Dell PowerEdge VRTX Enclosure Owner's Manual

Fabric A provides internal connection to four lanes per server module for a maximum of 16 lanes. The number of external connections are based on the I/O module installed. The R1-2401 switch and R1-PT pass-through module provide a maximum of eight RJ-45 1 GbE ports. The R1-2210 switch module provides a maximum of two RJ-45 1 GbE ports and four SFP+ 10 GbE ports.

For information on the supported I/O modules, see Supported I/O Modules.

Fabric A Pass-Through Module

The Pass-Through Module (PTM) I/O Module (IOM) allows devices to connect directly to the blade server NIC. The IOM extends each blade server NIC port using an internal port on the IOM that is a direct connection to an external RJ45 port on the IOM allowing devices to directly connect to the blade server NIC port. The IOM ports support 10/100/1000 Mbps, they will auto-negotiate, but cannot be forced to any other speed. The IOM supports the first two NIC ports on each blade server slot, the ports 3 and 4 of the blade server are disabled when a pass-through module is installed. Internal ports to blade servers are down until the corresponding external port is up. The PTM IOM is not a switch. Therefore, the external ports must be connected to an edge or Top Of Rack (TOR) switch for the blade servers within the chassis to be able to pass traffic between each blade server. There is no form of GUI or CLI configuration on the PTM IOM; the IOM is a plug and play module and no configuration is necessary.

The 1Gb Ethernet pass-through module is the default offering on the Dell PowerEdge VRTX system. Pass-through cards are defined as having no single points of failure at the Ethernet signal level. Maximum Ethernet signal pass-through is limited to eight lanes due to the bulkhead limit of eight RJ-45s. The following diagram shows the Fabric A Ethernet pass-through card configuration.

A single switch is implemented for all I/O and allows maximum signal consolidation without forcing bifurcation of the Ethernet fabric. The 1 GbE switch accepts up to 16 lanes from Fabric A and outputs up to 8 lanes at the external ports. The 10 GbE switch accepts up to 16 x 10 GbE SFP+ lanes from Fabric A and outputs up to 4 x 10 GbE SFP+ lanes at the external ports and an additional 2 x 1 GbE lanes at the external ports. A switch is the only Fabric A card that can support the full x 4 lane count from Fabric A.

The VRTX PTM IOM does not provide switching capability between VRTX internal blade servers. The port mapping diagram can help identify connectivity issues from internal slot to external PTM slot, and the associated half-height/full-height blade servers.