HP Virtual Connect for c-Class BladeSystem Setup and Installation Guide

HP Virtual Connect Manager 66
Always establish control processes to ensure that a unique MAC address range is used in each Virtual
Connect domain in the environment. Reusing address ranges could result in server network outages caused
by multiple servers having the same MAC addresses.
If using Virtual Connect assigned MAC addresses, the following notes apply:
• Virtual Connect automatically assigns two MAC addresses to each VC-Enet connection in the server
profile, a primary address for the Ethernet NIC, and an iSCSI MAC address for use by multifunction
gigabit server adapters, such as the HP NC373m PCI Express Dual Port Multifunction Gigabit Server
Adapter. Only the primary MAC address is used by standard (not multifunction) Ethernet devices.
• If a server blade is moved from a Virtual Connect managed enclosure to a non-Virtual Connect
enclosure, the local MAC addresses on that server blade are automatically returned to the original
factory defaults.
• If a server blade is removed from a bay within a Virtual Connect domain and installed in another bay
in the same Virtual Connect domain or in a bay in a different domain, it is assigned the new set of
addresses appropriate for that server location.
• When FlexFabric adapters are in use, Virtual Connect assigns a MAC address to each FCoE connection
in the server profile.
Assigned MAC addresses
The MAC address range used by the Virtual Connect domain must be unique within the environment. HP
provides a set of pre-defined ranges that are for use by VCM and do not conflict with server factory default
MAC addresses.
When using the HP-defined MAC address ranges, be sure that each range is used only once within the
environment.