Flex 10 Configuration for Windows Clustering

[John Allegro]

My configuration:

C7000 Enclosure
16 1/2 height blades (460/490)All G6's
2 x VC Flex 10 Enet Module
2 x VC 4Gb FC Module

I had a consultant configure this enclosure about a year ago. I have learned a lot about it but need a little help with this situation.

I have 2 blades that I would like to cluster for SQL. My consultant configured 5 ports on the VC Enet module for a single Vlan and 1 port for a VMware dedicated Vlan.

I am going to need a heartbeat/private network for my cluster. It was explained to me that within the VC Flex 10 module each physical port can have multiple vnics.

How do you get a private network out of it when it has been assigned to a specific vlan?

Do I just run my heartbeat over the same vlan and not worry about it?

Can I remove 1 of the ports from each VC Flex 10 Enet card to create a new "private" network?

Thanks,

John

[WFHC-WI · Accepted solution]

Hi John,

A good solution for a heartbeat network between two servers in the same enclosure is a virtual network, simply defined as a network with no uplink ports assigned.

Your blades (assuming no add-on network mezzanine adapters have been installed) are each capable of 8 virtual NICs. Check the server profiles in the Virtual Connect Manager to see the number of NICs assigned to virtual networks, then add (up to 8) or change existing ones to point to the new "private" network you defined.

good luck, if you appreciate the answers we appreciate the points!

[John Allegro]

But that is my question. I do not have a private network defined as I have no physical ports on the VC Flex 10 card.

Can I define a private network without having any physical ports on the VC Flex 10 Enet module?

[Dan Robinson_4]

Are you talking about uplinks or downlinks?

You can create a "network" that has a VLAN that doesn't exist on your network and then assign that Network to a new vNIC on each node in the cluster in order to use that for the Cluster Heartbeat.

This requires a free vNIC but does NOT require any uplinks (since the traffic is not leaving the VC Domain/Chassis)

[John Allegro]

We configured it as stated by the first reply above. Very simple and works great.

Thanks for the help.

John

[WFHC-WI]

Hi John,

Sorry I wasn't able to respond to your follow-up question sooner.

Of course by now you know that no uplink ports are needed to configure a network that is internal to your enclosure. What's more, should you decide in the future to link this enclosure with additional enclosures, you can span that "private" network by just connecting the VC modules with stacking cables.

[John Allegro]

Would stacking cables allow me to have 2 cluster nodes in separate enclosures for increased redundancy?

Is there a way to do this between primary and DR sites if we are physically connected with fiber?

No rush on the reply.

Thanks

[WFHC-WI]

To the first question, yes. When you stack enclosures, you create a single Virtual Connect domain that spans all enclosures in the stack.

Once you're there, just create a virtual network with no uplink ports assigned, same as you would with a single enclosure. Communication between blades in stacked enclosures will take place across the stacking cables.

I haven't heard of anyone stacking across sites. Until the introduction of the Flex10 modules we were limited by the CX4 cable length, but now SFP cabling can be used to link modules. As long as the OAs can be on the same VLAN and network connectivity between them is stable, I think it would work.

Check these documents for more info:
http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01990371/c01990371.pdf
http://bizsupport2.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c02102153/c02102153.pdf

[John Allegro]

Thanks for the info. We do not have plans to span our management VLAN to our DR site so this probably won't work although we do have dedicated fiber between both points. I am thinking we should be able to get by with VMware SRM to achieve my goal.

Thanks for all the help.