Lenovo 7ZT7A00548 Thinksystem 10GB 2-PORT Base-t LOM

Lenovo 7ZT7A00548 ThinkSystem 10GbE 2-Port Base-T LOM

Overview

The Lenovo 7ZT7A00548 is a dual-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet LAN-on-Motherboard (LOM) adapter for ThinkSystem servers, delivering 10GBase-T connectivity over standard Cat6a/Cat7 copper cabling. Built on the Intel® C624 chipset and seated directly on the PCIe bus, this card is the right choice when you need full 10GbE throughput from your server without consuming a PCIe expansion slot on a discrete NIC — a meaningful constraint in dense 1U/2U server builds where slot real estate is already spoken for by storage HBAs or GPU cards. Its two RJ-45 ports provide flexibility for link aggregation, failover, or split traffic routing without additional hardware cost.

Key Features

• Dual 10GBase-T Ports over Copper: Both ports run at 10,000 Mbit/s over Cat6a or Cat7 copper — no optics, no SFP+ modules, no per-port transceiver cost. In data center and server room builds where your top-of-rack switches already have 10GBase-T downlinks, this card drops in without changing cabling infrastructure.
• Intel® C624 Chipset: The C624 is a proven, broadly supported chipset in enterprise Linux and Windows Server environments. Driver support is mature across RHEL, SLES, VMware ESXi, and Windows Server, which means fewer compatibility surprises during OS provisioning or hypervisor deployment.
• PCIe Host Interface: The LOM connects via PCI Express, keeping latency low and bus bandwidth high. Because it is a LOM rather than a PCIe add-in card, it does not consume a physical PCIe slot — critical in server configurations already populated with additional cards.
• Link Aggregation (IEEE 802.3ad / LACP): Both ports support 802.3ad dynamic link aggregation, letting you bond them into a single 20Gbps logical channel to your switch — doubling throughput and providing automatic failover if one port or cable loses link. Useful on NAS-attached servers, media ingest nodes, or any workload that saturates a single 10GbE connection.
• VLAN Tagging (IEEE 802.1Q): 802.1Q VLAN support lets you segment traffic at the NIC level — run management, storage, and production traffic on a single physical port without separate physical interfaces. Reduces cable count and switch port consumption in structured rack deployments.
• Quality of Service (IEEE 802.1p): Hardware-level QoS via 802.1p priority tagging ensures latency-sensitive traffic (iSCSI, VoIP, video streams) gets queued ahead of bulk data transfers — no software QoS overhead on the host CPU.
• Jumbo Frame Support (9728 bytes MTU): Jumbo frames at 9728 bytes reduce CPU interrupt overhead on large-block transfers — measurable on NFS/iSCSI storage traffic, backup workloads, and video recording servers pushing sustained high-bandwidth streams. Requires end-to-end jumbo frame configuration on your switch fabric.
• IEEE 802.1Qbg Edge Virtual Bridging: 802.1Qbg support enables virtual machine traffic tagging at the NIC level, relevant in VMware or KVM hypervisor environments where VLANs need to follow VM workloads without complex virtual switch configuration.
• IEEE 802.3x Flow Control: Hardware flow control prevents packet loss under burst conditions — the switch signals the NIC to pause transmission before receive buffers overflow, keeping throughput stable on storage or backup traffic without dropping and retransmitting frames.
• SNMP Security Management: SNMP support allows the adapter to be polled by network management platforms (SolarWinds, PRTG, Nagios) for port-level statistics, link state, and error counters — keeping this NIC visible inside your standard infrastructure monitoring stack.

Integration & Compatibility

The 7ZT7A00548 is designed as a ThinkSystem LOM, meaning compatibility is scoped to Lenovo's Lenovo server platforms that support this specific LOM slot form factor — verify your server model against Lenovo's ThinkSystem option compatibility matrix before ordering. It is not a universal PCIe add-in card and will not seat in a standard PCIe slot on non-ThinkSystem platforms. For environments running a network video recorder appliance on ThinkSystem hardware — particularly high-channel NVR builds that push 500+ Mbps of sustained camera stream ingestion — the dual 10GbE ports with LACP bonding provide the pipe to keep pace with full-resolution recording without dropping frames. The card's VLAN tagging and QoS capabilities integrate naturally into segmented security network architectures where camera, management, and client VLANs must be isolated at the infrastructure layer. Pair with a managed PoE network switch that supports 10GbE uplinks and 802.3ad LACP for full feature utilization. For broader server and storage builds, this LOM fits cleanly into converged infrastructure designs where a single pair of 10GbE ports handles both management and data plane traffic. Consult a network planning guide to size uplink capacity against your camera count and recording bitrates before finalizing NIC selection.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What cabling does the Lenovo 7ZT7A00548 require for 10GbE operation?

A: The 7ZT7A00548 uses 10GBase-T, which requires Cat6a or Cat7 copper cabling for reliable 10Gbps operation at distances up to 100 meters. Standard Cat5e or Cat6 may work at shorter distances but is not rated for 10GbE at full reach.

Q: Can I use both ports in a link aggregation (LACP) bond?

A: Yes. The card supports IEEE 802.3ad dynamic LACP, allowing both ports to be bonded into a single logical 20Gbps channel. Your switch must also support 802.3ad on the corresponding ports for LACP negotiation to complete.

Q: Is the 7ZT7A00548 compatible with VMware ESXi?

A: The Intel C624 chipset has broad enterprise OS support including VMware ESXi, RHEL, SLES, and Windows Server. Confirm the specific ESXi version against Lenovo's VMware Compatibility Guide for your ThinkSystem server model before deployment.

Q: What is the maximum jumbo frame MTU supported?

A: The adapter supports jumbo frames up to 9728 bytes MTU. End-to-end jumbo frame support must be enabled on connected switches and storage targets for the larger MTU to be effective.

Q: Is this a universal PCIe add-in card or a ThinkSystem-specific LOM?

A: This is a ThinkSystem LOM (LAN-on-Motherboard) adapter, not a standard PCIe add-in card. It is designed for specific Lenovo ThinkSystem server platforms that include a dedicated LOM slot. It will not install in a generic PCIe slot on non-ThinkSystem systems — verify server compatibility before ordering.

Q: Does the 7ZT7A00548 support VLAN segmentation?

A: Yes. The card supports IEEE 802.1Q VLAN tagging, allowing traffic segmentation across multiple VLANs on a single physical port. It also supports 802.1p QoS priority tagging for traffic class prioritization.

Jerry Tildsen

The 7ZT7A00548 is one of those components that rarely gets discussed but quietly determines whether a high-channel NVR or hypervisor build actually sustains its rated throughput. The dual 10GBase-T ports on the Intel C624 chipset give you a clean 20Gbps aggregate when bonded via 802.3ad — that headroom matters when you are recording 64 or more 4K cameras at full bitrate on a single ThinkSystem node and cannot afford a single dropped GOP.

Technical Highlights:

• 10GBase-T Copper (10,000 Mbit/s per port): No optics budget, no SFP+ module management — just Cat6a to your switch. On a server room scale-out this keeps per-port cost down while delivering the same throughput as fiber-based 10GbE.
• Jumbo Frames at 9728 Bytes MTU: On iSCSI-attached storage or NFS-backed video archives, the larger MTU reduces interrupt frequency on the host CPU — fewer interrupts per GB transferred means more CPU headroom for analytics or transcoding workloads running on the same server.
• IEEE 802.1Q VLAN + 802.1p QoS: In a segmented security network where camera VLANs must be isolated from management and client traffic, hardware-enforced VLAN tagging and priority queuing at the NIC level removes the need for complex host-side software bridging — cleaner, lower-latency, and easier to audit in a compliance review.

Deployment Considerations:

• This is a ThinkSystem LOM, not a PCIe add-in card — it installs only in the dedicated LOM slot on compatible ThinkSystem server motherboards. Pull the Lenovo option compatibility matrix for your specific server model before procurement; the slot is not universal across the ThinkSystem line.
• Jumbo frames require end-to-end configuration — if your top-of-rack switch is not set to the same MTU (9728 or higher), you will see fragmentation and performance degradation rather than the gains jumbo frames are meant to provide. Confirm switch and storage target MTU before enabling.

This LOM is the right call for ThinkSystem-based NVR appliances or converged security servers where you need 10GbE uplinks without burning PCIe expansion slots, and where the Intel C624's mature driver ecosystem eliminates guesswork during hypervisor provisioning or OS deployment.