User's Manual

2 Virtual-IO Manager - Introduction
Figure 1: Overlapping areas of responsibility
As the areas of responsibility overlap, this means that up to three admin-
istrators may be involved if a server blade's configuration changes, e. g.
because a server blade has to be replaced due to hardware problems and, as
a result, the switches have to be reconfigured.
The onboard LAN and FC controllers in the server blade are connected to the
installed LAN or FC switches via a midplane and are, in turn, connected to
the LAN and SAN network via their uplink ports. Providers use specific pro-
tocols or protocol extensions for switches from different manufacturers,
which can lead to interoperability problems between the internal and external
switches of different providers.
26 ServerView Virtual-IO Manager