User`s guide

396 XgOS User’s Guide • September 2014
upper-level protocols (FC-4). Each of these levels defines a different and
separate part of how the FC equipment communicates. The different FC-4
protocols (FCP, IP, Virtual Interface, and others) are tied directly to different
kinds of applications (storage, networking, and clustering) for different uses.
For more background information, see www.fibrechannel.org.
H
HA vNIC High Availability vNIC - A pair of virtual Ethernet interfaces that are both
assigned to the same server profile, but bound to different physical
interfaces.
HBA Host Bus Adaptor. A Fibre Channel network interface card used in a SAN
fabric. FC HBAs are replacing SCSI HBAs.
HCA Host Channel Adapter. An InfiniBand network interface card used in an
InfiniBand network. An HCA provides high-speed connectivity and virtual
interfaces, based on the InfiniBand interface. An HCA can have 1 or 2 ports.
hypervisor A hypervisor is a virtualization platform that allows multiple guest
operating systems to run at the second level above the hardware.
I
IB InfiniBand. A switched fabric communications link primarily used in
high-performance computing. IB is the result of merging two competing
designs, Future I/O, developed by Compaq, IBM, and Hewlett-Packard,
with Next Generation I/O (ngio), developed by Intel, Microsoft, and Oracle.
For more information, see www.infinibandta.org.
IDE Integrated Drive Electronics. Throughout the 1980s, a standard interface for
connecting hosts to direct-attached storage devices. Parallel SCSI was
another approach.
I/O Input/Output. In computer architecture, the combination of the CPU and
main memory (i.e., memory that the CPU can read and write to directly,
with individual instructions) is considered the heart of a computer. Any
movement of information to or from that complex, for example to or from a
disk drive, is considered I/O.