How is the compatibility of the 10GbE daughter card with other devices for the C6100? Please forgive my ignorance with FC and IB. I haven't had a chance to play with them much and when I did, it was just from switch to like switch. Compatibility wasn't something I've paid attention to in the past. I posed these questions in the 10GB forum and haven’t received a reply yet. It was in reference mainly to the OneConnect FC Cards.
"How do these FC and IB cards interact with ESXi? Does ESXi see them as a NIC or a storage controller? Is there a way to attach them to the Vswitch?"
EDIT: Found the answer. RTFM! "When such adapter is installed, your host detects and can use both CNA components. In the vSphere Client, the networking component appears as a standard network adapter (vmnic) and the Fibre Channel component as a FCoE adapter (vmhba). You do not need to configure the hardware FCoE adapter to be able to use it."
An additional question is, are they compatible with the C6100's FC daughter card? A better question may be; are the protocols and hardware standardized across the industry? If ESXi will attach them to the Vswitch, then this would give me 10GbE W/O sucking up my only PCIe slot.
As cool as IB sounds just because of 40Gb/s, it also sounds like a PITA with driver support and compatibility between brands. Further, 40Gb/s is still a bit expensive. My concerns and ignorance remains the same with FC. Any thoughts?
These C6100s have so much potential. However, the limited on board expandability keeps kicking me in the rear.
Sorry for the tangent all. Pimp smirf,
I'm not sure what your end state is however; why not buy a used rack. They are plentiful if you watch craigslist. I picked up a full size for $125 that’s in good shape about a year ago. The smaller (half or quarter racks) are more expensive due to supply and demand, $200-400.
If you are looking for a piece of furniture, your only bet is to build. One of my next major projects is an entertainment center to rackmount my UPS, AMPs, processer, and media PC to sit nicely under my screen. If you are looking to silence servers like the C6100, building will likely be a better bet. Although my rack helps with noise, it’s not a large improvement. I've been putting off installing sound insulation in my rack which would likely help. Still, there are too many holes and vents that are not baffled to muffle the noise. Further, if I close my eyes, the 3 x 120mm AC fans on top makes me think I'm on a flight line next to a Blackhawk or Chinook. I don't run those fans at all since my rack isn't that dense with always on heat producing equipment.
Another idea, since I move every 2-4 years and generally build new houses; my next house will utilize earth tubes to pump air in and out of the ground around the foundation of the house. This will utilize a simple fan to move air in and out of my rack through PVC pipe to utilize the cool ground as a heat sink. Think of it as a poor man's AC.
