HP Integrity NonStop NB50000c HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 technology: Convergen - Page 16

VC FlexFabric module as a standard 1 Gb or 10 Gb VC module. Flex-10 NICs recognize the VC FlexFabric module as a VC Flex-10 module. FlexFabric modules are fully backward compatible. You can connect FlexFabric adapters to any existing Ethernet interconnect module, not just the VC FlexFabric module. The FlexFabric adapters do not support Fibre channel or iSCSI when connected to 1 Gb or 10 Gb Ethernet interconnects-they act like standard 1 Gb or 10 Gb Ethernet NICs. FlexFabric adapters act like Flex-10 NIC devices when connected to VC Flex-10 modules. VC modules are not switches, but they are fully compatible with industry-standard Ethernet and Fibre Channel infrastructure from a wide variety of vendors. HP qualifies every product with switch products from leading vendors such as HP Networking, Cisco, Brocade, and Juniper. They are also tested with a number of OS/hypervisor products and target storage arrays. HP is committed to ensuring interoperability with the network infrastructure that our customers deploy. HP management software support for FlexFabric VC firmware v3.15 supports the new Data Center Bridging (DCB) and FCoE protocols. It supports the HP Virtual Connect FlexFabric 10 Gb/24-port module and HP NC551 Dual Port FlexFabric 10 Gb Converged Network adapters. VC firmware v3.15 also supports full iSCSI offload, centralized iSCSI connection management, and centralized iSCSI boot parameter management. You can use HP Insight Control software with VC FlexFabric modules and FlexFabric adapters. This includes using Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager (VCEM) to manage large numbers of FlexFabric modules and track module movement, data center wide, within the converged network. HP Insight Dynamics, Orchestration, and Insight failover and recovery services will also support VC FlexFabric modules in 2010 sometime after the initial release. Transition to FlexFabric technology If your IT organization has not yet adopted 10 Gb network technology at the server access layer, you can connect VC FlexFabric modules and Flex-10 modules to 1 Gb Ethernet networks using SFP transceivers. When you upgrade data center access layer switches to 10 Gb Ethernet technology, you can replace1 Gb SFP transceivers with 10 Gb SFP+ transceivers for an easy transition to 10 Gb. In this way, server-to-server communication within an enclosure or multi-closure domain can take advantage of 10 Gb while you wait to upgrade the external networks. Flex-Fabric technology provides a significant reduction in cabling, switches, and required ports at the server edge. HP BladeSystem customers can connect servers to network and storage infrastructure with a single server connection and a single VC interconnect module. You can connect to Fibre Channel SANs or to iSCSI storage using accelerated iSCSI technology (fully accelerated and hardware off-loaded) over a Flex-10 connection. A single pair of VC FlexFabric modules will aggregate an entire enclosure's traffic and provide redundancy. In addition to the reduced qualification, purchase, and installation requirements, you'll require fewer spares and fewer firmware updates. VC FlexFabric modules and FlexFabric adapters provide high performance data transfer, full management, and boot from storage options with both Fibre Channel and iSCSI. HP lets you build on existing Fibre Channel investments or build new networks using iSCSI where it makes sense. Figure 10 shows how you can use VC FlexFabric modules to reduce the number of modules you need by up to 75%. Each module includes 16 ports that connect to the FlexFabric adapters on the server blades. If you want redundancy, you need two VC FlexFabric modules to support a full C7000 enclosure. 16