HP Virtual Connect Version 2.
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Contents Hardware and firmware requirements ............................................................................................. 4 HP Virtual Connect firmware....................................................................................................................... 4 Supported hardware.................................................................................................................................. 4 Firmware upgrade requirements .........................................
Hardware and firmware requirements HP Virtual Connect firmware The latest HP Virtual Connect firmware package (version 2.02) contains the following firmware versions: • HP VC-Enet version 2.02 • HP 4Gb VC-FC version 1.30 IMPORTANT: When updating firmware, update each domain with the entire firmware package, which includes the individual VC-Enet and VC-FC firmware. Updating only the VCEnet firmware or only the VC-FC firmware is not supported. Supported hardware Version 2.
o • • HP Integrity BL870c Server Blade Enclosures o HP BladeSystem c-Class c7000 Enclosure with Onboard Administrator o HP BladeSystem c-Class c3000 Enclosure with Onboard Administrator Integrated network interfaces and mezzanine cards o HP BladeSystem Dual NC370i Multifunction Network Adapter o HP NC373i Integrated Multifunction Gigabit Server Adapter o HP NC373m PCI Express Dual Port Multifunction Gigabit Server Adapter o HP NC326i Integrated Dual Port PCI Express Gigabit Server Adapter o
Firmware Version Version Version Version Version Virtual Connect firmware 1.30 1.31 1.32 2.00 2.01/2.0 2 VC-FC firmware within Virtual Connect 1.20 1.20 1.21 1.30 1.30 The following table shows firmware upgrade/downgrade support for the HP 4Gb Virtual Connect Fibre Channel Module. Upgrade/downgrade from To VC 1.30 To VC 1.31 To VC 1.32 (VC-FC 1.20) (VC-FC 1.20) (VC-FC 1.21) To VC 2.00/2.01/2.0 2 (VC-FC 1.30) VC 1.30 — — Normal Fabric outage* VC 1.
Product Recommended firmware version Minimum firmware version NC370i, NC373i, and NC373m Boot code version 1.9.6 and C Class option ROM 1.1.3* or higher — To use NC373m with the BL680c G5 server blade, the option ROM must be updated to NC373m Boot code version 1.9.6 and C Class option ROM 1.2.7 or higher. NC326i, NC325m, and NC326m Boot code version 3.28 and C Class option ROM 1.1.3* or higher.
• HP ProLiant BL860 and BL870 Server Blades do not support the NC532m mezzanine card and the Flex-10 feature set. HP Virtual Connect Fibre Channel Module Compatibility Matrix The following table lists the switches and firmware versions that are supported with HP Virtual Connect Fibre Channel interconnect modules. Switch family Supported versions Unsupported switches Brocade and FOS 6.1.0g, 6.1.0f, 6.1.0d, 6.1.0c, 6.1.0, 6.0.1a, 6.0.0a, 6.0.0b, 5.3.1, 5.3.0, 5.3.0a, 5.3.0b, 5.3.0c, 5.3.0d, 5.2.1b, 5.2.
New features VC-Enet versions 2.00, 2.01, and 2.02 include the following features: • The Flex-10 feature set enables Virtual Connect to configure a single 10Gb NIC port of a Flex-10 NIC to represent four NIC devices (called FlexNICs) with a total bandwidth of 10Gbps. These four FlexNICs appear to the OS as discrete NICs, each with its own driver. They share the same physical port, but their traffic is kept isolated by VC, and the bandwidth available to each Flex-NIC is programmable by VC.
Resolved issues The following issue has been resolved in Virtual Connect v2.02: Virtual Connect Manager versions 1.31 through 2.01 did not work properly with Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager v1.20 when a server port existed with multiple network connections and one network connection was untagged. A customer advisory has been created, which provides a detailed description of this issue, and the proper resolution steps required to resolve this issue. To access this customer advisory: 1.
• Resolved an issue where an option to unassign FC connections corresponding to interconnect bays 5-8 was missing in the inline profile edit page. • Resolved an issue where VC incorrectly reported the FC fabric state as degraded. • Resolved an issue where a firmware upgrade could fail if multiple upgrades were attempted in quick successions (within 60 minutes) and the primary VC module was an HP 1/10Gb Virtual Connect Ethernet Module.
Important notes and recommendations When a c-Class enclosure is used with Virtual Connect v2.02 and higher, the following configuration restrictions and guidelines apply: • HP recommends using HP BladeSystem c-Class Virtual Connect Support Utility v1.3.1 or higher to install the HP VC-Enet v2.02 and HP 4Gb VC-FC v1.30 firmware. For the procedures, be sure to read the instructions on the HP website (http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.
Connect is not able to verify firmware revisions for all components, so a server blade component can be incompatible even if the server blade is not listed as incompatible. • To improve network performance and prevent unnecessary Spanning Tree Topology Change Notifications (TCN) on the network, configure Ethernet switches connected to Virtual Connect with the same Spanning Tree settings you would use when connecting to a server blade NIC.
• Virtual Connect Manager uses the enclosure serial number to associate a Virtual Connect domain with a particular enclosure. The enclosure serial number can be altered for maintenance purposes, such as when replacing the enclosure midplane. For more information, see "SET ENCLOSURE SERIAL_NUMBER" in the HP BladeSystem Onboard Administrator Command Line Interface User Guide. Enclosure serial numbers are unique as shipped from the factory, and must remain unique for proper Virtual Connect Manager operation.
Known issues General • For configuration changes, the VC Manager can take up to 90 seconds for the new information to be saved to non-volatile storage. Configuration information might be lost if power is removed during this update. A new icon has been added to the Virtual Connect Manager banner line that indicates a configuration update is in progress or if the backup module has not been updated to the current configuration changes.
• When scripting CLI commands, only a single scripting client should perform remote management operations to a remote VC Manager. If multiple scripting clients are used to perform a heavy load of CLI commands to a single VC Manager, some management commands might fail, and in some cases, the primary module might need to be reset to recover properly.
Fibre Channel and SAN boot • To boot properly from SAN with some versions of Linux and VMware ESX 3.0.1 and 3.0.2, change the QLogic QMH2462 4Gb FC HBA connection options to "point-to-point only" in the QLogic BIOS configuration utility. Emulex LPe 1105-HP 4Gb FC HBA does not require the "point-to-point" connection option to boot properly from SAN. • Cisco MSD 9134 requires minimum firmware revision of 3.2(2)c, or higher.
• Network uplinks that are linked after the Network Setup Wizard has been started may not show proper link status in the wizard. When the wizard is completed, all uplink link statuses are displayed correctly. • A server profile can be assigned to a device bay with a server that has fewer physical NIC ports than defined in the server profile. In most cases, a warning is provided, but in some cases it is not.
format error. Using the "Upload from web URL" option exclusively prevents this error. If the "Upload from local file system" must be used, be sure to keep the browser open until the upload completes, and avoid attempting firmware updates when the management network is unreliable. To recover from this error, force a failover of the primary VC Manager or use the Onboard Administrator Virtual Buttons to reset the primary VC Manager.
