HP Virtual Connect 3.51 Release Notes

Prerequisites 13
If any HP Integrity BL8x0c i2 servers have already been installed, then they can be left powered on
during the entire update to the recommended OA and VC firmware revisions.
• Brocade 804 8Gb FC HBA for HP BladeSystem c-Class is supported only with HP ProLiant G6 servers
or later.
• Each FlexNIC and FlexHBA is recognized by the server as a PCIe physical function device. Adjustable
speeds range from 100Mb to 10Gb in 100-Mb increments when connected to an NC553i/m 10Gb
2-port FlexFabric Converged Network Adapter or any Flex-10 NIC. Adjustable speeds range from 1Gb
to 10Gb in 100-Mb increments when connected to an NC551i/m Dual Port FlexFabric 10Gb
Converged Network Adapter.
• Virtual Connect Manager version 3.51 requires Adobe Flash Player 10.x or higher before you can log
in. HP recommends updating to Adobe Flash Player 10.2 or higher. When using IE9, HP recommends
using Adobe Flash Player 10.3.181.16 or higher.
The recommended Adobe Flash Player web browser plug-in can be downloaded and installed from the
Adobe website (http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/
), or downloaded as a standalone executable
from the Adobe website (http://www.adobe.com/downloads
).
For the latest Adobe Flash Player Security Bulletin Updates, see the Adobe website
(http://www.adobe.com/support/security/index.html#flashplayer
).
• If you are planning to use VC 3.51 firmware in a VCEM environment, HP recommends upgrading to
VCEM v6.3u1. VCEM 6.3u1 allows VC 3.51 firmware to work in VC 3.30 firmware "compatibility
mode" as long no profiles have more than four FC or FCoE connections per I/O bay. A future version
of VCEM will support the new features in VC 3.51.
• The HP NC551m Dual Port FlexFabric 10Gb Converged Network Adapter is only supported with the
HP Integrity BL8x0c i2 Integrity Server Blades and the ProLiant G6 server blades or later.
• VC FlexFabric 10Gb/24-port Modules are only supported in BladeSystem c7000 enclosures with
Virtual Connect firmware v3.15 and higher.
• When VC 8Gb 20-port FC Module and VC FlexFabric 10Gb/24-port Module Fibre Channel uplink
ports are configured to operate at 8Gb speed and connect to HP B-series (Brocade) Fibre Channel SAN
switches, the minimum supported version of the Brocade Fabric OS (FOS) is v6.4.x. In addition, the Fill
Word on those switch ports must be configured with option Mode 3 to prevent connectivity issues at
8Gb speed.
On HP B-series (Brocade) FC switches, use the portCfgFillWord (portCfgFillWord <Port#>
<Mode>) command to configure this setting.
Mode Link Init/Fill Word
Mode 0
IDLE/IDLE
Mode 1
ARBF/ARBF
Mode 2
IDLE/ARBF
Mode 3
If ARBF/ARBF fails, use IDLE/ARBF
Modes 2 and 3 are compliant with FC-FS-3 specifications (standards specify the IDLE/ARBF behavior of
Mode 2, which is used by Mode 3 if ARBF/ARBF fails after three attempts). For most environments,
Brocade recommends using Mode 3, as it provides more flexibility and compatibility with a wide range
of devices. In the event that the default setting or Mode 3 does not work with a particular device, contact
your switch vendor for further assistance.