Virtual Connect (VC) is a network interconnect technology to replace traditional switch connections and management. VC reduces network costs in various aspects. For example, it reduces cabling cost and complexity, and allows pre-provision of network assignments. VC also simplifies blade server connectivity to production LANs, SANs and converged networks. The VC technology uses an abstraction layer between servers and their external networks to virtualize I/O connections, and displays network interface (NIC) and host bus adapter (HBA) addresses on LANs and SANs, instead of the default physical interface addresses.
The system offers virtual connect management, allowing you to configure Ethernet network, FC, FCoE, and iSCSI connections and server downlink port mappings.
| Acronym | Full spelling | Description |
| FC | Fibre Channel | Fibre Channel is a high-speed network technology standardized in T11 and primarily used for storage area networks (SANs). |
| FCoE | Fibre Channel over Ethernet | Fibre Channel over Ethernet encapsulates Fibre Channel frames over Ethernet networks to reduce the construction and maintenance costs on storage networks. FCoE allows Fibre Channel to use Ethernet networks while preserving the features and benefits of the Fibre Channel protocol. |
| iSCSI | Internet Small Computer System Interface | Internet Small Computer System Interface is a TCP/IP-based storage networking standard for linking data storage facilities. iSCSI can be used to create storage area networks (SANs), which can offer block-level data transfer. |
| PXE | Preboot Execution Environment | – |
| WWN | World Wide Name | A World Wide Name is a 48-bit or 64-bit unique identifier assigned by an authority to represent a particular network connection or a set of network connections. WWNs are primarily used in FC and SAN. |
| NIC | Network Interface Card | – |
| HBA | Host Bus Adapter | – |