Hitachi 1000 - Manual (Page 33)

www.hitachi.com BladeSymphony 1000 Architecture White Paper 33
Embedded Gigabit Ethernet Switch
The Embedded Gigabit Ethernet Switch is contained in the Switch & Management Module and is a
managed, standards-based Layer 2 switch that provides gigabit networking through cableless LAN
connections. The switch provides 12 (single) or 24 (redundant) gigabit Ethernet ports for connecting
BladeSymphony 1000 Server Blades to other networked resources within the corporate networking
structure. Eight of the ports connect through the backplane to server blades, and the remaining four
ports are used to connect to external networks, as illustrated in Figure 23. The switch provides up to 24
Gb/sec. total throughput performance and the ability to relay packets at 1,488,000 packets/sec.
Additional features are listed in Table 9.
Figure 23. Back view of chassis with blow up of Embedded Gigabit Ethernet Switch
The Embedded Gigabit Ethernet Switch can be configured for high availability and fault tolerance when
a second, redundant switch module is added. A single switch interconnects one (of two) gigabit
Ethernet connections from each blade server blade (up to eight total). The second redundant switch
interconnects each of the remaining gigabit connections for each server blade , so a single switch
failure allows networking operations to continue on the remaining switch. If additional network
bandwidth or connectivity is needed, PCI slots can be utilized for additional NICs. Switch features are
listed in Table 9.