Enclosure link over wan?

[mechamse]

I want to link all 5 of my c7000 enclosures.  Currently I have 3 in one site and another 2 in another (500 miles apart).  I have been searching around and found nothing that seems to indicate this is even possible.  Does anyone know if this is?  

Thank you in advance.

[Johan Guldmyr]

Hi, do you mean linking the OA modules?

If so, last time (two years ago) I checked this was not allowed, they needed to be physically next to each other.

[mechamse]

It's the 2 ports that sits between the OA's, but is a part of the chassis and not either OA modules. 

I was afraid of that.  Was really hoping to be able to consolidate them all to one portal.

Thank you for the response.

[Cory1000]

I am also interested in linking several C-7000 enclosures via the link up/down ports to a switch if possible.  I have more than 30 enclosures spread across my datacenter and would like to be able to run the interconnections to a single location. 

Has this been done before? any thoughts on the type of switch required?

[DanRobinson]

A few things to know

1) The only thing this connection does is allow you to see multiple enclosures on a single pane of glass via the web interface.  There is no magic traversing the cable that I am aware of.

2) I think, but am not entirely sure, that the enclosures talk to each other over this cable using the "Service IP" you can find on the front of the enclosure display.  If you can somehow bridge that "network" seamlessly between sites, you might be able to get your idea to work but its totally unsupported (and IMHO a waste of time)

3) Linking enclosures with these cables is NOT the same as stacking like we can do with Virtual Connect.  You still need each OA to have its own network cable in order to connect to them, stacked or not.

[mechamse]

Thank you for your insight Dan. 

The value of this is reducing the number of sessions required to support a distributed environment.  being able to view all systems in one window has a lot of value when looking at firmware or even system status.  In addition it allows for 1 point of access to all resources minimizing the complexity of management even further. 

on top of that, for anyone who runs monitoring tools, having a view up with all blades in it is very nice just to have a quick look at.

As I said in my original posting, I was not addressing stacking or anything to do with the VC modules.  I'm only looking at easing the management of the equipment.  I tend to require at least 8 browser sessions (tabs or windows) for normal management of our HP blade environment.  having a few less is always better in my mind.

I realize that HP did this with location in mind, and not to make it difficult to manage remote systems, but I believe it was done more with a distributed workforce model in mind and not where 1 or 2 central people manage multiple locations across a state or country. Oh well.