FC/FCoE connection limitation on HP VC Flex Fabric 10Gb/24-port Module

[Andyo]

Hello Gents,

in a HP VCM CLI for c-Class BladeSystem Ver.3.51/3.60 User Guide, there is a statement under the "General requirements for adding FC or FCoE connections":

"The current maximum number of FC/FCoE connections is four per I/O bay."

does it mean that if I have:

1) only two I\O-bays each populated with HP VC Flex Fabric 10Gb/24-port Module

2) two fabrics "san_a" and "san_b" each with its FC-uplink and each attached to different bays

I'll not be able to create more then 4 server-profiles associated with both mentioned fabrics?

Thank U in advance 

[Psychonaut]

No, this is refering to the the VC module itself - you can only use X1-X4 for FC/FCoE.  

"FlexFabric module uplink ports X1-X4 can be configured as FC fabric ports or Ethernet network ports. If a port

is configured as an FC fabric port, the protocol used is FCoE, and the server profile connection to that fabric
is an FCoE connection."

You can definitely create more than four server profiles attached to storage.

[Andyo]

Thank U for explanation, man.

I'm asking because I have strange case with exact described deployment. When I create additional (starting from 5th) profile and associate it with fabrics, associated with that profiles servers cannot conect to LUNs from storage. In the same time zoning on path to target is correct, all SAN switches can see flogi from both target and initiator. But initiator cannot see target's wwn.

I'll dig situation more deeply...

[DanRobinson]

I thnk if you check that document you were reading you will find the section you are in refers to profiles.

This is saying the max you can have is 4 FC/FCoE connections to any 1 I/O Bay (Interconnect) **in a single profile**.

This is because the BL680c G7 (with an optional 553m to give it 4 total adapters) could have 4 seperate FCoE connections in the same profile to the same Bay.

Its one of those things in the docs that feels to me like it doesn't really need to be said.  Its simple math and not some actual limitation of the product.

Especially considering the new Integrity 890 could actually have 8 connections.  And I think a newer version of the doc you are referring to mentions this caveat.

Lastly, it definately cannot be max of 4 UPLINKs per I/O bay as was mentioned before with respect to FlexFabric X1-X4 because we sell dedicated FC modules with 8 uplinks.  Why would we limit those to 4?  It does say FC/FCoE which would mean both or either.

As far as your specific problem, just make sure you have no limitation on the number of Logins per port upstream and you are zoning based on WWPN and not based on Port.