User's Manual

I/O Fabric Management 251
I/O Fabric Management
The chassis can hold up to six I/O modules (IOMs), each of which can be
pass-through or switch modules.
The IOMs are classified into three groups: A, B, and C. Each group has two
slots: Slot 1 and Slot 2. The slots are designated with letters, from left to right,
across the back of the chassis: A1 | B1 | C1 | C2 | B2 | A2. Each server has
slots for two mezzanine cards (MCs) to connect to the IOMs. The MC and
the corresponding IOM must have the same fabric.
The chassis supports three fabric or protocol types. The IOMs in a group
must have the same or compatible fabric types.
• Group A is always connected to the servers' on-board Ethernet adapters;
the fabric type of Group A will always be Ethernet.
•
Group B connects to the first MC on each server.
•
Group C connects to the second MC on each server.
In addition, each MC can support two external links. For example, in the first
MC, the first link is permanently connected to slot 1 of Group B, and the
second link is permanently connected to slot 2 of Group B.
NOTE: In the CMC CLI, IOMs are referred to by the convention switchn: A1=
switch1, A2=switch2, B1=switch3, B2=switch4, C1=switch5, and C2=switch6.
Fabric Management
Fabric management helps you avoid and take care of any electrical-,
configuration-, or connectivity-related problems due to installation of an
IOM that has a different fabric from the server or its MCs. Invalid hardware
configurations could cause electric or functional problems to the chassis or its
components. However, not all valid configurations are necessarily supported
configurations. Fabric management will only prevent invalid configurations
from powering on.