An Ethernet controller is integrated on each blade server system board. You must install a device driver to enable the blade server operating system to address the Ethernet controller.
Each controller provides two 1 Gb full-duplex interfaces for connecting to one of the Ethernet-compatible I/O modules in I/O-module bays 1 and 2, which enables simultaneous transmission and reception of data on the Ethernet local area network (LAN).
The routing from an Ethernet controller to an I/O-module bay varies, depending on the type of BladeCenter® that the blade is installed in. For example, each Ethernet controller on the system board is routed to a different I/O module in I/O module bay 1 or module bay 2 of the BladeCenter H or HT.
See Blade server Ethernet controller enumeration for information about how to determine the routing from an Ethernet controller to an I/O-module bay for the blade server.
You must install a device driver for the blade server operating system to address the Ethernet controllers. For device drivers and information about configuring Ethernet controllers, see the Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet Software CD that comes with the blade server. For updated information about configuring the controllers, see http://www.ibm.com/systems/support/.
The Ethernet controllers in your blade server support failover, which provides automatic redundancy for the Ethernet controllers. Failover capabilities vary per BladeCenter unit.
Without failover, only one Ethernet controller can be connected from each server to each virtual LAN or subnet. With failover, you can configure more than one Ethernet controller from each server to attach to the same virtual LAN or subnet. Either one of the integrated Ethernet controllers can be configured as the primary Ethernet controller. If you have configured the controllers for failover and the primary link fails, the secondary controller takes over. When the primary link is restored, the Ethernet traffic switches back to the primary Ethernet controller. See the operating-system device-driver documentation for information about configuring for failover.
Important: To support failover on the blade server Ethernet controllers, the Ethernet switch modules in the BladeCenter unit must have identical configurations.