Partners

Emulex

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Emulex is the leader in converged networking solutions for the data center. Our Connectivity Continuum architecture provides intelligent networking services that transition today's infrastructure into tomorrow's unified network ecosystem. Emulex provides a single framework that intelligently connects every server, network and storage device within the data center. Through strategic collaboration and integrated partner solutions, Emulex provides its customers with industry leading business value, operational flexibility and strategic advantage. Emulex is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:ELX) and has corporate headquarters in Costa Mesa, California.

Emulex and Microsoft Virtualization

Emulex works closely with Microsoft to deliver products that offer industry-leading I/O connectivity management tools and features for virtualized server environments.

Emulex and Microsoft have a long history of working together to develop and deliver SAN solutions. As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and member of the Microsoft Interop Vendor Alliance, Emulex delivers robust SAN solutions that are integrated and interoperable with Microsoft technologies and products including Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, Hyper-V Server, and System Center Virtual Machine Manager. With a history of delivering high-performance, scalable, and reliable connectivity solutions that offer the finest software architecture, innovative virtualization technology, and the best interoperability and support, Emulex is the dominant provider of Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters (HBA) for Windows-based SANs.

  • Enhanced SAN connectivity: Emulex SAN solutions are integrated with Hyper-V and System Center Virtual Machine Manager for optimized SAN connectivity.

  • Superior scalability, performance, and manageability: Whatever you need to get connected to your information, Emulex has it – HBAs, virtualization technologies, and management software for leading servers and operating system environments.

Customer Scenario

With the unrelenting escalation of costs for power, cooling, and data center footprint, IT managers are under pressure to extract even more performance from their hardware and software. Server virtualization never made more sense.

Microsoft Hyper-V is the next-generation hypervisor technology that provides highly efficient server virtualization fully integrated with Windows Server 2008. In order to fully realize the benefits of Hyper-V, servers must have access to network storage that is fast and flexible. To that end, recent studies have shown that 60% of virtualized servers are connected to a Fibre Channel Storage Area Network, enabling fail-over cluster support and rapid migration of virtual machines.

Emulex + Microsoft Solution

LightPulse Adapters and Management Tools Provide Critical SAN Connectivity
HBAnyware is an Emulex management application designed to work with Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) 2008 to provide a fully integrated SAN solution for Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V. Using HBAnyware and Emulex LightPulse adapters, storage administrators can create Virtual HBA Ports with an associated NPIV-enabled volume mount point and attached LUN. Server administrators can then use the virtualized LUN connection to create and manage VMs using SCVMM. This optimizes SAN connectivity for Microsoft virtualization environments while maintaining SAN best practices.

Emulex PRO-enabled Management Pack
The Emulex PRO-enabled management pack monitors incoming and outgoing I/O traffic across Emulex HBAs and CNAs running on Windows Hyper-V tracking the input/RX and output/TX connections on the adapter’s physical port for high bandwidth utilization. If thresholds are exceeded a PRO Tip recommends migration of VMs to reduce the I/O traffic load.

Emulex “PRO-enabled” management pack will monitor I/O rates across the HBA relative to maximum available bandwidth. The “PRO tip” will notify customers to take corrective actions, to either move the VM to a different physical server or reduce the link speed. Once the issue is resolved, the VM can be migrated back manually and link speed restored.

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  • PRO Pack User Manual

    The Emulex PRO Pack, the PRO-enabled management pack, provides support for Emulex adapters by interfacing with Microsoft's System Center Operations Manager 2007 and System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 in virtualized environments.

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Emulex