Mellanox Multiprotocol Remote Boot Technology

Mellanox Technologies, Ltd. announced the availability of FlexBoot, a multiprotocol remote boot technology that allows IT administrators to provision servers in the data center using ConnectX adapters either over InfiniBand with Boot over InfiniBand (BoIB) or Ethernet with Boot over Ethernet (BoE).

Mellanox’s family of ConnectX adapters delivers industry leading performance for both 10 Gigabit Ethernet and 10, 20 and 40Gb/s InfiniBand. Mellanox’s unique Virtual Protocol Interconnect (VPI) technology enables the adapter card to auto-sense the connected fabric and configure the port type as InfiniBand or Ethernet. FlexBoot, based on the EtherBoot/gPXE open source architecture, works in conjunction with VPI technology giving IT managers the flexibility to deploy servers with one adapter card into InfiniBand or 10 Gigabit Ethernet networks that can boot from a remote storage target (iSCSI target) or a LAN target (Ethernet Remote Boot Server). Whether using ConnectX in 10GigE or InfiniBand applications, FlexBoot provides IT administrators ease-of-use and reduced complexity.

"Cloud computing and SaaS infrastructures require flexible networking options that deliver optimum efficiency and performance for applications in multi-tenant environments," said John Monson, vice president of marketing at Mellanox Technologies. "Data Center administrators can reduce server administration costs by enabling remote boot based dynamic repurposing of servers across both InfiniBand and Ethernet fabrics simultaneously while simplifying configuration management with a single ROM image on adapters in the servers."

FlexBoot comes with an easy to use Command Line Interface (CLI) that can be invoked at the end of a server’s Power On Self Test (POST) sequence. Using CLI commands, the user can configure and manage the network port interfaces, chose boot options and boot from various targets.

Availability
FlexBoot is supported on all Mellanox ConnectX and InfiniHost III Ex/Lx InfiniBand adapters. Available today, FlexBoot can be downloaded via a binary package from Mellanox’s website.