The Cisco Fabric Extender for HP BladeSystem (Model B22HP) provides an extension of the Cisco Nexus switch fabric to the HP server edge. Logically, it behaves like a remote line card to a parent Cisco Nexus 5000 series switch, with the Fabric Extender and the parent Nexus together forming a distributed modular system. The Cisco Fabric Extender for HP BladeSystem forwards traffic to the parent Cisco Nexus switch over eight 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks. Low-cost uplink connections up to 10 meters can be made with copper Twin-ax cable, and longer connections up to 100 meters can use optional Fabric Extender Transceivers. Standard 10Gb SFP+ optics are also supported. Downlinks to each server are auto-negotiating and work with all HP Ethernet and CNA modules allowing a choice of Ethernet, FCoE or iSCSI connections. Passing all traffic seamlessly to the Nexus 5000 allows traffic to be shaped according to policies established by the Nexus 5000 Series Switch with a single point of management.

Extends Cisco Nexus Fabric to the HP Server Edge.
The Cisco Fabric Extender Module for HP BladeSystem is managed by the parent Nexus switch eliminating multiple provisioning, programming and testing points. All security and traffic policies are managed by the Nexus switch eliminating security and traffic handling errors. Policies are uniformly applied across the entire domain. Up to 24 Fabric Extenders can be managed by a single Cisco Nexus switch. When combined with HP server embedded CNA or mezzanine adapters, provides total network flexibility with 1Gb/10Gb Ethernet, Data Center Bridging (FCoE) and iSCSI network