HP recently announced an interesting product, an iSCSI HBA based on the Q-Logic 4062 chipset. There is a link to the product specs at the bottom of this post. The product is interesting for a number of reasons. First and and foremost, HP needed this card to fill a hole in their product portfolio. IBM has been shipping a Q-Logic iSCSI HBA on the blades for years. Why do you care about this product? Because the Q-Logic 40XX chipset is currently the only chipset supported by VMWare ESX Server. If you want iSCSI hardware TOE and HBA, this is the only game in town.
Now, here is where the HP product shines… The IBM card is an older form factor and you can not use the new expansion cards with it. With the IBM Blades you need to make a decision, iSCSI HW functionality or additional expansion ports. This has hindered the IBM prodcut somewhat from a VMWare prospective where multiple I/O paths are the name of game.
The HP card does not have this limitation. You can use it along with any of other I/O cards with no restrictions. Pretty slick…
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