Intel and VMware: Enabling Open FCoE in VMware vSphere 5

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Intel and VMware: Enabling Open

FCoE in VMware vSphere™ 5

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Unied networking over 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) in the data center oers compelling benets, including a

simplied infrastructure, lower equipment and power costs, and the exibility to meet the needs of the evolving,

virtualized data center. In recent years, growth in Ethernet-based storage has surpassed that of storage-specic

fabrics, driven in large part by the increase in server virtualization. e ubiquity of storage area network (SAN)

access will be critical as virtualization deployments continue to grow and on-demand, cloud-based data

center models emerge.

is paper explores the many benets of unied networking, the approaches to enabling it, and the pivotal roles

Intel and VMware are playing in helping to bring important, consolidation-driving technologies to enterprise

data center customers.

Summary of content (8 pages)

PAGE 1
Intel and VMware: Enabling Open FCoE in VMware vSphere™ 5 Executive Summary Unified networking over 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) in the data center offers compelling benefits, including a simplified infrastructure, lower equipment and power costs, and the flexibility to meet the needs of the evolving, virtualized data center. In recent years, growth in Ethernet-based storage has surpassed that of storage-specific fabrics, driven in large part by the increase in server virtualization.
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Simplifying the Network with 10GbE As IT departments look to reduce costs and improve server efficiency, they are turning increasingly to server virtualization and consolidation.
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Intel and VMware are two companies helping to advance the shift to 10GbEbased unified networking in the data center. The latest Intel® Ethernet 10 Gigabit controller and server adapters offer virtualization optimizations and advanced unified networking features. These include optimizations for lossless Ethernet; intelligent, hardware-based accelerations for FCoE and iSCSI; and support for Open FCoE, which is discussed later in the paper.
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Fibre Channel over Ethernet: Extending Consolidation Open FCoE: Momentum in the Linux® Community FCoE is a logical extension of Ethernet that uses FC’s Network, Service, and Protocol layers to carry data packets over Ethernet’s physical and data link layers. Using FC’s upper layers smoothes the transition to FCoE because existing SANbased applications do not need to change to benefit from the performance and cost benefits of FCoE.
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Native Initiator Success: iSCSI iSCSI provides an excellent example of the success of native storage initiators integrated into the OS. In the early days of iSCSI, proponents of iSCSI HBAs claimed that these dedicated adapters were necessary to deliver acceptable performance. Much like CNAs, iSCSI HBAs offload storage protocol processing to a separate processor on the adapter, rather than allowing the host processor and OS to handle these tasks.
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Conclusion 10GbE unified networking provides a simple, flexible, and well-understood fabric for today’s virtualized data centers and lays the groundwork for new computing models, including cloud computing, which will deliver more intelligent, responsive data centers and greater business agility.
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Intel and VMware: Enabling Native FCoE in VMware vSphere™ 5 7
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For More Information www.intel.com/go/unifiednetworking www.vmware.com/technical-resources/virtual-networking/index.html 1 Source: Intel estimates as of January 2010. Performance comparison using SPECjbb*2005 bops (business operations per second). Results have been estimated based on internal Intel analysis and are provided for informational purposes only. Any difference in system hardware or software design or configuration may affect actual performance. 2 IDC, “Server Workloads Forecast,” 2009.