BladeIO Guide

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Model
Dell MXL
Switch
Dell PowerEdge M
I/O Aggregator
Cisco Nexus
B22DELL FEX Dell M8024-k Dell M8428-k
Overview 10/40GbE Switch 10GbE Plug & Play 10GbE Extender 10GbE Basic Ethernet / FC
Server Ports Supported 32 (10GbE) 32 (10GbE) 16 (10GbE) 16 (10GbE) 16 (10GbE)
External 40G Ports
(QSFP+)
2 Fixed – 6 Total
2 Fixed – 6 Total
(Note: QSFP+ ports run in
breakout mode 4x10GbE only)
None None None
External 10G Ports Up to 24 (16 per LAG) Up to 8 8 8
Flex I/O Expansion
Modules
Two slots and three options (Mix or match)
• 2 port QSFP+ (10/40GbE)
1
• 4 port SFP+ (1/10GbE)
• 4 port Base-T (1/10GbE)
2
1
QSFP+ port on I/O Aggregator runs breakout mode 4x10GbE
2
Both devices limited to one Base-T module only. Populate
second slot with another module of your choice.
None
One slot & 3 options
• 4 port SFP+ (10Gb only)
• 3 port CX4 (10Gb only)
• 2 port Base-T (1/10Gb)
None
Stacking 62
n/a
6n/a
East-west traffic
support
Yes Yes
No
(All traffic is forwarded
to Nexus Top-of-Rack
/ End-of-Row)
Yes Yes
Managed with Active
System Manager
Coming
Yes NoNoNo
Support for M420
Quarter-Height Blades
on Fabric A
Yes Yes
No
(Not in a
redundant manner
No
(Not in a
redundant manner
No
(Not in a
redundant manner
Support for MLAG
(vLT/vPC)
Coming Coming
Yes No No
Support for quad-port
GbE and 10Gb
LOM/Mezz
Yes Yes No No No
Comparison of Converged Blade options