Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager Quick Start Implementation Guide

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Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager Quick Start

Implementation Guide

Technical white paper Last Updated: 1/10/2012

Feedback: vcemqs-feedback@hp.com

Table of Contents

Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 3

VCEM Operation Model and Key Concepts .................................................................................... 4

VCEM Installation Walk-Through (Release 6.3.1) ........................................................................... 6

Testing Setup Topology .............................................................................................. 6

Prepare Management Server to Install VCEM Software ............................................ 7

Download VCEM ISO File and Evaluation Licenses from HP.com ............................ 8

Install VCEM 6.3 Software from DVD ISO ................................................................ 13

Install VCEM 6.3.1 Update Patch ............................................................................. 28

Launch HP VCEM 6.3.1 after Installation ................................................................. 34

Discover HP BladeSystem Enclosures in HP Systems Insight Manager (SIM) ....... 37

Use Case 1: Import the First VC Domain into VCEM .................................................................... 42

Use Case 2: Import the Second VC Domain into VCEM and have LAN/SAN Configuration

Replicated ................................................................................................................. 49

Use Case 3: Using Network Access Groups (NAG) ...................................................................... 61

Use Case 4: VLAN Change Automatic Replication Across Enclosures ........................................ 71

Use Case 5: Profile Failover .......................................................................................................... 76

Appendix 1: Install .Net 3.5 SP1 on Windows 2008 R2 server ...................................................... 86

Appendix 2: Change DEP setting on Windows2008 R2 server ..................................................... 88

Appendix 3: Install SNMP service on Windows2008 R2 server .................................................... 90

Summary of content (93 pages)

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Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager Quick Start Implementation Guide Technical white paper Last Updated: 1/10/2012 Feedback: vcemqs-feedback@hp.com Table of Contents Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 3 VCEM Operation Model and Key Concepts .................................................................................... 4 VCEM Installation Walk-Through (Release 6.3.1) .......................
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Revision History Date Revision 12/6/2011 1/10/2012 1.0 1.
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Introduction HP Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager (VCEM) provides a centralized management console for Virtual Connect server profiles across multiple HP BladeSystem enclosures. This technical white paper is intended to help readers familiarize themselves with the VCEM installation and setup process.
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VCEM Operation Model and Key Concepts VCEM provides a central point of server profile management for HP BladeSystem Virtual Connect domains. Virtual Connect (VC) technology offers substantial benefits to System/LAN/SAN Administrators by providing unique features like server profile and FlexNIC. Virtual Connect configures LAN/SAN connectivity of the server blades inside HP BladeSystem enclosures.
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VCEM Server Location Import VC Domain Domain Group and Domain Enclosure H/W Requirement It’s recommended to have a dedicated server deployed for VCEM outside the VC domains it manages. In order for VCEM to manage a VC domain, the domain needs to be imported into VCEM first Each VC domain will belong to one VCEM Domain Group when doing the import, a minimum of one Domain Group needs to be created on the VCEM server to manage all VC domains.
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VCEM Installation Walk-Through (Release 6.3.1) Testing Setup Topology The testing setup consists of two HP c7000 BladeSystem enclosures. Each enclosure has a pair of Virtual Connect FlexFabric modules in I/O slot bays 1 and 2. The VCEM server is on a rack mount server (In fact, it’s a VCEM windows virtual machine running on a rack mount server). Each enclosure has LAN and SAN connectivity through Virtual Connect modules.
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Prepare Management Server to Install VCEM Software VCEM is based on HP System Insight Manager (SIM) on Windows. HP SIM is the central management solution for HP servers and storage arrays. The white paper won’t cover SIM details. SIM information can be accessed at http://www.hp.com/go/sim . VCEM installation requires the following windows components. It’s recommended that users meet these requirements before installing VCEM.
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Download VCEM ISO File and Evaluation Licenses from HP.com Users can try VCEM free for 60 days. The installation ISO file and licenses can be downloaded at http://www.hp.com/go/vcem The following screen capture will demonstrate the download process.
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Install VCEM 6.
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Install VCEM 6.3.1 Update Patch VCEM 6.3.1 requires VCEM 6.3 ISO to be installed first (which we did in previous section) and then apply VCEM 6.3.1 update patch.
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Launch HP VCEM 6.3.1 after Installation After VCEM 6.3 ISO and VCEM 6.3.1 update patch are installed, look for an icon on windows desktop named” HP Systems Insight Manager” and double click it.
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Discover HP BladeSystem Enclosures in HP Systems Insight Manager (SIM) Although HP SIM and VCEM are installed, they have no knowledge of which enclosures to manage until the user allows HP SIM and VCEM to discover these systems either by IP or DNS names. In order for VCEM to work, it needs to verify the individual VC domains and import them into its database. Please remember VCEM is based on HP SIM. SIM provides security, logging, discovery, licensing, event framework, etc. for plug-ins like VCEM.
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Use Case 1: Import the First VC Domain into VCEM After HP SIM initiates the device discovery, we can now focus on VCEM to manage the individual VC domains. First, let’s import the first c7000 enclosure VC domain into VCEM. This VC domain has an existing LAN/SAN configuration and a server profile already defined. VCEM will import all these configurations into its domain group. It is important to note that it is not necessary to have any server profiles defined in VCM.
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Use Case 2: Import the Second VC Domain into VCEM and have LAN/SAN Configuration Replicated The benefit of VCEM will show up when you start to manage multiple enclosures, starting from the second enclosure. Assuming you have configured your LAN/SAN for the first enclosure of the VC domain, and the additional enclosures are all connected to the same LAN/SAN environment, you will not be required to configure these enclosures.
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Now it’s time to verify if all LAN/SAN configuration information from enclosure 1 VC domain ENC1-VCDomain has been synched to enclosure 2 VC domain ENC2-VC-Domain without the user having to manually configuring them again.
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Next we will create a server profile for a server in enclosure2 and leverage the LAN/SAN configurations synched from enclosure1.
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Use Case 3: Using Network Access Groups (NAG) One of new features introduced in Virtual Connect 3.30 and VCEM 6.3.1 is Network Access Groups (NAG). Within VCM, you can define Network Access Groups (NAG) to manage groups of networks. Assigning networks to a server profile prevents the use of networks outside of an assigned group, or NAG (for example, in the case of Intranets and Extranets). You associate each server profile with one NAG, but you can assign multiple server profiles to the same NAG.
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Use Case 4: VLAN Change Automatic Replication Across Enclosures Another benefit of VCEM is that users can make changes to LAN/SAN configurations across multiple enclosures, like adding a new VLAN under network trunks. Instead of implementing the same changes in VCMs one by one, users can make changes once in VCM and VCEM will replicate those changes to other enclosures in the same domain group. In this test, we’ll:  In VCEM, put VC domain 1 into maintenance mode.
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After completing VC domain 1 maintenance at VCEM console, we will try to create a new server profile to see if we can see new vlans added.
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Use Case 5: Profile Failover VCEM Profile Failover provides a way to quickly move a VC Profile from one system to another. VCEM profile failover may be triggered by three ways: Option VCEM GUI VCEM CLI HP System Insight Manager(SIM) event monitoring Trigger method The Profiles Tab. The Bays Tab. The failed system’s hostname. The failed system’s IP address. The failed system’s enclosure and bay number.
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In this test, we assume that enclosure 1 has H/W issues and we want to move the server configuration from enclosure 1 to enclosure 2. We will use VCEM GUI to manually trigger a server profile failover from enclosure 1 bay 1 server to enclosure 2 bay 3 server. By doing this, users can quickly boot up a new server in another enclosure with the same LAN/SAN connectivity and OS contents.
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 VCEM power off the source server  VCEM unassigns server profile from source server  VCEM assigns the same server profile to the spare server selected (Again, the spare server needs to be powered off initially)  VCEM power on the spare server 78
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Appendix 1: Install .Net 3.
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Appendix 2: Change DEP setting on Windows2008 R2 server 88
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The pop up message will show.
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Appendix 3: Install SNMP service on Windows2008 R2 server 90
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© Copyright 2012 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.