Upgrading C7000 Blade Enclosure and Blades

[martyn_9]

Hi Guys

I am in the process of upgrading our hardware and just want to clarify a few things before the purchase goes ahead.

to paint a picture......

We have a c7000 Blade enclosure with 6 x GbE2c Ethernet Blade Switch's, i want to upgrade these all to HP VC Flex-10 Enet Module's to provide future expansion possibilities. My question is this....can i install these HP VC Flex-10 Enet Module's in place of the GbE2c Ethernet Blade Switch's and still have my blades work through them at 1gb?? the blades in question are ProLiant BL460c G1's.

Question 2 is ......

in the future how can i upgrade these blades to allow full use of the flex 10's, is it just a case of adding a mezzanine card in each blade?

thanks in advance for any help.

[Sivaramakrishna_1 · Accepted solution]

Hi,

If you install the VC Flex-10 in place of GbE2c Switches and without any configuration of VC modules, it acts like a simple with with uplink port.

The real fetures will be enabled only after you initialize the VC (Domain creation, profiles creation, networks/shared uplinks creation etc).

But the BL460c G1 will not support Flex-10 functionality but it will support Virtual Mac addresses (means still u can use only 2 NIC but same with Virutal Mac)

As the onboard NIC will not support Flex-10 fuctionality, you can go for installing the Flex NICs on the mezzanine cards(need to remove existing NIC on those slots) and you can use the Flex-10 feture on those NIC by configuring the VC.

If you install new G6/G7 servers then those servers can use the Flex-10 features by configuring the profile and apply to the bays in which the new servers installed.

Hope this helps you...

[Frank Gessner]

G6 or G7-Blades have Flex10-, Flex-Fabric onboard, using Slot 1&2 of the Backplane.
G1-Blades can only participate here with the onboard 1G. For them to run with Flex10-Functionality an additional mezzanine is required which needs additional
Flex10-VC-Modules on Slot3&4 or 5&6.

regards, Frank

[martyn_9]

thanks guys,

just to clarify if i bought 2 flex 10 switches to put in this enclosure i would also need to add mezzanine cards to each of the blades i wanted to operate at full functionality?

any chance you could link me to the mezzanine cards i would require.

thanks again for your help.

[martyn_9]

disregard the use of the word switch, i meant module.

[Zygmunt Krawczyk]

My recommended solutions for your case:

1)
- two VC Flex-10 modules in slots 1 and 2
- six current GbE2c switch modules in slots 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8
- your G1 blades will work at 1 Gb,
you can have 2 additional 1Gb LANs by replacing card in mezz slot 2 to 4-port NC364m or NC325m
- new G6 and G7 blades will take advantage from Flex-10 (two LOM ports will become 8 flex LANs),
you can have 6 additional 1Gb LANs by installing 2-port card in mezz slot 1 and 4-port card in mezz slot 2

2)
- four VC Flex-10 modules in slots 1, 2, 5 and 6
- two current GbE2c switch modules in slots 3 and 4
- your G1 blades will work at 1 Gb,
if you replace card in mezz 2 slot to Flex-10 (eg. NC532m) you will have 8 flex LANs and remaining 4 1Gb LANs
- new G6 and G7 blades equipped with Flex-10 card (eg. NC532m) in mezz slot 2 will have 16 flex LANs,
you can have 2 additional 1Gb LANs by installing 2-port card in mezz slot 1

Similar solutions can be build using new VC FlexFabric Modules (Flex-10, FCoE and iSCSI in one box)

3)
- two VC FlexFabric modules in slots 1 and 2
- six current GbE2c switch modules in slots 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8
- your G1 blades will work at 1 Gb,
you can have 2 additional 1Gb LANs by replacing cards in mezz slot 2 to 4-port NC364m or NC325m
- new G6 blades will take advantage from Flex-10 (two LOM ports will become 8 flex LANs),
you can have 6 additional 1Gb LANs by installing 2-port card in mezz slot 1 and 4-port card in mezz slot 2
- new G7 blades will take advantage from FlexFabric (two CNA LOM ports will become 8 flexfabric LANs - Enet, FC or

iSCSI),
you can have 6 additional 1Gb LANs by installing 2-port cards in mezz slot 1 and 4-port cards in mezz slot 2

4)
- four VC FlexFabric modules in slots 1, 2, 5 and 6
- two current GbE2c switch modules in slots 3 and 4
- your G1 blades will work at 1 Gb,
if you replace card in mezz 2 slot to Flex-10 (eg. NC532m) you will have 8 flex LANs and remaining 4 1Gb LANs
- new G6 blades will take advantage from Flex-10 (two LOM ports will become 8 flex LANs),
you can have 8 additional flexfabric LANs (Enet, FC or ISCSI) by installing FlexFabric CNA card (NC551m) in mezz slot 2
- new G7 blades equipped with FlexFabric CNA card (eg. NC551m) in mezz slot 2 will have 16 flexfabric LANs (Enet, FC or

iSCSI),
you can have 2 additional 1Gb LANs by installing 2-port card in mezz slot 1

[martyn_9]

awesmoe reply thanks,

my understanding was that the use of the flex 10's was to take the networking to 10GB speeds and that the addition of the mezzanine card allowed me to add my blades to that configuration.

i dont have any issues with installing new flex10 modules in replacement of our current switches but i was unsure of the ability of my blades to work at the same speed as those new flex10's.

[Zygmunt Krawczyk]

my understanding was that the use of the flex 10's was to take the networking to 10GB speeds and that the addition of the mezzanine card allowed me to add my blades to that configuration.

i dont have any issues with installing new flex10 modules in replacement of our current switches but i was unsure of the ability of my blades to work at the same speed as those new flex10's.


Flex-10 has more functionality than 10Gb.
Read the doc:
HP Flex-10 technology
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01608922/c01608922.pdf

Your G1 blades can take advantage of Flex-10 speed and functionality if you install Flex10 NIC in mezz slot 2 (PCI-Express 8x) and if you have VC Flex-10 or VC FlexFabric modules installed in interconnect slots 5 and 6 in c7000.

[martyn_9]

"Your G1 blades can take advantage of Flex-10 speed and functionality if you install Flex10 NIC in mezz slot 2 (PCI-Express 8x) and if you have VC Flex-10 or VC FlexFabric modules installed in interconnect slots 5 and 6 in c7000."

yes that is what i thought, i really appreciate you confirming that for me and have awarded maximum points for it.

thank you very much

[Zygmunt Krawczyk]

Do you use iSCSI? Or have you plan to use iSCSI, FC or FCoE? If yes, i recommend to consider VC FlexFabric Modules instead of VC Flex-10.