Control Plane

The control plane provides intelligence, management, and control of an I-Fabric. The N1 Provisioning Server software, providing the intelligence that enables an I-Fabric, resides within the control plane. The control plane consists of all N1 Provisioning Server software and hardware, third-party software and hardware, and the N1 Provisioning Server databases. The control plane does not include the resource pool and fabric layer. If desired, you can also connect an optional terminal server to the control plane to provide access to all device's console ports.

The control plane resides on a private virtual local area network (VLAN) that ensures that the control plane is securely partitioned from access by unauthorized servers or any external network traffic. N1 Provisioning Server software manages devices within an I-Fabric through secure out-of-band connections over Ethernet or serial connections.

The control plane software automates the configuration of the Ethernet switch connections and assignment of VLANs to the I-Fabric components. The automated management of VLANs enables you to securely add or remove devices in the resource pool from any network topology designed through the Control Center. Additional security is provided by the assignment of one or more VLANs to a farm. A VLAN assigned to one farm cannot be used by a different farm.

The N1 Provisioning Server VLAN assignments are as follows:

• VLAN 1 – reserved

• VLAN 2 – reserved

• VLAN 3 – reserved

• VLAN 4 – assigned to I-Fabric devices that are not allocated to a farm

• VLAN 5 – reserved

• VLAN 6 – reserved

• VLAN 7 – reserved

• VLAN 8 – assigned to disk image transfers from the N1 image server to server blades

• VLAN 9 – assigned to control plane command traffic

• VLANs 10 through 255 – available for farm allocation