HP Virtual Connect for c-Class BladeSystem Version 2.30 User Guide

Network management 75
The following figure shows mapped VLAN tags, a feature that enables users to define how each server
VLAN tag is mapped to a specific network. Each server port can connect to multiple networks. Server
NIC1 is connected to both the Green and Red networks. Server NIC2 is connected to the Red network,
and Server NIC3 is connected to the Red, Blue, and Orange networks. All server NICs can send and
received tagged or untagged traffic.
If Virtual Connect is set to map VLAN tags, VC-Enet modules accept incoming frames with valid server
VLAN tags and translate server-assigned VLANs into corresponding internal network VLANs, thus placing
the server packet on the correct network. When these frames reach the uplinks, network VLANs are once
again translated into external data center VLANs. Similarly, VLANs are translated back to server-assigned
VLANs (or stripped and untagged) before sending frames out to servers. This function allows for the
possibility of configurations where server VLANs might not match external VLANs used on uplinks. To
avoid this scenario, you can select the 'Force server connections to use the same VLAN mappings as
shared uplink sets' option.
Server port connections to networks are defined on the Define Server Profile screen (on page 106).
Restrictions and limitations
• Maximum number of networks per shared uplink set:
o For Virtual Connect v2.30 and later – 128 networks
o For Virtual Connect v1.34 and Virtual Connect v2.10 – 64 networks
o For all other versions of Virtual Connect – 32 networks
• As of Virtual Connect Firmware v2.30, the following shared uplink set rules apply per domain when
in mapping mode:
o Maximum of 28 unique server mapped VLANs per server profile network connection
o Maximum of 128 unique VLANs per shared uplink set
o Maximum of 320 unique VLANs per Virtual Connect Ethernet module
o Every VLAN on every uplink counts towards the 320 VLAN limit. If a shared uplink set is
comprised of multiple uplinks, each VLAN on that shared uplink set is counted multiple times.