topic Re: Virtual Connect Flex-10 Flex NICs in BladeSystem - General

Virtual Connect Flex-10 Flex NICs

Melvin Weaselbaum — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 02:52:45 GMT

I know there are a lot of Ethernet switches and NICs that are part of the Virtual Connect/Flex Fabric portfolio....its hard to make sense of all of them.

Anyway, its been said that HP has recently increased the number of possible configurable Flex NICs on a 10G interface from 4 to a higher quantity.

Can anyone elaborate on what the functionality is these days? is there a roadmap for future add-ons?

Re: Virtual Connect Flex-10 Flex NICs

The Brit — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 14:42:28 GMT

I haven't "heard it said". As far as I know it is still 4!

Dave.

Re: Virtual Connect Flex-10 Flex NICs

Melvin Weaselbaum — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 21:16:14 GMT

thanks..anyone else?

Re: Virtual Connect Flex-10 Flex NICs

JKytsi — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 04:26:01 GMT

nope, with G7 You can choose FC HBA/NICs between flexnics (with flexfabric module) but total is 4 / NIC

Re: Virtual Connect Flex-10 Flex NICs

Jan Soska — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 05:48:18 GMT

btw, 4x 10Gb NIC are not enough in these days???

Jan

Re: Virtual Connect Flex-10 Flex NICs

JKytsi — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 07:52:18 GMT

It's not 4 x 10GB it's 10Gb / 4 (you can choose speed per NIC total bw 10GB)

Re: Virtual Connect Flex-10 Flex NICs

Jan Soska — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 10:07:32 GMT

Hello,
I have to disagree. check for example http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/networking/nc550m/index.html:

Introducing the HP NC550m 10Gb 2-Port PCIe x8 Flex-10 Ethernet Adapter.

* Supports HP's exclusive Flex-10 technology
* 40Gbs (full duplex) to each server per adapter. Up to 3 adapters per FH server!
* TOE capability decreases utilization significantly for an enhanced performance experience

I think if you have 2 port adapter (mezanine or onboard), each port is 10Gbps, so you have at least 20Gbps with one dual port nic

Jan

Re: Virtual Connect Flex-10 Flex NICs

Melvin Weaselbaum — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 10:52:07 GMT

Jan, you're misunderstanding the discussion. We are not talking about the available throughput on a dual port NIC. Yes, thats 20G full duplex (40G total).

What we are talking about it Flex-10 technology, which allows you to take a single 10G port and divide the bandwidth into 4 "channels."

Anyway, so I guess what I heard through the grapevine was misinformation. HP's Flex-10 technology is still rigid, unlike Dell's NPAR or Cisco's VIC.

Thanks

Re: Virtual Connect Flex-10 Flex NICs

Melvin Weaselbaum — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 11:02:15 GMT

Jarkko, thanks for the good info...rated your posts...

Re: Virtual Connect Flex-10 Flex NICs

JKytsi — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 18:47:45 GMT

No problem, trying to give valid info to valid questions =)

Re: Virtual Connect Flex-10 Flex NICs

Jan Soska — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 07:50:52 GMT

Melvin, I've got the point finally... :)

Jan