Connecting VC Flex Fabric to Nexus 5000

[Oscar_Maimó]

Hi guys:

I am evaluating to mount a new enclosure, the network team has two cisco nexus 5596 switches and I am planning to connect my enclosure to them. My question is: May I connect the VC Flex-Fabric to Cisco nexus 5596, or should I use the Cisco Fabric Extender for HP BladeSystem (B22HP).

Thanks in advance

Oscar

[Psychonaut]

There's no technical reason not to use FlexFabric, it'll work just fine.  Here's the link to the VC guide for the Cisco Admin - http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01386629/c01386629.pdf

[Steven Clementi · Accepted solution]

The only reason you might want to use the Extender is political...  You network team wants full control and easy/similar management of all networking devices.

As stated, the FlexFabric Module will work just fine.  It has a non-Cisco type management interface though so it is "another level" of management that needs to be taken into consideration.

WHat do you lose by using the extenders...

Att the functionality of Virtual Connect.  Virtual MAC/WWID's, easy server bay swapping, custom network port speeds just to name a few...  You also don't get to use the FlexNics as... FlexNic's so no FCoE adaptor to connect to your SAN... (or at least that's how the data sheet portrays the units.)

[Oscar_Maimó]

Thanks Steven, I really want to use the Virtual Connect modules because I have experience with HP tech and even more with Virtual Connect but not with FlexFabric neither nexus 5000 as Fibre switch. I just wanted to be sure that such config works fine.

Thanks a lot

[Hongjun Ma]

there are many customers connecting VC to Nexus5000 and 5500. you can check my blog to see typical VC Flexfabric cabling. Also, check my VC bookmarks for VC Network CLI guide with nexus config. it will show you how to config on Nexus as well.

[Steven Clementi]

VC vs. FlexFabric... there is no major difference except that the module has SAN Connectivity options instead of using VC-FC modules or SAn Switches in the enclosure.

Configured the same way... same interface... etc.