Figure 11. HP BladeSystem c3000 interconnect bay numbering
For interconnect bay mapping purposes, it does not matter in which device bay a server blade is
installed. The mezzanine connectors always connect to the same interconnect bays. Because the
connections between the device bays and the interconnect bays are hard-wired through the signal
midplane, the server mezzanine cards must be matched to the appropriate type of interconnect
module. For example, a Fibre Channel mezzanine card must be placed in the mezzanine connector
that connects to an interconnect bay holding a Fibre Channel switch.
Embedded NICs and adapters installed in Mezzanine 1 are supported by single-wide interconnects in
interconnect bays 1 and 2 respectively. Mezzanine 2 and 3 can be supported by either single-wide
or double-wide interconnects such as InfiniBand or 10 Gb Ethernet devices in interconnect bays 3 and
4. To simplify the installation of the various mezzanine cards and interconnect modules, the Onboard
Administrator uses an electronic keying process to detect any mismatch between the mezzanine cards
and the interconnect modules.
An internal connection on the midplane between interconnect bays 1 and 2 and an additional
connection between interconnect bays 3 and 4 provide an internal link for use as a crosslink port
between interconnect bays 1 and 2 or interconnect bays 3 and 4. NIC teaming can be configured
between embedded NICs and Mezzanine 1 NICs using the internal crosslinks between the switches
through this internal connection.
Several port types are referenced in Figures 12 and 13:
• Examples of 1x ports are 1-Gb Ethernet (1-GbE) pass-thru modules and Fibre Channel interconnect
modules.
• An example of a 2x port is a SAS interconnect module.
• Examples of 4x ports are 10-GbE pass-thru modules and InfiniBand interconnect modules.
A full-height server blade plugs into two device bay connectors and has 32 lanes available to the 4
interconnect bays (16 lanes x 2x in Figure 12). Interconnect bay 1 is reserved for Ethernet
interconnects. It connects embedded Ethernet NICs to the internal facing ports on the Ethernet
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