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Emulex Provides 8Gb/s Fibre Channel SAN Connectivity for HP BladeSystem Matrix, HP Virtual Connect and HP BladeSystem c-Class Server Blades
April 2009 by Marc Jacob
Emulex Corporation announced that its LightPulse® 8Gb/s Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) are optimized for use with the new HP BladeSystem Matrix, an out of the box, pre-integrated platform that creates pools of server, storage, power and network capacity that can be divided and allocated across up to 1000 physical or virtual servers. The Emulex LPe1205-HP 8Gb/s Fibre Channel HBA (mezzanine card) is also available for use with HP BladeSystem c-Class and server blades, including HP ProLiant G6 and HP Integrity blades with support for HP-UX 11i, Linux, VMware, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 operating systems.
Emulex LightPulse 8Gb/s Fibre Channel HBAs provide end user customers with the increased performance, I/O bandwidth and the scalability necessary to support next generation data centers. Emulex 8Gb/s storage area network (SAN) connectivity solutions also support the new HP Virtual Connect 8Gb Fibre Channel module and the HP StorageWorks EVA4400 Fibre Channel array.
Leveraging Emulex 8Gb/s Fibre Channel HBA technology with HP BladeSystem Matrix provides customers with a wide range of capabilities, including:
· Bandwidth that supports more virtual machines (VMs) per server than other solutions. Emulex 8Gb/s HBAs maximize the performance improvements and power savings offered by the new HP servers.
· Comprehensive virtualization capabilities with support for N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) and Virtual Fabric, enabling HP Virtual Connect users to leverage SAN management tools and best practices at the VM level, including fabric zoning and LUN mapping/masking.
· Enterprise scalability and flexibility through support for Message-Signaled Interrupts eXtended (MSI-X), offering end users greater CPU efficiency, reduced system latency and improved I/O throughput – all of which contribute to increased blade server performance and reduced power consumption.
· Common driver model, which allows a single driver to support all Emulex HBAs on a given operating system, lowering administrative costs and speeding server deployment.
· Investment protection and seamless integration into existing SANs through backwards compatibility with Emulex 4Gb/s and 2Gb/s Fibre Channel devices.
Emulex HBAs are managed using HBAnyware®, a secure, automated and centralized enterprise management platform that can be used in conjunction with HP Virtual Connect Manager to seamlessly deploy and manage Emulex HBAs in virtualized or non-virtualized server environments.
Emulex LightPulse HBAs and mezzanine cards are supported across a range of HP storage arrays and servers, including the HP ProLiant, HP Integrity and HP StorageWorks array families.
