HP Virtual Connect 1Gb Ethernet Cookbook

Purpose 3
Purpose
The purpose of this Virtual Connect Cookbook is to provide users of Virtual Connect with a better understanding
of the concepts and steps required when integrating HP BladeSystem and Virtual Connect components into an
existing network. This document will focus specifically on the Virtual Connect 1Gb Ethernet modules as installed
in the c7000 BladeSystem enclosure. There is an additional paper, “Virtual Connect Flex-10/FlexFabric
Cookbook” which focuses specifically on Flex-10 and FlexFabric (10 GB) networking scenarios.
The scenarios in this Cookbook vary from simplistic to more complex while covering a range of typical building
blocks to use when designing Virtual Connect 1Gb Network solutions. Although these scenarios are shown
individually, some scenarios could be combined to create a more complex and versatile Virtual Connect
environment, such as the combined use of Shared Uplink Sets (SUS) and vNet Tunnels. Existing users of Virtual
Connect will quickly realize that as of VC firmware release 3.30 that the selection between “Mapped” and
“Tunneled” modes are no longer of concern. The capabilities provided in those previously individual modes are
now available in the default installation of VC firmware 3.30 and beyond. These capabilities and changes will be
discussed in further detail later in this paper.
The scenarios as written are meant to be self-contained configurations and do not build on earlier scenarios, with
this you may find some repetition or duplication of configuration across scenarios.
This paper is not meant to be a complete or detailed guide to Virtual Connect solutions, but is intended to provide
the reader with some valid examples of how Virtual Connect 1Gb networking solutions could be deployed within
their environments. Many additional configurations or scenarios could also be implemented. Please refer to the
following section for additional reference material on Virtual Connect.
This paper also focuses on the feature enhancements and updates that have been provided in the 3.30, 3.51 and
3.60 firmware releases. As Virtual Connect firmware release 3.6x will be the final firmware release to be
supported on Virtual Connect 1Gb modules, this will be the final release of this paper. Future Virtual Connect
enhancement and implementation scenarios will be provided in the Virtual Connect Flex-10/FlexFabric Cookbook
which focuses on 10Gb Virtual Connect and FCoE solutions and scenarios.
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