Flex-10 For Virtual Connect - Compaq BL10e - HP ProLiant - 512 MB RAM Introduction Manual

Flex-10 for Virtual Connect

Flex-10 technology is the newest extension of HP Virtual Connect technology. It is a hardware-based,
I/O abstraction solution that allows customers to partition a 10 gigabit (Gb) Ethernet connection, to
regulate the size and data speed of each partition, and to prioritize each of those partitions.
Customers can configure a single 10Gb network port to represent up to four physical NIC devices, or
FlexNICs, for a total bandwidth of 10Gbps.
Flex-10 hardware consists of two components: a 10Gb Flex-10 LAN-on-motherboard (LOM) device or
10 Gb Flex-10 mezzanine card; and the HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 10Gb Ethernet Module. The
10Gb Flex-10 LOM or mezzanine card connects to a 10Gb server port on select BladeSystem
servers.
To the server OS (bare-metal OS), each of the four FlexNICs appears as a discrete NIC, with its own
driver. The administrator defines the bandwidth available to each FlexNIC—from 100Mb to 10Gb—
through the Virtual Connect interface. While the FlexNICs share the same physical port, traffic flow
for each FlexNIC is isolated with its own MAC address and virtual local area network (VLAN) tags
(see Figure 5). The Virtual Connect Flex-10 Ethernet Module recognizes Flex-10 connections from the
server as part of a Virtual Connect server profile.
Figure 5. FlexNics share a physical link.
BladeSystem Server
FlexNIC FlexNIC FlexNIC FlexNIC
Flex10 NIC (port 1)
vNet 1 vNet 2 vNet 3
VC Flex-10 Enet Module
Flex-10 technology complements virtual machine technology by providing a large I/O bandwidth,
multiple hardware-virtualized NICs, and the ability to change the bandwidth allocated to each
FlexNIC.
Flex-10 is currently available with supported HP BladeSystem servers (for supported servers, see
http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/blades/components/ethernet/10-10gb-
f/questionsanswers.html#c1). For more information about Flex-10 technology, see the technology
brief ―HP Flex-10 technology‖ at
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01608922/c01608922.pdf.
Flex10 LOM or Mezz Card
FlexNIC FlexNIC FlexNIC FlexNIC
Flex10 NIC (port 2)
Single lane of
10Gb/s Ethernet
for each Port
vNet 4
9