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vc-enet modules

 
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Marco_G
Occasional Advisor

vc-enet modules

Hello: We have a c7000 enclosure with vc-enet modules in bays 1&2. VC-fc modules in bays 3&4. We would like to install bl680c blades to utilize the 4 NICs onboard for VMWare. Do we need another pair of VC-enet modules for this?
Do we then have to install them in bays 3&4 and move the fc modules to bays 5&6 ?
Any suggestions on port mappings for these NICs?

Thanks for your replies.
4 REPLIES 4
The Brit
Honored Contributor
Solution

Re: vc-enet modules

Hi Marco.
given the information you have supplied, and the assumption that port mappings are the same as the bl860c, (full height Itanium Blade), then the answer is NO.

1. Internal (integrated) NICs are hard wired to IC Modules 1 and 2, so as long as you have VC ENet modules in IC1 and IC2, then you are covered.

2. If you are talking about adding additional NICs, there is a 4-port ethernet card available which can be installed on a Mezzanine slot. If you are installing a four port NIC card, then preferencially you should install it on Mezz 1, since Mezz 1 will map all 4 ports to only 2 IC modules (3 & 4). On any other Mezz slot it will require 4 IC modules to map all 4 ports, (i.e. 5, 6, 7 & 8). Refer to the attached doc.

Having said all that, you need to give consideration also to whether or not you are intending to mix full and Half-height blades in the same enclosure, and whether you are going to need access to SAN storage (i.e. FC HBA's) When mapping full and half height blades in the same enclosure, the mapping between blades and IC modules gets very complicated.

Remember the population of the IC bays has to be acceptable to all of the servers in the enclosure.

hope this helps.

Dave
Marco_G
Occasional Advisor

Re: vc-enet modules

Thanks Dave.
I think I understand that using full height blades will be OK with vc-enet in bays 1&2. These 2 modules should see 2 nics apiece, therefore 4 nics total per server.
Here's what I understand: if we go with half height blades requiring 4 nics, it gets messy and probably do need the 2 extra vc-enet modules in bays 5&6. And the vc-fc will remain mapped to bays 3&4.
Best to get this figured out before configurations are set and production up.
karim h
Valued Contributor

Re: vc-enet modules


We run BL680C blades in this configuration (2 vc-e and 2 vc-fc modules) in a few environmens and I can confirm that you will be presented with 4 NICs within the OS.

You are right - if you go with the BL460C blades you will need to purchase additional vc-e modules for bays 5 and 6 and a mezzanine NIC adapter to be installed into each BL460C that requires 4 NICs.
Marco_G
Occasional Advisor

Re: vc-enet modules

Thank you.