Introduction; Fibre Channel Overview; Related Publications - Intel SBFCM Installation And User Manual

1 Introduction

This Installation and User's Guide contains instructions for installing your Intel
SBFCM in the Intel
• Installing and configuring the expansion card
• Updating the BIOS code and device drivers of the expansion card
The Fibre Channel expansion card is a 2 Gb Fibre Channel device that has two configurable adapter ports.
Communication signals are routed from the blade server through the Fibre Channel high-speed connector on
the Expansion Card to switch-module bay 3 and bay 4 in the Intel
high-performance connection between the 64-bit PCI-X bus in the blade server and the two Fibre Channel
Switch Modules in the SBCE unit.
NOTE
The modules in switch-module bay 3 and bay 4 in the SBCE unit must be Fibre Channel Switch
Modules.
For service or assistance, see Appendix <$elemparanumonlyGetting help and technical assistance," on page
25.
The Fibre Channel Expansion Card is referred to throughout this book as the SBFCM or the expansion card.

Fibre Channel overview

Fibre Channel technology is outlined in the SCSI-3 Fibre Channel Protocol (SCSI-FCP) standard. Fibre
Channel is a high-speed data transport technology used for mass storage and networking.
By adding expansion cards to the blade servers and Fibre Channel switch modules to the unit, you can attach
the blade server to an external storage area network (SAN) through the external 2 Gbps (gigabits per second)
optical ports on the switch modules. The Expansion Card supports data-transfer rates up to 200 MB per second
half-duplex and 400 MB per second full-duplex.

Related publications

This Installation and User's Guide contains setup and installation instructions for your Expansion Card,
including information about getting started and how to configure your Expansion Card. In addition to this
Installation and User's Guide, the following related documentation is provided with your switch module:
®
• Intel Blade Server Switch Module SBCEFCSW Management and User's Guide
This publication is provided in Portable Document Format (PDF) on the Intel
Module SBCEFCSW Reource CD. It describes how to use the SAN Utility application, describes how to
start the Telnet CLI, and lists the CLI commands and their usage.
®
• Intel Blade Server Chassis SBEFCSW Installation Guide
This publication is provided in Portable Document Format (PDF) on the Resource CD. It contains
installation and setup instructions for your switch module. It also provides general information about your
switch module, including getting started, configuring your switch module, and how to access and use on-
line help.
®
• Intel Blade Server Compute Switch Module SBCEFCSW and FC Expansion Card SBFCM Hardware
Maintenance Manual and Troubleshooting Guide
This publication is provided in PDF on the Resource CD. It contains information to help you solve
problems yourself, or to provide information to a service technician.
1
®
Server Compute Blade system. This publication contains information about:
®
Server FC Expansion Card
®
Server Chassis SBCE. This provides a
®
Blade Server Switch