How to configure Virtual NICs using the Emulex Virtual Fabric Adapter and BNT Virtual Fabric Switch Module
This tutorial is intended as a ‘how-to’ guide for configuring BladeCenter Virtual NIC (vNIC) operation using the Emulex Virtual Fabric Adapter (VFA) and the Blade Network Technologies (BNT) Virtual Fabric Switch Module (VFS).
For the initial release of vNIC functionality for BladeCenter, configuration is ac-complished using the standard management interfaces of the VFS. This guide describes implementation examples for both the Command Line Interface (CLI) and the Browser-Based Interface (BBI).
The redpaper "Implementing Microsoft Hyper-V on IBM System x and IBM BladeCenter" is available @ redbooks.ibm.com.
Microsoft® Hyper-V™ is the next-generation server virtualization technology. This technology is available either as a feature of Windows® Server 2008 or as a separate free download in the form of the Hyper-V Server.
In this IBM® Redpapers™ publication, IBM introduces Hyper-V and describe its features. IBM explains how to install and use the product to create virtual machines and introduces the tools that you can use to manage the virtual machines that run on Hyper-V. In addition, IBM introduces high availability features such as clustering and migration.
The paper is suitable for IT specialists who want to learn what Hyper-V offers and how to install, configure, and manage the product.
A Windows and Linux package has been published on the IBM Support website which contains the installers for the Cisco 10G Switch Plug-in for the IBM Systems Director application. These installers will install the needed software to allow the IBM Systems Director to configure and monitor Cisco 10G switches. All BladeCenter chassis are supported.
Networkworld published their finding on several products they tested and said:
"Two eight-core Intel 5570 Nehalem processors, two 10Gigabit Ethernet NICs, 50GB SSD drives, 150GB 15k hard drives and 48GB of RAM. Not to mention energy efficiency and strong management features. And all for around $10,000. What's not to like?
In our tests, the Nehalem-based blade delivered a 10x increase in performance when compared to Intel's Core-based Xeon processor. In terms of total overall power consumption, the Nehalem processors consumed 17% more power than the Xeon-based system, which is a pretty good bargain when you're gaining a 10x boost in performance.
Bottom line: The combination of Nehalem processors, 10G Ethernet, and lots of RAM make the HS22 a great choice for data center virtualization."
Video #1 in series...What is 5? Five minute mile? And what does this have to do with IBM System x Servers? IBM and System x team is having too much fun. Join us!
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This year will be the year Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE) and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) will see the light in numerous products. The Converged Network Adapter was the first component that could be ordered and now this will be expanded to FCoE capable switches. We want to give you the right informaton to be fully up-to-speed on these new technologies and are gathering all information at this moment. Keep watching this space.............
IBM announced a blade designed to be optimized for virtualization, build for performance and designed for energy efficiency.
The IBM® BladeCenter® HS22V is a high-performance blade server that offers outstanding performance for virtualization with new levels of memory capacity and CPU performance.
Even wanted to lookup a IBM part number or FRU number ...... and couldn't find it !!! On IBM Parts Lookup, allmost any partnumber, feature code or FRU code can be found from either System p, System i, System x, BladeCenter or System Storage.
Try it HERE and provide feedback to make it even better. What they say: "This site is in betatesting and free of charge. Though we try to keep the data accurate, sometimes things or items may be wrong or missing. Duplicate items may exist but if you use the search engine appropriate you can find the result you need."
This ESG Lab report presents the results of a mixed application performance benchmark which was designed to assess the real-world performance capabilities of a SAN-attached IBM System Storage DS5020 Express/DS3950 Express storage, IBM BladeCenter HS22 servers and VMware vSphere software deployed in a highly virtualized, consolidated data center.
The QLogic Virtual Fabric Extension Module is another example of how IBM has been at the forefront of offering new technology to clients. IBM was among the first to deliver Fibre Channel over Ethernet across System x and BladeCenter and this new module takes this a step further by offering clients I/O convergence inside the chassis.
Clients using the BNT Virtual Fabric 10 Gb Switch Module for their LAN traffic can now combine it with this module and a Converged Network Adapter such as the QLogic 2-port 10 Gb CNA to converge their LAN and SAN on a single network. The QLogic Virtual Fabric Extension Module offers six ports of 8 Gb Fibre Channel connectivity, without the need for separate Fibre Channel expansion cards in the BladeCenter servers.
IBM BladeCenter Open Fabric Manager (BOFM) is a tool for simplifying deployment, failover, and repurposing of blade servers. BOFM performs these tasks by controlling the assignment of physical Ethernet MAC and Fibre Channel WWN addresses for the integrated Ethernet interfaces and I/O expansion cards in each blade.
IBM® Systems Director Active Energy Manager is an IBM Systems Director plug-in. Use Active Energy Manager to monitor and manage the power and cooling needs of IBM servers and BladeCenter® systems. Non-IBM systems can also be monitored using metering products, such as power distribution units (PDU), sensors, and integration with facility software.
Hint on upgrading from AEM 4.1.x.x to 4.2:If you have IBM Active Energy Manager v4.1.1.1 on your IBM Systems Director Server and you upgrade the Management server to 6.1.2.1 and AEM 4.1.1.2 it will notify you that you require to install the latest release of Active Energy Manager - Note it will also provide you the link to download this release http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/management/director/plugins/actengmgr/
IBM Systems Director VMControl is a cross-platform suite of products that assists you in rapidly deploying virtual appliances to create virtual servers that are configured with the operating system and software applications that you want. It also enables you to group resources into system pools, which enable you to centrally manage and control the different workloads in your environment.
The IBM® Hardware PRO Pack for Microsoft® System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, Version 1.1 provides the ability to monitor alerts for the physical host resources in a virtualized environment.
Key Features Include:
Provides health information for the physical servers hosting virtual machines while managing Hyper-V or Virtual Server environments with SCVMM
Monitors the health of select hardware components on IBM System x and BladeCenter x86/x64 blade servers hosting the virtual environmentSupported components include physical processors, memory, hard disks, RAID controllers, cooling fans, power supplies, temperature and voltage.
Provides advisory PRO tips in the event of existing or predictive hardware problems that warrant VMM administrative operations New in this version: Support for IBM System x3550 M2 (7946), x3650 M2 (7947), BladeCenter HS22 (7870). Support for MegaRAID controllers on supported IBM servers (IBM ServerProven websitehttp://www-03.ibm.com/servers/eserver/serverproven/compat/us/indexsp.html).
As of november 21st 2009 the known problems of IBM Systems Director and their solutions are posted on the web. Find out why something is not working or how to be able to do things with SD.
Before this website became available the information was published in RETAIN.
IBM has created an account on facebook specially for IBM Systems Director. Their mission statement: We want IBM Systems Director to help you manage your data center...to manage with ease...to virtualize with ease. We want this fan page to be a place for you to learn, socialize, and provide tips on how IBM Systems Director is making your systems management tasks easier.
How to configure Virtual NICs using the Emulex Virtual Fabric Adapter and BNT Virtual Fabric Switch Module
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