HP Advanced Services zl Module with Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 R2 Planning and Design Guide

1-5

Branch Office Solutions with the Advanced Services zl Module with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2

Planning for Connectivity

The HP Advanced Services zl Module with Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008

R2 has a high-speed, resilient connection to the LAN with two 10 Gigabit

internal interfaces that connect to the switch’s backplane. By default, the

module connects on a single interface, internal interface 2 being enabled and

internal interface 1 being disabled.

In addition to providing a LAN connection for the module, interface 2 carries

Services Management Agent (SMA) communications between the switch and

the module. Among other necessary functions, these communications:

 Submit information to the switch about the module’s status and licensing

 Allow network administrators managers to access the hp-scvs-std context

(the CLI specific to this module)

 Enable the module LEDs to work correctly

For this reason, interface 2 must always be enabled. In fact, the SMA will

automatically enable the interface less than thirty seconds after it is disabled.

A 10G connection provides more than adequate bandwidth for most branch

office servers, and the internal interface connection is highly resilient. How-

ever, if you want, you can enable the module’s interface 1 and use both

interface 1 and 2. Simply implement NIC teaming between the two interfaces

just as you would on any Windows Server 2008 R2 machine with two NICs.

(You could also configure a different IP address on each interface and use

them as separate, non-aggregated links; however, because this implementa-

tion adds complexity and provides less flexible utilization of the bandwidth,

it is less common.)

Also note that the Windows Server 2008 R2 supports 802.1Q VLAN tagging,

which you can implement on the active interface (or interfaces).

HP zl switch administrators must provision the internal module interfaces just

as they would provision interfaces that connect to traditional servers:

 The administrator must configure the correct VLAN assignments for the

interface (or interfaces).

 If the interfaces are using NIC teaming, the administrator must configure

a trunk on the two interfaces.

These interfaces are identified in the switch CLI as <slot>1 and <slot>2 (<slot>

being the letter of the slot in which the module is installed).

Note The module also provides a management interface on its front panel, which

provides fail-safe Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) access to the Windows

Server 2008 R2 running on the module.