topic Re: Virtual Connect on a c3000 in BladeSystem - General

Virtual Connect on a c3000

munkyjim — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 08:22:44 GMT

Hi there,

I've inherited a c3000 chassis, which came dis-assembled, and I'm having some problems with it. Virtual Connect is not appearing in OA at all, and I can't assign the downlink ports to servers. I'm stumped.

I've assembled it as follows:

Devices:
Bay1: ProLiant BL465c G6
Bay2: StorageWorks SB40c
Bay3: ProLiant BL465c G6
Bay4: Empty
Bay5: Empty
Bay6: Empty
Bay7: ProLiant BL465c G6
Bay8: ProLiant BL465c G6

IB1: Procurve 6120G/XG
IB2: Empty
IB3: Empty
IB4: Empty

I had to put the switch in IB1 as anywhere else, the servers NICs weren't connected.

Any ideas?

Re: Virtual Connect on a c3000

siukalo — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 09:06:53 GMT

On the c3000 the first 2 port of the BL460c is hardwired to IB1. If you need connection on IB2 you need the add mezzanine card on slot 1 of the motherboard.

Unlike a c7000 which have 1 port on IB1 and 2 port on IB2.

Alan

Re: Virtual Connect on a c3000

munkyjim — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 09:07:17 GMT

So each of the servers requires an add-in card for VC to work properly?

Re: Virtual Connect on a c3000

munkyjim — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 09:09:56 GMT

Does that mean that with what I have, I'm limited to 2 NICs per blade, unless I get a Mezzanine Card for each blade?

How about the 16 downlinks on the Procurve I have, can I not use them at all?

Re: Virtual Connect on a c3000

siukalo — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 09:11:38 GMT

No it does not. I works as it is. The procurve 6120 you got is just a normal switch I don't think it is a virtual connect switch. So all you gonna get is 2 port on the BL460c going to that switch.

Alan

Re: Virtual Connect on a c3000

siukalo — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 09:13:05 GMT

You can use them all as a trunk. Please remember the 6120 is a switch not a pass through module.

Alan

Re: Virtual Connect on a c3000

siukalo — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 09:16:07 GMT

I terms of nics, yes you are currently limited to 2 per blade hardwired to IB1, if you keep your 6120.

If you use a a VC switch (Flex-10) you still limited to connection being stuck on IB1 unless you add mezzanine card. (But you can have upto 8 nics per blade.)

Alan

Re: Virtual Connect on a c3000

siukalo — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 17:13:57 GMT

Please see this thread. I just answered a similar question on this forum. Might give you some more info.

http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/HP-BladeSystem/c3000-mapping-physical-ports-to-blades/m-p/4797542#M13780

Alan

Re: Virtual Connect on a c3000

The Brit — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 09:36:10 GMT

Hi, and welcome.

First you need to understand that the c3000 enclosure is not designed for redundancy.

Looking downstream from your Procurve switch (or for that matter, from any interconnect module), the 16 downlink ports are HARD-WIRED, 2 ports to each device bay.

Looking upstream from a server blade, the two NICs are hard connected to two ports on the Module in Interconnect Bay 1 (i.e. your Procurve).

If you want to do NIC-Teaming for Network redunancy, you need to put another Procurve in Bay 2, and add an Ethernet Mezzanine card to each Blade on Mezz slot 1.

Treat your Procurve exactly as you would any other switch.

HTH

Dave.

Re: Virtual Connect on a c3000

The Brit — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 16:38:03 GMT

The Procurve 6120G is not a Virtual Connect Module (to the best of my knowledge), and therefore the Virtual Connect Manager link will not appear in the OA navigation window.

The Procurve should be administered as a regular ethernet switch. Use OA, via EBIPA, to assign an IP to the switch, and then you should be able to connect to the switch CLI via telnet or ssh.

HTH

Dave.