P16811-B21 HPE QMH2672 16GB FC Host Bus Adapter

HPE QMH2672 16GB FC Host Bus Adapter 

The P16811-B21 HPE QMH2672 16GB Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter is engineered for high-speed connectivity, optimized performance, and seamless integration with enterprise-class server blades.

Main Information

• Brand Name: HPE
• Model Number: P16811-B21
• Product Type: Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter

Technical Highlights

Form Factor & Installation

• Type: Mezzanine card
• Installation: Plug-in module for internal setup

Connectivity & Ports

• Dual-port design for enhanced flexibility
• Data Transfer Rate: 16 Gbit/s per port (line rate)
• Backward compatibility with 8 Gbit/s connectivity
• Interface Protocol: Fibre Channel

Performance Features

• Delivers up to 2x throughput compared to 8Gb/s FC HBAs
• Supports nearly 1 million IOPS

Port Isolation

• Each port operates independently
• Dedicated processor, memory, and driver per port
• Ensures consistent and reliable performance

Compatibility

• Designed for HPE ProLiant BladeSystem c-Class server blades
• Compatible with Gen8 onwards, including BL460c Gen9 and Gen10

Management Tools

• Uses QConvergeConsole for unified management
• Supports both GUI and CLI interfaces
• Optimized for QLogic Fibre Channel adapters

Environmental & Certification

• REACH certified
• Eco-friendly design for sustainable IT infrastructure

Boot Support

• BIOS support
• UEFI compatibility
• FCode integration

Physical Dimensions

Size & Measurements

• Height: 3.5 inches (approx. 8.9 cm)
• Width: 3.9 inches (approx. 9.9 cm)

Compact Design Benefits

• Space-saving mezzanine card layout
• Ideal for blade server environments

High-Performance Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter Overview

The HPE P16811-B21 QMH2672 16GB Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter is engineered specifically to enhance storage networking performance within HPE BladeSystem c-Class infrastructures. Designed to support enterprise-level workloads, this advanced HBA delivers exceptional throughput, low latency communication, and reliable connectivity between blade servers and Fibre Channel storage area networks. By leveraging 16Gb Fibre Channel technology, organizations can experience faster data transfers, improved application responsiveness, and optimized storage utilization across mission-critical environments.

This category of Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters plays a vital role in modern data centers where performance, scalability, and reliability are paramount. The QMH2672 model offers seamless integration with BladeSystem architectures, ensuring compatibility with HPE’s modular server platforms while maintaining robust performance characteristics. It provides consistent connectivity for virtualization, database applications, cloud workloads, and high-volume transactional systems.

Enterprise-Class Design for BladeSystem c-Class Servers

Built specifically for HPE BladeSystem c-Class enclosures, the HPE P16811-B21 adapter features a mezzanine card form factor that fits directly into blade servers. This design eliminates the need for external cabling complexity while maintaining a clean and efficient hardware layout within the chassis. The adapter connects directly to the enclosure’s interconnect modules, enabling streamlined Fibre Channel fabric integration.

The mezzanine architecture ensures reduced power consumption and optimized airflow within the blade enclosure. By leveraging this integrated design, organizations benefit from simplified deployment and easier scaling as storage demands increase. The QMH2672 adapter supports dense blade server environments without compromising connectivity performance.

Optimized Integration with HPE Infrastructure

The adapter is fully validated with HPE BladeSystem components, including Virtual Connect Fibre Channel modules and Brocade or Cisco interconnects. This ensures seamless interoperability across HPE-certified environments. The tight integration reduces configuration complexity and enhances system stability, enabling IT teams to deploy storage networks quickly and confidently.

HPE’s firmware optimization further enhances performance consistency while supporting advanced management tools. Administrators can monitor adapter health, link performance, and diagnostics through HPE management platforms, ensuring proactive maintenance and reduced downtime.

Enhanced System Efficiency and Reliability

With enterprise-grade components and intelligent error detection mechanisms, the HPE P16811-B21 adapter ensures consistent operation even in high-demand workloads. Advanced failover features provide continuous connectivity in redundant Fibre Channel fabrics, safeguarding data access and minimizing service interruptions.

16Gb Fibre Channel Performance Capabilities

The HPE QMH2672 Host Bus Adapter delivers dual-port 16Gb Fibre Channel connectivity, enabling high-speed data transmission across storage networks. Each port operates independently, offering flexible connectivity options for redundant paths or multi-fabric configurations. This high bandwidth ensures faster read and write operations, significantly reducing application latency and improving overall system throughput.

16Gb Fibre Channel technology is particularly advantageous for data-intensive workloads such as large-scale virtualization, high-performance computing, big data analytics, and transactional databases. The increased bandwidth compared to 8Gb Fibre Channel enables organizations to support growing data volumes without bottlenecks.

Low Latency for Mission-Critical Applications

The QMH2672 adapter is designed to minimize latency across storage communications. By leveraging advanced ASIC processing and optimized firmware, it ensures rapid data transfers with minimal overhead. Low latency is essential for real-time applications, financial systems, healthcare databases, and enterprise resource planning platforms that require instantaneous access to data.

This performance efficiency allows servers to process workloads more quickly while maintaining consistent response times. As a result, organizations can enhance productivity and maintain service-level agreements across demanding environments.

High Throughput for Scalable Storage Architectures

With support for full-duplex 16Gb Fibre Channel speeds, the adapter can deliver high aggregate bandwidth across both ports. This scalability ensures that storage networks can grow alongside business demands without requiring immediate infrastructure upgrades. Whether connecting to all-flash arrays, hybrid storage systems, or enterprise SAN fabrics, the HPE P16811-B21 adapter provides the performance foundation necessary for modern data centers.

Support for Advanced Storage Protocols

The adapter supports industry-standard Fibre Channel protocols, including NPIV and FCP. These protocols enhance virtualization environments by enabling multiple virtual ports per physical adapter, improving resource allocation and management flexibility. This capability is particularly beneficial in environments running large numbers of virtual machines.

Reliability and Data Integrity Features

Enterprise storage networks demand unwavering reliability, and the HPE QMH2672 adapter is built to meet these expectations. It incorporates advanced error checking, frame recovery mechanisms, and data integrity safeguards that ensure accurate data transmission across Fibre Channel fabrics.

The adapter supports end-to-end data protection features that help prevent corruption during transmission. This ensures that critical business data remains secure and consistent across storage systems, reducing the risk of data loss or application errors.

Redundant Path Support for High Availability

Dual-port connectivity allows organizations to implement redundant SAN fabrics for maximum uptime. If one path experiences an issue, traffic can be automatically rerouted through the secondary port without disruption. This redundancy is essential for maintaining continuous operations in enterprise environments where downtime can result in significant financial losses.

Advanced Error Detection and Recovery

Built-in diagnostics continuously monitor link health and data integrity. When errors are detected, the adapter initiates recovery processes to retransmit frames and restore communication quickly. This proactive approach minimizes performance degradation and enhances overall network stability.

Virtualization and Cloud Workload Optimization

The HPE P16811-B21 Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter is optimized for virtualized environments commonly found in enterprise data centers. Its support for NPIV allows multiple virtual machines to share a single physical HBA while maintaining individual Fibre Channel identities. This enables efficient resource utilization and simplified storage management.

Virtualization platforms such as VMware, Hyper-V, and Linux KVM benefit from the adapter’s high bandwidth and low latency performance. This ensures smooth operation of virtual workloads, even during peak usage periods.

Improved Storage Access for Virtual Machines

Each virtual machine can access dedicated storage resources through virtual ports, enhancing performance isolation and security. This capability is particularly useful in multi-tenant environments or private cloud infrastructures where performance consistency is critical.

Seamless Integration with SAN-Based Storage

The adapter ensures direct and reliable connectivity to enterprise SAN storage arrays. This enables features such as live migration, snapshot backups, and disaster recovery solutions to function efficiently across virtual environments.

Enhanced Scalability for Growing Cloud Deployments

As cloud environments expand, the high throughput capabilities of the QMH2672 adapter support increased storage traffic without performance bottlenecks. This scalability ensures long-term infrastructure viability.

Energy Efficiency and Thermal Optimization

Designed with energy efficiency in mind, the HPE QMH2672 adapter minimizes power consumption while delivering high performance. Its mezzanine card design optimizes airflow within BladeSystem enclosures, contributing to improved cooling efficiency and reduced operational costs.

Lower power usage not only decreases electricity expenses but also reduces heat output, which is critical in densely packed blade server environments. This efficient thermal profile supports higher server density without compromising system stability.

Reduced Data Center Operational Costs

By consuming less power and generating less heat, the adapter helps organizations reduce cooling requirements and overall energy usage. This contributes to more sustainable data center operations and lower total cost of ownership.

Optimized Hardware Utilization

Efficient design ensures that the adapter operates effectively even under heavy workloads. This allows organizations to maximize the performance of existing BladeSystem infrastructure without frequent hardware upgrades.

Environmentally Conscious Engineering

HPE’s commitment to sustainable technology is reflected in the adapter’s design, supporting greener IT initiatives while maintaining enterprise-class performance.

Security and Compliance Capabilities

The HPE P16811-B21 Host Bus Adapter incorporates security features that protect data as it traverses Fibre Channel networks. Secure boot mechanisms and firmware authentication help prevent unauthorized modifications, ensuring system integrity.

The adapter supports industry-standard SAN security protocols that restrict access to authorized devices and users. This enhances protection against data breaches and unauthorized storage access.

Controlled Access to Storage Resources

Through zoning and access control mechanisms, organizations can define which servers communicate with specific storage devices. This segmentation improves security and simplifies compliance with regulatory standards.

Support for Enterprise Compliance Requirements

The adapter’s security features align with common data protection regulations, supporting compliance in industries such as finance, healthcare, and government sectors.

Broad Operating System Compatibility

The HPE QMH2672 Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter supports a wide range of enterprise operating systems, ensuring flexibility across diverse IT environments. It is compatible with major Linux distributions, Microsoft Windows Server editions, and VMware ESXi platforms.

This broad compatibility simplifies deployment across mixed environments and allows organizations to standardize on a single HBA solution for multiple workloads.

Use Cases Across Enterprise Environments

The HPE P16811-B21 QMH2672 adapter is suitable for a wide range of enterprise applications, including data centers, private clouds, and high-performance computing clusters. Its high bandwidth and reliability make it ideal for workloads that require fast, consistent access to storage.

Industries such as finance, healthcare, media production, and manufacturing benefit from its ability to handle large data volumes and demanding applications.

Data-Intensive Applications

Applications involving large databases, real-time analytics, and content processing require rapid storage access. The adapter ensures high throughput and minimal latency for these demanding workloads.

Disaster Recovery and Backup Systems

Reliable connectivity ensures efficient data replication and backup processes, supporting business continuity strategies.

Enterprise Virtualization Platforms

The adapter enhances performance and scalability in virtualized infrastructures, supporting modern IT architectures.

Future-Ready Storage Networking Solution

With support for high-speed Fibre Channel technology and scalable performance capabilities, the HPE QMH2672 Host Bus Adapter provides a future-ready solution for evolving data center requirements. Its design supports current enterprise workloads while allowing room for growth as storage demands increase.

By investing in advanced Fibre Channel connectivity, organizations can ensure their BladeSystem infrastructures remain competitive and capable of supporting next-generation applications.

Scalability for Expanding Data Volumes

As data storage requirements grow, the adapter’s high bandwidth ensures continued performance without frequent upgrades.

Compatibility with Modern Storage Arrays

The adapter seamlessly connects to contemporary all-flash and hybrid storage systems, maximizing their performance potential.