topic Additional Mezzanine NIC Card and mapping in C7000 in BladeSystem - General

Additional Mezzanine NIC Card and mapping in C7000

Thomas Kaufmann — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 08:23:41 GMT

Hi there,

To provide more Network performance to one of ours BL460c in c7000 chassis, i want to add an Mezzanine NIC ( Card in Slot 2. (Slot 1 is equipped with FC HPA Mezzi card).
On Network side we have an HP/Cisco 3020 Switch (+ another in redundancy mode). There are 7 other BL460 in the chassis.
So the Server to be upgraded is on Bay 2, and the onboard NIC is on port 2 mapped, too. Server 3 is on port 3 and so on.
Ports 8-16 are free on 3020.

As i´ve read in the manual, the nic ports of the mezzi card would be mapped fixed on network port 5 and 6. But that would collide with server 5 and 6.
I´ve read in the forum about a must of using a second pair of 3020s for using the additional NICs
That´s a joke, isn´t it?
And if its so, would it help to use Bay 10 instead of 2?

thx in advance

Re: Additional Mezzanine NIC Card and mapping in C7000

Marek Nelec — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 15:51:05 GMT

Hi

The ports of card installed in mezzanine slot 2 of BL460c will be mapped to ports of interconnect bays 5 & 6 (not ports 5 & 6). So if your server is in slot 2, these ports will be mapped to ports 2 in interconnect bay 5 & 6. And you would need Ethernet switches/pass-thrus in bays 5 and 6 to provide additional bandwidth to your server. You could Bl480c (it is a full height server blade that has 4 embedded NICs), and in that case you would't need additional switches.

c7000 chassis/server mapping diagram is in this document;

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00698534/c00698534.pdf

Re: Additional Mezzanine NIC Card and mapping in C7000

Adrian Clint — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 16:54:17 GMT

I agree with the above I think you are getting mixed up between ports and bays (interconnects).

NIC 1 on every server goes to interconnect 1.
NIC 2 on every server goes to interconnect 2.
For half height blades all ports will appear on port 2 on a server plugged into bay 2 for any interconnect.

The best diagram I have seen so far is included in the port mapping utility.
http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/27251.html

Unzip this and print the pdf on a colour printer.

And .... NIC1 on a full height blade in slot 1 does appear on port 9. Thats what N+1 means. N is the bay number

Re: Additional Mezzanine NIC Card and mapping in C7000

Raghuarch — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 21:31:46 GMT

Hi koufmann,

The attachment contains the Port mapping Document for c7000 enclosure.

Regards,
Raghuarch

Re: Additional Mezzanine NIC Card and mapping in C7000

Thomas Kaufmann — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 02:02:47 GMT

ok,

thx to all.
So, indeed i need a second pair of Network Switches in Interconnect Bay 5+6, respectively a third pair of switches in Bay 7+8 to get at least 3 active Network links for one Server.
From the point of availability its well done.
But from the economic view its a mess. HP knows how to make money.
i better think of other solutions for that network issue.

CU
Thomas

Re: Additional Mezzanine NIC Card and mapping in C7000

Adrian Clint — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 15:12:51 GMT

Thomas

You can get 3 active network links on each server by just populating Interconnect 5 with a network option.

Nic1 will be in interconnect 1
Nic2 will be in interconnect 2
Nic3 will be in interconnect 5
and then
Nic4 > 6
Nic5 > 7
Nic6 > 8