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IBM BNT RackSwitch G8124
IBM System x at-a-glance guide
The IBM BNT RackSwitch G8124 delivers exceptional performance that is both lossless and low latency.
In addition, the G8124 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 BNT RackSwitch G8124.
Figure 1. IBM BNT RackSwitch G8124
Did you know
Did you know that:
The G8124 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 G8124 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 VM's and VM migration with their
VMready product, which makes the network VM aware.
IBM BNT RackSwitch G8124
®
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Related Manuals for IBM BNT G8124
Summary of Contents for IBM BNT G8124
- 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 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.
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Page 2: Part Number Information
Part number information Table 1 shows the part numbers for ordering these modules and additional options for them. Table 1. IBM part numbers and feature codes for ordering Description IBM System x part number Power Systems MTM /FC IBM BNT RackSwitch G8124R... - Page 3 Generic Rail Mount Kit (2-post) BNT Mini-USB to DB9 serial cable (3 m) Publication Group An IBM limited 3-year hardware warranty Models shipped after April 5, 2011 include a 3-year software license, providing entitlement to upgrades over that period. Power cables need to be ordered separately at no additional charge. Table 2 lists these options.
- Page 4 Virtual Fabric can help customers address I/O requirements for multiple NIC’s while also helping reduce cost and complexity. Virtual Fabric for IBM allows for the carving up of a physical NIC into multiple virtual NICs (2 - 8 vNICs) and creates a virtual pipe between the adapter and the switch for improved performance, availability, and security while reducing cost and complexity.
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Page 5: Features And Specifications
Rear-to-Front airflow – ideal for servers or blade chassis with ports in back of rack IBM BNT RackSwitch G8124F (Front-to-Rear) IBM PN 7309BF9 Front-to-Rear airflow – ideal for IBM iDataplex or when needing ports in front of rack IBM BNT RackSwitch G8124DC (DC Power) IBM PN 7309CD9 Rear-to-Front airflow –... - Page 6 Data Center Bridge Exchange protocol (DCBX) FIP Snooping Fibre Channel over Ethernet Converged Enhanced Ethernet Trunking LACP Static Trunks (EtherChannel) Configurable Trunk Hash algorithm Spanning Tree Multiple Spanning Trees (802.1 s) Rapid Spanning Tree (802.1w) PVRST+ IBM BNT RackSwitch G8124...
- Page 7 IPv6 SNMP v1, v2c, and v3 RMON Secondary NTP support Accept DHCP DHCP Relay LLDP 16 K MAC table 9 K jumbo frames 802.3X flow control Upgrades Upgrade firmware via serial or TFTP Dual software images IBM BNT RackSwitch G8124...
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Page 8: Popular Configurations
4Q 2010. IBM Virtual Fabric for IBM System x is built using industry standards and is the 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 4 to 6 to 8, or even more, NICs per server, especially with the adoption of virtualization. - Page 9 High-concentration of rack-optimized servers, for example: System x 1U or 2U servers with a 10G adapter installed IBM BladeCenter® using any of the following modules in the chassis: BNT 1/10Gb Uplink Ethernet Switch Module for IBM BladeCenter BNT Virtual Fabric 10Gb Switch Module for IBM BladeCenter...
- Page 10 Full Layer 2/3 feature set: STP, MSTP, RSTP, PVRST+;RIP v1/2, static routes, OSPF. Security: 802.1X; RADIUS/TACACS+; Wire Speed ACLs, SSH v1, v2; HTTPS Secure BBI. QoS: Up to eight queues/port, IEEE 802.1p and DiffServ prioritization. Figure 4. Rack-optimized server aggregation logical design IBM BNT RackSwitch G8124...
- Page 11 No STP uplink failure detection (UFD) to enable redundant paths Figure 5. 10-GbE departmental cluster or server aggregation Table 5 lists the items, descriptions, and quantities. Table 5. Items, descriptions, and quantities Item Description Quantity Spine and leaf switches G8124 Interconnect cabling SFP+ DAC IBM BNT RackSwitch G8124...
- Page 12 G8124 benefits for IP storage applications (Figure 7): Lossless Ethernet Fabric Ultra-low latency for time-sensitive disk reads/writes Line-rate, high-bandwidth performance Low power consumption with fewer components Low-cost, pay-as-you-grow 10G storage network Figure 7. BNT G8124 benefits for IP storage over 10 GbE IBM BNT RackSwitch G8124...
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Page 13: Related Publications
Related publications For more information see the following BNT Virtual Fabric 10Gb G8124 RackSwitchfor IBM System x product publications, available from: http://www-947.ibm.com/systems/support/supportsite.wss/docdisplay?lndocid=MIGR-5084427&brandind =5000020 Application Guide http://www.bladenetwork.net//file/G8124_AG_6-3.pdf Command Reference http://www.bladenetwork.net/uuserfilesserfiles/file/G8124_CR_6-3.pdf isCLI Reference http://www.bladenetwork.net/userfiles/file/G8124_IS_6-3.pdf Browser-based Interface (BBI) Quick Guide http://www.bladenetwork.net/userfiles/file/G8124_BBI_6-3.pdf Release Notes http://downloads.bladenetwork.net/request?file=7euz4m... -
Page 14: 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 15 (® 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. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at http://www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml...