HP 2124 ISS Technology Update, Volume 8, Number 3 - Page 1

ISS Technology Update Volume 8, Number 3 Keeping you informed of the latest ISS technology HP Flex-10 and SR-IOV-What is the difference 1 Three-phase power distribution in c7000 enclosures 3 PUE and DCE-Useful metrics for overall data center efficiency 6 Meet the Expert-Wayne Vuong ...7 Recently published industry standard server technology papers 8 Contact us ...8 HP Flex-10 and SR-IOV-What is the difference? Improving I/O performance As virtual machine software enables higher efficiencies in CPU use, these same efficiency enablers place more overhead on physical assets. HP Flex-10 Technology and Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) both share the goal of improving I/O efficiency without increasing the overhead burden on CPUs and network hardware. Flex-10 and SR-IOV technologies accomplish this goal through different approaches. This article explores the differences in architecture and implementation between Flex-10 and SR-IOV. How these two technologies differ and why it matters HP Flex-10 Technology Flex-10 technology is a hardware-based solution that enables users to partition a 10 gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) connection and regulate the bandwidth of each partition. HP Flex-10 is available only with Virtual Connect (VC), and is currently available for implementation only with supported HP BladeSystem servers. Flex-10 can be deployed now with HP BladeSystem servers, and with relatively little modification to existing I/O architecture. Adding Flex-10-capable network devices and virtual connect modules to existing HP BladeSystem infrastructure allows administrators to take advantage of the considerable I/O control and refinement delivered by Flex-10 technology. Using Flex-10 technology, administrators can configure a single BladeSystem 10Gb network port to represent four physical network interface controllers (NICs), also called FlexNICs, with a total bandwidth of 10Gbps. These four FlexNICs appear to the operating system (OS) as discrete NICs, each with its own driver. While the FlexNICs share the same physical port, traffic flow for each one is isolated with its own MAC address and virtual local area network (VLAN) tags between the FlexNIC and