initiator acceleration for disaggregated storage at 100GbE.
Zero-trust security: hardware-rooted TLS termination and IPsec at line rate.
Bare-metal-as-a-service: tenant isolation, provisioning, and telemetry offloaded from host CPU.
AI / HPC node: frees host CPU cycles for compute by moving network and storage work to the DPU.


FAQ
What is the NVIDIA Mellanox MBF2H536C-CESOT?

The MBF2H536C-CESOT is an NVIDIA BlueField-2 P-Series DPU with dual-port 100GbE QSFP56, PCIe Gen4 x16, 16GB onboard DDR4, and integrated crypto engines for IPsec / TLS inline acceleration.
Is this BlueField-2 DPU InfiniBand or Ethernet?

The "CES" suffix configures this SKU as 100GbE Ethernet only. For VPI (Ethernet + InfiniBand) configurations, use a different BlueField-2 SKU.
What software stack is required to run the DPU?

NVIDIA DOCA SDK plus a matching BlueField OS image on the DPU, and MLNX_OFED or the DOCA host driver on the server. The DPU runs its own Linux on the embedded Arm cores.
Which switches and cables work with MBF2H536C-CESOT?

NVIDIA Spectrum-2 and Spectrum-3 100GbE switches via QSFP56 or QSFP28 ports. Use QSFP56 DAC, AOC, or transceivers; 100GbE QSFP28 cables also interoperate with backward compatibility.
What condition is this unit?

Refurbished Grade A. Each unit is bench-tested by T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS for link establishment, port-by-port traffic validation, and full cosmetic inspection before shipment.

Why T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS
Every unit ships from EU stock bench-tested by T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS: link establishment, port-by-port traffic validation, firmware probe, and cosmetic inspection. Anti-static professional packaging, B2B global shipping, and technical consultation for HPC / AI cluster, cloud, and zero-trust security deployments.