Single data and management network

In this network topology, management communications, data communications, and operating-system deployment occur over the same network. This topology is referred to as a converged network.

Important: Implementing a shared data and management network can cause disruptions in traffic, such as packets being dropped or management-network connectivity issues, depending on your network configuration (for example, if traffic from servers have a high priority and traffic from the management controllers have a low priority). The management network uses UDP traffic in addition TCP. UDP traffic can have a lower priority when the network traffic is high.
When you install Lenovo XClarity Administrator, define the eth0 network interface using the following considerations:

You can also configure a second network interface to connect to the same network from XClarity Administrator to support redundancy.

The following figure shows an example implementation for a converged network topology.
Figure 1. Example implementation of a single network for management, data, and operating system deployment
Graphic showing a high-level view of the single data, management, and operating system deployment