Emulex LPe12000 vs. QLogic QLE2560

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Emulex LPe12000 vs. QLogic QLE2560 | Manualzz

Competitive BrieF Host Bus AdApter

Emulex LPe12000 vs. QLogic QLE2560

At a Glance

Emulex Advantages n

Lower operating temperature, greater reliability n

CPU-efficient for greater consolidation and cost savings n

Faster deployment n

Maximized availability and simplified management n

PRO Pack for Windows

Hyper-V environment

With over 7 million ports installed, Emulex HBAs and

Universal Converged Network

Adapters (UCNAs) are well-known as the premier connectivity solution for data centers. Superior reliability, interoperability, performance and the most scalable hardware and software architecture in both standard and virtual server deployments are why data centers worldwide choose Emulex.

Emulex Advantages

Lower Operating Temperature,

Greater Reliability

The Emulex Host Bus Adapter (HBA) operates

27° F cooler than the QLogic HBA, providing greater adapter reliability and server availability.

The figure below shows thermal “hot spots” on the QLogic HBA where higher temperatures were detected. More importantly, the LPe12000’s I/O controller also operates cooler, resulting in 166% greater reliability measured in Mean Time between

Failures (MTBF).

What does CPU efficiency mean to a data center?

n

More server CPU cycles available for application processing n

Fewer servers required to do the same amount of work n

Servers can run more virtual machines (VMs) per CPU

All of this helps with asset utilization, which reduces capital expense (CapEx) costs for equipment and operational expense (OpEx) costs for system management.

Emulex

HBA

QLogic

HBA

MAX = 121° F

MAX = 148° F

Emulex HBA operates 27° F cooler than QLogic HBA.

The Emulex LPe12000 family of HBAs uses

110

100

90

80

150

140

130

120 passive cooling, ensuring greater HBA operational reliability in a broad range of server environments, helping to improve Storage Area Network (SAN) availability while lowering data center support and administrative costs.

CPU Efficiency for Consolidation and Cost Savings

I/O performance is a significant requirement for business-critical applications. Emulex HBAs off-load I/O related processing, increasing CPU efficiency and making more cycles available for business applications.

Internal benchmarks show significantly better

CPU usage for Emulex HBAs over the QLogic

HBAs. The LPe12000 family of HBAs have 33% greater CPU efficiency (512 byte read/write) than the QLogic HBA.

Faster Deployment

Data centers can optimize SAN performance using management applications that streamline operations, speed deployments and facilitate reconfigurations.

Emulex automates and streamlines the HBA deployment process by installing the device driver and the management application in a single operation. When compared to QLogic, the Emulex installation requires far fewer mouse clicks, reducing deployment time by 3x, which improves management efficiency and business productivity.

Emulex supports pre-device installation, which enables driver installation without the presence of an adapter in the server. QLogic requires its HBAs to be installed in a server before the driver can be installed. The Emulex pre-device installation facilitates standardized server deployments using the most currently supported driver.

Powerful automation features of Emulex products, combined with secure, centralized management, reduce management costs, optimize performance and increase operational efficiencies.

Competitive BrieF

Emulex LPe12000 vs.

QLogic QLE2560

Host Bus AdApter

8Gb/s Fibre Channel PCI Express HBA

• Industry-leading performance and reliability

• Available for all leading environments

Emulex Advantages

Maximized Availability and Simplified Management

The Emulex common driver and Service Level Interface (SLI) architecture facilitates the introduction of new HBA features, enabling easy adapter upgrades with no server reboots and assuring investment protection. The common driver architecture allows one driver to work across multiple generations of Emulex Fibre Channel, iSCSI and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) adapters, futureproofing them for new operating system and networking features.

The SLI architecture ensures that firmware upgrades can be deployed on one server or throughout the network without a server reboot. New firmware releases translate into new functionality and enhanced performance.

Emulex firmware can be updated after adapter installation using the Emulex OneCommand ™ Manager application (formerly called

HBAnyware ® ). Emulex drivers work across 10 generations of

Emulex adapters, including the Emulex OneConnect UCNAs.

QLogic combines the driver and firmware components into a single package, preventing independent firmware upgrades.

This approach has resulted in support inconsistencies, forcing

QLogic to drop support for its 2Gb/s Fibre Channel HBAs in certain operating environments. QLogic’s disregard for their existing customers introduces version control nightmares and prevents the operation of 2Gb/s HBAs with newer QLogic models.

PRO Pack for Windows Hyper-V Environment

Emulex was the first Fibre Channel HBA company to offer a

Performance and Resource Optimization (PRO) management pack for Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008. The

Emulex PRO Pack provides information directly to Virtual Machine

Manager and System Center Operations Manager for manual or automated resource optimization. With the Emulex PRO Pack, I/O rates are monitored by Emulex adapters and alerts are sent when pre-set thresholds are exceeded. Data center administrators have the option to automatically or manually move VMs to optimize server and SAN resources.

The Emulex PRO Pack is currently available and provides the information that administrators need to make optimal placement decisions for VM workloads.

QLogic has not made any announcement when or if they will provide a PRO Pack. Virtualization management does not seem to be a priority for QLogic.

Emulex Responses

Heat Sink Requirement

QLogic claims that using a heat sink on an HBA signifies poor design and reliability. The fact is that heat sinks are commonly used within enterprise class server solutions. Their use improves adapter and server reliability, as well as SAN availability, all of which demonstrates an excellent design.

In test results comparing the Emulex LPe12000 family of HBAs (with heat sinks) to the QLogic QLE2560 family of HBAs (with no heat sink), the Emulex LPe12000 I/O controller operates cooler than the

QLogic I/O controller. This lower temperature translates into 166% greater reliability for the I/O controller and greater reliability for the

HBA, which leads to higher SAN availability and therefore lower administration costs.

The Emulex LPe12000 family of 8Gb/s Fibre Channel HBAs leverage passive cooling to operate more reliably in a broader range of server environments.

Performance

QLogic makes a number of claims regarding the performance of their HBAs with various applications and environments in comparison to the Emulex HBAs. Typically, these QLogic claims use outdated drivers and firmware, or convoluted assumptions that can confuse the issue of HBA performance.

In summary, Emulex HBAs: n

Have greater CPU efficiency than QLogic HBAs, which improves asset utilization and reduces data center costs. CPU effectiveness is a key factor in maximizing virtualization ratios for businesscritical applications. Evaluations by independent company

Demartek confirm that Emulex HBAs deliver best VMware and

Hyper-V CPU effectiveness.

n

Offer greater scalability for real-world data block sizes

Making a purchasing decision solely based on an HBA’s performance can negatively impact the data center. Performance is just one of the decision considerations—others include reliability, efficiency, scalability and manageability.

Conclusion

The Emulex LPe12000 family of 8Gb/s Fibre Channel HBAs delivers superior reliability, performance, ease of deployment and operation.

When compared to QLogic’s QLE2560, the Emulex LPe12000 is clearly the ideal choice for your data center.

World Headquarters 3333 Susan Street, Costa Mesa, CA 92626 +1 714 662 5600

Wokingham, UK +44 (0) 118 977 2929 | Munich, Germany +49 (0) 89 97007 177

Paris, France +33 (0) 158 580 022 | Beijing, China +86 10 68499547

Tokyo, Japan +81 3 5322 1348 | Bangalore, India +91 80 40156789

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www.emulex.com

©2009 Emulex, Inc. All rights reserved. This document refers to various companies and products by their trade names. In most, if not all cases, their respective companies claim these designations as trademarks or registered trademarks. This information is provided for reference only. Although this information is believed to be accurate and reliable at the time of publication, Emulex assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. Emulex reserves the right to make changes or corrections without notice.

This report is the property of Emulex and may not be duplicated without permission from the Company.

10-0344 · 10/09

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