Windows Failover Clustering with Flex-10?

[BridgeToNowhere]

We have a C7000 enclosure configured with Flex-10 VC fabric.

At present the only 2 blades in the enclosure are Integrity BL860c i2's - commissioned before I joined the company. I'm looking to put 2x BL420c Gen8's into the enclosure to run a Windows Server Failover cluster.

Obviously Windows Failover Clustering requires a private heartbeat network - being new to the HP Flex architecture my question is:

Can I create a 'virtual' VLAN within the Flex fabric, enabling the heartbeat network to exist only within the enclosure with no uplink to a private VLAN on our core network?

Is this possible? Would it be a supported configuration from HP perspective? Or would there be a better way to achieve this?

Will be approaching our HP reseller for consultancy in configuring the Flex fabric, but trying to understand my options and supported configurations first.

Thanks. 

[Psychonaut · Accepted solution]

Yes, that's really easy to do; just create a vNet with no UpLinks.  It's completely supported.  

I thought with 2k8 (I think R2) Microsoft changed this, though - doesn't the heartbeat go out the normal ports?  Or at least you can configure it that way if you want.  Don't take that to the bank, just some hazy memories; you may want to research that further.

You should be aware that HP says that you can mix Integrity and x86 blades, but they don't necessarily recommend it.  The main reason is for the firmware updates.  You will just want to plan things out thoroughly when you do any update to make sure you don't affect that environment.

[BridgeToNowhere]

Thanks for the information Psychonaut, most helpful.