HP proliant gbe2 ユーザーズマニュアル

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Applications that utilize a single uplink port include testing and evaluation systems, server blade 
enclosures with a few installed servers, and applications that require minimal bandwidth. On a 
heavily utilized system, using a single uplink port for all 32 network adapters can cause a traffic 
bottleneck. For example, using one uplink from interconnect switch A requires the traffic from all the 
network adapters routed to switch B to travel over the two crosslinks (a 2000 Mb/s path), previously 
shown in Figure 2. The crosslinks are intended primarily as a failover route and generally are not 
used as a primary path. For more optimal performance, at least one uplink port on each interconnect 
switch would be used. However, system administrators may use any combination from one to all 
twelve external Ethernet ports to increase bandwidth, to separate network and management data onto 
physically isolated ports, or to add redundant connections to the Ethernet network backbone.  
Another means to achieve network cable reduction is to link the GbE2 Interconnect Switches with 
other ProLiant BL e-Class and p-Class interconnect switches from different server blade enclosures. This 
is ideal for customers with multiple blade enclosures within a rack. It also allows the network 
administrator to define the desired level of network blocking or oversubscription. 
Network load balancing 
ProLiant BL systems configured with the interconnect switch support three network load balancing 
solutions. Options exist for providing this functionality integrated within or exterior to the server blade 
enclosure.  
For load balancing within the server blade enclosure, the p-Class GbE2 Interconnect Kit future layer 3-
7 upgrade (discussed in the section titled "10-Gb fabric”) or the currently available F5 Network BIG-IP 
Blade Controller (BIG-IP) may be used. BIG-IP is a software option for ProLiant BL e-Class and p-Class 
systems that provides a very economical solution to load balancing and traffic management between 
multiple server blades that reside in a single to multiple server blade enclosures.  
BIG-IP is available from F5 Networks as a software option installed on ProLiant server blades. One 
license is installed on a server making the server blade into a “dedicated” load balancer; no 
additional software can be installed on the server blade. For a redundant solution, two copies of BIG-
IP are installed on two server blades. The server blade(s) with BIG-IP installed may perform load 
balancing on blade servers that reside in the same or different server blade enclosures, both e-Class 
and p-Class. The blade servers may be located anywhere on the network as long as load balanced 
traffic to and from the servers pass through the BIG-IP Blade Controller. For more information on BIG-
IP Blade Controller for ProLiant BL systems, see 
For load balancing exterior to the server blade enclosure, a third party layer 7 Ethernet switch or 
network load balancing appliance may be used. This traditional approach uses a multi-tiered 
architecture where the interconnect switches are connected to one or more layer 7 switches or 
network load balancing appliances. Layer 7 switches and network load balancing appliances are 
available from several network vendors including Cisco, F5, Nortel, and others. This solution is 
supported on both e-Class and p-Class configured with any interconnect kit. 
Investment protection 
The GbE2 Interconnect Kits are fully supported in the p-Class sever blade enclosure with any 
combination of ProLiant BL20p, BL20p G2, and BL40p server blades. 
Users can upgrade to the GbE2 Interconnect Kit from existing RJ-45 Patch Panel, RJ-45 Patch Panel 2, 
and GbE Interconnect Kits without powering down the server blade enclosure or server blades. If 
users upgrade from the GbE Interconnect Kit, one GbE Interconnect Switch may be replaced at a time 
while the other switch remains operational. This allows critical network resources to be transferred 
from one switch to the other.