Configuring Basic BOFM

Configuring Basic BOFM involves a number of steps that include the creation of your configuration file and applying the new configuration.

Important:
  1. To use Basic BOFM you must obtain a Basic BOFM license, which is available from the IBM BladeCenter Open Fabric Manager website .
  2. Changes in the Basic BOFM take effect when you restart the server. See the documentation that comes with your blade server for further instructions on how to turn off and turn on your blade server.
Consider the following conditions before using and installing BladeCenter HS23 Type 7875 and Emulex 10GbE VFA (option part number 81Y3120 and 90Y9332):
Table 1. BOFM configurations with BladeCenter HS23 and Emulex 10GbE VFA
  pNIC 1 IBM Virtual Fabric Mode Switch Independent Mode
Port 1 1 Gb LOM 2 1 Gb LOM 2 1 Gb LOM 2
Port 2 1 Gb LOM 2 1 Gb LOM 2 1 Gb LOM 2
Port 3      
Port 4      
Port 5 10 Gb LOM 2 10 Gb LOM 2 10 Gb LOM 2
Port 6 Emulex 10 GbE VFA    
Port 7 10 Gb LOM 2 10 Gb LOM 2 10 Gb LOM 2
Port 8 Emulex 10 GbE VFA    
Table notes:
  1. Multichannel disabled
  2. LAN on motherboard (LOM)
  3. BOFM supports LOM whether the multichannel is enabled or disabled, but the VFA is only supported when the multichannel is disabled.
  4. When FCoE personality is enabled, the World Wide Node Name (WWNN) port matches the Ethernet port.
  5. When storage personalities (iSCSI or FCoE) are enabled, the storage ports obtain their MAC address from the MAC_2 field of the physical ports.
  6. When the multichannel is enabled, the Ethernet information for the virtual ports is obtained from the virtual Ethernet data. If storage personalities (iSCSI or FCoE) are also enabled, Ethernet data for Virtual Port (vPort) 3 and 4 are ignored.
  7. When the multichannel is enabled on BladeCenter HS23 10 Gb LOM ports, Ethernet data for Virtual Port (vPort) 5 and 6 are ignored. For 1Gb LOM ports, the Ethernet data is from the MAC address of Ethernet port 1 and 2.
  8. You can manually edit the .CSV file to configure VLAN columns in IBM virtual fabric mode and switch independent mode. You can also configure minBand and maxBand in the switch independent mode.
  9. Install the 10Gb interposer card to enable virtual ports for port 5 and 7.
Note: You may consider the above-mentioned conditions when installing and using Emulex 10GbE Virtual Fabric Adapter (option part number 49Y4235) and Emulex 10GbE Virtual Fabric Adapter II (CFFh) (option part number 90Y3550).