The Business Benefits of the Qlogic 8400 Series 10Gbe CNA for the Software- Defined Data Center

Solution Sheet The Business Benefits of the QLogic 8400 Series 10GbE CNA for the Software- Defined Data Center

KEY BENEFITS • High-Performance Network Overlays: VXLAN & NVGRE Tunneling Offloads • Simplified Migration to 10GbE: Switch Independent NIC Partitioning (NPAR) • Next Gen I/O Virtualization: Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) • Single Pane of Glass Multi-Adapter Management (ACS) • More VMs per Server: Full FCoE and iSCSI Offloads

OVERVIEW PERFORMANCE WITHOUT CPU BURDEN The QLogic 8400 Series Adapter combines a broad set of 10Gb In today’s Information Age, faster data means faster business. QLogic Ethernet features optimized for a virtualized Software-Defined Data leads the industry in providing high-performance hardware based true Center (SDDC) driven by Software Defined Networks (SDN). In Converged Network Adapters for all manner of data communication from addition, it features industry-leading performance by delivering “bare metal OS” 10GbE connectivity to virtualized SDN optimization and hardware-based true Converged Network Adapter (CNA) that fully the industry’s highest performing FCoE and iSCSI 10GbE Converged offloads FCoE and iSCSI storage networking traffic. Networking technology.

INDUSTRY CHALLENGE Acceleration for Software Defined Networking—VXLAN/ Do more with less. NVGRE SUPPORT Networking, server, and storage virtualization technologies provide Software Defined Networking (SDN) was created in part to solve problems more flexibility and better Total Cost of Ownership of the IT systems associated with multi-tenant environments. A data center that hosts that run businesses today. A crucial decision confronts business hundreds of thousands of customers across many physical locations leaders building up or building out their IT infrastructure: What is the with virtualized customer workloads will need many VLANs and the best way to connect these highly virtualized resources within the data ability to share resources on different networks. To enable this wide center and out to customers? resource sharing, Microsoft created Network Virtualization Generic Routing Encapsulation (NVGRE) for Hyper-V and VMware created Virtual Extensible Not all networking adapters have the same capabilities. LAN (VXLAN) “tunneling protocols.” To optimize networking traffic, Some Ethernet adapters may be described as having “converged network adapters must be compatible with these tunneling protocols. networking” features to connect Fibre Channel or iSCSI storage to their servers but such claims can often by misleading. A QLogic The QLogic 8400 CNAs support tunneling offload within the adapter 8400 hardware based true Converged Network Adapter will provide hardware, which offers stateless offload support of tunneled network all the performance and virtualization capabilities expected in a traffic. In addition to fully supporting Windows Hyper-V NVGRE 10Gb Ethernet adapter and provide hardware based storage protocol and VMware vSphere VXLAN, the QLE8400 provides many other offloads that make it a clear leader in Performance, Reliability, virtualization features. and Control. The QLogic 8400 Series adapter delivers everything imaginable for today’s needs and tomorrow’s possibilities.

SN0530904-00 Rev. A 10/14 1 The Business Benefits of the QLogic 8400 Series Solution Sheet

Feature QLogic 8400 QLogic 8300 QLogic 8200 Intel X710 Intel X540 Line Rate Performance Switch Independent NIC Partitioning VXLAN / NVGRE Offloads SR-IOV Remote Adapter Management Multi-Protocol SAN Boot Support Full iSCSI Offload in the Adapter Full FCoE Offload in the Adapter

Industry Leading Hardware based Full Offload of iSCSI & FCoE RELIABILITY Demartek compared the QLogic hardware based true Converged Network QLogic has over 20 years of experience building bullet-proof state-of-the- Adapters to our competitors in their report: art communications hardware. The QLE8400 has grown from 13 previous Demartek Evaluation of QLogic 57810S. product generations. This technology is fully adopted by every major tier-1 OEM. Passing rigorous OEM server certifications validates the 8400 Series The Demartek study includes data showing 100% higher IOPS for iSCSI adapter’s dependable functionality. and FCOE storage traffic as compared to Intel when “no offload” is used on either the Intel or the QLogic 10GbE adapter. Further, when the hardware CONTROL offloads are being utilized on the QLE8400 the performance jumps to The 8400 Series Adapter enables quick and easy multi-adapter over 384% higher IOPS per CPU for the QLE8400 as compared to the administration with full functionality. This lets SAN administrators discover, Intel adapter. configure, monitor, diagnose, provision, and control access across multiple physical servers, operating systems, and protocols. A 364% higher IOPS per CPU benchmark is more than a performance statistic—extremely improved CPU utilization yields a greater return on CONCLUSION investment. The QLE8400 frees up server CPU cycles, which makes more QLogic 8400 Series Adapter hardware effectively matches today’s ever- computing power available for running more customer VMs on the same evolving data center. Whether the infrastructure is virtualized or not, virtualized server. includes 10GbE features or converged networking, the QLE8400 is the networking adapter to choose for Performance, Reliability, and Control.

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© 2014 QLogic Corporation. Specifications are subject to change without notice. All rights reserved worldwide. QLogic and the QLogic logo re registered trademarks of QLogic Corporation. All other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Information supplied by QLogic Corporation is believed to be accurate and reliable. QLogic Corporation assumes no responsibility for any errors in this brochure. QLogic Corporation reserves the right, without notice, to make changes in product design or specifications.

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