HP Pre-defined Address question

[chuckk281]

Wim had a customer question:

******************

A large customer is afraid to run out of the number of 64 pre-defined MAC and WWN address ranges. He is not using VCEM at the moment.

Are there any plans to increase that number in the near future or is the only possibility to use VCEM or user defined ranges?

********************

Jon replied:

********************

I cannot answer futures questions, but you can further stretch the pre-defined ranges by using enclosure stacking, upto 4 enclosures per domain. So we are then talking about 256 enclosures instead of 64 single domain enclosures. (Some design limitations apply.)

Using double density blades would maximize the number of physical blades per enclosure; alternatively, heavily built full height blades with multiple, multiport mezzanine adapters could be used in conjunction with many virtual machines accessing many LANs and SANs. (This requires capacity planning.) VLANs and NPIV may be used to further stretch the use of each physical MAC and WWN used through Virtualization.

Beyond that, we are talking about the efficiencies using a global VCEM address pool with little or no waste of address space. Given the human labour involved with managing hundreds of enclosures separately and the design limitations associated with using stacking (some interconnect population consistency is required within the domain), the cost to benefit using VCEM becomes increasingly appearent, as does other technologies such as CloudSystem Matrix, which leverages VCEM.

******************

Any other comments or suggestions?