Assistance with FC, MXL and Intel x520 NIC

Hi there,

We have an M1000e chassis and several Dell PowerEdge M630 blades running ESXi 6.5. There are four MXL switches, in slots A1, A2, B1 and B2. Each blade has an Intel x520 LOM for Fabric A and an Intel x520 mezzanine in Fabric B. There is a FlexIO FC module in both MXL in B1 and B2. There is a 4 port SFP module in both MXL in A1 and A2

My question is whether there is any way to get the x520 in Fabric B to communicate with the FC traffic which will hit the FlexIO in B1 and B2? I am not a networking guy, and am trying to get a handle on this setup but trying to get a view on some options. My research has come up with the possibilities below:

• The MXL or the x520 is capable of translating the FC into Ethernet and on to the blade OS? Possibly via DCB?
• The x520 needs to come out and be replaced by a FC capable NIC
• FCoE or iSCSI is implemented on the network, both of which are supported by the x520

The last two will be difficult to achieve and ideally I want to retain the hardware we have and achieve the connection from blade to the DotHill SAN without changing kit. Is it possible?

Apologies in advance for any omissions or incorrect assumptions - I should not have skipped networking classes at school :-)