HP Logical Server Management Best Practices

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appropriate logical servers (and can auto-generate storage pool entries for SAN volumes, fulfilling them with stoage
from SPM, either pre-provisioned and imported or on-demand provisioned). MatrixIO provides mechanisms to define
the logical server use of a local disk (with the caveat that the flexible movement capabilities are restricted; the
OS/application would need to be installed on a new target blade if movement is required). Due to the mobility and
recovery limitations, using boot from SAN is considered a best practice. A later section of this white paper provides
more detail on how local disk usage is specified.
HP Matrix OE can instantiate physical logical servers onto servers or blades not using Virtual Connect (in addition to
supporting blades using Virtual Connect). For those cases, the logical server can be initially activated, but cannot be
flexibly moved (since the boot volume has been presented to the physical initiator WWNs of a specific server and
those initiator WWNs cannot be migrated to another server). The logical server could be deactivated and later
reactivated onto the same physical server (and that server is not available to host other logical servers). The Support
for servers not using Virtual Connect section of this white paper provides more detail.
Figure 8 shows the flexible growth enabled by logical servers and Virtual Connect. The grey box in the center
represents the Virtual Connect Ethernet and Fibre Channel connectivity to the LAN and SAN. Multiple boot LUNs are
shown (hosted on an HP P6000/EVA array). Each blade server has a Virtual Connect profile applied which
establishes the LAN and SAN connectivity (note the profile containing the MAC addresses, network connections,
Fibre Channel WWNs, SAN connections, and boot parameter for boot from SAN). To respond to growth, the system
administrator activates a logical server on the third blade. The logical server software applies the appropriate Virtual
Connect profile and LAN/SAN connections are made. The appropriate Operating System (OS) is then deployed to
the SAN boot LUN using the appropriate OS installation solution (e.g., HP Insight Control server deployment, formerly
HP Rapid Deployment Pack, or Ignite-UX or HP Server Automation).
Figure 8: Flexible growth: Provision new node quickly with logical server creation and activation
To enable this flexibility, the system administrator works in cooperation with the storage administrator to provision the
SAN volumes used as boot and data LUNs.