SN0430983-00 Rev. E 2/17 1

White Paper

Enhancing Scalability Through NIC

Switch Independent Partitioning

QLogic 57800S, 57810S, and 57840S Ethernet Adapters

Unleash the Power of Data Center Servers

Network interface card (NIC) Switch Independent

Partitioning can simplify end-to-end networking

by dividing a network controller port into as many

as four partitions, enabling dynamic allocation of

bandwidth as needed while reducing the total cost

of ownership.

SPLITTING THE 10GbE PIPE

Partitioning begins by conguring a single 10GbE port to represent as

many as four separate partitions or physical functions. Each partition is an

actual PCI Express

(PCIe

) function that appears to the system ROM, OS,

or virtualization OS as a discrete physical NIC with its own driver software,

and each partition behaves as an independent NIC port (see Figure 1).

A partition allows complete logical isolation and division of networking

and storage resources, and administrators can dynamically assign these

resources on a per-partition basis. By provisioning each of these physical

functions with the desired bandwidth in 100Mbps units, administrators can

achieve high granularity in partitioning. In essence, the technology allows

administrators to split the 10GbE pipe into several network interfaces in

whatever increments are appropriate to provide the correct bandwidth

for each task. Switch Independent Partitioning works with a variety of

standard Ethernet switches and pass-through devices.

Each partition is congured with Relative Bandwidth Weight and with

Maximum Bandwidth. The Maximum Bandwidth is used to limit the

bandwidth given to a partition, even if there is available bandwidth that

no other partition uses. The relative weight is used to determine the

relative bandwidth a partition will get with regard to the other partitions

on the same port when they compete on the same available bandwidth.

A partition will get its relative weight out of the available bandwidth but

never more than its congured Maximum Bandwidth. If a partition is not

using its congured weight, its bandwidth will be available for the use of

other partitions.

OVERVIEW

A burgeoning number of applications, rich multimedia content,

increasing virtualization, and the growth of cloud computing hamper

networking efciency. To handle these increased workloads,

many organizations have transitioned from Gigabit Ethernet (GbE)

networks to 10-Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) networks. This bandwidth

increase can provide signicant performance and cost efciencies

while supporting efforts to consolidate data centers. However, as

organizations increasingly transition from GbE to 10GbE networks,

trafc ow for application workloads may not require the entire

bandwidth that is available in a 10GbE pipe.

Many organizations have built their IT infrastructures by adding

separate servers, networks, and storage capacity for each application

workload. These silo application deployments helped simplify

management in some ways, but left excessive pockets of unused

server capacity that contributed to network sprawl. While network

and storage convergence as well as server virtualization have helped

address these problems, the challenge for 10GbE networks has been

provisioning the appropriate bandwidth and data center resources

to meet varying application workload demands in both physical and

virtual environments. One powerful approach to help eliminate these

problems is Switch Independent Partitioning, in both physical and

virtual environments. This approach enables administrators to split

up the pipe to divide and reallocate bandwidth and resources as

needed. In collaboration with QLogic

, Dell

provides 10GbE Switch

Independent Partitioning in Dell PowerEdge™ rack, tower, and blade

servers, giving IT organizations enhanced exibility and capacity as

they migrate to 10GbE networks.

SN0430983-00 Rev. E 2/17 2

White Paper

Enhancing Scalability Through Network Interface Card

Switch Independent Partitioning

DYNAMIC BANDWIDTH PROVISIONING

Traditionally, systems administrators would oversubscribe bandwidth for

shared connections to handle demand surges by the same applications.

Instead, administrators can take advantage of the Switch Independent

Partitioning capability to handle such demands and can congure the

weighting of each partition to provide increased bandwidth presence

when an application requires it (see Figure 2). Each virtual machine (VM)

assigned to a specic partition with equal weights can acquire as much

free bandwidth as is available, while incrementally yielding bandwidth

back as demand from the other partitions increases.

SWITCH INDEPENDENT PARTITIONING CONFIGURATIONS

Each NIC partition is presented with a dedicated PCI function that

can be enabled or disabled by administrators. With this PCI function,

partitions behave as normal PCIe Ethernet devices from a host system

and OS perspective—requiring no changes to the OS. After the driver is

loaded, each enabled partition becomes essentially a dedicated network

connection or Ethernet and storage controller device. Standard device

congurations can then be applied to the partition.

Each partition can support networking functions such as TCP checksum

ofoad, large send ofoad, Transparent Packet Aggregation (TPA), multi-

queue receive-side scaling, VMware

NetQueue and Microsoft

VMQ,

along with storage Host Bus Adapter features such as iSCSI and FCoE.

Administrators can congure a partition to run iSCSI, FCoE, and

TCP/IP Ofoad Engine (TOE). All features can be enabled or disabled on

each partition as necessary.

Administrators can provision NICs quickly and easily using the Dell Unied

Server Congurator (USC).

STREAMLINING NETWORKING WITH SWITCH

INDEPENDENTPARTITIONING

Switch Independent Partitioning helps simplify the data center and the

network and storage infrastructure in several ways. For example, when

connecting servers to LANs and SANs, administrators may have to use

many cables, sometimes adding switches to reduce cable proliferation.

Switch Independent Partitioning provides a third alternative—consolidating

Ethernet and Fibre Channel connections onto signicantly reduced

numbers of devices. Like switches, Switch Independent Partitioning

reduces the number of cables without adding workloads on the network

—but Switch Independent Partitioning requires fewer devices versus

using switches and cables, and is designed to offer the following

additionalbenets:

• Reduced Network Sprawl: With a two-port GbE device, a data center

can usually deploy 10 NICs, two Host Bus Adapters, and many cables

and switch ports to meet bandwidth needs. With the 10GbE Switch

Independent Partitioning approach, the same capacity and exibility can

be provided with a 10GbE Converged Network Adapter—consolidating

the infrastructure onto much less equipment while using less facility

space than when deploying GbE devices.

• Maximized Network Scalability: Having a reduced number of network

devices and cables allows IT organizations and data centers to easily

scale their networks and add servers and network devices to meet

growing IT demands.

• Simplied Administration: Switch Independent Partitioning can also

save time and labor by helping to simplify the management tasks for

IT administrators and enhance their self-sufciency. They can add or

replace network cards or move workloads from one partition to another

within minutes.

Figure 1. Switch Independent Partitioning Conguration