Emulex VFA5 Adapter Family for IBM System x
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Emulex VFA5 Adapter Family for IBM System x
IBM Redbooks Product Guide
The Emulex Virtual Fabric Adapter 5 (VFA5) Network Adapter Family for IBM System x builds on the
foundation of previous generations of Emulex VFAs by delivering performance enhancements and new
features that reduce complexity, reduce cost, and improve performance. The Emulex VFA5 family
delivers a new set of powerful features and capabilities that are designed for the virtualized enterprise
environment, multi-tenant and single-tenant cloud environments, I/O intensive environments, and
converged infrastructure environments. The ML2 form factor adapter is shown in the following figure.
Figure 1. Emulex VFA5 ML2 Dual Port 10GbE SFP+ Adapter
Did you know?
The Emulex VFA5 adapters support three methods to virtualize I/O, out of the box: IBM Virtual Fabric
mode, Switch Independent mode and now Universal Fabric Port (UFP) mode. With virtual fabric, up to
eight virtual network ports (vNICs) can be created with a single two-port 10 GbE network adapter.
Converged protocols iSCSI and FCoE are also supported by the IBM Features on Demand upgrade. By
using a common infrastructure for Ethernet and SAN, and by virtualizing your network adapter, you can
reduce your infrastructure capital expense.
