Switches & Bridges

The IBM Flex System™ EN2092 1Gb Ethernet Scalable Switch enables administrators to offer full Layer 2 and 3 switching and routing capability with combined 1 Gb and 10 Gb uplinks in an IBM Flex System Enterprise Chassis. Such consolidation simplifies the data center infrastructure and helps reduce the number of discrete devices, management consoles, and management systems while leveraging the 1 Gb Ethernet infrastructure. In addition, the next-generation switch module hardware supports IPv6 Layer 3 frame forwarding protocols. This Scalable Switch delivers port flexibility, efficient traffic management, increased uplink bandwidth, and strong Ethernet switching price/performance.

The Lenovo® Flex System™ EN2092 1Gb Ethernet Scalable Switch enables administrators to offer full Layer 2 and 3 switching and routing capability with combined 1 Gb and 10 Gb external ports in a Flex System chassis. Such consolidation simplifies the data center infrastructure and helps reduce the number of discrete devices, management consoles, and management systems while leveraging the 1 Gb Ethernet infrastructure. In addition, the next-generation switch module hardware supports IPv6 Layer 3 frame forwarding protocols. This Scalable Switch delivers cost savings with flexible port mapping and Features on Demand upgrades, efficient traffic management, increased external bandwidth, and strong Ethernet switching price/performance.

This product guide provides essential pre-sales information to understand the Flex System EN2092 1Gb Ethernet Scalable Switch offering, its key features and specifications, components and options, and configuration guidelines.

This guide is intended for technical specialists, sales specialists, sales engineers, IT architects, and other IT professionals who want to learn more about the EN2092 1Gb Ethernet Scalable Switch and consider its use in IT solutions.

Overview

The Lenovo ThinkSystem NE2552E Flex Switch is part of the Lenovo Flex System embedded blade solution family, paired with ThinkSystem QLogic Ethernet adapters, providing the high-speed network connectivity needed for Data Warehouse, SAP, Cloud, and Virtual Desktop solutions.

Better Together

The ThinkSystem NE2552E Flex Switch and QLogic Ethernet adapter are solution tested by Lenovo to provide the best integration possible for Lenovo compute, storage, and networking in the data center. Flex System compute, adapter, and switch options, designed to work together result in smooth installations and reliable operations.

Better Interoperation

The NE2552E interoperates seamlessly with Flex System compute nodes, connecting the latest ThinkSystem SN850 and SN550 nodes and ThinkSystem QLogic Ethernet adapters to the network at speeds up to 100Gb with Universal Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) and Unified Fabric Port (UFP) for lowest latency.

Better Support

The NE2552E assumes the warranty of the Flex System chassis in which it is installed. Support for all Flex System components is provided by Lenovo award-winning customer service as the single point of contact.

Better Management

Lenovo XClarity hardware and software provides easy single-pane-of-glass management for Flex System and Lenovo server, storage, and networking products.

Flex System Optimized Networking

The NE2552E switch and QLogic Ethernet adapters extend Flex System with features, such as:

• Utilization of the full high-speed chassis midplane bandwidth
• UFP for NIC virtualization
• RDMA for high throughput and low latency
• Chassis Management Module integration
• Use of efficient Flex System redundant power and adaptive cooling
• Increased Flex System density with faster ports

Low Total Cost of Ownership

The NE2552E Flex Switch is an extremely cost-effective way to expand and extend Lenovo Flex System.

Adding the NE2552E switch and QLogic Ethernet adapters multiply networking speed 2.5x - 5x vs. 10GbE switches, to connect high-speed ThinkSystem compute nodes, minimizing overbooking concerns.

• Uses existing Flex System chassis, power and fans
• Future-ready via the Flex System network upgrade
• Upgrade compute nodes as needed

The Lenovo ThinkSystem NE1032T RackSwitch is a 1U rack-mount 10 Gb Ethernet switch that delivers lossless, low-latency performance with feature-rich design that supports virtualization, Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE), high availability, and enterprise class Layer 2 and Layer 3 functionality. The switch delivers line-rate, high-bandwidth switching, filtering, and traffic queuing without delaying data.

The NE1032T RackSwitch has 24x 1/10 Gb Ethernet (RJ-45) fixed ports and 8x SFP+ ports that support 1 GbE and 10 GbE optical transceivers, active optical cables (AOCs), and direct attach copper (DAC) cables. The switch helps consolidate server and storage networks into a single fabric, and it is an ideal choice for virtualization, cloud, and enterprise workload solutions.

With latency below 600 nanoseconds, the RackSwitch G8332 is among industry leaders. This low latency and the 2.56 Tbps throughput makes the RackSwitch G8332 an ideal offering for latency-sensitive applications, such as high-performance computing, financial applications, hosting environments, and cloud designs in Enterprise, Web 2.0, and virtual machine (VM) Centric data centers. In addition, the G8332 supports VMready® with NMotionTM, which enables the network to be virtual machine (VM) aware, and provides the capability to have a virtualization environment that is simpler and less expensive with exceptional performance.