HP 5900V - anyone using it?

[MichaelM55]

Hello,

I am in need of an new physical separated small cluster/rack providing vserver for internal departments. Let´s do it with HP hard and software

• some HP Proliant DL380 Gen 8
• Vmware Vsphere 5.5
• HP´s 3Par based F200

But what about networking?

• Let´s take a bundle of TOR switches with HP 5900AF-48G-4XG-2QSFP+ Switch (JG510A)

• "HP FlexFabric Virtual Switch 5900v for VMware" - sounds interesting, but I cannot find anyone using it. -

- Also it seems I need at least IMC 7.0 standard for using it?

- So, thanks to VEPA I push (all?) traffic of Vmware guests to the TOR switch where I control (and monitor) the whole traffic?

- So, HP`s 5900V includes real firewall capabilities for controlling the traffic from/to/in between all guests on the TOR switches?

- So, I do not need any additional firewall in front of that cluster at all?

• What else do I need to get everything running? According to the "Fundamentals Configuration Guide" I need licenses? "License-based features, such as EVB, FCoE, SPBM, and Trill, require a license to run on your device. To use a license-based feature, you must purchase a license".

- I cannot find any?

- Can anyone please provide HP part numbers?

- Is this included within "HP Virtual Switch 5900v VMware E-LTU" (JG814A) or HP VSO SW for 5900v VMware E-LTU (JG815A)?

[Sietze Reitsma]

The 5900v is not officially published yet and is in beta right now. But will be released soon.

The 5900v is part of a solution which requires the following components:

1: VEPA capable switch like HP 5900 series, HP 11900, 6125XLG for C-class blade enclosure.  no further licencing needed

2: HP IMC VAN Connection Mgr SW Mod w/E-LTU (JG494AAE)

3: HP Virtual Switch 5900v VMware E-LTU (JG814AAE) per host

4: HP VSO SW for 5900v VMware E-LTU (JG815AAE)

5: VMware ESXi/vCenter 5.0/5.1 Enterprise Plus (not sure for 5.5)

You are right that you push the traffic to the upper layer physical switch where you control the traffic (ACLs, Qos, Vlan and Bandwidth)

[Peter_Debruyne]

Hi,

* like Sietze mentioned, having the vSphere Enterprise is important. You must have a vSphere which supports the distributed vswitch feature, since the 5900v will be installed as a replacement for the distributed vswitch.

* be careful getting docs from h3c site. HP has a no-license policy for the 5900 (or all features enabled and available out of the box), which is different from the h3c boxes (where a license is required as per h3c doc). So I recommend to check the HP docs site for the 5900.

Best regards,Peter