Latest VC Advisory

[The Brit]

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c02463297&dimid=1043192498&dicid=alr_dec10&jumpid=em_alerts/us/dec10/all/xbu/emailsubid/mrm/mcc/loc/rbu_category/alerts

This is a typically fuzzy advisory. Which is basically "DON'T DO ANYTHING". It details WHAT might happen to your environment, but it doesn't explain WHY it might happen.
The proposed solution, i.e. upgrade VCM to 3.01 or later, is not acceptable since there are issues posted with all of the later versions, and upgrading to a version with known issues, from a version which has been stable for us, for over 12 months, would be a stupid choice.

Secondly, the bl8x0c servers are not included in the list of affected hardware although all of the proliant blades are. Surely, if this is a VC issue then it affects all blades.

Is this yet another indication of HP's lack of commitment to Integrity??

(Just blowing off steam)

Dave

[Michael Leu]

Hi Dave

First of all, I feel for your frustations with unclear advisories. It seems to me they don't want to reveal too much embarrasing details about the VC code quality. ;-) Or it's simply those who know why exactly it happens are to busy fixing things.

But I would disagree with your other two points. First, the known issues
http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c02571422/c02571422.pdf
of VC 3.15 do IMHO not contain any really bad things like the issue point out with VC 2.x.

And (also IMHO) this does not at all indicate a lack of commitment to Integrity, far from it. The whole VC 3.x had to be developed especially for the new BL8x0c i2 Tukwila blades, so I think HP has put a lot of effort into OA and VC to support the new Integrity hardware with it's blade link.

Of course that the 'old' bl8x0 are missing from advisories is unfortunate. They are practically discontinued, and the combination of the ProLiant and Integrity support offering is still a work in progress at HP, but gets better with the bl8x0 i2.

FYI, I have two enclosures each with one bl860c happily running together with a few bl460c g6 and a bl860c i2 on OA 3.21 and VC 3.15 (Flex10 and VC-FC 4gb).

Michael

[The Brit]

Hi Michael,
I agree with your comments except for your comment on VC 3.15. While there have not been any serious issues report yet with this version, in has only been out for 1 month, and I suspect that it has not be exercised to any great extent by the user community.

I am like you, I have 4 c7000 and a couple of c3000. The 7000 are all running a mix of Itanium (bl860's -OpenVMS) and Proliants (various Generations) hosting Windows and Linux.

We have been running these enclosures without any issues at our current levels, for over a year.

If Version 3.15 makes it through the next couple of months without issues, then we will probably consider upgrading.

Dave.

[Michael Leu]

Hi Dave

Probably I's a bit risky of me to update right away, but my current thinking is if I wait a few months, then the next VC will be out already. ;-) And I don't want to fall too far back, as catching up can become very complicated/risky/downtime heavy.

Anyway, it's a heck of a lot of updating that is needed with all these components. That's the downside of being able to stick practically every HP hardware imaginable into a c-class...

Having to manage OpenVMS as a IMHO niche part of a HP BladeSystem, I can understand the risk of 'fringe issues' is high with the freshest firmware.

So good luck with updating, if you choose to go that road. :-)

Michael