Network Components
- Jay Morton
- Marie Desir
IBM RackSwitch G8052
The IBM System Networking RackSwitch G8052 is a top-of-rack data center switch that delivers line-rate Layer 2/3 performance. It has forty-eight 10/100/1000BASE-T RJ45 ports and four 10 Gigabit Ethernet SFP+ ports and includes hot-swap redundant power supplies and fans as standard. Unlike most rack equipment that cools from side to side, the G8052 has rear-to-front or front-to-rear airflow that matches server airflow.
IBM RackSwitch G8124E
The RackSwitch G8124E has support for 1G or 10G, this switch is designed for leveraging 10G Ethernet or have plans to in the future. This is the first Top of Rack 10Gb switch for IBM System x designed to support IBM Virtual Fabric, which reduces complexity when it comes to the I/O requirements of most virtualization deployments today. Virtual Fabric can help reduce the number of multiple I/O adapters down to a single dual-port 10G adapter, in addition to reducing the number of cables and upstream switch ports required. Virtual Fabric allows clients to carve up a dual-port 10G adapter into eight virtual NICs (vNICs) and create dedicated virtual pipes between the adapter and the switch for optimal performance, plus higher availability and better security. This functionality provides the ability to dynamically allocate bandwidth per vNIC in increments of 100 Mb while being able to adjust over time without downtime.
Mellanox SX6036
The SX6025 and SX6036 switch systems provide the highest-performing fabric solutions in a 1RU form factor by delivering 4.032Tb/s of non-blocking bandwidth to High-Performance Computing and Enterprise Data Centers, with 200ns port-to-port latency. Built with Mellanox's latest SwitchX®-2 InfiniBand switch device, these switches provide up to 56Gb/s full bidirectional bandwidth per port. These stand-alone switches are an ideal choice for top-of-rack leaf connectivity or for building small to medium-sized clusters. They are designed to carry converged LAN and SAN traffic with the combination of assured bandwidth and granular Quality of Service (QoS).
The SX6036 with Virtual Protocol Interconnect (VPI) supporting InfiniBand and Ethernet connectivity provide the highest performing and most flexible interconnect solution for PCI Express Gen3 servers. VPI simplifies system development by serving multiple fabrics with one hardware design. VPI simplifies today network by enabling one platform to run both InfiniBand and Ethernet subnets on the same chassis.
The SX6000 switch family enables efficient computing with features such as static routing, adaptive routing, and advanced congestion management. These features ensure the maximum effective fabric bandwidth by eliminating congestion hot spots.