The 40Gb modes can no longer be selected using the qcu64e utility since the firmware upgrade from 4.42 to 5.02. Only 4x10 and 2x2x10 options are offered but the XL710-QDA2 card is QSFP+ capable.
# qcu64e /NIC=1 /INFO
Intel(R) QSFP+ Configuration Utility
QCU version: v2.26.17.06
Copyright(C) 2015 by Intel Corporation.
Software released under Intel Proprietary License.
Adapter supports QSFP+ Configuration modification.
Current Configuration: 4x10
Supported Configurations:
4x10
2x2x10A (Top 2 lanes on Module0; Bottom 2 lanes on Module 1)
2x2x10B
Cards that already are in 40Gb mode continue to function in 40Gb mode, but they report invalid configuration with qcu64e:
# qcu64e -nic=1 -info
Intel(R) QSFP+ Configuration Utility
QCU version: v2.26.17.06
Copyright(C) 2015 by Intel Corporation.
Software released under Intel Proprietary License.
Adapter supports QSFP+ Configuration modification.
Current Configuration: Invalid
Supported Configurations:
4x10
2x2x10A (Top 2 lanes on Module0; Bottom 2 lanes on Module 1)
2x2x10B
We are using the i40e driver 1.4.25 on Redhat 6: 2.6.32-573.18.1.el6.x86_64 kernel
# ethtool -i eth4
driver: i40e
version: 1.4.25
firmware-version: 5.02 0x80002285 0.0.0
bus-info: 0000:06:00.0
supports-statistics: yes
supports-test: yes
supports-eeprom-access: yes
supports-register-dump: yes
supports-priv-flags: yes
It looks like there is currently no way to downgrade the firmware, which make the cards that are now stuck in 4x10 unusable for us.