Chapter 1. Product Overview; What Is A Converged Network Adapter; What Is An Intelligent Ethernet Adapter; Function And Features - Lenovo 8200 Series Installation Manual

Chapter 1. Product Overview

What Is a Converged Network Adapter?

A Converged Network Adapter is a multifunction adapter that combines the capabilities of a Fibre Channel
adapter, an iSCSI adapter, and an Ethernet NIC. A Converged Network Adapter provides simultaneous
Fibre Channel, iSCSI, and Ethernet traffic over a shared 10Gb Ethernet link.

What Is an Intelligent Ethernet Adapter?

The Intelligent Ethernet Adapter is a multifunction adapter which, by default, supports one Ethernet
function per port and can be expanded to four Ethernet functions per port.

Function and Features

This section provides the following information:
• "Functional Description" on page 1
• "Features" on page 1
• "Supported Operating Systems" on page 2

Functional Description

The 8200 Series Adapters are Converged Network Adapters, and the 3200 Series Adapters are Intelligent
Ethernet Adapters (IEA). The 8200 Series Adapters support 210GbE Enhanced Ethernet, FCoE, and
iSCSI. The 3200 Series Adapters support 210GbE Enhanced Ethernet ports.

Features

The 8200 and 3200 Series Adapters provide the following features:
• NIC partitioning (NPAR)
• Message signaled interrupts (MSI-X)
• Device management for LAN and SAN
• Multi-boot capability including:
— Preboot-eXecution environment (PXE)
— iSCSI (8200 Series Adapters only)
— Fibre Channel (8200 Series Adapters only)
• PCIe 2.0 8
• User diagnostics that can be run from the CLI and the GUI
• Ethernet functions include:
— 210 GbE
— Priority and virtual LAN (VLAN) tagging
— Jumbo frames up to 9618 bytes
— Advanced teaming
— VLAN configuration and management
— Preservation of teaming and VLAN configuration information during driver upgrade
8200 Series Converged Network Adapter and 3200 Series Intelligent Ethernet Adapter
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