Broadcom Demos 10GbE iSCSI HBA

Broadcom Corporation, in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, announced that it is the first to demonstrate 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) iSCSI host bus adapter (HBA) functionality, along with converged networking and storage functionality, within VMware virtualized server environments. These capabilities was demonstrated at VMworld 2008 exhibition on Broadcom NetXtreme II converged network interface controllers (C-NICs) that address the challenging and dynamic input/output (I/O) requirements of a virtualized server by offering networking and storage convergence, as well as real-time flexibility in I/O processing, in a low power, low cost solution.

Besides the newly added iSCSI HBA functionality to its C-NICs, Broadcom is working with VMware to provide support for VMware virtualization including advanced networking features such as NetQueue and VMDirectPath.

Networked storage is crucial in virtual server environments as it provides for a smooth migration and failover of a guest operating system (GOS) from one physical server to another. iSCSI has emerged as a high-performance, easy-to-manage networked storage technology that is popular in many virtualization deployments. As server and enterprise application customers strive to achieve density and compute-resource utilization objectives for their servers and enterprise applications, Broadcom’s NetXtreme II iSCSI HBA functionality, with support for VMware virtualization, provides the converged functionality needed in a virtualized server environment by offering complete on-chip processing solutions that free up CPU resources, and increase bandwidth and performance.

"Broadcom is working with VMware to provide support for VMware virtualization such as iSCSI HBA functionality, as well as VMDirectPath and NetQueue for networking, on our NetXtreme II C-NIC products," said Vinod Lakhani, Senior Director & General Manager of Broadcom’s High-Speed Controller line of business. "Today’s demonstration of iSCSI HBA functionality and convergence on a VMware ESX hypervisor marks a significant performance milestone for I/O processing on virtualized servers."

"Advancements in VMware virtualization technology coupled with the increasing processing capability of hardware platforms are driving higher server consolidation ratios in data centers. To complement this trend, Broadcom’s innovation in high bandwidth I/O subsytems and network fabric convergence can add value for our customers by pushing the current boundaries of performance and functionality," said Brian Byun, Vice President of Global Partners and Solutions at VMware. "VMware is pleased to work with Broadcom in the areas of 10 Gigabit Ethernet, network convergence, and hardware offloads, and the VMDirectPath iSCSI performance shows the exciting results of one of our joint efforts that leverages VMware NetQueue and VMDirectPath I/O technologies."

Demonstration Highlights
Broadcom’s VMworld 2008 demonstration addresses the needs of enterprise server users who intend to deploy the VMware platform. The demonstration illustrates the convergence of networking and storage at 10GbE speeds featuring iSCSI HBA functionality with support for VMDirectPath and NetQueue technologies.

Broadcom iSCSI HBA functionality enables on-chip processing of the iSCSI protocol (as well as TCP and IP protocols), which frees up host CPU resources at 10 Gigabit per second (Gbps) line rates over a single Ethernet port while running on VMware ESX. This functionality provides extended performance benefits that meet the demands of bandwidth intensive applications requiring high performance block storage I/O for the hypervisor, servicing all instances of the GOS. In addition, Broadcom’s 1GbE C-NIC delivers improved performance also running on VMware ESX. Regardless of network speed, Broadcom iSCSI HBA delivers performance benefits not obtainable from alternative solution approaches.

Enterprise networks are well positioned to take advantage of iSCSI functionality since it is built on top of the highly familiar TCP/IP protocols and because of the ubiquity and effectiveness of Ethernet, which allows storage content to be accessed from an Ethernet fabric. The increase from 1 Gbps Ethernet to 10 Gbps Ethernet delivers increased storage performance levels not previously achievable and provides sufficient bandwidth that permits multiple types of high bandwidth protocol traffic to co-exist on the same network. As a result, a server converges networking and storage onto the same network while lowering the total cost of ownership (TCO), or uses a dedicated network for data and for storage, thereby using the same equipment for multiple purposes.

VMDirectPath in a VMware environment enables NetXtreme II controllers to be dedicated to a GOS, allowing the on-chip processing support in the C-NIC to be exposed and function within the GOS. By functioning within the GOS, Broadcom’s C-NICs provide better throughput for the GOS, as well as better use of CPU resources since the hypervisor no longer needs to process each network I/O request. In addition, VMDirectPath support allows the user to benefit from on-chip TCP processing in a GOS, which allows server customers to realize improved networking performance.

NetQueue in a VMware environment enables NetXtreme II controllers to provide extended performance benefits that meet the demands of bandwidth intensive applications requiring high performance and higher networking throughput in a virtual environment.

NetXtreme II C-NIC Information
Broadcom’s NetXtreme II Ethernet controller chips were the first controllers in the industry to enable storage networking, high performance clustering, accelerated data networking and remote system management pass-through functions in a single, all-in-one solution at price points enabling broad adoption of this technology. By deploying these functions over standard Ethernet networks, IT professionals can significantly reduce the costs associated with deploying and maintaining today’s complex fabric infrastructure.