New Trends Make 10 Gigabit Ethernet the Data-Center Performance Choice

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WHITE PAPER | 10 GIGABIT ETHERNET

New Trends Make 10 Gigabit Ethernet

the Data-Center Performance Choice

Technologies are rapidly evolving to meet data-center needs and enterprise demands for efﬁciently

handling and managing increasingly bandwidth-hungry applications. These technologies include

the advent of multi-core servers, server consolidation and virtualization, high-density computing,

and networked storage over Ethernet. This white paper discusses those evolving technologies,

their impact on input/output (I/O) performance needs, and how 10 Gigabit Ethernet is evolving to

support those technologies.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Why 10 Gigabit Ethernet? Why Now? ...................................2

Multi-Core Platforms Drive I/O Capacity Needs ............................2

Consolidation and Virtualization Need Still More I/O.......................4

High-Density Computing Environments..................................5

The Emergence of Storage over Ethernet ................................6

Conclusion .........................................................7

For More Information ................................................8

Summary of content (8 pages)

PAGE 1
White Paper | 10 Gigabit Ethernet New Trends Make 10 Gigabit Ethernet the Data-Center Performance Choice Technologies are rapidly evolving to meet data-center needs and enterprise demands for efficiently handling and managing increasingly bandwidth-hungry applications. These technologies include the advent of multi-core servers, server consolidation and virtualization, high-density computing, and networked storage over Ethernet.
PAGE 2
W hi t e Pa per | New Trends Make 10 Gigabit Ethernet the Data-Center Performance Choice Why 10 Gigabit Ethernet? Why Now? Certainly, bandwidth and I/O throughput are important aspects of data-center connectivity needs today. Beyond that, though, connectivity products today—whether they are GbE or 10GbE—must support the performance features of the evolving data-center technologies.
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W hi t e Pa per | New Trends Make 10 Gigabit Ethernet the Data-Center Performance Choice footprint with greater performance per watt. This makes multi-core processors ideal for traditional server architectures and particularly well suited for blades and other high-density computing needs where space and cooling are at a premium. MSI vectors, and low latency interrupts automatically tune the interrupt interval times depending on the latency sensitivity of the data.
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W hi t e Pa per | New Trends Make 10 Gigabit Ethernet the Data-Center Performance Choice VM1 VM2 vNIC vNIC VMM Software SW Switch Server Hardware NIC ...... Figure 1 illustrates the basic concept of a virtualized server. The VMM software defines and manages each VM and can define additional VMs as necessary to handle application load increases.
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W hi t e Pa per | New Trends Make 10 Gigabit Ethernet the Data-Center Performance Choice Virtualized Server VM1 VM2 vNIC vNIC ...... On the transmit side (Tx1, Tx2,... Txn), VMDq provides round-robin servicing of the transmit queue. This ensures transmit fairness and prevents head-of-line blocking. The overall result for both the receive-side and transmit-side enhancements is a reduction in CPU usage and better I/O performance in a virtualized environment.
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W hi t e Pa per | New Trends Make 10 Gigabit Ethernet the Data-Center Performance Choice Within the network and data center, there are three traditional types of storage. These are directattached storage (DAS), network-attached storage (NAS), and the storage-area network (SAN). Each has its distinct differences and advantages; however, SAN is emerging as being the most advantageous interms of scalability and flexibility for use in data centers and high-density computing applications. 10GbE Fiber Ch.
PAGE 7
W hi t e Pa per | New Trends Make 10 Gigabit Ethernet the Data-Center Performance Choice booting servers from a single OS image on the SAN ensures that each server has the same OS with the same patches and upgrades. Clients Arista 71XX Switch • Improved Disaster Recovery – All information on a local SAN—including boot information, OS images, applications, and data—can be duplicated on a remote SAN for quick and complete disaster recovery.
PAGE 8
Intel ® 10 Gigabit Server Adapters Arista 7100 Series Switches Intel offers a broad line of 10GbE server adapters for both copper and fiber networks. Intel’s new dual-port 10 Gigabit SFP+ Direct Attach adapter is the ideal solution for low-power, intra-rack connectivity using an SFP+ switch such as those in the Arista 7100 family. Arista’s 7100 series of switches provides low power, high port density, non-blocking configurations for topof-rack deployments.