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The third blade chassis from the left in Figure 1 contains Cisco Nexus B22HP fabric extenders that connect to both
Cisco Nexus 5500 switch platforms through vPC for redundancy. In this configuration, active-active load balancing
using vPC from the blade server to the Cisco Nexus 5500 switch platform cannot be enabled. However, the servers
can still be dual-homed with active-standby or active-active transmit-load-balancing (TLB) teaming. This topology is
only for Ethernet traffic because SAN A and SAN B separation between the fabric extender and the parent switch
is necessary.
The last two setups illustrate how rack mount servers can connect to the same Cisco Nexus parent switch using
rack-mount Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders. The topology for blade servers and rack-mount servers
can be identical if desired.
Hardware Installation
Installation of the Cisco Nexus B22HP in the rear of the HP BladeSystem c7000 chassis is similar to the installation
of other I/O modules (IOMs). The layout of the HP BladeSystem c7000 chassis, server types, and mezzanine cards
used determine the slots that should be populated with the Cisco Nexus B22HP for 1 and 10 Gigabit Ethernet
connectivity. Table 1 summarizes the typical options for half-height servers using dual-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet
devices.
Table 1.
Mapping of HP BladeSystem c7000 Half-Height Server Mezzanine Card to IOM Bay
Card
IOM
LAN on motherboard (LOM)
IOM bays 1 and 2
Mezzanine card 1
IOM bays 3 and 4
Mezzanine card 2
IOM bay 5 and 6
After the Cisco Nexus B22HP fabric extenders are installed, the onboard administrator (OA) should be updated to
at least Version 3.5 to help ensure that all functions and graphics are present. No configuration is required from the
chassis onboard administrator.
Fabric Extender Management Model
The Cisco Nexus fabric extenders are managed by a parent switch through the fabric interfaces using a zero-touch
configuration model. The switch discovers the fabric extender by a using detection protocol.
After discovery, if the fabric extender has been correctly associated with the parent switch, the following operations
are performed:
1. The switch checks the software image compatibility and upgrades the fabric extender if necessary.
2. The switch and fabric extender establish in-band IP connectivity with each other. The switch assigns an IP
address in the range of loopback addresses (127.15.1.0/24) to the fabric extender to avoid conflicts with IP
addresses that might be in use on the network.
3. The switch pushes the configuration data to the fabric extender. The fabric extender does not store any
configuration locally.
4. The fabric extender updates the switch with its operational status. All fabric extender information is displayed
using the switch commands for monitoring and troubleshooting.
This management model allows fabric extender modules to be added without adding management points or
complexity. Software image and configuration management is also automatically handled without user intervention.
