Lenovo Flex System EN4091 10Gb Ethernet Pass-thru

The Lenovo® Flex System™ EN4091 10Gb Ethernet Pass-thru offers easy connectivity of the Flex System chassis to any external network infrastructure. This unmanaged device enables direct Ethernet connectivity of the compute node in the chassis to an external top-of-rack (TOR) data center switch. This module can function at both 1 Gb and 10 Gb Ethernet speeds. It has fourteen internal 1 Gb or 10 Gb links, and fourteen external 1 Gb or 10 Gb SFP+ uplinks.

The following figure shows the Lenovo Flex System EN4091 10Gb Ethernet Pass-thru.

Figure 1. Lenovo Flex System EN4091 10Gb Ethernet Pass-thru

The Lenovo Flex System EN4091 10Gb Ethernet Pass-thru module provides 14 internal and 14 external 10 Gb Ethernet ports, and it supports 1 Gb and 10 Gb Ethernet signaling for Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE), Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), and other Ethernet-based transport protocols.

The Lenovo Flex System EN4091 10Gb Ethernet Pass-thru has 14 internal and 14 external ports that can operate at 1 Gb or 10 Gb Ethernet speeds. The following table shows the part numbers for ordering the Pass-thru module.

Table 1. Part numbers and feature codes for ordering

The part number for the Lenovo Flex System EN4091 10Gb Ethernet Pass-thru, 88Y6043, includes the following items:

• One Lenovo Flex System EN4091 10Gb Ethernet Pass-thru module
• Documentation package

Note: SFP and SFP+ transceivers or cables are not included with the module.

With the flexibility of the Flex System EN4091 10Gb Ethernet Pass-thru Module, clients can take advantage of the technologies that they require for multiple environments:

• For 1 GbE external links, clients can use RJ-45 SFP transceivers with UTP cables up to 100 m. Clients that need longer distances can use a 1000BASE-SX transceiver, which can drive distances up to 220 meters by using 62.5 µ multi-mode fiber and up to 550 meters with 50 µ multi-mode fiber, or the 1000BASE-LX transceivers that support distances up to 10 kilometers using single-mode fiber (1310 nm).
• For 10 GbE external links, clients can use SFP+ direct attach copper (DAC) cables for in-rack cabling and distances up to 5 m. These DAC cables have SFP+ connectors on each end, and they do not need separate transceivers. For longer distances the 10GBASE-SR transceiver can support distances up to 300 meters over OM3 multimode fiber or up to 400 meters over OM4 multimode fiber. The 10GBASE-LR transceivers can support distances up to 10 kilometers on single mode fiber.

The following table lists the supported transceivers.

The following table lists the supported fiber optic cables.

The following table lists the supported direct-attach copper (DAC) cables.

* Withdrawn from marketing

The Flex System EN4091 10Gb Ethernet Pass-thru Module is particularly suited for the following clients:

• Clients who require direct connectivity of the compute nodes in the chassis to an external TOR data center switch
• Clients who are implementing a converged environment
• Clients who want to reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) and improve performance, while maintaining high levels of availability and security
• Clients who want to avoid oversubscription, which can result in congestion and loss of performance

The Flex System EN4091 10Gb Ethernet Pass-thru Module has the following features and specifications:

• Internal ports: Fourteen internal full-duplex Ethernet ports that can operate at 1 Gb or 10 Gb speeds.
• External ports: Fourteen ports for 1 Gb or 10 Gb Ethernet SFP+ transceivers (support for 1000BASE-SX, 1000BASE-LX, 1000BASE-T, 10GBASE-SR, or 10GBASE-LR) or SFP+ copper direct-attach copper (DAC) cables. SFP+ modules and DAC cables are not included and must be purchased separately.
• An unmanaged device that has no internal Ethernet management port, but is able to provide its vital product data (VPD) to the secure management network in the Chassis Management Module.

The module supports the following IEEE standards:

• IEEE 802.3ab 1000BASE-T copper twisted pair Gigabit Ethernet
• IEEE 802.3z 1000BASE-SX short range fiber optics Gigabit Ethernet
• IEEE 802.3z 1000BASE-LX long range fiber optics Gigabit Ethernet
• IEEE 802.3ae 10GBASE-SR short range fiber optics 10 Gb Ethernet
• IEEE 802.3ae 10GBASE-LR long range fiber optics 10 Gb Ethernet
• 10GSFP+Cu SFP+ Direct Attach copper

The pass-thru modules are installed in I/O bays in the rear of the Flex System chassis, as shown in the following figure. I/O modules are normally installed in pairs because ports on the I/O adapter cards installed in the compute nodes are routed to two I/O bays for redundancy and performance.

Figure 2. Location of the I/O module bays in the Flex System chassis

The EN4091 10Gb Ethernet Pass-thru Module can be installed in bays 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the chassis. Up to four EN4091 modules are supported in a chassis. A supported Ethernet adapter must be installed in the corresponding slot of the compute node.

In compute nodes that have an integrated dual-port 10 GbE network interface controller (NIC), NIC ports are routed to bays 1 and 2 with a specialized periscope connector, and the adapter card is not required. However, when needed, the periscope connector can be replaced with the adapter card. In that case, an integrated NIC is disabled.

The following table shows compatibility information for the EN4091 and Flex System chassis.

The connections between the adapters installed in the compute nodes to the EN4091 modules installed in the chassis are shown in the following figure. The figure shows both half-wide servers, such as the x240 with two adapters, and full-wide servers, such as the x440 with four adapters.

Figure 3. Logical layout of the interconnects between I/O adapters and EN4091 modules

The following table shows the connections between the adapters installed in the compute nodes to the I/O module bays in the chassis.

4-port and 8-port adapters: With 4-port 1 GbE or 10 GbE or 8-port 10 GbE adapters, only up to two adapter ports can be used with the EN4091 pass-thru modules (one port per pass-thru module).

The following table lists the I/O adapters supported by the EN4091 10Gb Ethernet Pass-thru Modules.

The adapters are installed in slots in each compute node. The following figure shows the locations of the slots in the x240 Compute Node. The positions of the adapters in the other supported servers are similar.

Figure 4. Location of the I/O adapter slots in the Flex System x240 Compute Node

The following figure shows the front panel of the Flex System EN4091 10Gb Ethernet Pass-thru Module.

Figure 5. Front panel of the Flex System EN4091 10Gb Ethernet Pass-thru

The front panel has the following components:

• LEDs that show the status of the module and the network:
  • The OK LED indicates that the module has passed the power-on self-test (POST) with no critical faults and is operational.
  • The blue Identify LED is used to identify the module physically by using the management software to illuminate it.
  • The error LED (pass-thru module error) indicates that the module has failed the POST or detected an operational fault.
• Fourteen external SFP/SFP+ ports for 1 Gb or 10 Gb connections to external Ethernet devices.
• An Ethernet link OK LED and an Ethernet Tx/Rx LED for each external port on the module.

The network cables that can be used with the Flex System EN4091 10Gb Ethernet Pass-thru Module are shown in the following table.

The EN4091 carries a 1-year, customer-replaceable unit (CRU) limited warranty. When installed in a chassis, these I/O modules assume your system’s base warranty and any Lenovo warranty service upgrade.

These are the approximate dimensions and weight of the Flex System EN4091 10Gb Ethernet Pass-thru:

• Height: 30 mm (1.2 in.)
• Width: 401 mm (15.8 in.)
• Depth: 317 mm (12.5 in.)
• Weight: 3.7 kg (8.1 lb)

Shipping dimensions and weight (approximate):

• Height: 114 mm (4.5 in.)
• Width: 508 mm (20.0 in.)
• Depth: 432 mm (17.0 in.)
• Weight: 4.1 kg (9.1 lb)

The Flex System EN4091 10Gb Ethernet Pass-thru conforms to the following regulations:

• United States FCC 47 CFR Part 15, Subpart B, ANSI C63.4 (2003), Class A
• IEC/EN 60950-1, Second Edition
• Canada ICES-003, issue 4, Class A
• Japan VCCI, Class A
• Australia/New Zealand AS/NZS CISPR 22:2006, Class A
• Taiwan BSMI CNS13438, Class A
• CE Mark (EN55022 Class A, EN55024, EN61000-3-2, EN61000-3-3)
• CISPR 22, Class A
• China GB 9254-1998
• Turkey Communique 2004/9; Communique 2004/22
• Saudi Arabia EMC.CVG, 28 October 2002

The following usage scenarios are described:

• EN4091 in the traditional 10 Gb Ethernet network
• EN4091 in the converged NAS or iSCSI network
• EN4091 in the converged FCoE network

EN4091 in the traditional 10 Gb Ethernet network

In the traditional 10 GbE network, the EN4091 pass-thru modules are connected to the TOR switches (such as the Lenovo RackSwitch G8272) through the 10 GbE SFP+ ports, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 6. EN4091 in the 10 GbE network

EN4091 in the converged NAS or iSCSI network

The EN4091 pass-thru module can be connected to a TOR switch (such as the Lenovo RackSwitch G8272) that can transport iSCSI and NFS/CIFS data blocks with support for Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE). The example scenario with NAS and iSCSI storage protocols is shown in the following figure.

Figure 7. EN4091 in the converged NAS or iSCSI network

EN4091 in the converged FCoE network

With FCoE, the EN4091 pass-thru can be connected to a converged TOR switch that supports Fibre Channel Forwarder (FCF) capability (such as the Lenovo RackSwitch G8264CS). The FCF provides capability to connect FCoE storage targets via native FCoE interfaces (end-to-end FCoE) or through FC/FCoE gateways that break out the FC connections and connect to the SAN switches and then in to the storage devices.

The example scenario with end-to-end FCoE is shown in the following figure.

Figure 8. EN4091 in the converged FCoE network: End-to-end FCoE

The example scenario with the FC/FCoE gateway is shown in the following figure.

Figure 9. EN4091 in the converged FCoE network: FC/FCoE gateway

Note: For a full listing of supported FCoE and iSCSI configurations, see the System Storage Interoperation Center (SSIC) website at:
http://ibm.com/systems/support/storage/ssic

For more information, see the following Flex System EN4091 10Gb Ethernet Pass-thru Module product publications, available from the Flex System Information Center:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/flexsys/information/index.jsp

• Installation and User's Guide

Here are other useful references:

• Flex System Information Center
  http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/flexsys/information
• Flex System Interoperability Guide
  http://lenovopress.com/fsig
• Flex System Products and Technology, SG24-8255
  http://lenovopress.com/sg248255
• Product Guides for Flex System
  http://lenovopress.com/flexsystem