Ethernet Support Guide for HP-UX 11i v3

The network device may be a converged network adapter (CNA), also called a converged network
interface controller (C-NIC). This is a computer input/output device that combines the functionality
of a host bus adapter (HBA) with a network interface card (NIC). In other words it “converges”
access to, respectively, a storage area network and a local area network. Such devices can be
configured by HP-UX as a number of LAN devices, depending on the system configuration. For
example, the 10GigEthr-03 iocxgbe driver can support the CNA. Typically, CNA devices are
dual-ported, with each port representing a single wired connection to the network — one for the
HBA — Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) — and one for the LAN. HP-UX can configure a
dual-ported CNA with as many as eight PCIe functions, each function being a single FCoE or LAN
device. Up to four functions are allowed per port; two of those functions can be FCoE devices (one
per port), the remainder are LAN devices.
• In a Blade Virtual Connect environment, the CNA is configured in the HP Virtual Connect
Flex-10 mode which logically converges up to four NICs over each of two 10 Gigabit server
connections. The NICs share the total bandwidth of the 10 Gigabit network connection.
Bandwidth limits can be dynamically configured on each NIC, on the fly. One of these
individual devices on each port can be an FCoE device.
Several HP 10Gigabit Ethernet drivers support the HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 interface on
blade platforms. By allowing you to logically divide each network port into multiple devices,
the Flex-10 technology reduces management requirements, the number of NICs and interconnect
modules needed, and power and operational costs. Before HP Virtual Connect was introduced,
only two interconnect choices were available for connecting server blades to a network —
pass-thru devices and switches. Pass-thru devices are simple but require too many cumbersome
cables and create complexity. Blade switches reduce the number of cables but add more
management responsibilities for LAN and SAN administrators. In both cases, multiple people
are needed to perform very simple server tasks. Only HP offers the third choice — HP Virtual
Connect. For more information about HP Virtual Connect, see the following website:
http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/blades/virtualconnect/index.html
• In other environments, the CNA is configured as two individual devices per port, one FCoE
and one LAN device, depending on the hardware configuration, with both sharing the
bandwidth of the network connection.
A CNA device can be integrated into the highly-scalable HP FlexFabric data center architecture
of an HP Converged Infrastructure. (Virtual Connect FlexFabric broadens Virtual Connect Flex-10
technology to provide solutions for converging different network protocols.) The HP FlexFabric
open architecture uses industry standards to simplify server and storage network connections while
providing seamless interoperability with existing core data center networks. For more information
about HP FlexFabric, see the HP FlexFabric website:
www.hp.com/go/flexfabric
The network device may be part of a combo card, where multiple ports provide NIC functionality
in addition to SCSI or FC functionality.
In a server blade environment, depending on the interconnect module installed, the network device
may be a multi-function device. Depending on the interconnect module, the system profile, and the
device, the network device appears as multiple functions, some of these functions are NIC and
some are Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) — each function appearing and treated as a separate
device. Although not required, HP recommends listing at least two functions of each port in the
profile.
1.5 Features offered by HP-UX drivers and associated cards
Table 3 (page 10) describes some of the main features supported by HP-UX drivers and associated
cards.
1.5 Features offered by HP-UX drivers and associated cards 9