58 IBM BladeCenter PS700, PS701, and PS702 Technical Overview and Introduction
2.6.3 I/O expansion cards
The following I/O expansion cards provide additional resources that can be used by a native
operating system, the Virtual I/O Server (VIOS), or assigned directly to a LPAR by the VIOS.
See 1.5.8, “I/O features” on page 24 for details about each supported card.
LAN adapters
In addition to the onboard HEA ports, Ethernet ports can be added with LAN expansion card
adapters. The current LAN adapters for the PS700, PS701, and PS702 blades are available
in the CFFh form factor type. The QLogic Ethernet and 4 Gb Fibre Channel Expansion Card
has two 1 Gb Ethernet ports and two 4 Gb Fibre Channel ports.
The Ethernet ports on CFFh expansion cards (BladeCenter H and HT) are connected to
switch bays 7, and 9 and the Fibre Channel ports to switch bays 8, and 10. In the
BladeCenter S only the Ethernet ports are usable and the connection is to Bay 2.
SAS adapter
To connect to external SAS devices, including the BladeCenter S storage modules, the 3 Gb
SAS Passthrough Expansion Card and BladeCenter SAS Connectivity Modules are required.
The 3 Gb SAS Passthrough Expansion Card is a two port PICe CIOv form factor card. The
output from the ports on this card are routed through the BladeCenter mid-plane to I/O switch
bays 3 and 4.
Fibre Channel adapters
The PS700, PS701, and PS702 support direct or SAN connection to devices using Fibre
Channel adapters and the appropriate pass-through or Fibre Channel switch modules in the
BladeCenter chassis. Fibre Channel expansion cards are available in both form factors and in
4 Gb and 8 Gb data rates.
The two ports on CIOv form factor expansion cards are connected to BladeCenter I/O switch
module bays 3 and 4. The two Fibre Channel ports on a CFFh expansion card connect to
BladeCenter H or HT I/O switch bays 8 and 10. The Fibre Channel ports on a CFFh form
factor adapters are not supported for use in a BladeCenter S chassis.
Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), is being developed within T11 as part of the Fibre
Channel Backbone 5 (FC-BB-5) project. It is not meant to displace or replace FC. FCoE is an
enhancement that expands FC into the Ethernet by combining two leading-edge technologies
(FC and the Ethernet). This evolution with FCoE makes network consolidation a reality by the
combination of Fibre Channel and Ethernet. This network consolidation maintains the
resiliency, efficiency, and seamlessness of the existing FC-based data center.
Figure 2-16 on page 59 shows a configuration using BladeCenter FCoE components.
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