ProLiant BL p-Class Interconnect Overview - White Paper

2
Abstract
This white paper describes how the Ethernet network signals are routed through the ProLiant BL p-
Class system components and provides an overview of the patch panel and Ethernet switch
interconnect options for connecting the network signals to the external network infrastructure. For more
information about the interconnect switch options, see the ProLiant BL p-Class GbE Interconnect
Overview white paper
1
and the ProLiant BL p-Class GbE2 Interconnect Switch Overview white paper
2
.
The intended audience for this paper includes engineers and system administrators familiar with the
HP ProLiant BL p-Class system. For readers not familiar with the HP ProLiant BL p-Class system, more
information is available at http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/platforms/index-bl.html
.
Introduction
The ProLiant BL p-Class system includes industry-standard server blades, a rack-mountable server
blade enclosure, and four interconnect options. The high-performance ProLiant BL p-Class server
blades are designed for use in multi-tiered environments. The 2-way ProLiant BL20p and BL20p G2
server blades are ideal for mid-tier applications, and the 4-way ProLiant BL40p server blade is ideal
for back-end applications. These server blades contain multiple embedded network interface
controllers (NICs)
3
.
The BL p-Class enclosure holds up to eight 2-way or two 4-way server blades (or a combination of
both) and two interconnects. The enclosure has a signal backplane that routes Ethernet signals from
the server blade NICs to the interconnects in a redundant, highly available architecture.
HP offers four interconnect options, including two Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) interconnect switch options
for network cable consolidation and two patch panel options for Ethernet signal pass-through to third-
party LAN devices.
This white paper:
• Identifies the NICs available with each ProLiant BL p-Class server blade
• Describes how the Ethernet network signals are routed through the p-Class serve blade enclosure
• Provides a decision chart to help customers choose the appropriate interconnect option
• Provides an overview of each interconnect option
ProLiant BL p-Class server NICs
The ProLiant BL p-class server blades include multiple general-purpose ProLiant NC series NICs and
one additional NIC dedicated to Remote Insight Lights-out Management (iLO). Table 1 identifies the
type and number of embedded NICs available with each ProLiant BL p-Class server blade.
Table 1. ProLiant BL p-Class server blade NICs
ProLiant BL p-Class
server blade
NC3163
10/100
NC7780
10/100/1000
NC7781
10/100/1000
iLO
10/100
Total
NICs
BL20p 3 0 0 1 4
BL20p with NC7780 Upgrade 1 2 0 1 4
BL20p G2 0 0 3 1 4
BL40p 0 0 5 1 6
1
Available at http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliant-bl/p-class/bl-p-interconnect-switch.html.
2
Available at http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliant-bl/p-class/bl-p-interconnect-switch2.html.
3
An embedded NIC integrates the Ethernet capabilities directly onto the system board to eliminate using an I/O slot for Ethernet connectivity.