Specifications

Optional mezzanine cards

HP Integrity server blades use two types of mezzanine cards to connect to the various interconnect fabrics such as

Fibre Channel, Ethernet, SAS, or InfiniBand. Type I and Type II mezzanine cards differ only in the amount of power

allocated to them by the server and in the physical space they occupy on the server blade. Type I mezzanine cards have

slightly less power available to them and are slightly smaller. Type I mezzanine cards are compatible with all

mezzanine connectors in Integrity and ProLiant server blades. Type II mezzanine cards are compatible with mezzanine

2 or 3 connectors in full-height c-Class server blades. Type II mezzanine cards are also compatible with mezzanine

2 connectors in half-height c-Class server blades.

Both types of mezzanine cards use a 450-pin connector, enabling up to eight lanes of differential transmit and receive

signals. Because the connections between the device bays and the interconnect bays are hard-wired through the signal

midplane, the mezzanine cards must be matched to the appropriate type of interconnect module. For example, a

Fibre Channel mezzanine card must be placed in the mezzanine connector that connects to an interconnect bay holding a

Fibre Channel switch. Check for mezzanine cards supported by your system before purchasing. For the most up-to-date

information about the c-Class mezzanine card options, visit the HP website:

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/blades/components/c-class-interconnects.html.

Networking technology

Multifunction 1GbE or 10GbE network adapters integrated on all c-Class server blades provide several advantages:

• Each base blade has two (2) dual-port integrated 10 Gb FlexFabric adapters supporting 10 Gb/1 Gb autosensing

Ethernet, FCoE, Flex-10, and TCP/IP offload engine

• Each 10 Gb Virtual Connect FlexFabric port provides up to four (4) adjustable FlexNIC connections (three Ethernet and

one Fibre Channel, or four Ethernet)

Virtual Connect

Virtual Connect technology is a set of interconnect modules and embedded software for c-Class enclosures that

simplifies the setup and administration of server connections. HP Virtual Connect includes the following components:

• Virtual Connect FlexFabric 10 Gb/24-Port Module

• Virtual Connect Flex-10/10D Module

• Virtual Connect Flex-10 and VCEM Bundle

• Virtual Connect Flex-10 10 Gb Ethernet Module

• Virtual Connect 1/10 Gb-F Ethernet Module

• Virtual Connect 8 Gb 20-Port Fibre Channel Module

• Virtual Connect 8 Gb 24-Port Fibre Channel Module

• Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager

Virtual Connect implements server-edge virtualization so that server administrators can upgrade, replace, or move

server blades within their enclosures without changes being visible to the external LAN and SAN environments. HP

recommends using Virtual Connect or managed switches to reduce cabling and management overhead.

Like other Ethernet and Fibre Channel switches, Virtual Connect modules slide into the interconnect bays of c-Class

enclosures. To support the Virtual Connect Fibre Channel module, the enclosure must have at least one Virtual Connect

Ethernet module, because the Virtual Connect Manager software runs on a processor that resides on the

Ethernet module.

When the LAN and SAN connect to the pool of servers, the server administrator uses Virtual Connect Manager to define a

server connection profile for each server. The Virtual Connect Manager creates bay-specific profiles, assigns unique MAC

addresses and Worldwide Names (WWNs) to these profiles, and administers them locally. Network and storage

administrators can establish all LAN and SAN connections once during deployment. If servers are later deployed, added,

or changed, no connection changes are needed because Virtual Connect keeps the profile for that LAN and SAN

connection constant.