A unified networking approach: iSCSI storage with Broadcom controllers
Date
:
6/18/2010
Use of the Internet SCSI (iSCSI) protocol has been growing significantly in enterprise data centers, largely because it offers a variety of advantages over traditional Fibre Channel storage technologies. Because iSCSI provides a simple method for transporting SCSI commands, data, and status messages over standard TCP/IP networks, it lets organizations take advantage of existing infrastructure and knowledge bases while using cost-effective, familiar components. It is also standards based, which facilitates industry adoption and helps ensure interoperability. And its performance can scale up along a common technology path—Ethernet.
But the widespread use of iSCSI has also created challenges as network usage has grown and evolved. For example, many organizations are running an increasing number of rich-content and data-intensive applications or virtualized environments on their servers, which can significantly increase the iSCSI-based network traffic in a data center. To help keep up with this growth, many IT departments have begun moving from Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) network controllers to 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) controllers. Under heavy workloads, however, traditional controllers can consume significant amounts of server processing power, reducing the amount available for critical applications. In addition, the traditional approach typically requires using separate network controllers to handle different types of tasks, which leads to a burgeoning number of devices, which drives up cost and complexity—and limits the ability of IT departments to take advantage of 10GbE controllers.
The Broadcom® NetXtreme II® family of 10GbE converged network interface controllers (C-NICs) is designed to address these problems. Available in Dell™ PowerEdge™ servers as LAN on Motherboards (LOMs), mezzanine cards, and stand-up network interface cards (NICs), these controllers provide the speed and efficiency to support heavy network traffic workloads—enabling IT departments to simplify their systems and provide network, storage, and clustering capabilities over existing TCP/IP and Ethernet infrastructures, while also helping reduce power consumption and enabling highly efficient use of processing resources.
But the widespread use of iSCSI has also created challenges as network usage has grown and evolved. For example, many organizations are running an increasing number of rich-content and data-intensive applications or virtualized environments on their servers, which can significantly increase the iSCSI-based network traffic in a data center. To help keep up with this growth, many IT departments have begun moving from Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) network controllers to 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) controllers. Under heavy workloads, however, traditional controllers can consume significant amounts of server processing power, reducing the amount available for critical applications. In addition, the traditional approach typically requires using separate network controllers to handle different types of tasks, which leads to a burgeoning number of devices, which drives up cost and complexity—and limits the ability of IT departments to take advantage of 10GbE controllers.
The Broadcom® NetXtreme II® family of 10GbE converged network interface controllers (C-NICs) is designed to address these problems. Available in Dell™ PowerEdge™ servers as LAN on Motherboards (LOMs), mezzanine cards, and stand-up network interface cards (NICs), these controllers provide the speed and efficiency to support heavy network traffic workloads—enabling IT departments to simplify their systems and provide network, storage, and clustering capabilities over existing TCP/IP and Ethernet infrastructures, while also helping reduce power consumption and enabling highly efficient use of processing resources.