Features And Specifications - Lenovo BladeCenter Virtual Fabric 10Gb Product Manual

Interoperability: Lenovo switches interoperate seamlessly with other vendors' upstream switches.
Management: Lenovo provides a choice of interfaces that IT staff can use for management which
includes an industry-based CLI (Cisco-like) for those familiar with IOS, and a full-function Web-
based GUI for the latest in simplicity.
Fault tolerance: These switches learn alternate routes automatically and perform faster
convergence in the unlikely case of a link, switch, or power failure. The switch uses proven
technologies like L2 trunk failover, advanced VLAN-based failover, VRRP, IGMP V3 snooping, and
OSPF.
Converged fabric: The switch is designed to support CEE and connectivity to FCoE modules,
making the Lenovo solution fully FCoE capable. CEE will help enable clients to combine storage,
messaging traffic, VoIP, video, and other data on a common data center Ethernet infrastructure.
FCoE will help enable highly efficient block storage over Ethernet for consolidating server network
connectivity. As a result, clients can deploy a single server interface for multiple data types, which
can simplify both deployment and management of server network connectivity, while maintaining
the high availability and robustness required for storage transactions.
With the combination of the switch and the QLogic Virtual Fabric Extension Module for
BladeCenter, Lenovo is able to deliver a full integrated FCoE blade solution that appeals to those
clients who require separate LAN and SAN traffic outside the chassis due to internal politics or for
those wanting to implement FCoE but are extremely cost-sensitive. For information about the
QLogic Virtual Fabric Extension Module, see:
http://lenovopress.com/tips0717
In addition, the switch also supports CEE/DCB which allows clients to forward the FCoE traffic
upstream to a Top-of-Rack Gateway device that will split out the LAN traffic (Ethernet) and the SAN
(Fiber Channel) traffic. For the latest FCoE gateway devices that are supported visit:
http://lenovopress.com/bcig
Virtual Fabric for BladeCenter: This feature enables clients to implement and manage the Virtual
Fabric solution via a graphical interface or CLI. It is through this that administrators can perform
tasks such as activating a Virtual Fabric, selecting the number of virtual NICs (vNICs), dynamically
allocating bandwidth, creating virtual groups to simplify management, and setting up the failover
and isolation capabilities to the vNICs for better availability and security. This switch also offers the
benefit of Lenovo's next-generation vNIC - Unified Fabric Port (UFP). UFP is an advanced, cost-
effective solution that provides a flexible way for clients to allocate, reallocate, and adjust
bandwidth to meet their ever-changing data center requirements.
VMready: VMready is a unique solution that enables the network to be virtual machine-aware. The
network can be configured and managed for virtual ports (v-ports) rather than just for physical
ports. With VMready, as VMs migrate across physical hosts, so do their network attributes. Virtual
machines can be added, moved, and removed while retaining the same ACLs, QoS, and VLAN
attributes. VMready allows for a define-once-use-many configuration that evolves as the server and
network topologies evolve. VMready works with all virtualization products, including VMware,
Hyper-V, Xen, and KVM, without modification of virtual machine hypervisors or guest operating
systems.

Features and specifications

The BladeCenter Virtual Fabric 10Gb Switch Module includes the following features and functions
(software features are based on the Networking OS version 7.8):
Form-factor
Single-wide high-speed switch module
Internal ports
14 internal auto-negotiating ports: 1 Gb or 10 Gb to the server blades
Two internal full-duplex 100 Mbps ports connected to the management module
BladeCenter Virtual Fabric 10Gb Switch Module (withdrawn product) 4