Operating Environment Software Manual

5 Managing fluid cross-technology logical servers
Heterogeneous server environments (multiple vendors, server types, product generations, and
product families) exist in most datacenters. Cross-technology logical servers allow you to choose
server configurations that make sense for your environment without having to consider the
mechanics of moving images and the underlying technologies.
Cross-technology logical servers can be moved between servers with Virtual Connect and ESX
virtual machines, and between servers with Virtual Connect with unlike configurations.
Following are the requirements and limitations for creating and managing cross-technology
logical servers.
• Valid targets for activating or moving a cross-technology logical server:
— ESX Hosts: 3.5, 3.5i, 4.0, 4.0i, 4.1, and 4.1i
— ProLiant c-Class servers with Virtual Connect
Not supported: Servers with Virtual Connect with FCoE (Fibre Channel over Ethernet)
ports
• Storage requirements:
— SAN volume presented to an ESX VM Host (RDM disk) that can be added to a Virtual
Connect profile
— Data store shared on a SAN or iSCSI volume (to store the VMM configuration file and
RDM mapping file [.vmdk] on the ESX VM Host)
Not supported: SPM (catalog) storage volumes
In this release, catalog storage pool entries are supported on servers with Virtual Connect
logical servers only. Catalog storage pool entries cannot be used with cross-technology
logical servers that may be activated on an ESX VM Host
• Network requirements:
— Single or multiple networks (limited to 4 by ESX)
Not supported: VLAN networks
New and enhanced features that allow you to create and manage cross-technology logical servers
(sometimes known as portable logical servers) are described in the following sections.
Defining portability groups
Use the Modify→Logical Server Portability Groups… screen to define a greater range of
mobility for logical servers. When you create a logical server and include it in a particular
portability group, you can potentially move the logical server to any target system within the
portability group (as long as you choose storage and a network that are visible across all targets)
without regard to the target’s underlying technology.
Logical server resource constraints, for example, CPU and memory requirements and
network/SAN connectivity, are evaluated solely within the context of the portability group with
which the logical server is associated.
There are two classes of portability groups: Default and User-defined.
Default portability groups:
• Each Virtual Connect domain group
• Each Operations Orchestration Workflow physical server
• All ESX Virtual Machine Hosts
• All Hyper-V Virtual Machine Hosts
• All HP Integrity VM Virtual Machine Hosts
Defining portability groups 65