Lenovo ThinkSystem NE2552E Flex Switch

The Lenovo ThinkSystem NE2552E Flex Switch is an embedded switch module for Flex System that is designed for the data center to provide 10 Gb/25 Gb/50 Gb Ethernet server connectivity with 40 Gb/50 Gb/100 Gb Ethernet upstream links. It is an enterprise class Layer 2 and Layer 3 full featured switch that delivers line-rate, high-bandwidth switching, filtering, and traffic queuing without delaying data. Large data center-grade buffers help keep traffic moving, while the numerous high-availability software features help provide high availability for business sensitive traffic.

The NE2552E Flex Switch has 28 internal ports that can be configured as 28x 10 GbE ports, 28x 25 GbE ports, 14x 50 GbE ports, or certain combinations of 10 GbE, 25 GbE, and 50 GbE ports.

For external network connectivity, the NE2552E Flex Switch offers 8x SFP28/SFP+ ports that support 10 GbE SFP+ and 25 GbE SFP28 optical transceivers, active optical cables (AOCs), and direct attach copper (DAC) cables. The switch also offers 4x QSFP28 ports that support 100 GbE QSFP28 or 40 GbE QSFP+ optical transceivers, active optical cables (AOCs), and direct attach copper (DAC) cables. The QSFP28 ports can also be split out into two 50 GbE or four 25 GbE (for 100 GbE QSFP28), or four 10 GbE (for 40 GbE QSFP+) connections by using breakout cables.

The NE2552E Flex Switch is ideal for hyperconverged and cloud solutions, as well as latency-sensitive applications, such as high-performance computing clusters and financial applications.

The NE2552E RackSwitch is shown in the following figure.

Figure 1. Lenovo ThinkSystem NE2552E Flex Switch

The NE2552E Flex Switch runs Enterprise Networking Operating System (ENOS), which is a data center-class NOS progressively developed over the past decade to deliver highly reliable, high-performance Ethernet and converged switching and interoperability with existing network infrastructures. ENOS has a feature-rich design with virtualization, high availability, and enterprise class Layer 2 and Layer 3 functionality.

The NE2552E is cloud-ready with support for advanced NIC virtualization technologies, such as Unified Fabric Port (UFP). In addition, the switch offers different operational modes (from "easy connect" transparent networking connectivity to Layer 3 functionality) to satisfy diverse customer networking requirements.

With support for Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE), the NE2552E can be used as an FCoE transit device and is ideal for network-attached storage (NAS) and iSCSI environments.

The ThinkSystem NE2552E Flex Switch is considered particularly suited for the following environments:

• Mixed 10 GbE, 25 GbE, and 50 GbE embedded server connectivity with 40 GbE, 50 GbE, or 100 GbE upstream aggregation
• Cloud and virtualization solutions with integration into Lenovo and third-party IT and cloud infrastructure management tools
• Embedded network connectivity with support for converged SAN and LAN via NAS, iSCSI, or FCoE
  • Reduced I/O cost (CAPEX) with fewer adapters, cables, and transceivers to purchase
  • Reduced complexity (OPEX) with fewer components to manage and lower energy cost
• Web-scale and hyperconverged solutions
• Applications demanding better performance and lower latency

The NE2552E Flex Switch offers the following key features and benefits:

• High performance

  The 10 Gb/25 Gb/50 Gb Ethernet NE2552E Flex Switch with 40 Gb/50 Gb/100 Gb Ethernet uplinks provides a combination of low latency, non-blocking line-rate switching, and ease of management.

• Lower power and better cooling

  The embedded design of the NE2552E Flex Switch helps reduce data center air conditioning costs and power consumption.

• Layer 3 functionality

  The NE2552E Flex Switch includes Layer 3 functionality, which provides security and performance benefits, as inter-VLAN traffic stays within the switch. This switch also provides the full range of Layer 3 protocols from static routes for technologies, such as Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) and Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) for enterprise customers.

• Converged fabric

  The NE2552E Flex Switch supports Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE) which helps enable customers to combine storage, messaging traffic, VoIP, video, and other data on a common data center lossless Ethernet infrastructure. As a result, customers can deploy a single server interface for multiple data types, which can simplify the deployment and management of server network connectivity while maintaining the high availability and robustness that is required for storage transactions.

• Fault tolerance

  The NE2552E Flex Switch learns alternate routes automatically and performs faster convergence if there is a link or switch failure.

• Seamless interoperability

  The NE2552E Flex Switch performs seamlessly with other vendors' upstream switches.

• Virtualization

  The NE2552E Flex Switch can help customers address I/O requirements for multiple NICs while reducing cost and complexity. By using Unified Fabric Port, customers can partition a physical NIC into multiple virtual ports (2 - 8 vPorts) and create a virtual pipe between the adapter and the switch for improved performance, availability, and security.

  Switch Partition (SPAR) allows clients to virtualize the switch with partitions that isolate communications for multi-tenancy environments.

• Transparent networking capability

  With a simple configuration change to "easy connect" mode, the NE2552E Flex Switch becomes a transparent network device that is invisible to the core and eliminates network administration concerns of Spanning Tree Protocol configuration and interoperability and VLAN assignments and avoids any possible loops. By emulating a host NIC to the data center core, it accelerates the provisioning of VMs by eliminating the need to configure the typical access switch parameters.

• Advanced network management

  The NE2552E Flex Switch integrates with Lenovo XClarity for centralized data center management. Integration with third-party automation, deployment, and monitoring tools, such as VMware vRealize Orchestrator and Log Insight, Ansible DevOps tools, and OpenStack cloud, provides rapid resource provisioning and simplified configuration management across the network.

The front panel of the ThinkSystem NE2552E Flex Switch is shown in the following figure.

Figure 2. Front panel of the ThinkSystem NE2552E Flex Switch

The front panel includes the following components:

• 8x SFP28/SFP+ ports to attach SFP28/SFP+ transceivers, DAC cables, and AOCs for 25 Gb or 10 Gb Ethernet connections, or 100 Gb Ethernet connections by grouping 4x 25 GbE SFP28 ports into one 100 GbE port.
• 4x QSFP28/QSFP+ ports to attach QSFP28/QSFP+ transceivers, DAC cables, and AOCs for 100 Gb or 40 Gb Ethernet connections or breakout cables for 2x 50 Gb or 4x 25 Gb Ethernet connections out of a 100 GbE port or 4x 10 GbE connections out of a 40 GbE port.
• 1x RJ-45 10/100/1000 Mb Ethernet port for out-of-band management.
• 1x Mini-USB RS-232 console port that provides another means to configure the switch module.
• System LEDs that display the status of the switch module and the network.

The following table lists the NE2552E system specifications.

Note: The supported hardware options and software features listed in this product guide are based on the Lenovo Enterprise Networking Operating System (ENOS) version 8.4.8.

The following table lists the ordering information for the NE2552E switch.

The switch is shipped with the Electronic Publications Flyer.

Notes:

• QSFP28 and SFP+/SFP28 transceivers and cables are not included and should be ordered for the switch (see Transceivers and cables for details).
• A serial management cable is not included and should be ordered for the switch, if needed. The optional Cable Kit (90Y9338) contains mini-USB-to-RJ-45 and mini-USB-to-DB9 serial cables.

With the flexibility of the NE2552E Flex Switch, customers can choose the following technologies for external connectivity:

• For 1 GbE links, customers can use SFP ports with the 1000BASE-T SFP transceivers and RJ-45 UTP Category 5, 5E, or 6 cables for distances up to 100 meters.

  For longer distances, the 1000BASE-SX transceivers can be used for distances up to 220 meters on OM1 (62.5 µ) or up to 550 meters on OM2 (50 µ) multimode fiber optic (MMF) cables. The 1000BASE-LX transceivers can be used for distances up to 10 kilometers on single-mode fiber optic (SMF) cables.

• For 10 GbE links, customers can use SFP28 ports with 10 GbE SFP+ direct-attached copper (DAC) cables for distances up to 7 meters or 10 GbE SFP+ active optical cables (AOCs) for distances up to 20 meters. For distances up to 30 meters, the 10GBASE-T SFP+ transceiver can be used with Category 6a or 7 RJ-45 UTP cables.

  For longer distances, the 10GBASE-SR SFP+ transceivers can be used for up to 300 meters with OM3 or up to 400 meters with OM4 multimode fiber optic (MMF) LC-LC cables. The 10GBASE-LR SFP+ transceivers can support distances up to 10 kilometers with single mode fiber optic (SMF) LC-LC cables. For extended distances, the 10GBASE-ER SFP+ transceivers can support up to 40 kilometers with SMF LC-LC cables.

  To increase the number of available 10 GbE ports, customers can split out four 10 GbE ports for each QSFP28 port by using QSFP+ to 4x SFP+ DAC or active optical breakout cables for distances up to 5 meters. The 40GBASE-iSR4 QSFP+ transceivers can be used for distances up to 100 meters with OM3 or up to 150 meters with OM4 MMF MPO-4xLC breakout cables. For longer distances, the 40GBASE-eSR4 transceivers can be used for up to 300 meters with OM3 or up to 400 meters with OM4 MMF MPO-4xLC breakout cables.

• For 25 GbE links, customers can use SFP28 ports with 25 GbE SFP28 DAC cables for distances up to 5 meters or 25 GbE SFP28 active optical cables for distances up to 20 meters. For longer distances, the 25GBASE-SR SFP28 transceivers can be used for up to 70 meters with OM3 or up to 100 meters with OM4 MMF LC-LC cables. The 25GBASE-LR SFP28 transceivers can support distances up to 10 kilometers with single mode fiber optic LC-LC cables.

  To increase the number of available 25 GbE ports, customers can split out four 25 GbE ports for each QSFP28 port by using QSFP28 to 4x SFP28 DAC breakout cables for distances up to 5 meters or active optical breakout cables for distances up to 20 meters. For longer distances, the 100GBASE-SR4 QSFP28 transceivers can be used for up to 70 meters with OM3 or up to 100 meters with OM4 MMF MPO-4xLC breakout cables.

• For 40 GbE links, customers can use QSFP28 ports with QSFP+ to QSFP+ DAC cables for distances up to 7 meters or QSFP+ to QSFP+ active optical cables for distances up to 20 meters.

  For longer distances, customers can use the 40GBASE QSFP+ bi-directional transceivers or 40GBASE-SR4/iSR4 QSFP+ transceivers for up to 100 meters with OM3 or up to 150 meters with OM4 MMF MPO-MPO cables. The 40GBASE-eSR4 QSFP+ transceiver can be used for distances up to 300 meters with OM3 or up to 400 meters with OM4 MMF MPO-MPO cables. The 40GBASE-LR4 QSFP+ transceiver can be used for distances up to 10 kilometers with SMF LC-LC cables.

• For 50 GbE links, customers can split out two 50 GbE ports for each QSFP28 port by using the QSFP28-2xQSFP28 DAC breakout cables (not supplied by Lenovo).

• For 100 GbE links, customers can use QSFP28 ports with QSFP28 DAC cables for distances up to 5 meters or QSFP28 active optical cables for distances up to 20 meters.

  For longer distances, the 100GBASE-SR4 QSFP28 transceivers support distances up to 70 meters with OM3 or up to 100 meters with OM4 MMF MPO-MPO cables. The 100GBASE-LR4 QSFP28 transceiver can be used for distances up to 10 kilometers with SMF LC-LC cables.

  To increase the number of available 100 GbE ports, customers can group four external 25 GbE SFP28 ports (EXT1-4 or EXT5-8) into one 100 GbE port and use QSFP28 to 4x SFP28 DAC breakout cables for distances up to 5 meters or active optical breakout cables for distances up to 20 meters. For longer distances, the 25GBASE-SR SFP28 transceivers can be used for up to 70 meters with OM3 or up to 100 meters with OM4 MMF MPO-4xLC breakout cables.

Notes:

• External SFP+/SFP28 ports are combined into two 4-port groups: EXT1-4 and EXT5-8. All external ports in the same 4-port group operate at the same speed (10 Gbps or 25 Gbps). Each external SFP28 port group can also be configured for 100 Gbps (4x 25 Gbps) operations.
• The switch can operate in any combination of up to three of five different port speeds supported (10 Gbps, 25 Gbps, 40 Gbps, 50 Gbps, and 100 Gbps) across all ports on the switch; a combination of four or five different port speeds is not supported.

The following table lists the supported cables and transceivers.

The network cables that can be used with the switch are listed in the following table.

The NE2552E Flex Switch includes the following software features:

• Scalability and performance:
  • Media access control (MAC) address learning with automatic updates
  • Static and LACP (IEEE 802.3ad) link aggregation
  • Broadcast and multicast storm control
  • IGMP snooping to limit flooding of IP multicast traffic
  • IGMP filtering to control multicast traffic for hosts that are participating in multicast groups
  • Configurable traffic distribution schemes over trunk links that are based on source or destination IP or MAC addresses, or both
  • Fast port forwarding and fast uplink convergence for rapid STP convergence
• Availability and redundancy:
  • IEEE 802.1D STP for providing Layer 2 redundancy
  • IEEE 802.1s Multiple STP (MSTP) for topology optimization
  • IEEE 802.1w Rapid STP (RSTP) provides rapid STP convergence for critical delay-sensitive traffic, such as voice or video
  • Per-VLAN Rapid STP (PVRST) enhancements
  • Layer 2 Failover to support active/standby configurations of NIC teaming on compute nodes
  • Hot Links provides basic link redundancy with fast recovery for network topologies that require Spanning Tree to be turned off
• VLAN support:
  • Up to 4095 VLANs supported per switch, with VLAN numbers 1 - 4095 (4095 is used for management module’s connection only)
  • Port-based and protocol-based VLANs
  • 802.1Q VLAN tagging support on all ports
  • Full private VLANs
  • Ingress VLAN tagging support to tunnel packets through a public domain without altering the original 802.1Q tagging information
• Security:
  • VLAN-based, MAC-based, and IP-based access control lists (ACLs)
  • 802.1x port-based authentication
  • Multiple user IDs and passwords
  • User access control
  • RADIUS, TACACS+, and LDAP authentication and authorization
  • Secure I/O Module (SIOM) mode: Only secure communication protocols are allowed
  • NIST SP 800-131A compliance
• Quality of Service (QoS):
  • IEEE 802.1p, IP ToS/DSCP, and ACL-based (MAC/IP source and destination addresses, VLANs) traffic classification and processing
  • Traffic shaping and re-marking based on defined policies
  • 2 or 8 (configurable) Weighted Round Robin (WRR) priority queues per port
  • IPv4/IPv6 ACL metering
  • Control Plane Protection (CPP)
  • Packet drop logging
  • Microburst detection
• IP v4 Layer 3 functions:
  • Host management
  • IP forwarding
  • IP filtering with ACLs
  • Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) for router redundancy
  • Routing protocols: RIP v1, RIP v2, OSPF v2, and BGP
  • DHCP Relay
  • IGMP snooping and IGMP relay
  • Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) in Sparse Mode (PIM-SM) and Dense Mode (PIM-DM)
• IPv6 Layer 3 functions:
  • IPv6 host management (except default switch management IP address)
  • IPv6 forwarding
  • IPv6 filtering with ACLs
  • OSPF v3 routing protocol
• Virtualization:
  • Virtual NICs (vNICs): Ethernet, iSCSI, or FCoE traffic is supported on vNICs (adapter-specific)
  • Unified fabric port (UFP):
    • Up to eight UFP virtual ports (vPorts) per physical port (adapter-specific)
    • Ethernet, iSCSI, or FCoE traffic is supported on vPorts
    • Supports up to 1024 VLAN for the virtual ports
    • Integration with Layer 2 failover
  • Virtual link aggregation groups (vLAGs)
    • Two switches (vLAG peers) act as a single virtual entity for a multi-port aggregation
    • vLAG Peer Gateway for improved usage of the link between the vLAG peers
    • Two-tier vLAGs with VRRP enables active/active VRRP to reduce routing latency
  • Switch partitioning (SPAR):
    • SPAR forms separate virtual switching contexts by segmenting the data plane of the module. Data plane traffic is not shared between SPARs on the same switch.
    • SPAR operates as a Layer 2 broadcast network. Hosts on the same VLAN that are attached to a SPAR can communicate with each other and with the upstream switch. Hosts on the same VLAN but attached to different SPARs communicate through the upstream switch.
    • SPAR is implemented as a dedicated VLAN with a set of internal compute node ports and a single external port or link aggregation (LAG). Multiple external ports or LAGs are not allowed in SPAR. A port can be a member of only one SPAR.
    • SPAR operates in one of the following modes:
      • Pass-through Domain (or VLAN-agnostic) mode

        In VLAN-agnostic mode (default configuration), the NE2552E transparently forwards VLAN tagged frames without filtering on the customer VLAN tag. This mode provides an end host view to the upstream network. When FCoE is used, the switch can be connected to the FCoE transit switch or FCoE gateway (FC Forwarder [FCF]) device.

      • Local Domain (or VLAN-aware) mode

        In VLAN-aware mode (optional configuration), the NE2552E provides more security for multi-tenant environments by extending client VLAN traffic isolation to the switch module and its external ports. VLAN-based access control lists (ACLs) can be configured on the NE2552E. When FCoE is used, the switch operates as an FCoE transit switch and it should be connected to the FCF device.

• Converged Enhanced Ethernet:
  • Priority-Based Flow Control (PFC) (IEEE 802.1Qbb) extends 802.3x standard flow control to allow the switch to pause traffic that is based on the 802.1p priority value in each packet’s VLAN tag.
  • Enhanced Transmission Selection (ETS) (IEEE 802.1Qaz) provides a method for allocating link bandwidth that is based on the 802.1p priority value in each packet’s VLAN tag.
  • Data Center Bridging Capability Exchange Protocol (DCBX) (IEEE 802.1AB) allows neighboring network devices to exchange information about their capabilities.
• Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE):
  • FC-BB5 FCoE specification compliant
  • FCoE transit switch operations
  • FCoE Initialization Protocol (FIP) support for automatic ACL configuration
  • FCoE Link Aggregation Group (LAG) support
  • Multi-hop RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) with LAG support
  • Up to 2000 secure FCoE sessions with FIP Snooping by using Class ID ACLs
• Manageability:
  • Industry-standard command line interface (ISCLI)
    • Serial interface
    • Telnet
    • Secure Shell (SSH)
  • Browser‐Based Interface (BBI)
    • HTTP
    • HTTPS
  • Scriptable CLI
  • Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) for discovering network devices
  • Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP V1, V2, and V3)
  • Service Location Protocol (SLP) for dynamic directory services
  • Secure Copy (SCP) for uploading and downloading the configuration file via secure channels
  • Dynamic port mode for changing port speeds without rebooting
  • Firmware image update and configuration file transfer via TFTP, FTP, and Secure FTP (sFTP)
  • NETCONF (XML)
  • Network Time Protocol (NTP) and Precision Time Protocol (PTP) for switch clock synchronization
  • EasyConnect (EZC) Wizard
  • Lenovo XClarity for discovery, inventory, monitoring and events
  • Third-party tools integration
    • Lenovo Networking Content Pack for VMware vRealize Log Insight (optional download) for automated log management
    • Lenovo Networking Neutron Plugin to automate VLAN provisioning and configuration updates for OpenStack-based cloud environments
    • Integration with Ansible management
• Monitoring:
  • Switch LEDs for external port status and switch module status indication
  • Remote Monitoring (RMON) agent to collect statistics and proactively monitor performance
  • Port mirroring for analyzing network traffic that is passing through switch
  • Change tracking and remote logging with syslog feature
  • sFlow agent for monitoring traffic in data networks (separate sFlow analyzer required elsewhere)
  • POST diagnostics

The NE2552E switch module supports the following standards:

• IEEE 802.1AB Data Center Bridging Capability Exchange Protocol (DCBX)
• IEEE 802.1D Spanning Tree Protocol (STP)
• IEEE 802.1p Class of Service (CoS) prioritization
• IEEE 802.1s Multiple STP (MSTP)
• IEEE 802.1Q Tagged VLAN (frame tagging on all ports when VLANs are enabled)
• IEEE 802.1Qbb Priority-Based Flow Control (PFC)
• IEEE 802.1Qaz Enhanced Transmission Selection (ETS)
• IEEE 802.1x port-based authentication
• IEEE 802.1w Rapid STP (RSTP)
• IEEE 802.3x Full-duplex Flow Control
• IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation Control Protocol
• IEEE 802.3 10BASE-T Ethernet (External Ethernet management port only)
• IEEE 802.3u 100BASE-TX Fast Ethernet (External Ethernet management port only)
• IEEE 802.3ab 1000BASE-T copper twisted pair Gigabit Ethernet (External Ethernet management port only)
• IEEE 802.3ae 10GBASE-KR backplane 10 Gb 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
• IEEE 802.3ae 10GBASE-ER extended range fiber optics 10 Gb Ethernet
• IEEE 802.3an 10GBASE-T copper twisted pair 10 Gb Ethernet
• 10GSFP+Cu 10 Gb SFP+ Direct attach copper cable
• IEEE 802.3by 25GBASE-KR backplane 25 Gb Ethernet
• IEEE 802.3by 25GBASE-CR copper 25 Gb Ethernet
• IEEE 802.3by 25GBASE-SR short range fiber optics 25 Gb Ethernet
• IEEE 802.3cc 25GBASE-LR long range fiber optics 25 Gb Ethernet
• IEEE 802.3ba 40GBASE-CR4 copper 40 Gb Ethernet
• IEEE 802.3ba 40GBASE-SR4 short range fiber optics 40 Gb Ethernet
• IEEE 802.3ba 40GBASE-LR4 long range fiber optics 40 Gb Ethernet
• IEEE 802.3bj 100GBASE-CR4 copper 100 Gb Ethernet
• IEEE 802.3bm 100GBASE-SR4 short range fiber optics 100 Gb Ethernet
• IEEE 802.3ba 100GBASE-LR4 long range fiber optics 100 Gb Ethernet
• 25G 50G Ethernet Consortium

The NE2552E carries a 1-year, customer-replaceable unit (CRU) limited warranty, which includes unrestricted access to software upgrades. When installed in a supported chassis, these I/O modules assume your Flex System chassis' base warranty and any warranty service upgrade.

The NE2552E Flex Switch features the following approximate dimensions and weight:

• 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)

The NE2552E Flex Switch conforms to the following regulations:

• United States FCC Part 15, Class A
• Canada ICES-003, Class A
• Australia and New Zealand Class A Statement
• European Union Council Directive 2004/108/EC
• European Union Council Directive 2014/30/EU
• EN55022 Class A
• EN55024
• Japan VCCI Class A Statement
• Korea KCC Class A Statement
• Russia Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) Class A Statement
• People's Republic of China Class A Electronic Emission Statement
• Taiwan Class A Compliance Statement

The switches are installed in I/O module bays in the rear of the Flex System Chassis, as shown in the following figure. Switches are normally installed in pairs because ports on the I/O adapters that are installed in the compute nodes are routed to two I/O bays for redundancy and performance. 

Figure 3. Location of the I/O bays in the Flex System Enterprise Chassis

The NE2552E switches can be installed in bays 1, 2, 3, and 4 of the Enterprise chassis. A supported 10 GbE, 25 GbE, or 50 GbE adapter must be installed in the corresponding slot of the compute node. Each adapter can use one (10/25 GbE) or two (50 GbE) lanes to connect to the respective I/O module bay.

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 Fabric Connector, and the adapter is not required. However, the Fabric Connector can be replaced with the adapter when needed. In such a case, the integrated NIC is disabled.

All internal ports in the same 4-port group operate at the same speed (10 Gbps, 25 Gbps, or 50 Gbps [2x 25 Gbps]). For 50 Gbps internal connections, two 25 Gbps ports (INTAx and INTBx) are combined into a single 50 Gbps (2x 25 Gbps) port (INTAx).

Note: The switch can operate in any combination of up to three of five different port speeds supported (10 Gbps, 25 Gbps, 40 Gbps, 50 Gbps, and 100 Gbps) across all ports on the switch; a combination of four or five different port speeds is not supported.

The midplane connections between the adapters that are installed in the compute nodes to the I/O module bays in the chassis are listed in the following table. Half-wide compute nodes support up to two adapters, and full-wide compute nodes support up to four adapters.

The currently available I/O adapters supported by the NE2552E switch are listed in the following table.

The following table lists the network switches that are offered by Lenovo that can be used with the NE2552E switch for network connectivity.

For more information, see the list of Product Guides in the Top-of-rack Switches category:
http://lenovopress.com/servers/options/switches#rt=product-guide

Lenovo offers the ThinkSystem DE Series and ThinkSystem DM Series external storage systems for high-performance storage. See the DE Series and DM Series product guides for specific controller models, expansion enclosures and configuration options:

• ThinkSystem DE Series Storage
  https://lenovopress.com/storage/thinksystem/de-series#rt=product-guide
• ThinkSystem DM Series Storage
  https://lenovopress.com/storage/thinksystem/dm-series#rt=product-guide
• ThinkSystem DG Series Storage
  https://lenovopress.com/storage/thinksystem/dg-series#rt=product-guide

For more information, see the following Lenovo ThinkSystem NE2552E Flex Switch product publications that are available from the Flex System Information Center:
http://flexsystem.lenovofiles.com/help/topic/com.lenovo.acc.ne2552e.doc/ts_ne2552e.html

• ThinkSystem NE2552E Flex Switch Installation Guide
• ThinkSystem NE2552E Flex Switch Application Guide
• ThinkSystem NE2552E Flex Switch Industry Standard CLI (ISCLI) Command Reference

For discussions on various Lenovo networking topics, visit the Data Center Networking Community Forum:
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Datacenter-Networking/ct-p/nh_eg

For additional information, see these resources:

• 3D Tour: Lenovo ThinkSystem NE2552E Flex Switch
  http://lenovopress.com/lp0871
• ThinkSystem QLogic QL45212, QL45262 and QL45214 25Gb and 50Gb Flex Ethernet Adapters
  http://lenovopress.com/lp0855
• Flex System Products and Technology, SG24-8255:
  http://lenovopress.com/sg248255
• Flex System Interoperability Guide:
  http://lenovopress.com/fsig