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

Planning the installation 7
Planning the installation
Virtual Connect overview
HP Virtual Connect is a set of interconnect modules and embedded software for HP BladeSystem c-Class
enclosures that simplifies the setup and administration of server connections. Virtual Connect includes the
following components:
• VC-Enet modules
o HP 1/10Gb Virtual Connect Ethernet Module for c-Class BladeSystem
o HP 1/10Gb-F Virtual Connect Ethernet Module for the c-Class BladeSystem
o HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 10Gb Ethernet Module for BladeSystem c-Class
o HP Virtual Connect FlexFabric 10Gb/24-port Module for BladeSystem c-Class, which provides the
capability to configure Ethernet and FC/FCoE or iSCSI connections
• VC-FC modules
o HP 4Gb Virtual Connect Fibre Channel Module for c-Class BladeSystem
o HP Virtual Connect 4Gb Fibre Channel Module for BladeSystem c-Class (enhanced NPIV)
o HP Virtual Connect 8Gb 24-Port Fibre Channel Module for BladeSystem c-Class
o HP Virtual Connect 8Gb 20-Port Fibre Channel Module for BladeSystem c-Class
• HP Virtual Connect Manager
Virtual Connect implements server edge virtualization between the server and the data center infrastructure
so networks can communicate with pools of HP BladeSystem servers, and so you can upgrade, replace, or
move server blades within the enclosures without changes being visible to the external LAN and SAN
environments. The external networks connect to a shared resource pool of servers rather than to individual
servers. Virtual Connect cleanly separates server enclosure administration from LAN and SAN
administration.
VCM is embedded on the VC-Enet module. You can access VCM through a web-based GUI or CLI. The
Onboard Administrator provides a web link to the Virtual Connect GUI.
The VC modules support the HP BladeSystem c7000 Enclosure, the HP BladeSystem c3000 Enclosure, and
all the server blades and networks contained within the enclosure. FlexFabric modules are only supported in
BladeSystem c7000 enclosures and G6 or newer server blades with Virtual Connect firmware v3.15 and
later.
VC-Enet modules enable connectivity to all brands of data center Ethernet switches. VC-Enet modules can
also be directly connected to other types of devices, such as printers, laptops, rack servers, and network
storage devices.
The VC-FC and FlexFabric modules enable connectivity of the enclosure to Brocade, Cisco, McDATA, or
QLogic data center FC switches. Every FC fabric is limited in the number of switches it can support, but the
VC-FC modules do not appear as switches to the FC fabric and do not count against FC fabric limits.
A basic Virtual Connect domain includes a single HP c-Class BladeSystem c7000 Enclosure for a total of 16
servers (or up to 32 servers if the double-dense option is enabled), or a single HP c-Class BladeSystem c3000