Mellanox NVIDIA CX4421A ConnectX-4 Lx Dual Port SFP28 25GbE OCP Mezzanine 2.0 Network Interface Card (NIC) Adapter MCX4421A-ACAN
⚠️ IMPORTANT COMPATIBILITY NOTICE
This is NOT a standard PCIe network card.
The MCX4421A-ACAN uses the OCP Mezzanine 2.0 (Type 1) form factor and will NOT physically install into standard PCIe x8 or x16 slots found in typical Dell PowerEdge, HPE ProLiant, Lenovo ThinkSystem, workstation, or desktop motherboards. It requires a server specifically equipped with an OCP 2.0 Mezzanine slot. [store.flag...iptech.com]
Product Overview
The Mellanox NVIDIA ConnectX-4 Lx MCX4421A-ACAN is an enterprise-class dual-port 25GbE OCP network adapter designed for hyperscale cloud computing, virtualization, software-defined storage, NVMe-over-Fabrics, OpenStack, Kubernetes, and high-density data center deployments.
Powered by the proven Mellanox ConnectX-4 Lx EN (MT27710) controller, the adapter delivers ultra-low latency networking, RDMA acceleration, hardware virtualization offloads, advanced encapsulation processing, and high-performance Ethernet connectivity through two SFP28 interfaces.
Part Number Cross Reference
Mellanox / NVIDIA
- MCX4421A-ACAN
- CX4421A
- ConnectX-4 Lx EN
- MT27710
- NVIDIA SKU: 900-9X414-0053-SN1
Related Platform Designations
- OCP Mezzanine 2.0
- OCP Type 1
- Open Compute Project NIC
- Dual Port 25GbE OCP Adapter
Technical Specifications
General
- Manufacturer: NVIDIA Mellanox
- Model: MCX4421A-ACAN
- Board Model: CX4421A
- Controller: Mellanox ConnectX-4 Lx EN
- ASIC: MT27710
- Device Type: Network Interface Card (NIC)
- Protocol: Ethernet Only
Form Factor
- OCP Mezzanine 2.0
- Type 1 Stacking Height
- Bracketless Design
- Horizontal Mezzanine Connector
Host Interface
- PCI Express 3.0 x8
- Backward Compatible with PCIe Gen2
Network Ports
Supported Speeds
Physical Dimensions
- 68.0 mm × 110.05 mm
- 2.67 in × 4.33 in
Power Consumption
- Typical: 9.01W
- Maximum (Passive): 10.83W
- Maximum (Optics Installed): 13.83W
Cooling Requirements
Advanced Networking Features
RDMA Acceleration
- RoCE v1
- RoCE v2
- RDMA over Converged Ethernet
- Ultra-Low Latency Networking
Virtualization
- SR-IOV
- Up to 127 Virtual Functions per Port
- Virtual Machine Acceleration
- Multi-Tenant Cloud Optimization
Overlay Offloads
Storage Acceleration
- Erasure Coding Offload
- RS-FEC Forward Error Correction
- NVMe-over-Fabrics Networking
- Distributed Storage Acceleration
Hardware Offloads
- TCP Checksum Offload
- UDP Checksum Offload
- IPv4 Processing
- IPv6 Processing
- Large Send Offload (LSO)
- Large Receive Offload (LRO)
Complete Manufacturer Compatibility List
Supermicro
BigTwin Series
- SYS-2029BT-HNR
- SYS-2029BT-HNC0R
- SYS-2029BT-HTR
- SYS-2029BT-DNC0R
TwinPro Series
- SYS-2029TP-HC0R
- SYS-2029TP-HTR
- SYS-6029TP-HC0R
- SYS-6029TP-HC1R
FatTwin Platforms
- SYS-F619P2-RTN
- SYS-F619P3-RC0
- SYS-F619P5-RTN
- SYS-F629P3-RTBN
MicroCloud Platforms
- SYS-5039MS-H12TRF
- SYS-5039MS-H8TRF
- SYS-5038ML-H8TRF
Additional Supermicro Platforms
- SYS-6019U-TN4R4T
- BigTwin OCP Platforms
- TwinPro OCP Platforms
- MicroCloud OCP Systems
HPE (Cloudline & Hyperscale)
Cloudline
- CL2100 Gen10
- CL2200 Gen10
- CL2800 Gen10
- CL3150 Gen10
Apollo
- Apollo 2000
- Apollo XL170r Gen9
- Apollo XL190r Gen9
- Apollo 4500
- Apollo XL450 Gen9
Associated HPE Part Numbers
Open Compute Project (OCP)
Meta/Facebook Platforms
Open Rack Systems
- Open Rack v2
- OCP 2.0 Server Sleds
- OCP Storage Nodes
- OCP Compute Trays
Quanta Cloud Technology (QCT)
QuantaGrid
Additional Platforms
- Quanta Open Rack V2 Systems
- QuantaPlex Multi-Node Servers
Wiwynn
Hyperscale Platforms
White-Box OCP Systems
Compatible with numerous:
- OCP 2.0 Compute Sleds
- OCP 2.0 Storage Nodes
- Cloud Datacenter Appliances
- OpenStack Infrastructure Nodes
- Kubernetes Worker Nodes
- NVMe-oF Storage Servers
Incompatible Systems
NOT Compatible With
The following platforms typically use traditional PCIe adapters and are not compatible with MCX4421A-ACAN:
Dell PowerEdge
- R630
- R640
- R650
- R730
- R740
- R750
- R760
HPE ProLiant
Lenovo ThinkSystem
Cisco UCS
Standard Desktop Motherboards
- ASUS
- MSI
- Gigabyte
- ASRock
- Supermicro PCIe-only boards
These systems require traditional PCIe network adapters instead of OCP Mezzanine cards.
Operating System Compatibility
VMware
- ESXi 6.5
- ESXi 6.7
- ESXi 7.x
- ESXi 8.x
Microsoft
- Windows Server 2016
- Windows Server 2019
- Windows Server 2022
- Windows Server 2025
Linux
- Ubuntu Server
- Debian
- CentOS
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES)
- Rocky Linux
- AlmaLinux
Virtualization Platforms
- Proxmox VE
- Hyper-V
- Citrix Hypervisor
- XenServer
- Linux KVM
- OpenStack
- Kubernetes
Transceiver & Cable Compatibility
SFP28 Optical Modules
- 25GBASE-SR
- 25GBASE-LR
- Generic SFP28
- Mellanox SFP28
- Cisco Compatible SFP28
- Dell Compatible SFP28
- FS.com SFP28
- Finisar SFP28
10GbE Support
- SFP+ SR
- SFP+ LR
- 10G DAC Cables
Direct Attach Copper
- Passive SFP28 DAC
- Active SFP28 DAC
- Up to 5 Meter Twinax Cabling
Active Optical Cable Support
Ideal Applications
- Hyperscale Data Centers
- Cloud Computing
- OpenStack Infrastructure
- Kubernetes Clusters
- Ceph Storage
- NVMe-over-Fabrics
- Distributed Storage Networks
- Hyper-Converged Infrastructure
- AI Clusters
- Machine Learning Platforms
- Big Data Analytics
- HPC Environments
- 25GbE Storage Fabrics
- Open Compute Deployments
