Add flex 10/10 VC-ENet interconnect to existing C7000 VC non-flex10 environment

[Mike O.]

I am trying to find out the process to introduce a flex 10 interconnect into an existing C7000 blade chassis/Virtual Connect configuration that currently doesn’t have flex 10.

We have a C7000 chassis with a number of 465C blades (mostly G5's). When we set it up about 3 years ago, we used four of the 1/10Gb VC-Ethernet interconnect (399593-B22) modules in bays 1, 2, 5, and 6. The system has been working fine.

The blades we’ve purchased recently (G7’s) have the Flex 10 NIC’s. They work OK with the non-flex 10 interconnects, but we’re now at the point of wanting to upgrade our interconnects to take advantage of the flex 10 architecture on the newer blades.

We’ve purchased two of the Flex 10 interconnect modules (455882-001).
Our firmware is within the support ranges(OA 3.21, VC 3.15), so what I thought I could do is power down the 1/10 module that’s not running the VC Admin software (bay 2), and replace it with the new interconnect. Then when it was up and OK, switch the VCAdmin to the new module and replace the interconnect in bay 1.
I powered off the 1/10 module in bay 2, and put in the new interconnect. The blade system onboard admin recognized the new interconnect OK and powered up OK, but Virtual Connect kept showing it as the old module part number, “powered off” and “failed”. I replaced the flex 10 with the original 1/10 VC-ENET and everything is back OK.

Is there some way to incorporate the new Flex 10 modules without completely wiping out and rebuilding the VC configuration?

[Antonio Milanese · Accepted solution]

Hi,

different VC IC modules are not horizontally compatible so you cannot syncing vc domain that way..

well frankly I think you are out of luck 'coz there isnt AFAIK a viable solution that does not implies to dump the configuration into a custom script and then use it to recreate the server/network/etc

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c02607821〈=en&cc=us&taskId=125&prodSeriesId=3540808&prodTypeId=329290

http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/HP-BladeSystem-Virtual-Connect/Migrating-from-1-10Gb-F-VC-Eth-Modules-to-Flex-10/td-p/2302525

Regards,
Antonio

[The Brit]

Bad news I'm afraid. In a word, the answer is NO.

Also, if you are taking advantage of the "HP Assigned" WWID's and/or MAC addresses in your profiles, then the rebuild of the configuration is not trivial, although it can be scripted. (get hold of the VCM CLI User manual).

We used the following approach. WWID's and MAC addresses are assigned to profiles sequentially, So in your script, after you import the new domain, define the "Set" of WWID's and MAC addresses to use. Then generate a bunch of dummy profiles.

Once you have your dummy's then just select the appropriate dummy profile which has the correct WWIDs/MACs for each of your old profiles, and rename the dummy to the correct profile name.

This all takes some thought and work, but it does get it all done in a relatively short time. I think if you call HP Services they might offer to help you with the scripting of configuration.

Good luck.

Dave.

[Mike O.]

Thanks for the replies. I forgot about the settings where the modules have to be the same horizontally.

Currently, the chassis is almost empty. We have two C7000's and I relocated most of the blades in this chassis to the other one so that I can make any changes without affecting production. The only blades in there are three running VMWare, and we can put them in "maintenance mode". The other VMWare blades are in the other chassis.

If I have to, I can start clean on this sytem, but I'd really like to avoid a full VC setup if I can help it.

What about this process:
1) Put the new modules in bay 7 and 8 (currently empty), allowing virtual connect to seem them.

2) Move the VC admin to one of the ENet modules in 5 or 6.

3) Move the flex 10 modules to bay 1/2

Would this let me put the new interconnects in and preserve the VC configuration?

[Mike O.]

I guess disregard my previous message. I just looked at the customer advisory noted above (C02607821). It says specifically that upgrading the module to a different type is not possible without deleting the domain..

[The Brit]

Also, remember that the VC Manager can ONLY run on Bays 1 & 2.

Dave.

[Mike O.]

I ended up just doing screen shots of the configuration, deleting the domain, powering down the interconnects in bay 1 and 2, installing the flex 10 interconnects, and rebuilding the domain. It wasn't near as much trouble as I thought. It helps having a second chassis that I could relocate the VMWare blades to.

Thanks again for the comments.