Understanding the Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager

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servers within their enclosures without changes to the external LAN/SAN environments. With VCEM, you can move
and copy profiles within a single VC domain, among any VC domains, or among VC domain groups.
VC domain grouping allows you to use a master configuration to deploy and maintain multiple VC domains that
access the same networks. This increases infrastructure consistency and simplifies deploying new enclosures and
domains, whether they are single-enclosure or multi-enclosure VC domains. The first VC domain added to a domain
group establishes the master configuration that all other group members will use (Figure 5), including LAN and SAN
connections.
Figure 5: VC domains use a master configuration for all group members.
When you import a VC domain into VCEM and manage it as part of a VC domain group, all server profiles
associated with the VC domain become part of the VC domain group. Any unassigned server profiles created
through VCEM also become part of the VC domain group. VCEM ensures consistent configuration across the
enclosures within the domain group.
Group-based management automatically applies the master configuration of the domain group to enclosures added
to the group, so you can deploy new hardware quickly. From an IT operations perspective, group-based
management saves time, reduces deployment costs, and greatly limits the potential for configuration errors. Group-
based management of multiple VC domains using master configurations increases infrastructure consistency,
simplifies system deployment, and enables rapid change management across hundreds of HP BladeSystem
enclosures.