HP ML150 10 Gigabit Ethernet technology for industry-standard servers - Page 10

The NC524SFP PCI Express version 2 adapter, shown in Figure 5, ships with two SFP+ cages suitable for connecting to DAC or fiber modules supporting SR, LR, and LRM fiber optic cabling. The NC524SFP allows customers to provision their HP ProLiant DL370 G6 and ProLiant ML370 G6 servers with 10Gb bandwidth. Figure 5. NC524SFP upgrade module for ML/DL370 G6 These adapters are ideal for customers with environments that require a dual port, high performance 10GbE NIC in support of high demand environments, including virtualized servers. Virtualization and Virtual Connect As enterprises better utilize existing computing resources, server and network virtualization is growing rapidly. HP Virtual Connect (VC) is a set of interconnect modules and embedded software for HP BladeSystem c-Class enclosures that simplifies server connection setup and administration. HP VC includes the HP 1/10G Virtual Connect Ethernet Module for c-Class BladeSystem, the HP Virtual Connect Manager, and the HP Flex-10 Ethernet Interconnect Module. VC uses c-Class BladeSystem mezzanine cards within the server, and a new class of Ethernet interconnect modules to simplify connecting those server NICs to the data center environment. VC also extends the standard server NICs‟ capability by providing support to securely administer Ethernet MAC address. Server Virtualization As more virtual machines are loaded onto a physical server, the requirement for additional bandwidth increases. VMware best practice calls for six 1Gb NICs per physical server running virtual machines. Using this VMware guideline, just two physical servers loaded with virtual machines could fully utilize a single 10Gb NIC. NIC virtualization The HP VC Ethernet Modules allow the c-Class administrator to interconnect multiple modules and define uplinks to their datacenter Ethernet switches. The VC Ethernet Modules allow the administrator to select which server NIC ports will be connected to each external network. Looking into the enclosure from each external Ethernet network, only the selected Ethernet NIC ports will be visible on what appears to be an isolated, private, loop-free network. Flex-10 for Virtual Connect To help customers fully utilize 10GbE connection bandwidth, HP has introduced Flex-10 technology in the BladeSystem c-Class architecture. Using Flex-10, customers can partition the bandwidth of a single 10Gb pipeline into multiple "FlexNICs." In addition, customers can regulate the bandwidth for each 10