User's Manual

A key attribute of a "single" network is that it is VLAN transparent. You can
therefore channel several external networks with different VLAN tags (or also
without VLAN tags) through a "single" network.
Packets with or even without a VLAN tag, which arrive at the uplink ports
from outside the network, are channeled to the related server blades with the
corresponding network. The same applies to the network packets that come
from the server blades.
In the figure, (1) and (2) illustrate "single" networks.
Virtual networks with VLAN IDs
Depending on the IBP module, you have 6 to 12 uplink ports available. You
can define as many different networks as there are uplink ports. If networks
are to be created with backup ports or with a link aggregation group, then the
number of possible networks on an IBP module is automatically reduced.
You can get around this restriction regarding the uplinks that are physically
available by defining virtual networks (Virtual Local Area Network - VLAN).
By setting up virtual networks, which can be identified by unique numbers
known as VLAN IDs, you can set up several logical networks that are com-
pletely separate from each other from a technical and network perspective.
These networks share an uplink set ("shared uplink set") without the server
blades of one virtual network being able to communicate with server blades
of the other virtual networks.
ServerView Virtual-IO Manager 35
2.4 Defining networks (LAN) (for blade servers only)