topic Re: Need help with C3000 networking setup in BladeSystem - General

Need help with C3000 networking setup

itsme — Mon, 03 May 2010 21:15:49 GMT

I am new with this and have been struggling to try to get the following config up and running.
1. c3000 enclosure
2. three 460c G6 blades (will be ESX, will use 4 IPs for each blade)
3. three 1 Gb Ethernet passthrough modules (interconnect bay 1,3,4)
4. one HP 4Gb FC passthrough mod (interconnect bay 2)
5. one MSA 2000

So far, everything has been plugged in and seems to be OK, the attached doc shows which components are recognized. The doc shows the port assignment for device bay 1 is completely different from Device bay 2 and 3, and I am not sure what needs to be done to correct this problem.

I am also not sure how to config the VLAN for this hardware configuration. Any helps is greatly appreciated.

Re: Need help with C3000 networking setup

Pieter 't Hart — Tue, 04 May 2010 07:05:49 GMT

If you really using passthrough modules then at thi level you have nothing to do with VLAN's.

There is a fixed (1-1) mapping between slot/port and interconnectbay/port.

for half-height blades see page-45 of the manual (also see attachment):
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01167165/c01167165.pdf

so wich modules do you have?
When lokking at your description I think
- you have the integrated nics wich should come out at the ethernet passthrough at bay-1
- FC mezzanine M1 comming out FC passthrough bay-2
- 4-port ethernet mezzanine M2 coumming out at ethernet passthrough bay-3 (port 1+3)and bay-4 (port 2+4).

Re: Need help with C3000 networking setup

itsme — Tue, 04 May 2010 14:48:42 GMT

All three 1 Gb Ethernet pass through modules have 16 ports.

Re: Need help with C3000 networking setup

itsme — Tue, 04 May 2010 15:04:09 GMT

All three 1 Gb Ethernet pass through modules have 16 ports as well as the 4Gb FC module.

Re: Need help with C3000 networking setup

Pieter 't Hart — Wed, 05 May 2010 06:05:31 GMT

>>> All three 1 Gb Ethernet pass through modules have 16 ports as well as the 4Gb FC module <<<
I don't onderstand this remark?

You don't have a separate pass-tru module for each blade if that's what you think?

- All embedded NIC's end op in bay-1
- All mezzanine-1 interfaces (either NIC or FC) end up in bay-2
four ports card in half-height blades only use two ports in to bay-2.
four ports card in full-height blades have all ports connected to bay-2.
- All mezzanine-2 interfaces end up in bay-3+4
each four port interface has two connections to bay-3 and two to bay-4.

- Each half-height blade has two embedded/integrated NIC's
- each NIC is mapped to one of the 16-ports on the pass-thru module
embedded NIC-1 to bay-1/port-N
embedded NIC-2 to bay-1/port-N+8
(page-45 of the document)

and for full-height blades embedded NIC's
embedded NIC-1 to bay-1/port-N+4
embedded NIC-2 to bay-1/port-N+12
embedded NIC-3 to bay-1/port-N
embedded NIC-4 to bay-1/port-N+8
(page-46 of the document)

For port numbering comming from mezzanine cards look at the same pages to determine wich bay/port they are connected to.

Re: Need help with C3000 networking setup

The Brit — Wed, 05 May 2010 14:45:24 GMT

I'm not sure exactly what your problem is!

As has been mentioned, we are talking about Passthru's!

1. each of your 460's has two (2) onboard NIC ports.
2. you have 8 server bays, therefore total of 16 onboard NIC's (8 x 2).
3. all of the onboard NIC ports are mapped to IC Bay 1.
4. the Pass-thru in IC Bay 1 has 16 HARD-mapped DOWNlink channels to the Onboard NIC's in the Server Bays.

I am not exactly sure what the mapping is for a pass-thru on a c3000, however if you log in to your OA, select Interconnect Bays, then the device of your choice, there will probably be a tab which shows the port mapping.

It is probably something like

Bay1:LOM1 --> Pass-thru Port1
Bay2:LOM1 --> Pass-thru Port2
: : : : : : :
Bay1:LOM2 --> Pass-thru Port9
Bay2:LOM2 --> Pass-thru Port10

Anyway, the point is that each pass-thru port consists of a "Downlink" to the server NIC port (defined by the port mapping diagram), and an "Uplink" to the external network.

These Uplinks are the 16 visible ports on the passthru. Within the passthru there is no "sideways" traffic. i.e. UPLNK 1 is physically locked to DWNLNK 1, etc.

So if you know which downlink port your Server NIC Port is talking to (from the Port mapping diagram) then you also know which Uplink port the traffic is using to leave the enclosure.

As was pointed out, there is no VLAN configuration within the Blade enclosure. You just configure your Network connectivity within the Server, just as you would if it was a rack-mounted server.

Just take the same approach with the NICs on your Mezz2 card.

(We are assuming that you have your FC HBA on Mezz1, and your additional NIC's on Mezz2, on all of your blades.)

HTH.

Re: Need help with C3000 networking setup

itsme — Wed, 05 May 2010 14:49:24 GMT

Thank you. Both of your reponses helped me figure this out.