IBM Emulex 10GbE Virtual Fabric Adapter II

Abstract

The Emulex 10GbE Virtual Fabric Adapters II and III for IBM® System x® are members of IBM’s comprehensive networking portfolio of 10 Gb Ethernet (10GbE) converged network adapters (CNAs). They deliver industry-leading performance and scalability per watt, reducing requirements for power and cooling. Storage protocol offloads enable the efficient use of computing resources and the support of more virtual machines per CPU, and reduce the number of servers required to support data center demands. The adapters support fiber-optic or twin-ax copper cabling to maximize flexibility.

Changes in February 21 update:
* New Emulex Dual Port 10 GbE SFP+ Virtual Fabric Adapter IIIr
* New Emulex Dual Port 10 GbE SFP+ Embedded VFA IIIr
* Updated supported servers
* Updated supported operating systems
* Updated FCoE support table

Introduction

As server virtualization technology becomes more prevalent within data centers, more dynamic performance is needed for network bandwidth to satisfy these demands. The Emulex 10GbE Virtual Fabric Adapters II and III for IBM® System x® can help you break the I/O bottleneck by allowing you to allocate bandwidth where it’s needed, delivering maximum application agility. Offering a full range of virtualization and convergence capabilities, the same network hardware offers Ethernet, iSCSI, or Fibre Channel over Ethernet with bandwidth that is allocated in increments from 100 Mb to 10 Gb. The next-generation Virtual Fabric Adapter for IBM System x is a fast, flexible, easy, and reliable solution for I/O virtualization.

The Emulex 10GbE Virtual Fabric Adapter II, Emulex Dual Port 10GbE SFP+ VFA III, and Emulex Dual Port 10 GbE SFP+Virtual Fabric Adapter IIIr look the same and are shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Emulex VFA II, VFA III and VFA IIIr adapter (shown with optional SFP+ transceivers installed)

Did you know

With IBM Virtual Fabric, up to eight virtual network ports (vNICs) can be created with a single two-port 10 GbE network adapter. Converged protocols such as iSCSI and FCoE are also supported on selected configurations. By using a common infrastructure for Ethernet and SAN, and by virtualizing your network adapter, you can reduce your infrastructure capital expense.

Part number information

All adapters in the Emulex 10GbE Virtual Fabric Adapter family listed in Table 1 offer the same features and functions. There is a difference in the manner that they are field-upgradeable from an Ethernet-only-mode-of-operation to an Ethernet, FCoE and iSCSI mode-of-operation:

VFA II adapters are designed to use a paper-key license where IBM provides a license security to be used at the Emulex web site once registered. Emulex provides the user with a different license key that is subsequently administered to the server.
VFA III and VFA IIIr adapters provide a much easier and efficient software license enablement process. IBM’s Feature on Demand process reduces the complexity of activating the license to just a few clicks of the mouse.

Customers and system designers need to note that VFA II and VFA III adapters, as well as the subset of VFA III PCIe, Integrated, and Mezzanine form-factors have different FCoE license key part numbers.

Table 1. Ordering part number and feature code

* This adapter can only be ordered via the configure-to-order (CTO) processor or via special bid.
# This adapter comes standard with the most models of the IBM System x3850 X5, x3950 X5 and x3690 X5. It can also can be ordered via CTO or via special bid for those systems only.

The adapters, when shipped as stand-alone options, include the following items:

One Emulex 10 GbE Virtual Fabric Adapter
3U bracket attached with 2U bracket included in the box (95Y3762, 49Y7950 and 00D8540 only)
Quick Install Guide
Warranty information and Important Notices flyer
Documentation CD

The Emulex Embedded Adapters are designed to fit into a special slot in selected servers (see Table 4), allowing you to use the PCIe slots for other technologies. The adapters are shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Emulex VFA III and VFA IIIr Embedded Adapters

The Emulex 10GbE Integrated Virtual Fabric Adapter II (Figure 3) has the same functional characteristics as the Emulex 10GbE Virtual Fabric Adapter II (Figure 1). This adapter must be purchased at the same time as the new IBM eX5 server (x3850 X5 and x3690 X5). It is factory installed into a standard PCIe slot, and is offered at a price savings compared to the Emulex 10GbE Virtual Fabric Adapter II . There is a limit of one Emulex 10GbE Integrated Virtual Fabric Adapter II per system. The Emulex 10GbE Integrated Virtual Fabric Adapter II is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Emulex 10GbE Integrated Virtual Fabric Adapter II (without optional SFP+ transceivers)

Similarly, the Emulex Dual Port 10GbE SFP+ Integrated VFA III has the same functional characteristics as the Emulex Dual Port 10GbE SFP+ VFA III. The integrated adapter must be purchased at the same time as the new supported server (see Table 4). The integrated adapter is factory installed into a standard PCIe slot, and is offered at a price savings compared to the Emulex Dual Port 10GbE SFP+ VFA III. There is a limit of one Emulex Dual Port 10GbE SFP+ Integrated VFA III per system.

Supported transceivers and direct-attach cables

The Emulex 10 GbE Virtual Fabric Adapters have two empty SFP+ cages that support SFP+ SR transceivers and twin-ax direct-attached copper cables as listed in Table 2 and Table 3 respectively.

Table 2. Supported transceivers

Table 3. Supported direct-attach cables

Features

The members of the Emulex 10 GbE Virtual Fabric Adapter family have the following features and benefits:

• Dual-channel, 10 Gbps Ethernet controller
• Line-rate 10 GbE performance
• 2 SFP+ empty cages to support either SFP+ SR or twin-ax copper connections
• SFP+ SR link is with SFP+ SR optical module with LC connectors
• SFP+ twin-ax copper link is with SFP+ direct attached copper module/cable
• TCIP/IP stateless offloads
• TCP chimney offload
• Hardware parity, CRC, ECC, and other advanced error checking
• PCI Express 2.0 x8 host interface
• Low-profile form-factor or slot-less mezzanine card form-factor design
• IPv4/IPv6 TCP, UDP checksum offload
• VLAN insertion and extraction
• Support for jumbo frames up to 9000 bytes
• Preboot eXecution Environment (PXE) 2.0 network boot support
• Interrupt coalescing
• Load balancing and failover support
• Based on Emulex OneConnect technology and including FCoE and iSCSI support as a feature entitlement upgrade
• Simplifies I/O hardware choices for IT managers
• Maximizes I/O consolidation with high-performance 10GbE ports
• One network infrastructure reduces CapEx
• One management console reduces OpEx
• Leverages existing IT investments
• Deploy and manage this and other Emulex OneConnect-based adapters with OneCommand Manager

The Emulex VFA II, VFA III, and VFA IIIr adapters can be upgraded in the field to enable FCoE and iSCSI hardware initiator. Option part number 95Y3751 already has the upgrade installed in the factory.

You can deploy faster and manage less when you combine Virtual Fabric adapters (VFAs) and Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) that are developed by Emulex. IBM VFAs and HBAs that are developed by Emulex use the same installation and configuration process, streamlining the effort to get your server running, and saving you valuable time. They also use the same Fibre Channel drivers, reducing time to qualify and manage storage connectivity. With Emulex’s OneCommand Manager, you can manage IBM VFAs and HBAs that are developed by Emulex through the data center from a single console.

Supported servers

The Emulex 10GbE Virtual Fabric Adapter family are supported in the IBM System x and iDataPlex® servers listed in the following table.

Table 4. Server compatibility (Part 1) – X6 and M4 servers with Xeon v2 processors

		X6 and M4 servers with Xeon v2 processors
Part number	Description
95Y3762	Emulex Dual Port 10GbE SFP+ VFA III	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N
95Y3768#	Emulex Dual Port 10GbE SFP+ Integrated VFA III	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N
00D8540	Emulex Dual Port 10 GbE SFP+ Virtual Fabric Adapter IIIr	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
95Y3760	Emulex VFA III/IIIr FCoE/iSCSI License (FOD)	N	Y	Y	Y	N	N	Y	N
90Y6456	Emulex Dual Port 10GbE SFP+ Embedded Adapter	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N
00Y7730	Emulex Dual Port 10 GbE SFP+ Embedded VFA IIIr	N	N	Y	Y	N	N	Y	N
90Y5178	Emulex Mezz VFA III/IIIr FCoE/iSCSI License (FoD)	N	N	Y	Y	N	N	Y	N
49Y7950	Emulex 10GbE Virtual Fabric Adapter II	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N
49Y7940#	Emulex 10GbE Integrated Virtual Fabric Adapter II	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N
49Y4274	Emulex VFA II FCoE License for IBM System x	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N
95Y3751	Emulex Dual-port VFA II Adapter and FCoE/iSCSI License	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N

Table 4. Server compatibility (Part 2) – X5 and M4 servers with Xeon v1 processors

X5 and M4 servers with Xeon v1 processors

Part number

Description

95Y3762

Emulex Dual Port 10GbE SFP+ VFA III

N

N

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

N

Y

N

Y

95Y3768#

Emulex Dual Port 10GbE SFP+ Integrated VFA III

N

N

Y

Y

Y

N

Y

N

N

N

N

N

00D8540

Emulex Dual Port 10 GbE SFP+ Virtual Fabric Adapter IIIr

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

95Y3760

Emulex VFA III/IIIr FCoE/iSCSI License (FOD)

N

N

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

N

Y

N

Y

90Y6456

Emulex Dual Port 10GbE SFP+ Embedded Adapter

N

N

N

N

N

Y

N

Y

N

N

N

Y

00Y7730

Emulex Dual Port 10 GbE SFP+ Embedded VFA IIIr

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

90Y5178

Emulex Mezz VFA III/IIIr FCoE/iSCSI License (FoD)

N

N

N

N

N

Y

N

Y

N

N

N

Y

49Y7950

Emulex 10GbE Virtual Fabric Adapter II

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

Y

N

Y

Y

49Y7940#

Emulex 10GbE Integrated Virtual Fabric Adapter II

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

Y

N

Y

N

49Y4274

Emulex VFA II FCoE License for IBM System x

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

Y

N

Y

N

95Y3751

Emulex Dual-port VFA II Adapter and FCoE/iSCSI License

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

N

Y

N

Y

N

Table 4. Server compatibility (Part 3) – M3 servers

		M3 servers
Part number	Product description
95Y3762	Emulex Dual Port 10GbE SFP+ VFA III	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N
95Y3768#	Emulex Dual Port 10GbE SFP+ Integrated VFA III	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N
00D8540	Emulex Dual Port 10 GbE SFP+ Virtual Fabric Adapter IIIr	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N
95Y3760	Emulex VFA III/IIIr FCoE/iSCSI License (FOD)	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N
90Y6456	Emulex Dual Port 10GbE SFP+ Embedded Adapter	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N
00Y7730	Emulex Dual Port 10 GbE SFP+ Embedded VFA IIIr	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N
90Y5178	Emulex Mezz VFA III/IIIr FCoE/iSCSI License (FoD)	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N
49Y7950	Emulex 10GbE Virtual Fabric Adapter II	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
49Y7940#	Emulex 10GbE Integrated Virtual Fabric Adapter II	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N	N
49Y4274	Emulex VFA II FCoE License for IBM System x	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
95Y3751	Emulex Dual-port VFA II Adapter and FCoE/iSCSI License	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	Y

Modes of operation

The adapters support two types of virtual NIC (vNIC) operating modes, and a physical NIC (pNIC) operating mode:

IBM Virtual Fabric Mode (also known as vNIC1 mode) will only work with an IBM RackSwitch G8124E and G8264. In this mode, the Emulex adapter communicates with the IBM switch to obtain vNIC parameters (using DCBX). A special tag is added within each data packet and is later removed by the NIC and/or switch for each vNIC group to maintain separation of the virtual data paths.

In vNIC mode, each physical port is divided into four virtual ports for a maximum of eight (8) virtual NICs per adapter. The default bandwidth for each vNIC is 2.5 Gbps. Bandwidth for each vNIC can be configured via the IBM switch from 100 Mbps to 10 Gbps, up to a total of 10 Gb per physical port. The vNICs can also be configured to have 0 bandwidth if you must allocate the available bandwidth to fewer than four vNICs per physical port. In IBM Virtual Fabric Mode, you can change the bandwidth allocations through the IBM switch user interfaces without requiring a reboot of the server.

vNIC bandwidth allocation and metering is performed by both the switch and the VFA. In such a case, a bidirectional virtual channel of an assigned bandwidth is established between them for every defined vNIC.
In Switch Independent Mode (also known as vNIC2 mode) the adapter works with any 10 Gb Ethernet switch. Switch Independent Mode offers the same capabilities as IBM Virtual Fabric Mode in terms of the number of vNICs and the bandwidth each can be configured to have. Switch Independent Mode extends the existing customer VLANs to the virtual NIC interfaces. The IEEE 802.1Q VLAN tag is essential to the separation of the vNIC groups by the NIC adapter or driver and the switch. The VLAN tags are added to the packet by the applications or drivers at each end station rather than by the switch.

vNIC bandwidth allocation and metering is only performed by VFA itself. In such a case, a unidirectional virtual channel is established where the bandwidth management is only performed for the outgoing traffic on a VFA side (server-to-switch). The incoming traffic (switch-to-server) uses the all available physical port bandwidth, as there is no metering performed on either the VFA or a switch side.

In vNIC2 mode, when storage protocols are enabled on the Emulex 10GbE Virtual Fabric Adapters, six vNICs (three per physical port) are Ethernet, and two vNICs (one per physical port) are either iSCSI or FCoE.
In pNIC mode the adapter operates as a standard dual-port 10 Gbps Ethernet adapter, and it functions with any 10 GbE switch. In pNIC mode, with the Emulex FCoE/iSCSI License, the card operates in a traditional Converged Network Adapter (CNA) mode with two Ethernet ports and two storage ports (iSCSI or FCoE) available to the operating system.

Although all adapters in the Emulex 10GbE Virtual Fabric Adapter family support pNIC, vNIC1 and vNIC2 modes, availability of each operating mode is also dependent on the top-of-rack switch and the network or storage protocol used (Ethernet only – no storage protocols, iSCSI or FCoE), as shown in the following table.

Table 5. Available IBM VFA operating modes for Ethernet, iSCSI and FCoE configurations

Supported FCoE configurations are shown in the following table.

Table 6. Supported FCoE configurations