10Gb ethernet NIC to the blade

[ksnook3]

We have a HP VC Flex-10 Enet Module and want to provide a 10Gb interface to a server. The blade can be a BL280, BL460c G6 or G7 (we have a choice). The server will be a physical Windows 2008 server (i.e. not virtualised). How can I provide a 10Gb interface to the server?

[Matti_Kurkela]

Which blade chassis? c7000 or c3000?

The built-in NICs in BL460c G6 and G7 are 10Gbit capable, so if your Flex-10 module is in the first 2 slots on the c7000 chassis (or in the 1st slot on the c3000 chassis), either of these would be appropriate.

The BL280c G6 has regular gigabit NICs, so you would need a 10Gbit mezzanine card for it, and the Flex-10 Enet module would have to be in slots 3/4 or 5-8 on the c7000 (or in slots 2-4 on the c3000), depending on which mezzanine slot you place the card into.

[ksnook3]

Thanks for your reply. That helps somewhat. The server is in a C3000 chassis. We have Virtual Connect as well - I think I'm right in saying that I need to set up a ENET with the 10GB ports that I have connected (X2 and X3).  Then I present that ENET in a server profile and set speed to 10GB. Will that then show up in Windows as a 10GB NIC or do I need to do something more?

[Matti_Kurkela]

In a c3000 chassis, the first I/O module slot will connect to the built-in NICs of all blades. Mezzanine slot #1 will be connected to I/O module slot 2, and mezzanine slot #2 will be split between I/O module slots 3 and 4.

So if you only have one VC Flex-10 module, it's very likely in the first I/O module slot, and we can leave the mezzanine cards out of the picture. You will definitely want a blade with built-in 10Gbit capable NICs, then: in this situation, the mezzanine card would require buying another I/O module too.

I think your procedure is basically right, but I must admit I have not had a chance to actually operate the Virtual Connect modules in quite a long time (a different team manages them for us).

Perhaps someone more familiar with Virtual Connect configuration can confirm (or fill in any extra steps I'm forgetting)?