BNT Virtual Fabric 10Gb Switch Module for IBM BladeCenter

The BNT Virtual Fabric 10Gb Switch Module offers the following benefits:

• Integration and consolidation: This module offers integration within the BladeCenter chassis, consolidating full Layer 2-3 LAN switching and routing capabilities into a single chassis. This helps flatten the data center infrastructure and reduces the number of discrete devices, management consoles, and equipment that administrators must deal with, helping lower costs and simplifying deployment.
• Cost: The BNT switch is priced extremely competitively compared with external switches, especially when you factor in that no cables are required between the blade and the switch. In addition, the ability to use direct-attach cables with the switch can help clients save even more compared with the more expensive CX4, XFP, or X2 transceivers.
• Performance: With support for ten 10 Gb uplinks, clients can exploit not only up to 200 Gbps of bi-directional uplink bandwidth, but also an extremely low oversubscription (14 to 10), which can support even the most performance-intensive environments (up to 7.2 Gbps per blade server port). Clients wanting extreme performance can use up to four switches and the quad port 10 Gb adapter and get up to 1.92 Tbps of data per BladeCenter H chassis.
• Lower power consumption: BNT using only 75 W per switch delivers extreme performance per watt, which is second to none with its support for up to 6.4 Gbps per watt of power.
• Layer 3 functionality: The BNT switch module includes Layer 3 functionality, which provides security and performance benefits as inter-VLAN traffic stays within the chassis. This switch also provides the full range of Layer 3 protocols from static routes for technologies such as Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) and Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) for enterprise customers.
• Interoperability: BNT switches interoperate seamlessly with other vendors' upstream switches.
• Management: These switches are designed to support multiple CLIs, allowing the IT staff to select the CLI with which they are most comfortable. Choices are BLADEOS CLI for those with a Nortel switch background, 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 BNT 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 BNT switch is designed to support CEE and connectivity to FCoE modules, making the IBM 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.

  Now with the combination of the BNT switch and the QLogic Virtual Fabric Extension Module for IBM BladeCenter, IBM is able to deliver the only full integrated FCoE blade solution available today which allows access to an existing FC infrastructure without costs of an external top of rack gateway. This solution will be appealing to those clients required to have 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

The BNT switch comes with a three-year software license that allows for the download of new features, such as:

• Virtual Fabric for IBM BladeCenter: This new firmware allows for 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.
• 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. Available as part of the 6.1 software code.

 

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