Network design to 4 VC and two external switch

[kompai]

HI all

I have a c7000 blade enclosure, with 4 network switches (HP 1-10G) and mezzanine´s cards in all my blades to use the 3 and 4 NIC. In the network side i have two Cisco´s 6500 with a CX4 card, connected between them by a port channel.

I would like connect the enclosure to my switches in the best way to have the better perfomance and load balancing. I will connect the uplinks like trunk ports, but i don´t be sure about the best way to do it.

My first idea was connect the device bay 1 and 5 to the first switch and configure them like a port channel, and the 2 and 6 to the other switch idem. But i don´t be sure if this is the best design or anyone could recommend me a better solution.

I supose that i must configure a teaming in all my servers to have the better perfomance and reliability. Is it?

[Adrian Clint]

Kompai,
The solution will depend on what you are doing with the NICs and what teaming method you are thinking of using.
Also are you thinking of port-trunking 1 & 5 together? Eg trying to make a 20gb link?
If so I'm not sure the Cisco will let you do this, I think the port trunk has to be to one 1-10G only. You need to double check this.

What you could do. Team NIC1 & NIC3 together but on half of the blades configure NIC1 is the prefered NIC for traffic. On the other half of the Blades configure NIC3 as the prefered NIC for traffic. Thus you will use both 10Gb links and your traffic will be balanced.

[HEM_2]

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01471917/c01471917.pdf?jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

check out scenario 11

LACP channels can not span multiple VC modules, i.e. you can't have a single port channel with uplinks from bay 1 and bay 5.

[Pieter 't Hart]

look at this document "Deploying the ProLiant BL p-Class GbE2 Interconnect Switch into a Cisco-based Network.pdf"
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00457828/c00457828.pdf
most of it will also apply to the HP 1-10G switch you mention.

also look at attachment from "blade 3020 switch design_guide_c07-468192.pdf"
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps6746/ps6748/ps6765/design_guide_c07-468192.pdf

Pieter

[kompai]

Thanks in advance.

In VC GbE2 and Cisco 3020 manuals spoke about Sapnning Tree, but my VC 1-10Gb with CX-4 can´t configure anything about it (is not supported).

About all manuals that i read, there aren't any design or example with four VC in the same enclosure. Anyone have any example, idea or design with it?

In teh supose that i continue with the idea of connect my enclosures with four VC with CX4 to my two 6500 switches, what is the best topology?

[Pieter 't Hart]

>>>
The initial product release will support only single enclosure module stacking. A future firmware update will provide support for up to four HP BladeSystem c7000 enclosures (for a total of 64 servers) per Virtual Connect domain, two or four Virtual Connect Ethernet modules per enclosure (eight total per Virtual Connect domain), and zero or two Virtual Connect FC modules per enclosure.
<<<

are you sure four VC LAN modules per enclosure are supported allready ?
docs I can find only speak about 2 LAN + 2 SAN!

[Pieter 't Hart]

sorry for last remark, recently found this:
http://bizsupport2.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01732252/c01732252.pdf

with FW version 2.10 and higher c7000 could add up to :
16 Ethernet modules, 16 FC modules, 4 enclosures per domain

[kompai]

thaks all

Here i attach a image with the design.
I think that the principal problem is use 4 VC, because all design spoke of use 2 and i don't know how take profit with it.

I saw the scenario 11 from the PDF "Single domain scenarios" and it´s like i would like configure, but i don´t know how configure it with 4 VC because i can't configure etherchannel between different VC.

The way is make teaming between the four NIC in each Blade Server and configure two VC-NET for the same VLAN, each one a SUS configure with the VC1 & VC5, and vc2 & VC6?

[Adrian Clint · Accepted solution]

So what you have....
Server has 4 NICs, one NIC into each VC and the VC's are stacked. Each VC has a single Cx4 10Gb connection uplink. Two VC are connected to CiscoA and two to CiscoB. Fine so any NIC can connect thru to any uplink if you so desire.
You can't trunk the two CX4 into the same Cisco as far as I am aware. So we are left with 4x 10Gb Links/SUS.

So what do you desire?
How many different VLANs do you want to your servers? How much bandwidth do you need for these two VLANs?

The simple answer is to create 2 Vnets and connect the downlinks on a left hand switch and a right hand switch to their CX4 uplinks. Turn VLAN tagging on and Smartlink on. Then do the same for the other two switches. But the design can be a lot better if you know in detail more of what servers are connecting to and the bandwidth they need.

[kompai]

All is OK..it´sa perfect description.

One question: if i only use two VC with two uplink each switch configure like a etherchannel, is it better?