Streamlined Management

Emulex software drivers and management applications increase data center efficiency.  Key features such as 

• Emulex Common driver model ensures that the same Emulex drivers support your 8Gb/s, 4Gb/s, 2Gb/s HBAs. 
• Emulex HBAnyware® centralized HBA management application, gives you control of all Emulex-connected servers.  With extensive configuration, automation and diagnostic capabilities reducing administrative-time and increasing fun-time.
• Emulex AutoPilot® Installer dramatically reduces the time it takes to deploy a new server.

Click here for more info on Emulex Management Software.

Management Scalability Papers

8GB/s Motivation

Don’t sit on the sidelines with 8Gb Fibre Channel HBAs now shipping.
Here are 8 great reasons to get motivated to make the change now.

1. Intel® Xeon® 5500 Processors are Built For 8Gb – This is the first generation of processors from Intel designed with server virtualization in mind. The use of PCI Express 2.0, Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) in virtualized server environments, Message-Signaled Interrupts eXtended (MSI-X) and Intel QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) technology for bandwidth intensive applications are built to leverage the performance of 8Gb/s Fibre Channel.
2. Bridge The Generation Gap – As you know, not all data centers are built with generations of products that were purchased, built and designed together. The move to 8Gb/s Fibre Channel is also about avoiding a generational gap in your data center. Why run a system loaded-up with Xeon 5500 processors with a 4Gb/s Fibre Channel card not built to maximize and leverage your other investments?
3. Consolidation & Budget Cuts- Get More “Bang For Your Buck” –A move to 8Gb/s Fibre Channel now will result in fewer Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) and switches to connect your servers, blades and clusters to storage. Saving you power, cooling, cables and rack space.
4. 8Gb Is The Way of The Future – You know this transition is coming, and if you don’t move now, you could be taking the risk of being stuck with out-of-date gear, services issues and end-of-life issues before your new server reaches its end-of-life. No one wants to spend the time to upgrade HBAs in the field, and it is much better to make the move now.
5. Virtualization Aggregation – According to IDC, the number of virtual machines (VMs) per server is expected to triple with the roll-out of Xeon 5500 processors. This means you will need three times the I/O performance, and if you know you are going to need it over the lifecycle of your  new computer processing units(CPUs), it will cost less in the end to move to 8Gb/s Fibre Channel now rather than upgrading later.
6. Business Continuity and Service Level Agreements – When it comes to business continuity and Service Level Agreements (SLAs), less time spent moving data is a big win. Moving to 8Gb/s Fibre Channel reduces back-up and data migration windows, which provides greater availability of business applications, and helps to improve productivity and the organization’s bottom line.
7. Investment Protection – 8Gb/s Fibre Channel is backward-compatible with 2Gb/s and 4Gb/s Fibre Channel. This means you can choose 8Gb/s now for your future while also protecting the past. Emulex HBAs are fully backward compatible with your 2 and 4Gb/s Fibre Channel installed base, and feature one common driver across all Emulex HBAs.
8. The Target Devices Are Shipping – Finally, the targets are shipping from HP, EMC, NetApp and many others. They are not really the drivers this time, but they help complete the story and provide a nice symmetry to the implementation.

Extreme Performance

Emulex LPe12000 8Gb/s Fibre Channel HBAs provide superior performance.  I/O benchmark results show the Emulex LightPulse 8Gb/s Fibre Channel HBAs deliver:

• Better system efficiency for I/O, freeing up CPU processing for business critical applications
• Higher maximum I/O rates, providing better support for high I/O applications and highly virtualized servers
• Better dual-channel performance, for high availability and virtualized environments

Performance Papers:

Virtualization To The Max

VMware vSphere 4, Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, Linux Xen, and Solaris 10 require a scalable and reliable data infrastructure for today’s server virtualization and tomorrow’s next-generation cloud computing.  Emulex® LightPulse® Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) meet this requirement with high-speed, high-performance connections to storage area networks based on the proven Fibre Channel protocol.

Emulex HBAs work with these server virtualization solutions to:

• Dramatically reduce server capital and operational costs
• Increase server consolidation with improved  CPU efficiency and CPU offload
• Maximize I/O bandwidth to support SLA-based applications and demand peaks
• Efficiently manage  Emulex HBAs even in virtualized environments

Virtualization Papers

Cooler HBAs mean great reliability—A cooler operating HBA translates into better reliability. This is of significant importance to data center administrators, as properly cooled components have longer operating life, better system reliability and greater SAN availability. This becomes a more critical consideration in blade server environments. Emulex’s LPe12002 I/O controller 20° C temperature advantage translates into 166% greater reliability when compared to QLogic’s QL2562 HBA.

Additional Information

• Evaluation Flier
• Heat Sink Video
• Thermal Evaluations Presentation
• Thermal Cooling FAQ