Comments on: Lippis Report 126: Unified Fabric Options Are Finally Here

By: Cloud Computing – A Primer « Internet Protocol Forum

Cloud Computing – A Primer « Internet Protocol Forum — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:30:33 +0000

[...] “Unified Fabric Options Are Finally Here,” The Lippis Report, 126, http://lippisreport.com/2009/05/lippis-report-126-unified-fabric-options-are-finally-here/ [...]

By: Nick Lippis

Nick Lippis — Wed, 27 May 2009 18:23:10 +0000

New Lippis Report Research Note on Unified Fabrics is available http://bit.ly/2SJ9jD

By: dallison

dallison — Tue, 26 May 2009 23:12:59 +0000

Hi Venky,

The Xsigo solution does indeed use IB HCAs in the servers. It uses the IB purely as a reliable, high speed transport. The NICs and HBAs are software entities running on top of the IB stack. For example, on Linux you can see vNICs using the ‘ifconfig’ command. vHBAs provide LUNs that appear as SCSI disks (/dev/sde for example). Xsigo installs special drivers on the servers to support this.

As for Ethernet adapter support, unfortunately I cannot comment on future product directions.

By: Venky

Venky — Tue, 26 May 2009 18:14:10 +0000

Hi Dallison,

As I understand Xsigo solution needs IB adapters in the server. The vNICs and vHBAs created on the I/O director are then mapped on to the IB adapters as logical NICs and HBAs.. Is this correct ?

Is Xsigo planning to support Ethernet adapters (10Gig) in server ?

By: Nick Lippis

Nick Lippis — Mon, 25 May 2009 16:02:03 +0000

Thanks, we spun another version of LR 126 that will be distributed on Tuesday which clarifies Xsigo’s value prop.

By: egenera

egenera — Tue, 19 May 2009 14:11:49 +0000

RT @Fountnhead: Unified Fabrics are here in a big way; Egenera, Cisco, others, plus lots of IHV support http://tinyurl.com/okjww9

By: Nick Lippis

Nick Lippis — Tue, 19 May 2009 01:45:44 +0000

Lippis Report 126: Unified Fabric Options Are Finally Here http://tinyurl.com/of84mv

By: dallison

dallison — Tue, 19 May 2009 01:11:54 +0000

Good article, however I’d like to point out that the Xsigo solution is not IPoIB. Xsigo does indeed use IB for its fabric, but the servers see regular NICs and HBAs. The server is completely unaware that it is using IB. The administrator can create vNICs and vHBAs on the I/O Director and these show up as ethernet interfaces or HBAs on the server.

By: Christine Crandell

Christine Crandell — Mon, 18 May 2009 20:22:33 +0000

RT @Fountnhead: Unified Fabrics are here in a big way; Egenera, Cisco, others, plus lots of IHV support http://tinyurl.com/okjww9

By: Ken Oestreich

Ken Oestreich — Mon, 18 May 2009 20:11:26 +0000

Unified Fabrics are here in a big way; Egenera, Cisco, others, plus lots of IHV support http://tinyurl.com/okjww9 thanks @nicklippis

By: Ken Oestreich

Ken Oestreich — Mon, 18 May 2009 20:07:14 +0000

Using a Unified Fabric has been our standard operating procedure as far back as 2001. Putting transport aside for a minute (whether ATM, FCoE, IB or Enet) the approach yields massive simplification and flexibility. Fewer I/O pieces, simpler re-configuration & repurposing, and overall cost/time reduction. It’s just plain elegant. And, by being able to reconfigure compute, I/O, network, etc. so quickly, it allows for simpler scaling, failover, etc. I’m hoping the rest of the industry acquiesces soon :)