BladeCenter Virtual Fabric 10Gb Switch Module
Product Guide (withdrawn product)
The BladeCenter Virtual Fabric 10Gb Switch Module for offers the most bandwidth of any blade switch
and represents the perfect migration platform for clients who are still at 1 Gb outside the chassis by
seamlessly integrating in the existing 1 Gb infrastructure. This is the first 10 Gb switch for BladeCenter that
is convergence ready (that is, able to transmit Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE) to a Fibre Channel
over Ethernet (FCoE) capable top-of-rack switch).
In addition, this switch is a key part of the Virtual Fabric offering, which allows clients to form up to eight
virtual network interface controllers (vNICs) from one physical adapter (14 vNICs with an adapter plus the
onboard 10 GbE controller with the BladeCenter HS23) and to manage them in virtual groups. This switch
can be managed via a command-line interface (CLI) or a graphical interface of the switch, providing all the
benefits of I/O Virtualization at 10 Gb speeds. Figure 1 shows the switch module.
Figure 1. BladeCenter Virtual Fabric 10Gb Switch Module
Did you know?
As virtualization has become a prevalent standard in the data center, more people have been looking for
ways to virtualize I/O to reduce cost and complexity while also maximizing I/O resources. Virtual Fabric for
BladeCenter provides fast, flexible, easy, and reliable I/O using the Virtual Fabric 10Gb Switch Module and
the Emulex Virtual Fabric Adapter, which provides the abilities to carve up an adapter into eight virtual
NICs, dynamically allocate bandwidth, manage virtual groups, and so on. With the BladeCenter HS23, a
total of 14 vNICs can be configured using the Emulex VFA II for HS23 plus the onboard Emulex controller.
The switch is designed to support a number of different types of configurations from the blade: 1 Gb, 10
Gb, virtual NIC, Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE/FCoE), and iSCSI. If you have a chassis with multiple
servers, some operating at 1 Gb, some at 10 Gb, and some transmitting converged packets, this single
switch can handle all these workloads and can connect to a 1 Gb infrastructure or a 10 Gb infrastructure,
or both.
BladeCenter Virtual Fabric 10Gb Switch Module (withdrawn product)
1
