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Emulex 8Gb/s HBAs Optimized for New IBM System x Servers
April 2009 by Marc Jacob
Emulex Corporation announced that its LightPulse® 8Gb/s Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) are optimized for use with the new generation of IBM System x Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 series-based servers. Emulex 8Gb/s HBAs, working with IBM System x3650 M2 and IBM System x3550 M2 equipped with Intel QuickPath Interconnect technology (QPI), provide customers with the increased performance, I/O bandwidth and the scalability necessary for their virtualized server environments.
Leveraging Emulex HBA technology, the new IBM System x3650 M2 and System x3550 M2 servers offer twice the performance for virtualized environments. Emulex LightPulse HBAs offer customers a range of capabilities, including:
· Bandwidth that supports more virtual machines (VMs) per server than other solutions. Emulex 8Gb/s HBAs maximize the performance improvements and power savings offered by IBM’s new servers.
· Enterprise scalability and flexibility through support for Message-Signaled Interrupts eXtended (MSI-X), offering end users greater CPU efficiency, reduced system latency and improved I/O throughput – all of which contribute to increased server performance and reduced power consumption.
· Comprehensive virtualization capabilities with support for N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) and Virtual Fabric, enabling IBM System x users to leverage storage area network (SAN) management tools and best practices at the VM level, including fabric zoning and LUN mapping/masking.
· Host to Fabric FC-SP authentication – ensures end-to-end data integrity and protects sensitive data from unauthorized access.
· Support for the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) preboot environment common across all new IBM systems.
· Common driver model allows a single driver to support all Emulex HBAs on a given operating system – lowers administrative costs and speeds server deployment.
· Support for 8Gb/s, 4Gb/s & 2Gb/s Fibre Channel devices – integrates seamlessly into existing SANs.
Emulex HBAs are managed using HBAnyware®, a secure, automated and centralized enterprise management platform that provides a single interface for the deployment, dynamic provisioning, asset management, connectivity management, security and quality of service (QoS) of I/O connectivity that is optimized for virtualized server environments.
Tags/keywords: Emulex, IBM, System x, Intel Xeon, Fibre Channel, HBA, MSI-X, virtualization, CPU efficiency
