HP Virtual Connect: Common Myths, Misperceptions, and Objections, Second Edition

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Appendix B: Definitions
Table 1. Definitions
Term Definition
ACL (VACL) Access Control List or VLAN Access Control List: A set of rules
that allows or disallows network traffic to
flow between
network devices
BPDU Bridge Protocol Data Unit: A spanning tree configuration frame
exchanged between switches in the same spanning tree
domain
CX-4 An industry standard cabling specification used by VC for
network connectivity using 10Gb Ethernet over copper.
DAC Direct Attached Cable: A copper cable with SFP+ transceivers
directly attached.
Downlink
An internal port (enclosure midplane) on an Interconnect
Module (blade switch or Virtual Connect) that directly connects
to a server blade’s NIC port.
External Network The network and associated network devices external to the VC
domain
FlexNICs (Physical Functions) One of four virtual NIC partitions available per Flex-10 Nic
port. Each capable of being tuned from 100Mb to 10Gb
.
Only supported with Virtual Connect Flex-10 I/O modules.
Flex-10 NIC Port A physical 10Gb port that is capable of being partitioned into
4 Flex NICs. Only supported with Virtual Connect Flex-10 I/O
modules.
Hypervisor A virtual machine hypervisor such as VMware ESX, Microsoft
Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer, etc.
Internal Cross-Connect A non-visible port that interconnects two horizontally adjacent
VC-Enet modules
LACP Link Aggregation Control Protocol (IEEE 802.3ad): A link
aggregation configuration frame exchanged between two
devices that form a logical port trunk/channel between them.
LAG
Link Aggregation Group: 802.3ad terminology for a port
trunk/channel group.
LLDP Link Layer Discovery Protocol. An IEEE 802.1ab protocol that
provides CDP-like functionality
Logical Path A single physical port or a single port channel. Both represent
a single communication path.
LOM LAN on Motherboard. A NIC embedded on the system board
of a server.
NAT Network Address Translation: A feature that allows a network
device (such as a switch or router) to replace/rewrite
addresses within a frame with a different address.
NPIV N-Port ID Virtualization: ANSI T11 feature for Fibre Channel
that allows multiple WWNs to login to the fabric over a single
N-Port.
Port Trunk (Channel Group) A group of two or more ports that operate as a single logical
port and single logical path for the purposes of load
balancing. 802.3ad and EtherChannel are both port trunking
technologies .
Quality of Service (QoS)
A very broad term associated with network traffic