HP Virtual Connect internal Blade Communication

[robincont]

Dear all,

At the moment I have a customer using HP 7000c Blade Servers with Flex 10 and virtual connect.

I need to know the following, for a Network redesign.

Is the internal Communication (within the chasis) between the Blade Servers possible without using the Uplinks

to the external Network, when I use the following 2 configuration possibilities?

1.using the mapping mode?

2.Using the Tunneling mode?

Thanks for any advice on this.

Regards robincont

[Hongjun Ma]

internal communication can be forwarded directly among Flex10 downlinks without using uplinks.

the key thing is that if NICs from different servers are configured to connect to the same "vnet". if they are, then they'll be forwarded directly by flex-10.

This applies to both mapped mode and Tunnel mode. BTW, after VC3.30, there is no such thing called mapped mode or tunnel mode. You can have mapped vnet or tunnel vnet.

in general, I like to suggest using mapped vnet(default mode) unless you really need very large vlans support(above 1000).

please check my blog

http://hongjunma.wordpress.com

and look for a VC technical overview deck, it has more info on how VC works internally and what's the pros and cons for tunnel mode.

[robincont]

Hello Hongjun,

Thx for the useful info.

I read through a few Tech docs beforhand, but didn´t find an exact answer to the tunneling mode.

Can you possibly recommend one, is there a pdf available for download?

Thx

Robincont 

[Hongjun Ma]

Hi Robincont,

there is a sectiono of vlan tunnel in my VC tech overview deck, did you see it? Also, VC Flexfabric cookbook talks about it also. Which particular area are you not clear about tunneling? I can try to address it after hearing your feedback.