Configure HP Blade ,C7000 and HP Virtual Connect Manager (VCM) for XenServer infrastructure.

HP C7000 chassis can hold different blade model and for that refer to HP site . Here I am going to explain how HP Blade Center can be designed for XenServer . XenServer require 1 management NIC . This NIC can not be tagged at XenCenter level . Hence at the switch side this needs to be defined as trunk with access for management VLAN (Incase there is a dedicated VLAN ). Its a good practice to dedicate a VLAN for XenServer host.

Now out of 8 nic (by default Blade BL 460 G6 sever can give 8 NIC with nic partitioning . These 8 nic can be divided to be used as FcOE or ethernet . In below example I am using two NIC for management interface , two NIC for VM traffic and other two for FcOE. Here you can see there is last leg where FcOE is installed.

To start we need to ensure all the MAC as well as WWN is set to .

This is for Fibre network or FcOE.

Other setting is on advanced settings : Here we should use "Map VLAN Tags". Also we set the speed at server profile rather than global level.

Next is to create a uplink for ether network . This is called shared uplink set. There will be two shared uplink set as there are two switch . Each shared uplink set can have ports from respective switch and can not span across other switch. In other word we can have ports from single VCM. This will create one bundle provided on core switch there is a ether channel or LACP is done on the core switch.

After all the ports are mapped this will be look like this . Here four 1 Gb ports has been mapped to one share uplink . Hence uplink bandwidth from one VCM is 4Gb. 

For creating VLAN's we need to create on each of the SUS (Shared uplink Set) . Right click as shown below and select add. This will prompt for network details We need to be careful with tagging VLAN. Again set the network speed at NIC level.

Now define shared uplink for SAN. Assigned the port based connectivity.

Once SUS is defined for SAN this is how it looks like . Here each 2Gb port will be bundled to create 4Gb uplink to storage.

Now once these two SUS is created each for Ethernet as well SAN this should be mapped to the profile. "Multiple Networks " will allow you to create multiple VLAN on single bond or link . These VLAN can be selected as shown below after creating on each of the SUS. You can also see LOM in each BAY1 and BAY 2. Hence each blade will have 4 NIC on BAY 1 and 4 NIC on BAY2.

This is how the Ethernet Networks looks like when it is mapped . Here you can see each network is mapped to each of the server profile.

On XenServer , this is how looks like. Here you can see management NIC is set to 1GB where as other NIC is set to 2GB. 

We have created a Bond 2+3 for VM network and this is how VLAN is mapped .

That is all for now, hope you enjoyed

VCM 3.15 allows you to change NIC speed while Blade is up and running

HP Virtual Connect Manager (VCM) 3.15 has been producing many new feature compare to 2.0. With latest VCM it allows you to change the NIC speed while host is running.


Below video show that XenServer is running BL460 G7 and management interface has been changed from 100MB to 1GB speed. This change reflect immediately .

Network performance issue between XenServer and HP Blade

We came across very interesting performance issue on XenServer installed on HP Blade with Flex Fabric (Virtual Connect).

By default VC switch configured as default STP (Spanning Tree Protocol) . While uplinking virtual connect to the core switch , make sure that core switch port is configured for same STP . In our observation we found that core switch port were configured for MSPT (Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol) and link aggregation (LACP) were configured using 1GB port.

Due to STP configuration changes , convergence were talking some additional time. This results in  RTO and packet drop which was causing XenApp session freeze.

Conclusion : If LACP is used to get 4GB thoughput on uplink , make sure that there are no protocol mismatch. Default protocol on VC can be changed to match core switch protocol.

Working with Blade8:Configure VLAN for ESX host on Blade

With Blade networking is very important aspect if you are planning to roleout ESX on it. Because based on networking you will plan how you want to define this on VC-Flex10 module. There are many way you can define it but I like this :

a) Two LOM goes for Service Console

b) Two LOM goes for VM network

c) Dedicate two LOM for vmotion and confine traffic within VC domain.

d) Two LOM for NFS/ISCSI.

For VM network where you have to define multiple network. You need to create all the VLAN’s under shared uplink set which you want to trunk on VM network vSwitch

Vmotion network using internal link

1. For vmotion we will be creating a Ethernet Networks but will not be assigning any uplink to it

2. For rest all network it should be like this

3. Once this Ethernet link is created and blade has this profile assigned this nic can be used for vmotion. So create a vmkernel for vmotion, assign the IP address of your choice as the same IP address scheme you need to use it for all the vmotion vmkernel or else it will not work.

VM network using multiple network.

For VM network we create multiple VLAN on single vSwitch. This means VLAN should be in trunk mode. We also do tagging at ESX level .

Click on the tab as shown above and then it will pop up

Here you can select what ever VLAN you want be seen by VM network vSwitch.

Step by Step: Installing HP SIM on ESX4.0

Today I have installed HP SIM on BL460C G6 .  I followed my earlier blog and little bit of change in answer script.

First of all you need to download correct SIM agent for your hardware. So select the your server model  and then from “Software – System Management ” page download correct tar (hpmgmt-8.3.1-vmware4x.tgz)file. Follow the blog till steps 13.

Then the answer file looks like this :

[root@xxxx]# ./install831vibs.sh --install

HP Insight Manager Agent 8.3.1-01 Installer for VMware ESX

Target System is VMware ESX 4.0.0 build-208167

Server:  ProLiant BL460c G6

1.This script will now attempt to install the HP Insight Manager Agents.

Do you wish to continue? (y/n)    yes

2.For accessing the System Management Homepage, the port for hpim service (2381) should be enabled in the firewall. Do you want to enable this port? <y/n> (default is y) yes.

3. For allowing discovery by HP System Insight Manager, the port (2301) should be enabled in the firewall. Do you want to enable this port? <y/n> (default is y) yes

4.For adding the HP Systems Insight Manager Certificate in SMH, the port [280] should be enabled in the firewall.  Do you want to enable this port? <y/n> (default is y) yes

5. Do you wish to use an existing snmpd.conf (y/n) (Blank is n): no

6. Enter the localhost SNMP Read/Write community string (one word, required, no default):  public

7. Enter localhost SNMP Read Only community string (one word, Blank to skip): public

8. Enter Read/Write Authorized Management Station IP or DNS name (Blank to skip): <IP of SIM server>

9. Enter SNMP Read/Write community string for Management Station "<IP of SIM server>" (one word, required, no default): public

10. Enter Read Only Authorized Management Station IP or DNS name (Blank to skip): <Blank if you don’t have one>

11. Enter default SNMP trap community string (One word; Blank to skip): ): <Blank if you don’t have one>

12. Enter SNMP trap destination IP or DNS name (One word; Blank to skip): <Blank if you don’t have one>

13. Enter system contact information (Name, phone, room, etc; Blank to skip): <Blank if you don’t have one>

14. Enter system location information (Building, room, etc; Blank to skip): <Blank if you don’t have one>

System page has been changed from earlier version

And see it inside

If you want to do for 3.5 host then follow this blog

Working with Blade7:Integrating Onboard Administrator and Virtual Connect Manger with AD

1. Make sure  you define access level and create e AD security group accordingly.

2. Make sure you perform “Directory Settings” as shown below.

A. “ Directory Server Address:* : “ can be any Domain controller IP address.

B. “Directory Server SSL Port:*”  will be fixed 636

C. “Search Context 1: ”  will be in the format of  OU=Users,OU=ABCD,DC=abcd,DC=net

D. One thing to remember is that user from ABC OU can be only able to authenticate. So if you want to user from EFG to be authenticated then either you move the user to ABCD OU or create another “Search Context” with following  OU=Users,OU=EFG ,DC=ABCD,DC=net. The other way to find out field would be looking at user object properties.

3. We need to create directory group as shown below. Make sure you set the correct privilege level and check correct Device bay for access.

4.. Same setting has been done on VC Manager

and then

Working with Blade6:The same network cannot be on multiple Flex-10 ports within the same profile

Under your server profile  , you cannot have more than 2 flex 10 NIC dedicated to same network profile. If you tried to assign

If you refer the document on Page 13 ,its clearly mentioned . If you need separate pairs of NICs to go to the same network you can attach additional network cables to the Flex 10 module and configure each uplink port as its own network.

Scenario is like this and I was trying

So you have two LOM (Lan on Motherboard ) for each Blade server ,which is also called as Flex NIC. Refering to above figure what we are doing is putting VLAN NFS on LOM1 which as per limitation of Flex 10 is not supported.

I will talk more about Flex 10 NIC architect in my next blog but the document which I mention above is very nice.

Working with Blade5: Blade name does not appear while Profile assignment

When you assign serer profile to the blade it does not say that it has assigned  following server to the following profile rather it says Bay1/2 …

It would have become easy if it would have update blade name

Working with Blade4:Does VC support LACP ?

Does Virtual Connect support EtherChannel\802.3ad\SLB on the downlinks to the server NICs? Can I use LACP port trunking on the server NICs connected to Virtual Connect?

No, Virtual Connect does not support EtherChannel\802.3ad on the downlinks to server NIC ports.

Working with Blade 3:Configure vmotion on VC without using external network

Objective of this post is to configure vmotion without using “Shared Uplink Sets”. Other term not using external switch . Traffic for the vmotion will be confined to  enclosure .

1. Define network  under  “Ethernet Networks” but do not associate with  “Shared Uplink Sets”

2. When we define the network it should be like this

3. Once this is done then assign this Network to the server profile. You can dedicate one or two NIC which will be used for vmotion . How to find out which one is dedicated  for vmotion ? Very simple on ESX side nic numbering will be in the same order as you assign . For example is LOM:1-c in Bay1 has been assigned to vmotion network which will be 5^th from TOP. ESX will show as vmnic4 which is correct as numbering for ESX start from vmnic0 onwards

4. Once you do above you cannot have any other network on that vSwitch. This vSwitch will be dedicated one. You can assign any IP but it should be that other vmotion network on other ESX should be on same network.

5.

Working with Blade2:How to use VC Flex-10 with vmotion

I wanted to use vmotion using virtual connect by selecting “Private  Network”. We planned to use VC switch itself for the vmotion and not going beyond. But looks like it we can not achieve it and we have to use traditional way of VLAN tagging . I will talk about how to use VST in my next blog.

Working with Blade-1:Changing name of the Enclosure and Rack Name

Changing name of the Enclosure and Rack Name:

1. Login to Onboard administrator with user name and password

2. Go to Enclosure Information – Information