Network switches

IBM Fusion HCI System has two physical networks defined within it: a high-speed network for use by the storage cluster and applications, and a management network that is used for controlling the servers and monitoring the health of the servers.

100GbE High Speed Network Switch (Model S01 and S05): The high-speed network is built around a pair of 32-port, 100Gb Ethernet switches. The switches are configured together using MLAG to create a redundant pair. All of the compute-storage servers and the GPU servers have a 2-port, 100Gb Ethernet adapter. One port on the adapter is connected to the first high-speed switch and the second port is connected to the second high-speed switch. This 100GbE connections are reserved for use by the storage cluster. All of the compute-storage servers and the GPU servers also have a 2-port, 25Gb Ethernet adapter. Using breakout cables that split the 100GbE ports on the switch into four 25GbE ports, one port on the server’s 25 GbE network adapter is connected to the first high-speed switch and the second port is connected to the second high-speed switch. The OpenShift network and the workload runs through this switch.

1GbE Management Network Switch (Model S02 and S04)

The management network is built around a pair of 48-port, 1Gb Ethernet switches. The Integrated Management Module (IMM) of each server and the management of switches run through this 1Gb management switch.