Host interface cards
A host interface card (HIC) can optionally be installed within a controller canister. The E5700
controller includes built-in host ports on the controller card itself, as well as host ports on the optional
HIC. Host ports that are built into the controller are called baseboard host ports. Host ports that are
built into the HIC are called HIC ports.
Overview and requirements
This topic provides an overview of the host interface card and describes the requirements you need to
know about before adding, upgrading or replacing a HIC.
Host interface card overview
You can add, upgrade, or replace a HIC in the E5724 controller shelf and the E5760 controller shelf:
The E5700 controller has two SFP+ (optical) baseboard ports and you can install the following HICs:
•
◦ Four-port SFP+ (optical) HIC with a maximum data rate and protocol of 8 GB, 16 GB, or
32 Gb Fibre Channel (FC)
◦ Four-port SFP28 HIC with a maximum data rate and protocol of 10 Gbps, 25 Gbps iSCSI
◦ Four-port SAS HIC with a maximum data rate and protocol of 6Gbps, 12 Gbps SAS
◦ Two-port QSFP28 HIC with a maximum data rate and protocol of 56 Gbps, 100 Gbps
InfiniBand (iSER/SRP)
Important: If the controller has SFP+ (optical) baseboard ports and you add an SFP+ (optical)
HIC, the new HIC ports usually default to the host protocol used by the baseboard host ports. For
example, if you add a four-port SFP+ HIC to a controller that has FC baseboard ports, the new
HIC ports should default to FC. However, you must confirm the protocol of the new SFP+ HIC
ports before connecting them to data hosts. In certain cases, you might need to apply a feature pack
to convert the HIC ports from iSCSI to FC or from FC to iSCSI.
Add HIC
You can add host interface cards (HICs) to E5700 controller shelves that have only baseboard host
ports. Adding HICs allows you to increase the number of host ports in your storage array and can
provide additional host protocols. The following figures show an E5724 controller shelf with two
controller canisters before and after adding a HIC into each controller.
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