The InfiniBand-based Interconnect includes the ability to define logical subsets of the physical Interconnect called secure fabrics.
Secure fabrics provide an automated, easy-to-use method to divide the physical fabric into multiple independent fabrics. A secure fabric enables you to define a set of partitions and nonpartitionable enterprise partition platforms (NEPPs) that can communicate with each other, but they cannot communicate with other partitions or NEPPs that are not part of that secure fabric.
Furthermore, other partitions and NEPPs that are not part of that secure fabric cannot communicate with partitions and NEPPs that are part of that secure fabric.
Secure fabrics support
The InfiniBand physical transport
Native InfiniBand remote direct memory access (RDMA) and TCP/IP protocols
Secure fabrics are similar to Ethernet virtual LANs (VLANs).
There is no default secure fabric for Release 3.1 and higher. For inter-partition communication, partitions must be assigned to a secure fabric.
Representation of a fabric with two secure fabrics | |
A secure fabric for communicating with partitions running release levels prior to 3.1 | |
118 secure fabrics, plus the IP-LAN secure fabric | |
Overview of tasks you can or must do with secure fabrics | |
Giving different secure fabrics different levels of priority | |
Overview of setting up a secure fabric | |
Different process for NEPPs | |
Memory requirements for secure fabrics |
A given partition image can be associated with zero, one, or many secure fabrics. The partition’s operating system can interact with each secure fabric that the partition is associated with.