Compaq ProLiant BL e-Class System Overview and Planning

Compaq ProLiant BL e-Class System Overview and Planning 10
There are three interconnect tray options:
ProLiant BL e-Class RJ-45 Patch Panel: The RJ-45 patch panel functions as an Ethernet pass-
through only and has forty RJ-45 connectors. It brings all server blade NIC signals out as separate
RJ-45 connectors. See Figure 4.
ProLiant BL e-Class RJ-21 Patch Panel: The RJ-21 patch panel functions as an Ethernet pass-
through only. It brings all server blade NIC signals out via four separate RJ-21 connectors. See
Figure 5.
ProLiant BL e-Class C-GbE Interconnect Switch (Available Spring 2002): The Interconnect
Switch is designed to dramatically reduce the number of network cables attached to the rear of the
server blade enclosure and offers advanced switching features, including VLAN capability. The
interconnect switch reduces up to forty server blade network connections to as few as a single
Gigabit Ethernet uplink connector. See Figure 6.
Note: The interconnect switch is not meant to replace customers’ core network switches.
Figure 4. ProLiant BL e-Class RJ-45 Patch Panel
Figure 5. ProLiant BL e-Class RJ-21 Patch Panel
Figure 6 ProLiant BL e-Class C-GbE Interconnect switch
Features
Reduced Cabling: The ProLiant BL e-Class C-GbE Interconnect Switch reduces forty 10/100
connectors to four 10/100/1000 uplink connectors. The customer is not required to use all uplink
connectors and may use and configure one or more uplink connectors as desired, providing up to
a 40-to-1 reduction in the number of network cables for each server blade enclosure.