Specifications

The HP Virtual Connect FlexFabric 10 Gb technology combines the functionality of Ethernet and Fibre Channel (FC) onto a

single adapter designed for the HP BladeSystem c-Class platform. VC FlexFabric optimizes network and storage traffic

with hardware acceleration and offloads for stateless TCP/IP, TCP Offload Engine (TOE), and Fibre Channel. Using

FlexFabric, administrators can partition the bandwidth of a single 10 Gb pipeline into multiple FlexNICs. In addition,

administrators can regulate the bandwidth for each partition by setting it to a user-defined portion of the total 10 Gb

connection. Administrators can set speeds from 100 Mb per second to 10 Gb per second in 100 Mb increments.

There are advantages to partitioning a 10 Gb pipeline:

• More NIC connections per server, which is especially important in a virtual machine environment

• Ability to match bandwidths to the network function, such as management console or production data

FlexFabric technology uses two hardware components:

• The HP Virtual Connect FlexFabric, Virtual Connect FlexFabric 10 Gb/24-Port Module

• Either the 10 Gb FlexFabric LOM or the dual-port FlexFabric Adapter mezzanine card

The Virtual Connect FlexFabric Module is required to manage the 10 Gb server connections to the data center network.

The 10 Gb FlexFabric LOM and mezzanine cards are NICs, each with two 10 Gb ports. Each 10 Gb FlexFabric port can be

configured from one to a maximum of four individual FlexNICs. The server ROM and the OS or hypervisor recognize each

FlexNIC as an individual NIC.

Full details about Virtual Connect technology are available in the technology brief titled “HP Virtual Connect technology

implementation for the HP BladeSystem c-Class” on the HP technology website:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00814156/c00814156.pdf

Configuration and management technologies

HP BladeSystem Onboard Administrator

The heart of c-Class enclosure management is the BladeSystem Onboard Administrator (OA) module located in the

enclosure. It performs four management functions for the entire enclosure:

• Detecting component insertion and removal

• Identifying components and required connectivity

• Managing power and cooling

• Controlling components

The BladeSystem OA works with the iLO 3 management processor on each server blade to form the core of the

management architecture for HP BladeSystem c-Class.

To identify a component, the BladeSystem OA reads an FRU Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory

(EEPROM) that contains specific factory information about the component, such as product name, part number, and

serial number. The BladeSystem OA accesses server blade FRU EEPROMs through their iLO 3 management processors.

The server blades contain several FRU EEPROMs: one on the server board that contains server information and

embedded NIC information, and one on each of the installed mezzanine option cards. Server blade control options

include auto login to the iLO 3 Web interface and remote server consoles, virtual power control, and boot order control.

Server blade control options also include extensive server hardware information including iLO 3 firmware versions,

server name, network adapter and option card port IDs, and port mapping. The BladeSystem OA provides

easy-to-understand port mapping information for each of the server blades and interconnects modules in the enclosure.

To simplify the installation of the various mezzanine cards and interconnect modules, the BladeSystem OA uses an

electronic keying process to detect mismatches.