Specifications

HP Virtual Connect for Cisco Network Administrators (version 1.2x) page 6
Figure 1. Overview of c7000 Enclosure Components
c-Class Cabling Layout
The c-Class server blades use various mezzanine cards to connect to different network fabrics
through the interconnect bays at the rear of the enclosure. These fabrics include Ethernet, Fiber
Channel, Infiniband, etc. The mezzanine cards are inserted in the mezzanine slots in the blade
server. These mezzanine slots (M1, M2, & M3 in Figure 2 below) are basically PCI-e expansion slots
equivalent to those found in non-bladed hardware such as tower and rack-mounted servers. The
connections between the multiple types of mezzanine cards on the server blades are hard-wired
through the NonStop signal midplane to specific interconnect bays at the rear of the enclosure (see
Figure 2).
All c-Class blade servers have at least two onboard (LOM) NIC ports. These LOM ports, two for half-
height servers (NIC 1 & NIC 2) and four for full-height servers (NIC 1 thru NIC4), are connected to
interconnect bays 1 & 2 (see Figure 2). Since Ethernet LOM ports are the only type network fabric
that are ever connected to interconnect bays 1 & 2, the only type of interconnect module that can
be used in bays 1 & 2 are Ethernet modules (switches, pass-through, or Virtual Connect).
For half-height servers, mezzanine slot 1 (M1) provides up to two Ethernet ports connected to
interconnect bays 3 & 4. Mezzanine slot 2 (M2) provides up to four Ethernet ports connected to
interconnect bays 5 thru 8. The maximum configuration for a half-height server, if using all Ethernet,
is a total of eight NICs where each NIC port is connected to one of the eight interconnect bays.
For full-height servers, mezzanine slot 1 (M1) provides up to four Ethernet ports connected to
interconnect bays 3 & 4. Mezzanine slot 2 (M2) provides up to four Ethernet ports connected to
interconnect bays 5 thru 8. Mezzanine slot 3 (M3) also provides up to four Ethernet ports which are
also connected to interconnect bays 5 thru 8. The maximum configuration for a full-height server, if