BladeCenter Open Fabric

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Highlights

New products enable a full range of capabilities including Ethernet, iSCSI¹, and FCoE¹
Virtualize any 10Gb switch supporting multiple protocols through the switch-independent Virtual Fabric
Quadruple the number of adapters by server, while reducing switch modules
Get up to 8 virtual ports operating anywhere between 100Mb and 10Gb
Benefit from true line-rate 10Gb performance

Overview

As the deployment of server virtualization technologies becomes more prevalent within data centers, more dynamic performance is needed to provide sufficient network I/O bandwidth to satisfy these demands. With Virtual Fabric, IBM can help you break the I/O bottleneck by allowing you to allocate bandwidth where needed, delivering maximum application agility. Offering a full range of virtualization and convergence capabilities, the same network hardware can act as Ethernet, iSCSI, or FCoE, and bandwidth can be allocated in increments from 100Mb to 1Gb. Choose the Emulex adapter and IBM BNT switch for advanced virtualization capabilities, or combine the Broadcom adapter with either of our Brocade or Cisco 10Gb switches for general-purpose virtual fabric capabilities.

Features and benefits

Virtual: Multiple virtual ports and protocols including Ethernet, iSCSI, and FCoE, from a single physical port, while allowing shared bandwidth across multiple applications.

Requires fewer adapters and switch modules.
Helps lower energy consumption.
Simplified cabling and management.
Easily integrates into clients’ existing setup (virtual or non-virtual).

Fast: True line-rate 10Gb performance.

Faster data transfer between virtual machines (VMs) and faster backup in case of disaster recovery.
Enables more virtual machines per server when compared to equivalent 10Gb adapters.
Suited for a high performance environment.

Scalable: Define the exact number of ports needed (from 2 to 8 per adapter) and upgrade to hardware iSCSI and FCoE via a software key and to get a combination of virtual Ethernet and virtual FCoE ports.

Get the exact number ports and amount of bandwidth as needed by your application.
Upgrade to hardware iSCSI or FCoE, without losing your existing investment in switches and adapters.

Flexible: Each virtual port operates at anywhere between 100Mb and 10Gb and will run Ethernet, iSCSI, or FCoE. Both switch and adapter can work at 1Gb or 10Gb, Virtual Fabric or FCoE mode.

Easy transition from 1Gb to 10Gb and iSCSI or FCoE.
Increases network utilization by allowing clients to assign the exact bandwidth needed by different applications.

Reliable: Intelligent Failure Monitoring to enable automatic failover between physical or virtual ports in the event of uplink port failure.

Easy recovery from failures even when operating with virtual ports. BladeCenter Open Fabric Manager not only makes management easy but also automatically moves the network settings to a spare blade.

Products and resources

For advanced virtualization capabilities
IBM BladeCenter Virtual Fabric 10Gb Switch Module Product details Product guide Ready to buy 46C7191
QLogic Virtual Fabric Extension Module for IBM BladeCenter Product guide Ready to buy 46M6172
Emulex 10GbE VFA II for IBM BladeCenter HS23 Product guide Ready to buy 81Y3120
Emulex 10GbE Virtual Fabric Adapter II for IBM BladeCenter Product guide Ready to buy 90Y3550 Emulex 10GbE Virtual Fabric Advanced Upgrade (49Y4265)
Emulex 10GbE Virtual Fabric Adapter Advanced II for IBM BladeCenter Product guide Ready to buy 90Y3566

For general-purpose virtualization capabilities
Brocade Converged 10GbE Switch Module for IBM BladeCenter ^® Product guide Ready to buy 69Y1909 Brocade FCoE Switch Port Upgrade for IBM BladeCenter (44E5686)
Cisco Nexus 4001I Switch Module for IBM BladeCenter Product guide Ready to buy 46C9270 FCoE Upgrade License (49Y9983) Cisco 10GBASE-SR SFP+ Transceiver (88Y6054) Cisco 1000BASE-T SFP Transceiver (88Y6058) Cisco 1000BASE-SX SFP Transceiver (88Y6062)
Broadcom 2-port 10Gb Virtual Fabric Adapter for IBM BladeCenter Product guide Ready to buy 81Y3133
Broadcom (Gen 2) 10Gb 4-port Ethernet Expansion Card (CFFh) for IBM BladeCenter Product guide Ready to buy 46M6164

¹ iSCI and FCoE functionality is only available using the Emulex 10GbE Virtual Fabric Adapter Advanced for IBM BladeCenter or by using the Emulex 10GbE Virtual Fabric Advanced Upgrade key with the Emulex 10GbE Virtual Fabric Adapter for IBM BladeCenter.

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