Introduction to Virtual Connect 7
Introduction to Virtual Connect
Virtual Connect is an industry standard-based implementation of server-edge virtualization. It puts an
abstraction layer between the servers and the external networks so the LAN and SAN see a pool of
servers rather than individual servers (
Figure 1
). Once the LAN and SAN connections are physically made
to the pool of servers, the server administrator uses Virtual Connect management tools (Virtual Connect
Enterprise Manager or Virtual Connect Manager) to create an Interconnect modules connection profile for
each server.
Additional Virtual Connect Reference Material
Link to
HP Virtual Connect technology for the HP BladeSystem c-Class
, 2
nd
edition when available
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00814156/c00814156.pdf
Link to
HP Virtual Connect for c-Class BladeSystem Setup and Installation Guide
http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01732252/c01732252.pdf
Link to
HP Flex-10 technology
http://bizsupport2.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01608922/c01608922.pdf
Virtual Connect Fibre Channel Cookbook
Virtual Connect can be used to support both Ethernet and Fibre Channel connections; however, this guide
is focused completely on the Ethernet configuration.
For Fibre Channel connectivity, please refer to the
Virtual Connect Fibre Channel Cookbook
http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01702940/c01702940.pdf
(
www.hp.com/go/blades
)
Virtual Connect 2.30 Firmware Release
Shared Uplink Sets provide administrators the ability to distribute VLANs into discrete and defined
Ethernet Networks (vNet.) These vNets can then be mapped logically to a Server Profile Network
Connection allowing only the required VLANs to be associated with the specific server NIC port. This
also allows the flexibility to have various network connections for different physical Operating System
instances (i.e. VMware ESX host and physical Windows host.)
Virtual Connect firmware 2.30 was released in September 2009 and provided a number of new features.
Among those feature enhancements are a couple which are relevant to this paper;
•
DCC (Device Control Channel), which adds support for link state, notification and dynamic
bandwidth allocation for Flex-10 NICs.
•
DCC provides the ability to dynamically edit or modify a Flex-10 profile, renaming the Flex-10
profile, editing NIC connections within a profile and/or adjusting link speed without the need for a
server power down or reboot
Note: in order to obtain the full functionality of DCC, NC532i/m NIC firmware level must be
2.2.3 or later.