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24 Aug 2021Form Number
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Table of Contents
Abstract
The next generation Emulex 64 Gb LPe36002 2-port Fibre Channel host bus adapter for ThinkSystem servers is an ideal solution when requiring high-speed 64 Gb/s data transfer in storage connectivity for virtualized environments, data backup, and mission-critical applications.
This product guide describes the Emulex HBAs and provides essential pre-sales information to understand the products, their key features and specifications, and compatibility. This guide is intended for technical specialists, sales specialists, sales engineers, and IT architects who want to learn more about the adapters and consider their use in IT solutions.
Introduction
As applications continue to grow in size and scale, customers are using high performance storage solutions including low-latency NVMe, all-flash arrays (AFAs) to support them. A critical element for achieving maximum system-wide performance is high-performance storage networking. Lenovo’s Emulex® 64 Gb LPe36002 2-port Fibre Channel host bus adapter is designed for such mission-critical workloads and emerging applications, meeting the requirements for high availability, scalability, predictable performance, and low latency.
Figure 1. ThinkSystem Emulex LPe36002 64Gb 2-port PCIe Fibre Channel Adapter
Did you know?
Emulex Gen 7 adapters including the LPe36002 HBA accelerate workload performance for NVMe data centers with up to 3x better latency than the previous Gen 6 generation. The adapter can handle peak workload I/O spikes with up to 10M IOPS, which is 6x more than the previous generation, and with a PCIe 4.0 host interface, delivers more than 2x more bandwidth per lane.
Emulex makes it easy to deploy, manage and upgrade SANs with no server reboots needed for firmware updates, queue depth changes, or optics replacements. The adapters implement the industry-standard INCITS/T11 specification, which includes full Fabric Performance Impact Notification (FPIN) and signaling support to collaborate with the fabric to identify and address performance problems.
Part number information
The following table lists the ordering information for the adapters.
| Part number | Feature code | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 4XC7A77485 | BLC1 | ThinkSystem Emulex LPe36002 64Gb 2-port PCIe Fibre Channel Adapter |
The part number includes the following items:
- An FC HBA adapter with two 64 Gb (64/32/16 Gbps speeds) FC SW SFP+ optical transceiver installed
- 3U (full-height) bracket attached and 2U (low-profile) bracket included in the box
- Publications flyer
Fiber optic cables
The following table lists the fiber optic cables that are available from Lenovo.
Key features
Lenovo’s Emulex LPe36000 Gen 7 Fibre Channel (FC) Host Bus Adapters (HBAs) by Broadcom are designed for demanding mission-critical workloads and emerging applications. As applications continue to grow in size and scale, customers are using new server technologies to support them: servers with hundreds of processor cores, and high-performance storage solutions including low-latency NVMe, all-flash arrays (AFAs).
NVMe can significantly increase the performance of storage area networks (SANs), making the selection of high-speed networking technology the critical element for achieving maximum system-wide performance. Fibre Channel is purpose-built for storage networks, meeting the requirements for high availability, scalability, predictable performance and low latency.
Performance
The Emulex Dynamic Multi-core Architecture delivers unparalleled performance and the most efficient port utilization with eight processing cores and 16 threads that dynamically apply ASIC resources to either port that requires them, ensuring SLAs are met. Compared to Gen 6 HBAs, Emulex Gen 7 HBAs can support 64GFC to deliver up to 2x greater bandwidth. The LPe36000 HBA delivers 25,600 MB/s full duplex, 3x better hardware latency, and industry-leading performance of up to 10 million IOPS.
The fastpath design provides hardware acceleration for Emulex’s Dynamic Multi-core architecture, reducing latency for each transaction by processing I/O requests in hardware, thereby operating significantly faster than software-based solutions. These performance advances enable Emulex Gen 7 HBAs to handle demanding workloads and I/O spikes experienced under peak workload conditions like no other Fibre Channel HBA in the industry.
Emulex Gen 7 HBAs support NVMe over Fibre Channel (NVMe/FC), providing significantly lower latency versus the traditional Fibre Channel SCSI protocol (SCSI FCP). Testing by independent performance labs has shown that NVMe/FC can deliver up to 50% more IOPS, 30% lower latency (Emulex labs/Demartek, 2018) and up to 3.4x higher online transaction processing (OLTP) transactions per minute (Tolly Test Report # 220122, 2020) than traditional SCSI FCP. Emulex Gen 7 HBAs also support NVMe/FC and SCSI FCP concurrently, providing investment protection and allowing data centers to transition to end-to-end NVMe over FC SANs at their own pace.
Emulex Gen 7 HBA port aggregation capability (also known as trunking) provides a method to aggregate physical ports together to form a single logical port. Aggregating physical ports to make a single high-bandwidth datapath increases the logical connection bandwidth for applications that need it, such as data warehousing and virtual machine migration.
Operational Efficiency
Emulex Gen 7 HBAs offer enhanced reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS) including port isolation and port-based error isolation that enables users to easily detect, isolate, and recover from errors.
Emulex Gen 7 HBAs are managed HBAs—intelligent adapters designed to work with Emulex SAN Manager to reduce the complexity of managing enterprise-class SANs. Unlike other adapters, managed HBAs are designed to perform many operational tasks without the intervention of the host on which they reside. Managed HBAs differ from other adapters because they:
- Communicate to the Emulex SAN Manager application and register as a managed HBA.
- Implement the industry-standard INCITS/T11 specification, which includes full Fabric Performance Impact Notification (FPIN) and signaling support to collaborate with the fabric to identify and address performance problems.
- Monitor and record performance data and fabric notifications for analysis.
Emulex HBAs are easy to manage and save administrators time and operating costs with features such as no reboots for firmware updates, queue depth changes, or optics replacements. Emulex Gen 7 hot plug (hot-swappable) optics enables optics to be removed and replaced without shutting down the system, allowing for uninterrupted service.
The Emulex HBA Manager application (formerly named Emulex OneCommand Manager) provides centralized management of current and previous generations of Emulex FC HBAs. Emulex HBA troubleshooting is simplified with Emulex HBA Capture, an Emulex utility that gathers system, adapter, and device driver information. Data collected by HBA Capture is compressed into a single file and can be sent to Broadcom/Lenovo Technical Support for analysis when debugging system issues or for diagnostic purposes.
Emulex HBAs fully support the Brocade Fabric Vision suite of features facilitating a solution from the switch to the server end-points that have Emulex HBAs installed. Supported features include ClearLink (D_port), Link Cable Beaconing, Host Name Registration, Read Diagnostic Parameters, VMID, BB_Credit Recovery, Fabric-assigned Boot LUN, Fabric-assigned PWWN, FC Trace Route, FC Ping, Rest APIs, and more.
Security
One of the key initiatives for enterprises is to safeguard their infrastructure from network attacks. Fibre Channel has field proven security in protecting the world’s most sensitive data in banking, finance, healthcare, government, and military for over 20 years. Fibre Channel is protected from threats coming from IP networks because there is no direct connectivity for an attack from the IP network. This makes Fibre Channel a very strong link in the security chain and is why many IT managers continue to rely on FC for their most sensitive data.
Emulex Gen 7 HBAs provide unmatched security features for Fibre Channel environments. They were the first Fibre Channel HBAs with Silicon Root of Trust security embedded into the hardware itself. Firmware digital signatures are verified each time the system is booted as well as before installing any new firmware, providing a tamper proof solution.
Emulex’s digitally signed drivers are integrated with all the major enterprise operating systems. Drivers are digitally signed and are verified to be authentic code written by Broadcom before they can be installed.
Technical specifications
The Emulex 64 Gb Gen 7 FC HBAs have the following specifications:
- Based on the Emulex LPe36002 dual-port adapter
- I/O controller: Emulex Engine 601 (XE601) I/O Controller (IOC)
- Host interface: PCIe 4.0 x8 (compatible with PCIe 3.0)
- Ports: Dual-port SFP+ based adapter
- Link speed: Support for 64 Gb, 32 Gb, and 16 Gb FC link speeds, which are automatically negotiated
- Data rate, autosensing (per port), with full duplex:
- 57.8Gbps effective rate (28.9 Gbps with PAM4 modulation) (6400 MBps)
- 28.05 Gbps (3200 MBps)
- 14.025 Gbps (1600 MBps)
- Performance: Up to 10,000,000 IOPS per adapter
- Support for N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) and SR-IOV
- Industry standards:
- Current ANSI/INCITS standards: FC-PI-7; FC-FS-5 (Class 3); FC-LS-5 INCITS 569-202x rev 5.0; FC-LS-4; FC-GS-8; FCP-4; FC-SP-2; SPC-4; SBC-3; SSC-4; FC-NVMe-2.
- Legacy ANSI/INCITS standards: FC-PI-1/2/3/4/5/6; FC-FS-1/2/3/4; FC-LS-1/2/3; FC-GS-1/2/3/4/5/6/7; FC-PH-1/2/3; FC-DA-1/2; FCP-2/3; FC-HBA; FC-TAPE; FC-MI; SPC-3; SBC-2; SSC-2/3; FC-NVMe with AM1.
- PCIe base spec 4.0.
- PCIe card electromechanical spec 4.0.
- PCI Hot Plug (PHP).
- UEFI 2.7
- Topology: Point-to-point and switched fabric
- Hot-pluggable 64 Gbps Fibre Channel SFP+ short wave optical transceivers (850 nm) with LC connectors (included with the adapters). Note: Other transceivers are not supported.
The transceivers support the following cable lengths:
Note: A minimum cable length of 0.5m is required.
- Operating at 64 Gbps:
- Up to 70 m on 50/125 µm OM3 MMF
- Up to 100 m on 50/125 µm OM4 MMF
- Up to 100 m on 50/125 µm OM5 MMF
- Operating at 32 Gbps:
- Up to 20 m on 50/125 µm OM2 Multi-Mode Fiber (MMF)
- Up to 70 m on 50/125 µm OM3 MMF
- Up to 100 m on 50/125 µm OM4 MMF
- Up to 100 m on 50/125 µm OM5 MMF
- Operating at 16 Gbps:
- Up to 15 m on 62.5/125 µm OM1 Multi-Mode Fiber (MMF)
- Up to 35 m on 50/125 µm OM2 MMF
- Up to 100 m on 50/125 µm OM3 MMF
- Up to 125 m on 50/125 µm OM4 MMF
Server support
The following tables list the ThinkSystem servers that are compatible.
Operating system support
The following table lists the supported operating systems for the adapters.
1 For limitation, please refer Support Tip 104278
2 The OS is not supported with EPYC 7003 processors.
SAN switches
Lenovo offers the ThinkSystem DB Series of Fibre Channel SAN switches for high-performance storage expansion. See the DB Series product guides for models and configuration options:
- ThinkSystem DB Series SAN Switches:
https://lenovopress.com/storage/switches/rack#rt=product-guide
For information about interoperability with storage servers, see the Lenovo Storage Interoperability Links article, available from:
https://lenovopress.com/lp0584-lenovo-storage-interoperability-links
Warranty
The adapters carry a one-year limited warranty. When installed in a supported server, the adapters assume the server’s base warranty and any Lenovo Services warranty upgrade.
Physical specifications
The adapters have the following dimensions (approximate):
- Low profile PCIe form factor card
- 168 mm x 69 mm (6.60 in. x 2.7 in.)
- Standard (3U) and low-profile (2U) brackets included
Operating environment
The adapters are supported in the following environment:
- Temperature:
- Operating: 0 to 55 °C (32 to 131 °F)
- Storage: -20 to 85 °C (-4 to 185 °F)
- Relative humidity: 5 - 95% (non-condensing)
Agency approvals
The adapters conform to the following regulations:
- AS/NZS CISPR22:2009+A1, Class A
- Australian EMC Framework (RCM)
- China RoHS compliant
- cUR recognized to CSA 22.2, No. 60950-1-07
- EN55022:2010, Class A
- EN55024:2010
- EN55032:2012
- EU (CE Mark)
- EU Low Voltage Directive
- UKCA Mark
- FCC Rules, Part 15, Class A
- Industry Canada, ICES-003, Class A
- Japan VCCI, Class A
- Korea KCC, Class A
- RoHS Compliant (Directive 2011/65/EU)
- TUV certified to EN60950-1+A11+A1+A12+A2
- Taiwan BSMI, Class A
- Taiwan BSMI RoHS Compliant
- UL recognized to UL60950-1 2nd Edition
Related publications and links
For more information, see the following resources:
-
Analyst report: "64 Gb Fibre Channel Performance with Lenovo ThinkSystem Emulex LPe36002 Gen 7 FC HBA"
https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/resources/data-center-solutions/analyst-reports/64-gb-fibre-channel-performance-with-lenovo-thinksystem-emulex-lpe36002-gen-7-test-report/ -
Lenovo Press paper, "Benefits of an End-to-End NVMe over FC Solution with Lenovo ThinkSystem"
https://lenovopress.com/lp0955 -
Lenovo ThinkSystem networking options product page
https://lenovopress.com/lp0765-networking-options-for-thinksystem-servers - Lenovo Storage Interoperability Links
https://lenovopress.com/lp0584-lenovo-storage-interoperability-links - Broadcom product page for the LPe35000 Series adapters:
https://www.broadcom.com/products/storage/fibre-channel-host-bus-adapters/lpe35000-m2 - Lenovo support
http://support.lenovo.com - Lenovo ServerProven
http://static.lenovo.com/us/en/serverproven/xseries/sharedstorage/samatrix.shtml - Emulex HBA Manager (formerly Emulex OneCommand Manager)
https://www.broadcom.com/products/storage/fibre-channel-host-bus-adapters/emulex-hba-manager
Trademarks
Lenovo and the Lenovo logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Lenovo in the United States, other countries, or both. A current list of Lenovo trademarks is available on the Web at https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/legal/copytrade/.
The following terms are trademarks of Lenovo in the United States, other countries, or both:
Lenovo®
ServerProven®
ThinkSystem®
The following terms are trademarks of other companies:
AMD is a trademark of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Intel® and Xeon® are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries.
Linux® is the trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries.
Microsoft®, Windows Server®, and Windows® are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.
Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.
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