Setting up the LAN-on-motherboard (LOM) feature

This topic provides information about setting up the LAN-on-motherboard (LOM) feature.

Some models of the IBM® Flex System x240 Compute Node Types 7863, 8737, 8738, and 8956 have an Ethernet LAN-on-motherboard (LOM) controller integrated on the system board. The LOM provides the following features:
  • Two operational mode choices:
    • One-port physical NIC mode (pNIC), multichannel disabled, which is the default.
    • Virtual NIC mode (vNIC), multichannel enabled. vNIC mode enables up to 4 virtual NIC interfaces per 10 Gb physical port (8 total for the LOM).

    For more information about how LOM ports are mapped to switch modules in the chassis, see Configuring I/O modules.

  • Two options for vNIC linking:
    • VNIC1, IBM Virtual Fabric mode.
    • VNIC2, Switch Independent mode.

    You can select these options using the Setup utility (F1).

  • Link auto negotiation 10 Gb/1 Gb full duplex.
  • Bus-mastering support.
  • Direct memory access (DMA) support.
  • Interoperability with existing FC SAN infrastructures, such as switches, arrays, SRM tools (including Emulex utilities), SAN practices, and other infrastructures.
  • Unified Ethernet-to-FC SAN connectivity provided by an FCoE switch.
  • 10 Gb MAC features such as MSI-X support, jumbo frames (8 KB) support, VLAN tagging (802.1Q, PER priority pause/priority flow control), and advanced packet filtering.
  • NIC failover support.
  • Support for IBM Fabric Manager (IFM).
  • Preboot Execution Environment, UEFI, and Legacy PXE.
  • Wake on LAN (WOL).
  • SRIOV support.
  • ISCSI or FCoE capabilities, which can be enabled through IBM Features on Demand. When enabled, the ISCSI or FCoE operations are supported on the second vNIC of the physical port.

Separate NIC, ISCSI, and FCoE drivers are provided to support all configurations. To obtain the device drivers, go to http://www.emulex.com/downloads/ibm/vfa-software-kits.html.

No host operating system changes are required for you to use the LOM features. NIC and HBA functionality (including device management, utilities, and other functions) are transparent to the host operating system.

For more information about using the LOM feature, go to http://www.emulex.com/support.html.

Parent topic: Configuring the compute node