Lenovo Flex System FC3171 Product Manual

Lenovo Flex System FC3171 8Gb SAN Switch and Pass­thru Modules

Product Guide

The Lenovo® Flex System™ FC3171 8Gb SAN Switch is a full-fabric Fibre Channel component with expanded
functionality. The SAN switch supports high speed traffic processing for Flex System configurations, and offers
scalability in external SAN size and complexity, and enhanced systems management capabilities. The Lenovo
Flex System FC3171 8Gb Pass-thru supports a fully interoperable solution for seamless integration of the Fibre
Channel initiators to an existing fabric. The pass-thru module uses industry-standard N_Port ID virtualization
(NPIV) technology to provide a cost-effective connectivity solution for the Flex System chassis.

Withdrawn: The FC3171 8Gb Pass-thru is now withdrawn from marketing

The following figure shows the module.

Figure 1. Lenovo Flex System FC3171 8Gb SAN Switch and Pass-thru

Did you know?

The FC3171 Switch is licensed to operate in either full-fabric mode or intelligent pass-thru mode, and the
FC3171 Pass-thru operates in the intelligent pass-thru mode.

These modules allow Flex System integration with any open-standards-based SAN, whether the module has
enterprise open-system fabric functionality using the full-fabric mode (with the FC3171 Switch only), or the
module has transparent switching functionality using the intelligent pass-thru mode (with the FC3171 Switch or
Pass-Thru).

Lenovo Flex System FC3171 8Gb SAN Switch and Pass-thru Modules 1

Part number information

The part numbers to order the switch and optional upgrades are shown in the following table.

Table 1. Part numbers and feature codes for ordering

Description Part number Feature code

Lenovo Flex System FC3171 8Gb SAN Switch 69Y1930 A0TD

Lenovo Flex System FC3171 8Gb SAN Pass-thru 69Y1934* A0TJ*

* Withdrawn from marketing

Unlike FC3171 8Gb SAN Switch full-fabric operations, the pass-thru module concentrates multiple compute
nodes into the external ports. The external ports connect to external Fibre Channel switches that support
NPIV. The internal ports connect directly to compute nodes through the chassis backplanes. The pass-thru
module presents one or more compute nodes per port to the fabric. The pass-thru module expands the fabric,
but, unlike a full-fabric switch, it does not count against the fabric domain.

Note: The Pass-thru module cannot be upgraded to a full-fabric switch module.

The part number includes the following items:

One Lenovo Flex System FC3171 8Gb SAN Switch or Pass-thru module

Documentation package

The modules do not include a serial management cable; however, the Flex System Management Serial Access
Cable, 90Y9338, is supported and contains two cables, a mini-USB-to-RJ45 serial cable and a mini-USB-to­DB9 serial cable, either of which can be used to connect to the switch locally for configuration tasks and
firmware updates.

The switch comes without any SFP+ transceivers, they must be ordered separately to provide outside
connectivity. The following table lists supported SFP+ options and optical cables for them.

Table 2. Supported SFP+ transceivers

Description Part

number

Feature
code

Maximum
supported

Transceivers - 8 Gb (operating at 8 Gbps and 4 Gbps)

8Gb SFP+ SW Optical Transceiver 44X1964 5075 6

Cables for SFP+ transceivers

Lenovo 0.5m LC-LC OM3 MMF Cable 00MN499 ASR5 6

Lenovo 1m LC-LC OM3 MMF Cable 00MN502 ASR6 6

Lenovo 3m LC-LC OM3 MMF Cable 00MN505 ASR7 6

Lenovo 5m LC-LC OM3 MMF Cable 00MN508 ASR8 6

Lenovo 10m LC-LC OM3 MMF Cable 00MN511 ASR9 6

Lenovo 15m LC-LC OM3 MMF Cable 00MN514 ASRA 6

Lenovo 25m LC-LC OM3 MMF Cable 00MN517 ASRB 6

Lenovo 30m LC-LC OM3 MMF Cable 00MN520 ASRC 6

Lenovo Flex System FC3171 8Gb SAN Switch and Pass-thru Modules 2

Benefits

The switch offers the following key benefits:

Easy to install and manage
On-board GUI — no software to load. Just point a web browser at any switch and manage the entire
fabric from that location. No matter what your level of expertise, the web-based QuickTools interface
has all you need for basic fabric management.

Fast, reliable performance
The switch provides uncontested “wire speed” bandwidth at every port — a total of 320 Gbps per
switch with less than 4 ms fabric latency.

Interoperability
The switch supports FC-SW-2 interoperability standards and transparent mode of operations to simplify
integration into a multi-vendor fabric.

Investment protection
The switch provides low total cost of ownership (TCO) with quick set up and easy to manage integrated
tools.

Features and specifications

The FC3171 8Gb SAN Switch and Pass-thru have the following features and specifications:

Internal ports:

14 internal full-duplex 8 Gb FC ports
Internal ports operate as F_ports (fabric ports) on the FC3171 8Gb SAN Switch
Internal ports operate as TH_Ports (transparent host ports) on the FC3171 8Gb SAN Pass-thru
Two internal full-duplex 1 GbE ports connected to the chassis management module

External ports:

Six external ports for 8 Gb SFP+ transceivers supporting 4 Gb and 8 Gb port speeds (SFP+
modules are not included and must be purchased separately - see Table 2)
External ports can operate as F_ports (fabric ports), FL_ports (fabric loop ports), or E_ports
(expansion ports) on the FC3171 8Gb SAN Switch
External ports operate as TF_Ports (Transparent Fabric Ports) on the FC3171 8Gb SAN Pass-thru
One external 100 Mb Fast Ethernet (100BASE-TX) port with RJ-45 connector for switch
configuration and management
One RS-232 serial port (mini-USB connector) that provides an additional means to configure the
switch module

Transparent (N_Port ID Virtualization - NPIV) mode support

Power-on self-test diagnostics and status reporting

Support for Non-Disruptive Code Load Activation (NDCLA)

Registered State Change Notification (RSCN):
The switch supports RSCN as described in FC-FLA. RSCN enables an agent to register for change
events in the fabric and attached devices.

Support for standards-based FC-SW2 interoperability

Error detection:

Cyclic redundancy check (CRC)
8-byte and 10-byte conversion
Parity
Long frame and short frame
D_ID mismatch
S_ID mismatch

Frame bundling:

No frame bundling (frames are intermixed from different source ports)
Soft lockdown (the I/O module waits for the sequence to be completed or a gap in the frame

Lenovo Flex System FC3171 8Gb SAN Switch and Pass-thru Modules 3

traffic to occur before it services requests from a different port)

Configurable Fabric Address Notification (FAN)

Supports up to 239 switches depending on configuration

8 Gb switch fabric aggregate bandwidth: 320 Gbps at full duplex

Maximum frame size: 2148 bytes (2112 byte payload)

Nonblocking architecture to prevent latency

Fabric Latency: Less than 4 ms

Support for Call Home function

Support for Domain Name Service (DNS)

Support for Internet protocol (IP) Version 4 and Version 6

Support for Internet protocol security (IPsec)

Support for separate trap community strings for each trap address

Support for Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) Version 3

Support for vital product data (VPD)

Easier SAN maintenance, isolation and troubleshooting with SANdoctor that is a part of base firmware

Optional small form-factor pluggable plus (SFP+) modules

The following software features come with the switch module:

QuickTools Web interface

Fabric Security

The switch supports the following management methods:

Web interface through QuickTools

Command-line interface through SSH (Telnet is also supported but disabled by default)

Switch simple network management protocol (SNMP) agent: enables a network management
workstation to receive configuration values, traffic information, and Fibre Channel failure data through
SNMP and the Ethernet interface

Supported standards

The switch supports the following Fibre Channel standards:

C-PH version 4.3

FC-PH-2

FC-PH-3

FC-AL version 4.5

FC-AL-2 Rev 7.0

FC-FLA

FC-GS-3

FC-FG

FC-PLDA

FC-Tape

FC-VI

FC-SW-2

Fibre Channel Element MIB RFC 2837

Fibre Alliance MIB version 4.0

Lenovo Flex System FC3171 8Gb SAN Switch and Pass-thru Modules 4

Supported chassis and adapters

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 adapter cards installed in the compute
nodes are routed to two I/O bays for redundancy and performance.

Figure 2. Location of the I/O bays in the Flex System chassis

The Flex System FC3171 8Gb SAN Switch and Pass-thru modules can be installed in I/O bays 1, 2, 3, and 4 of
the Flex System chassis. Up to four FC3171 modules supported in a chassis. A supported adapter card must
be installed in a corresponding slot of the compute node.

With compute nodes that have an integrated dual-port 10 GbE network interface controller (NIC) the FC3171
modules can only be installed in bays 3 and 4 because integrated NICs ports are routed to bays 1 and 2 with a
specialized periscope connector and the FC adapter card cannot be installed in the slot that is routed to I/O
bays 1 and 2. However, when needed, the periscope connector can be replaced with an FC adapter card, in
which case integrated NIC will be disabled and FC modules can be used in bays 1 and 2.

The following table shows compatibility information for the FC3171 modules and Flex System chassis.

Table 3. Flex System chassis compatibility

Description Part

number

Enterprise
Chassis with
CMM

Enterprise
Chassis with
CMM2

Carrier-grade
Chassis with
CMM2

Lenovo Flex System FC3171 8Gb SAN Switch 69Y1930 Yes Yes No

Lenovo Flex System FC3171 8Gb SAN Pass-thru 69Y1934 Yes Yes No

The connections between the adapters installed in the compute nodes to the switch bays in the chassis are
shown diagrammatically in the following figure. The figure shows both half-wide servers, such as the x240 with
two adapters, and full-wide servers, such as the x440 with four adapters.

Lenovo Flex System FC3171 8Gb SAN Switch and Pass-thru Modules 5