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Re: C7000 Multiple VC Domain to Stacked Configuration Change

 
Shadders
Advisor

C7000 Multiple VC Domain to Stacked Configuration Change

Hi all,

I currently have 4x C7000 Enclosures, they have been installed one by one, over a period of a year.

Each C7000 has 2x Flex-10 VC modules. Each module has 2x 10GB uplinks to a Procurve switch.

I have multiple vlans configured on the switches & the VC's are configured as mapped - not tunneling, so I have multiple networks configured & 2x shared uplink sets per chassis.

I am interested in changing the configuration to a stacked environment. I have read the cookbook:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01990371/c01990371.pdf

But it assumes a blank environment & has no scenario of moving from a non stacked to stacked configuration.

Has anyone done this - or does anyone know how to do this without me reconfiguring the whole set up? Im running out of 10GB ports on the Procurve switches & will need to ensure I have capacity for future C7000 Chassis...

Also - I have read that I can use CX-4 connectors or use DAC cables from the 10GB ports - is this right?

Any help would be great.

Thanks in advance,
Steve
4 REPLIES 4
DerekS_1
Frequent Advisor

Re: C7000 Multiple VC Domain to Stacked Configuration Change

Personally I regret going the stacked route. I would much rather use separate chassis. Why? I find the VC/OAs are not stable, can hiccup during upgrades, and cause more problems and complexity that the benefits.

During one VC upgrade, all I/O modules were taken offline and blades lost all connectivity.

After that experience, and general OA/VC instabilities, I'd never link chassis together and I'd seriously reconsider any future HP blade purchases.
Michael Leu
Honored Contributor

Re: C7000 Multiple VC Domain to Stacked Configuration Change

To keep it simple I do not dare to set up a stacked configuration. We also started out with 1 enclosure at each site and grown to 4.

Our 10gb SFP-DAC cables from Cisco seem to work fine since about VC 3.10:
->show uplinkport
========================================
ID Enclosure Status Type Speed Used By
========================================
enc0:1:X1 enc1 Linked SFP-DAC Auto uplink_bay1
(Active) (10Gb)

And the latest VCSU (1.5.1) fixes some outage issues during upgrades. I hope those pains are behind us ;-)
Kalritch
New Member

Re: C7000 Multiple VC Domain to Stacked Configuration Change

I would say it is a no go for what you are looking for. The first issue for you is that there is no way to get the stacked(extended VC Domain) without blowing away your other three individual domains.

You mentioned you needed room for more. In our research so far we can only find that the stacked config supports a max of four enclosures. Your fifth enclosure will be all on its own. Unless you can figure for that or maybe import all new enclosures to an existing domain you may not want to stack them.

These are just a few of our observations and obstacles we have had to think about. Our setup has four enclosures and we are needing to increase throughput between the blades across enclosures and be prepared for future growth.
Shadders
Advisor

Re: C7000 Multiple VC Domain to Stacked Configuration Change

Thanks for all you input, I'll be leaving the current set up - as is. I cant afford to blow away the other 3 vc domains to get a single pane view with the pitfalls as described buy yourselves. At least with my current set up, I can apply fixes one at a time & only afftec one enclosure at any one time - rather than potentially knock out the whole environment.

Thanks,
Steve