Blade Server Chassis Integration - Dell EqualLogic PS6100 series Configuration Manual

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Blade server chassis integration

Integrating the PowerEdge M1000e Blade Server Solution (or any third party blade chassis
implementation) requires additional SAN design considerations. Each M1000e can support up to three
separate networking "fabrics" that interconnect ports on each blade server to a pair of blade I/O
modules within each chassis fabric through an intervening chassis midplane interface. Each fabric is
associated with different interfaces on a given blade server as described in Table 29. Each blade server
has a "LAN on Motherboard" capability that is mapped to the I/O modules located in the Fabric A I/O
modules slots on the M1000e chassis and only supports 1Gb or 10Gb Ethernet networking depending
on the blade server model. In addition, each blade server has two "mezzanine" sockets for adding
additional networking options such as 1Gb or 10Gb Ethernet, Infiniband, or Fibre Channel cards. These
mezzanine cards are mapped to either the Fabric B or the Fabric C I/O modules.
Figure 30 illustrates the layout of the three fabric I/O modules located on the back of the M1000e
chassis.
Table 29 M1000e fabric mapping
Fabric
March 2013
LOM/MLOM Mezzanine B
A B
Dell EqualLogic Configuration Guide v14.1
Mezzanine C
C
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