IBM FlashSystem 840 Product Guide
7
Interface cards
IBM FlashSystem 840 supports only one interface type per system. For example, it is not possible to use
two Fibre Channel interface cards and two InfiniBand interface cards in the same enclosure.
Interface cards are sold in groups of four for a total of eight or 16 ports for each system.
IBM FlashSystem 840 supports the following interface protocols and number of connections:
Fibre Channel (16 ports of 8 Gbps; these ports also support 4 Gbps)
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Fibre Channel (eight ports of 16 Gbps; these ports also support 8 Gbps and 4 Gbps)
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Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) (16 ports of 10 Gbps FCoE)
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Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) (16 ports of 10 Gbps iSCSI)
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InfiniBand (eight ports of QDR InfiniBand 40 Gbps)
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Fibre Channel support
Fibre Channel and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) protocols use the same interface cards. However,
only one protocol is supported per IBM FlashSystem 840 enclosure. Figure 5 shows the Fibre Channel
interface card.
Figure 5. Fibre Channel interface card
IBM FlashSystem 840 supports the 16 Gbps Fibre Channel connection speed through the standard Fibre
Channel interface card.
Here are the rules for supporting 16 Gbps Fibre Channel on IBM FlashSystem 840:
If you use 16 Gbps Fibre Channel, only two (of the four) ports on the Fibre Channel modules can be
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used. The two left-most ports (1 and 2) on each interface card are used for 16 Gbps support. If your
system is configured for 16 Gbps Fibre Channel, only the 2 left-most ports (1 and 2) per interface
adapter are used. The other two ports are disabled.
If you use 16 Gbps Fibre Channel, all four of the Fibre Channel modules are configured for 16 Gbps.
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This configuration supports a total of eight Fibre Channel ports for the system (2 ports x 4 interface
cards).
