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module that contain a 10-Gb Ethernet high-bandwidth uplink. The 10-Gb LAN interconnect modules
may also contain Gigabit Ethernet ports, if space permits.
With these future planned options for the GbE2 Interconnect Switch, an administrator will be able to
independently select the switching layer as well as the uplink bandwidth, all within a single switch.
Both options can be installed by users in the field without powering down the server blades or the
server blade enclosure. Availability of these options will be announced in the near future.
Figure 3. ProLiant BL p-Class GbE2 Interconnect Switch 10 gigabit fabric
Crosslink ports
The two GbE2 Interconnect Switches are connected through a pair of redundant, 10/100/1000
Mb/s Gigabit Ethernet crosslink connections that are bundled in a 2000 Mb/s Cisco EtherChannel
compatible multi-port trunk. The signals are routed as Ethernet from switch to switch via individual
CAT5e specified signal traces on the passive backplane assembly of the server blade enclosure. The
crosslinks permit communication between the switches, if desired. They also provide the ability to:
• Manage both switches, perform PXE server boots, and access all iLO interfaces using any number
of external switch ports. Therefore, a single switch uplink can be used to perform all Ethernet
management tasks.
• Configure the p-Class system for advanced ProLiant Network Adapter Teaming including switch
fault tolerance. See the section “ProLiant Network Adapter Teaming” for additional information.
• Communicate with any server network adapter from any switch uplink port. As a result, any single
uplink port may be used to communicate to all 32 NICs. This permits the 32-to-1 cable reduction
and provides additional system redundancy. If uplinks on one switch or the connection to a switch
were to fail, all NICs still can be accessed via the other switch.
Maximizing network cable reduction
For maximum (97 percent) cable reduction, the 32 Ethernet signals within the server blade enclosure
can be concentrated into any one external Ethernet port. This results in a total of six Ethernet
connections for a fully configured 42U rack of six server blade enclosures containing 192 network
adapters.