Upgrading Network Architecture to 10 Gigabit Ethernet

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Upgrading Data Center Network Architecture to 10 Gigabit Ethernet IT@Intel White Paper
Simplifying Virtualization
for Office and Enterprise
Applications
Intel’s data center strategy for Office
and Enterprise relies on virtualization and
consolidation to reduce data center cost and
power consumption, while reducing time to
provision servers. Our current consolidation
level is 12:1, and we are targeting a 20:1
consolidation level or greater with newer dual-
socket servers based on Intel® Xeon® processors.
As virtualization increases, so does the
number of server connections. Using a 1 GbE
network fabric, a single physical server on the
LAN requires eight GbE LAN ports, as shown
in Figure 1 (left).
By converting to a 10 GbE data center
design, we can simplify server connectivity
by reducing the number of LAN ports from
eight to two 10 GbE and one 1GbE. This
significantly reduces cable and infrastructure
complexity, also shown in Figure 1 (right).
Presently, the SAN will continue to use FC
connections and host bus adapters (HBAs).
In addition to simplifying physical infra struc-
ture, a 10 GbE network fabric also has the
potential to reduce the overall total cost of
ownership (TCO) for LAN components per
server by about 18.5 percent compared to
the 1 GbE fabric, as shown in Table 1.
Trunked
1x Physical
Network Interface
Card
1x Physical
Network Interface
Card
Backup
2 Gb/s
Live Migration
2 Gb/s
Production
2 Gb/s
Virtual
Machine
n
Backup
2 Gb/s
Live Migration
2 Gb/s
Production
2 Gb/s
Service
Console
100 Mb/s
Remote
Management
100 Mb/s
Remote
Management
100 Mb/s
Host
Storage Area Network
and Backup and Restore
Two 4-GB Fibre Channel (FC) Connections;
Host Bus Adapter (HBA) for FC SAN Connectivity
Virtual
Machine
n
Host
Storage Area Network
and Backup and Restore
Two 4-GB FC Connections;
HBA for FC SAN Connectivity
Eight LAN Ports in a
1 Gigabit Ethernet Environment
Three LAN Ports in a
10 Gigabit Ethernet Environment
Figure 1. Implementing a 10 gigabit Ethernet data center fabric reduces the number of LAN ports for our virtualized host architecture from eight to three.
Table 1. 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) Cost Savings
LAN
Component
10 GbE Fabric Effect
on Cost
Cable
Infrastructure
48% Cost Reduction
LAN
Infrastructure
(per Port)
50% Cost Reduction
Server
12% Cost Increase
Storage
Infrastructure
0% (Same for Both Fabrics)
Total Savings
(per Server)
18.5% Overall Cost Reduction