System information

Dell
PowerEdge M1000e Technical Guide 51
The CMC manages the following functions specific to FlexAddress:
• Provides user interface for enabling or disabling the FlexAddress feature—on a per-blade-slot
basis, a per-fabric basis, or both
• Identifies and reports device information for each of the supported fabric types—LOMs,
Ethernet, and Fibre Channel mezzanine cards
• Validates all the components of the FlexAddress feature—SD card validation, System BIOS, I/O
controller firmware, CMC firmware, and, iDRAC firmware versions
• Reports FlexAddress feature status for each of the blade slots
• Provides information for both server-assigned (factory-programmed) and chassis-assigned
(FlexAddress) addresses on each supported device
• Logs any system-level errors that may prevent the FlexAddress feature from being used on the
chassis or on a given device
Figure 34. FlexAddress Screen in the CMC
Table 13. FlexAddress Features and Benefits
Features
Benefits
Lock the World Wide Name (WWN) of the Fibre
Channel controller and Media Access Control (MAC) of
the Ethernet and iSCSI controller into a blade slot,
instead of to the blade’s hardware
Easily replace blades without network management
effort
Service or replace a blade or I/O mezzanine card and
maintain all address mapping to Ethernet and storage
fabrics
Ease of management
Easy and highly reliable booting from Ethernet or
Fibre Channel based Storage Area Networks (SANs)
An almost no-touch blade replacement
All MAC/WWN/iSCSIs in the chassis will never change
Fewer future address name headaches
Fast and Efficient integration into existing network
infrastructure
No need to learn a new management tool
Low cost vs. switch-based solution
FlexAddress is simple and easy to implement
Simple and quick to deploy
FlexAddress SD card comes with a unique pool of
MAC/WWNs and is able to be enabled on a single
enclosure at a given time, until disabled
No need for the user to configure
No risk of duplicates on your network or SAN
Works with all I/O modules including Cisco, Brocade,
and Dell PowerConnect switches as well as pass-thru
modules
Choice is independent of switch or pass-through
module