Cisco Cisco Catalyst Blade Switch 3130 for Dell M1000E White Paper
Design Guide
Introduction
This guide provides best design practices for deploying the Cisco
®
Catalyst
®
Blade Switch 3130
Family for the Dell PowerEdge M1000e Blade Enclosure within the Cisco Data Center Networking
Architecture. This guide describes the internal components of the blade server enclosure and Cisco
Catalyst Blade Switch 3130 and explores different methods of deployment. It includes the following
sections:
Architecture. This guide describes the internal components of the blade server enclosure and Cisco
Catalyst Blade Switch 3130 and explores different methods of deployment. It includes the following
sections:
●
The Dell PowerEdge M1000e Enclosure Overview
●
The Cisco Catalyst Blade Switch 3130 Product Overview
●
Design Goals
●
Cisco Catalyst Blade Switch 3130 Features
●
Network Topology Options
●
Design and Implementation Details
The Dell PowerEdge M1000e Enclosure Overview
The Dell PowerEdge M1000e Enclosure represents the latest advancement in Blade Server and
modular switch integration. Figure 1 below shows both a front and back side view of the cabinet.
The M1000e enclosure provides redundant power, cooling, and management infrastructure for the
blades and IO modules. It includes a highly available, passive midplane which connects the server
blades to the power, management and IO infrastrucure in the rear. The FlexIO architecture of the
PowerEdge M1000e, of which Cisco Catalyst Blade Switches are a key part, enables unparalleled
IO flexibility and bandwith. The FlexIO architecture is based around six IO module bays which
connect to the IO controllers on the server blades. The IO module bays were purposely designed
to be large, providing sufficent space to implement features never before provided in blade based
switches such as modular 10GbE uplinks and stacking functionality. The first two IO Bays must
contain Ethernet modules as the onboard Ethernet controllers are routed to those bays. The
additional four bays can be populated by additional Ethernet, Fibre Channel, and/or InfiniBand
modules and connect to the option IO mezzanine cards on the blade servers.
modular switch integration. Figure 1 below shows both a front and back side view of the cabinet.
The M1000e enclosure provides redundant power, cooling, and management infrastructure for the
blades and IO modules. It includes a highly available, passive midplane which connects the server
blades to the power, management and IO infrastrucure in the rear. The FlexIO architecture of the
PowerEdge M1000e, of which Cisco Catalyst Blade Switches are a key part, enables unparalleled
IO flexibility and bandwith. The FlexIO architecture is based around six IO module bays which
connect to the IO controllers on the server blades. The IO module bays were purposely designed
to be large, providing sufficent space to implement features never before provided in blade based
switches such as modular 10GbE uplinks and stacking functionality. The first two IO Bays must
contain Ethernet modules as the onboard Ethernet controllers are routed to those bays. The
additional four bays can be populated by additional Ethernet, Fibre Channel, and/or InfiniBand
modules and connect to the option IO mezzanine cards on the blade servers.
Figure 1.
Shows the Front and Back of the M1000e Enclosure
The enclosure’s Midplane provides power and network connectivity to the blades. The base I/O
module slots house a pair of Cisco Catalyst Blade Switch 3130s, which provide a highly available
and multi-homed environment where each server blade is connected via Gigabit Ethernet attached
to each Cisco Catalyst Blade Switch 3130. Two Cisco Catalyst Blade Switch 3130s within the blade
module slots house a pair of Cisco Catalyst Blade Switch 3130s, which provide a highly available
and multi-homed environment where each server blade is connected via Gigabit Ethernet attached
to each Cisco Catalyst Blade Switch 3130. Two Cisco Catalyst Blade Switch 3130s within the blade
© 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
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