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Re: Advise on expansion VC configuration with 1/10Gb VC-enet modules?

 
jochem_D
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Advise on expansion VC configuration with 1/10Gb VC-enet modules?

Hello Everybody!

 

This is my first time posting on this forum, so i am sorry if i missed anything. I have some questions about Virtual Connect compatibility and configuration. We are looking to make some changes to our enclosure/VC and I have found some of the information, but I am now looking for some confirmation or other insights to our plans. We are no Virtual Connect experts and have not changed anything in the initial enclosure setup since we first put it together. So reading about the new features, models and options can be a bit dazzling :)

 

We have a c7000 enclosure with 6 1/10Gb VC-Enet modules. We recently replaced our BL460c G1 blades with new BL460c Gen8 blades that are equipped with a HP FlexFabric 10Gb 2-port 554FLB Adapter and a HP Ethernet 1Gb 4-port 366M Adapter in mezzanine slot 2. To make everything work we upgraded all firmware (enclosure and VC) to version 3.60.

 

We are now looking to increase the amount NIC’s in the blades by buying extra adapters to install in Mezzanine slot 1. These adapters will also be connected to 1/10Gb VC-Enet modules (we have some spare modules from an enclosure that has been decommissioned).

 

I have been looking to see what our best options are. I read that cards like HP Flex-10 10Gb 2-port 530M Adapter 631884-B21 are supported in combination with the 1/10Gb VC-Enet modules but that the port speed will be adjusted to 1Gb Max. Because we do not have any budget available at the moment to replace the VC modules as well, I wondered if it would not better (pricewise) to get 1GB adapters (like HP NC360m Dual Port 1GbE BL-c Adapter? However that would also limit any possible future upgrades, which brings me to the next question: Is it possible to replace 2 or 4 VC modules and have them work with the 1/10Gb VC-Enet modules? Or is this not a valid configuration? Or would it then be better to replace al 8 modules at once?

 

So will it be worth the money to get 10Gb adapters now and keep the option to upgrade the VC modules which will fully support the new adapters. Or is upgrading only a few VC modules not recommended in our current configuration?

 

The blades are used in a vsphere and hyper-v virtual environment. And at the moment we use 3  Ethernet networks (with Vlan tunneling) defined in VC which are connected to the blade NICS (in pairs).

 

Thank you for reading so far, if I left any necessary information out please let me know. Any, insights, recommendations, tips or advise will be greatly appreciated!

 

Regards,

Jochem

1 REPLY 1
Steven Clementi
Honored Contributor

Re: Advise on expansion VC configuration with 1/10Gb VC-enet modules?

Jochem:

 

You have some pretty easy questions/concerns to address....

 

1. "I read that cards like HP Flex-10 KGB 2-port 530M Adapter 631884-B21 are supported in combination with the 1/10Gb VC-Enet modules but that the port speed will be adjusted to 1Gb Max."

 

This is because the unit only supports 10GB Uplinks (External facing ports).  All internal ports are 1GbE.

 

2. "I wondered if it would not better (pricewise) to get 1GB adapters (like HP NC360m Dual Port 1GbE BL-c Adapter?" I would be cheaper.  You can even use the 4port adaptor, you just lose 2 ports since there is no connectivity for them.  You may have some of these hanging around.

 

3. " Is it possible to replace 2 or 4 VC modules and have them work with the 1/10Gb VC-Enet modules? Or is this not a valid configuration? Or would it then be better to replace al 8 modules at once?"

 

It would be better to replace them all at once simply because the 1/10G modules are EoL now and will not be supported on the latest VC Firmware.  However... You can back rev the new modules to 3.60, install them and switch your Gen8 servers to flex nics and use the full 10GB bandwidth, removing the need for the additional modules once you get rid of your legacy g1/g5 servers.

 

4. "So will it be worth the money to get 10Gb adapters now and keep the option to upgrade the VC modules which will fully support the new adapters. Or is upgrading only a few VC modules not recommended in our current configuration?"

 

If you anticipate needing more then 8 vNIC's.. I'd go with the 10GB adaptors

 

5. "The blades are used in a vsphere and hyper-v virtual environment. And at the moment we use 3  Ethernet networks (with Vlan tunneling) defined in VC which are connected to the blade NICS (in pairs)."

 

In a VMware Environment, you do not need separate network pairs fro different networks.  You can use a single uplink.  In a Microsoft Virtual environment, I am not too sure how tagging works, but I would think you'd be able to do the same things like in a VMware environment.  Once you are on the 10GB adaptors, you won't have a need to have separate uplinks anymore.  You'd be able to have a single pair of uplinks (1 per module) with all of you networking running though them.

 

Post more questions...

 

 

 

Steven Clementi
HP Master ASE, Storage, Servers, and Clustering
MCSE (NT 4.0, W2K, W2K3)
VCP (ESX2, Vi3, vSphere4, vSphere5, vSphere 6.x)
RHCE
NPP3 (Nutanix Platform Professional)