switch to operate as NPIV proxy gateways. The MXL 10/40GbE Switch or the I/O Aggregator can function
in NPIV proxy gateway mode when an FC Flex IO module is present or in the FIP snooping bridge (FSB)
mode when all the ports are Ethernet ports.
The FC Flex IO module uses the same baseboard hardware of the MXL 10/40GbE Switch or the
Aggregator and the M1000 chassis. You can insert the FC Flex IO module into any of the optional module
slots of the MXL 10/40GbE Switch and it provides four FC ports per module. If you insert only one FC Flex
IO module, four ports are supported; if you insert two FC Flex IO modules, eight ports are supported.
By installing an FC Flex IO module, you can enable the MXL 10/40GbE Switch and I/O Aggregator to
directly connect to an existing FC SAN network. The FC Flex IO module uses the existing slots on the MXL
10/40GbE Switch and I/O Aggregator and provides four or eight FC ports up to speed of 8 GbE per
second. You can connect all of the FC ports to the same FC SAN fabric to yield FC bandwidth of up to
64GB. It is possible to connect some of the ports to a different FC SAN fabric to provide access to
multiple fabric devices.
In a typical Fibre Channel storage network topology, separate network interface cards (NICs) and host
bus adapters (HBAs) on each server (two each for redundancy purposes) are connected to LAN and SAN
networks respectively. These deployments typically include a ToR SAN switch in addition to a ToR LAN
switch. By employing converged network adapters (CNAs) that the FC Flex IO module supports, CNAs are
used to transmit FCoE traffic from the server instead of separate NIC and HBA devices. In such a scenario,
you can determine whether the FC or SAN packets and the Ethernet or LAN packets must be split within
the chassis or by using a ToR switch to perform this splitting.
If you want to segregate the LAN and SAN traffic within the chassis, you can employ switches such as the
Dell M8428-k Converged 10GbE Switch or FC-only switches such as the Dell M5424 switch module. You
can also use the S5000 Switch as a ToR switch to separate the LAN and SAN traffic at the ToR. By using
the FC Flex IO module, you can optimally and effectively split the LAN and SAN traffic at the edge of the
blade chassis itself. You can deploy the FC Flex IO module can be deployed in the enterprise and data
center switching networks to leverage and derive the advantages of a converged Ethernet network.
The FC Flex IO module is not an FCF switch, but it offers FCoE capabilities from the server to the MXL or
I/O Aggregator switches, and native FC capability in the uplink direction to the SAN switches. Although
the FC Flex IO module does not support all of the FCF characteristics, such as full-blown name services
or zone parameters, it presents the most flexible solution in interoperating with third-party switches that
enable the splitting of LAN and SAN traffic. With the MXL 10/40GbE Switch and I/O Aggregator being
well-established systems in the switch domain, you can install the FC Flex IO module to enhance and
increase the converged Ethernet network performance and behavior. With the FC Flex IO module, the
MXL 10/40GbE Switch and I/O Aggregator provide thirty-two 1GbE or 10 GbE server-facing ports and the
option to add two FC Flex IO modules that offer up to 8 8Gb Fibre Channel ports for uplink traffic in
addition to the fixed two 40GbE ports on the MXL 10/40GbE Switch and I/O Aggregator.
NOTE: When an FC Flex IO module is inserted into an I/O Aggregator and the FC ports are in the
operationally up state, you can configure the port speed of these FC ports as 2 Gbps, 4 Gbps, or 8
Gbps. In the chassis management controller (CMC) GUI, the FC port link speed is always shown as
10 Gbps, regardless of whether the port speed configured is 2 Gbps, 4 Gbps, or 8 Gbps.
You can configure one of the following upstream (fabric-facing) FC ports:
• Two 40GbE and eight 8GB FC ports
• Four 40GbE and four 8GB FC ports
• Two 40GbE, four 10GbE, and four 8GB FC ports
1032 FC Flex IO Modules