10Gb Pass-thru and CEE with the new FlexFabric Adapters and the G7 blade onboard NICs.

[chuckk281]

There seem to be a lot of interest in how to work with the FCoE functions of the new NICs on the G7 blades or the new FlexFabric Adapters and Pass-thru modules. And lots of input to the subject as well:

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Phunsak asked these questions and Charlie responded:

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Phunsak asked:

Please correct if I wrong

1. G7 server with built-in CNA to a 10Gb pass-thru to a FCOE switch such as CISCO Nexus- the  OS on the blade will see 1 NIC and 1 HBA per 10Gb CNA port .

Charlie - Correct

1. G7 server with built-in CNA àto a VC Flex-10 to a FCOE switch such as CISCO Nexus- the OS on blade will see up to 4 NIC per 10Gb CNA but will not see any HBA coz the VC flex-10 is not supported CEE protocol that required to communicate with FCOE switch

Charlie – Reason for no HBA is that VC Flex-10 does not support FCoE, not just CEE.

1. G7 server with built-in CNA to a VC FlexFabric module to a FCOE switch such as CISCO Nexus- the  OS on blade will see up to 3 NIC and 1 HBA per 10Gb CNA.

Charlie – This is not a supported configuration for FCoE since the FlexFabric module does not support CEE at this time.  FlexFabric supports connecting to Ethernet or FC switches.

And more  question about  scenario # 1 , Which speed of 1 NIC and 1 HBA that OS will recognize ?  6Gb for NIC and 4Gb for HBA ?

            Charlie – I believe the bandwidth control is settable by the customer using the standard tools.

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I will add more to the discussion as it seems to be a hot topic

[chuckk281]

More conversation on the new G7 NICs and the FlexFabric Adapters:

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Kim asked: 

I have a similar question on this  

As I understood, and please correct me if I am wrong, to run a Onboard CNA adapter in a BL465G7, and use the adapter for FCoE, we need to use a flex fabric unit … 

My customer wants to use the BL465c for FCoE traffic and path it through the 10Gb Pass Thru module to a Cisco Nexus unit. 

If we do so, what about std Ethernet traffic…  it will be lost ????? 

Charlie and Vincent replied:

Charlie: 

Kim, if you connect a FCoE switch to a CNA using a pass thru, it will operate as an industry standard CNA and you will use the industry standard control tools.  I believe they support concurrent Ethernet and FCoE traffic.

Vincent concurred: 

Right, the Nexus switch will be the FCF (FC forwarder) and break out the traffic between standard Ethernet and standard Fibre Channel. Of course in that config, the OS on the blade will see only one NIC and one HBA per 10Gb CNA port, no “FlexNIC”.