C7000 enclosure reference request

[Jeff Goddard]

I've looked though the setup guide, the cookbook, and user's manual and can't find what I'm looking for. We've got 2 flex-10 modules and want to use the 4 SFP+ connections as a dedicated network to our NetApp SAN. I'll use 4 of the other flex-10 1Gb connections to my backbone network. Can refer me to instructions? If their in my already printed and bound docs, would be kind enough to refer to sections and page numbers?

Thanks

[Jeff Goddard]

I just wanted to post a follow-up. I think I've got everything configured as I want but I can't seem to find documentation on how to configure an iSCSI SAN. Everything documents fiber-channel. Do I assign my Network_Data network to the first blade port and the SAN_Data to the second? Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

[rick jones]

When you talk about a dedicated network to your NetApp SAN, is that exclusively dedicated to the systems in your C7000 chassis, or is it also serving other folks via the backbone network? You should be aware that the Flex-10 modules will not switch traffic between their uplink ports, so traffic arriving on the links to/from your NetApp SAN will only reach blades in the C7000 chassis. That means that your NetApp SAN needs another path to any other systems it is to serve.

[Jeff Goddard]

My production backbone is on the 10.x network. I have 4 SFP+ links configured on theSAN on the 172.16.x network and I only want the ESX hosts from the C7000 enclosure to communicate with the SAN across those links

[rick jones]

SFP+ is kind of a misnomer for a link type. SFP, SFP+, XFP et al are more like PCIe, PCI, PCI-X. They are all the "back end" of the transceiver in the case of the SFP et al, or the card in the case of PCIe et al. A link type would be more along the lines of SR fibre, DAC, CX4 - the stuff that comes-out the front of the transceiver.

Anyhow, while I am far from a VC/Flex10 - expert, you would I believe define two separate vNets, assigning blade ports (or flexnics if you are splitting ports into flexnic) to each of the two vNets as apropriate, and then assigning IP addresses to those blade ports accordingly.

[Jeff Goddard]

So I've got two Ethernet networks: San_DATA and COPR_Backbone and I've assigned the connections to each. I've also created server profiles with the 4 connection assigned to each profile and then assigned them to all the slots in the enclosure. How do I set the IP addresses on the enclosure side of the link?

[Jeff Goddard]

I'm still haivng issues as when I install ESX 4 and choose a network card to manage from, the 8 configured connection all show via MAC address but they all are of a status "Disconnected".

[rick jones]

Picking the IP addresses on the blades is no different than if you had rack-mount servers and separate switches.

[rick jones]

ESX - probably an important enough detail to have included in the beginning, and I'm afraid takes me well out of my knowledge base.

[Jeff Goddard]

So the 172.16.x network is DAC. Assigning the IP addresses is done in the networking software running on the host. How do I get ESX to use the CORP_backbone network for managment? Why do all of the nics show a status of disconnected?

[WFHC-WI]

Hi Jeff,

Please upload a screenshot of the server profile and a screenshot of the virtual networks for this enclosure.

What model blade server are you using?

[Jeff Goddard]

It looks like I can only get one attachment per reply so here come several. This one is our desired layout.

[Jeff Goddard]

Here is the Netwoks screen shot

[Jeff Goddard]

Here is the server profile I'd like to assign. As you can see, we're using Proliant BL460c G6 blades. There are currently 4 in the enclosure.

[Jeff Goddard]

Sorry, forgot the attachment