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IBM System Networking RackSwitch G8124E
IBM Redbooks Product Guide
The IBM
System Networking RackSwitch™ G8124E delivers exceptional performance that is both
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lossless and low latency. In addition, the G8124E delivers excellent cost savings as you consider
acquisition costs, energy costs, plus its feature-rich design with when it comes to virtualization,
CEE/FCoE, high availability, and its enterprise class Layer 2 and Layer 3 functionality.
With support for 1G or 10G, this switch is designed for those clients that are leveraging 10G Ethernet
today or have plans to in the future. This is the first Top of Rack 10Gb switch for IBM System x
designed to support IBM Virtual Fabric, which helps clients significantly reduce cost and complexity
when it comes to the I/O requirements of most virtualization deployments today. Virtual Fabric can
help clients reduce the number of multiple I/O adapters down to a single dual-port 10G adapter, in
addition to reducing the number of cables and upstream switch ports required. Virtual Fabric allows
clients to carve up a dual-port 10G adapter into eight virtual NICs (vNICs) and create dedicated virtual
pipes between the adapter and the switch for optimal performance, plus higher availability and better
security. This functionality provides the ability to dynamically allocate bandwidth per vNIC in
increments of 100 Mb, while being able to adjust over time without downtime. Figure 1 shows the IBM
System Networking RackSwitch G8124E.
Figure 1. IBM System Networking RackSwitch G8124E
Did you know
The G8124E switch is designed to support a number of separate types of configurations from a
server or downstream switches: 1 Gb, 10 Gb, virtual NIC, Converged Enhanced Ethernet
(CEE/FCoE), and iSCSI. This single switch can handle all these workloads and can connect to an
upstream 1 Gb or 10 Gb infrastructure, or both.
The G8124E is designed to support data center bridging (DCB), which is the IEEE's group of
protocols that provide Lossless Ethernet and allows for clients to reduce the costs of
implementing FCoE by leveraging port aggregation before connecting to more costly upstream
gateway devices.
IBM Virtual Fabric helps clients reduce costs and complexity in environments where they need
four or more NICs per server. A perfect example is virtualization, where clients often need as
many as eight NICs per server.
IBM is a leader in helping clients reduce the complexity of managing VMs and VM migration with
their IBM VMready
IBM System Networking RackSwitch G8124E
product, which makes the network VM aware.
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Table of Contents
Related Manuals for IBM G8124E
Summary of Contents for IBM G8124E
- Page 1 With support for 1G or 10G, this switch is designed for those clients that are leveraging 10G Ethernet today or have plans to in the future. This is the first Top of Rack 10Gb switch for IBM System x ®...
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Page 2: Part Number Information
Part number information Tables 1 and 2 list IBM System x® part numbers and IBM Power Systems™ MTMs and Feature Codes for ordering the modules and additional options. Small form-factor pluggable plus (SFP+) and SFP transceivers are not included. Table 1. IBM part numbers and feature codes for ordering... - Page 3 88Y6857 ECBN With the flexibility of the G8124E switch, clients can take advantage of the technologies that they require for multiple environments. For 10 Gb uplinks, they have a choice of either SFP+ transceivers (SR or LR) for longer distances or more cost-effective and lower-power-consuming options such as SFP+ direct-attached cables (DAC or Twinax cables), which can be 1 - 8.5 meters in length and are...
- Page 4 Power Cord China AC plug 16A/250 V; OPT 39Y7929 Power Cord Brazil AC plug 16A/250 V; OPT 39Y7930 Power Cord Uruguay/Argentina AC plug 16A/250 V; OPT 39Y7931 Power Cord US/Canada AC plug 10A/250 V; OPT IBM System Networking RackSwitch G8124E...
- Page 5 combination of extremely low latency, non-blocking line-rate switching and ease of management. Lower power and better cooling : The G8124E uses as little power as two 60 W light bulbs, which is a fraction of the power consumption of most competitive offerings. Unlike side-cooled switches, which can cause heat recirculation and reliability concerns, the G8124E rear-to-front cooling design reduces data center air conditioning costs by having airflow match the servers in the rack.
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Page 6: Features And Specifications
Rear-to-front airflow is ideal for servers or blade chassis with ports in back of rack. IBM System Networking RackSwitch G8124E (Front-to-Rear): IBM PN 7309BF7 Front-to-rear airflow is ideal for IBM iDataplex or when needing ports in front of rack. Hardware features are as follows: IBM System Networking RackSwitch G8124E... - Page 7 voltage ranging from 42 V dc to 60 V dc per module. The nominal power for the G8124E ranges from 115 W to 168 W depending on the speed of the port (1G/10G), type of transceivers (SR or DAC), and number of active ports.
- Page 8 isCLI (Cisco-like) Scriptable CLI Browser-based client or Telnet Standard protocols IPv6 SNMP v1, v2c, and v3 RMON Secondary NTP support Accept DHCP DHCP Relay IBM System Networking RackSwitch G8124E...
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Page 9: Popular Configurations
The following sections describe popular configurations. Virtual Fabric configuration IBM Virtual Fabric for IBM System x is built using industry standards and is an ideal solution for customers that require more than two NICs per server. Over the past couple of years many clients have seen their I/O requirements per server increase anywhere from four to six to eight, or even more, NICs per server, especially with the adoption of virtualization. - Page 10 IBM Virtual Fabric (Figure 2) is designed in partnership with Emulex. The components needed for this solution are as follows: Emulex 10Gb Virtual Fabric Adapter for IBM System x (for more information, see http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/Redbooks.nsf/RedbookAbstracts/tips0762.html?Open) IBM System Networking RackSwitch G8124E ...
- Page 11 Figure 3 shows a G8124E top-of-rack switch. Figure 3. G8124E top-of-rack switch IBM System Networking RackSwitch G8124E...
- Page 12 Interoperates with existing network. No learning curve. standard CLI Rack-optimized server aggregation logical design The design goal is a G8124E (10GbE) switch at Distribution Layer and G8000 (1GbE) at Edge/Access (Figure 4): Logical configuration: Configure G8000s for Layer 2 and apply static routes for L3 forwarding.
- Page 13 Figure 5. 10-GbE departmental cluster or server aggregation Table 6 lists the items, descriptions, and quantities. Table 6. Items, descriptions, and quantities Item Description Quantity Spine and leaf switches G8124E Interconnect cabling SFP+ DAC IBM System Networking RackSwitch G8124E...
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Page 14: Related Publications
Low power consumption with fewer components Low-cost, pay-as-you-grow 10G storage network Figure 6. G8124E benefits for IP storage over 10 GbE Related publications For more information, visit http://www-947.ibm.com/support/entry/portal/Documentation to see the following IBM RackSwitch G8124E product resources: IBM RackSwitch G8052 Installation Guide ... -
Page 15: Copyright License
Web sites. The materials at those Web sites are not part of the materials for this IBM product and use of those Web sites is at your own risk.IBM may use or distribute any of the information you supply in any way it believes appropriate without incurring any obligation to you. - Page 16 (® or ™), indicating US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information was published. Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries.