6.2 HP IBRIX 9000 Storage Network Best Practices Guide (TA768-96069, December 2012)

2 IBRIX 9730 platform networking
The IBRIX 9730 platform uses a c7000 enclosure with the following components:
• A rack-mounted enclosure frame with a midplane for routing power and signals between the
bays in the enclosure.
• Bays for two Onboard Administrator modules.
• Bays for two Virtual Connect Interconnect modules.
• Bays for four 6G SAS switch Interconnect modules.
• Bays for up to eight pairs of server blades.
All enclosure component networking interfaces are attached to the enclosure midplane. Network
traffic between server blades in the enclosure and the customer network traverses a Virtual Connect
Module to exit the enclosure. Network traffic between the component management interfaces
traverses an Onboard Administrator Module to exit the enclosure.
Network attached components
Onboard Administrators (OA)
The c7000 Onboard Administrator provides basic overall management and monitoring of the
components in the c7000 enclosure. For redundancy, the c7000 enclosure employs two independent
OA modules in an Active-Failover configuration.
Each OA module has an external RJ-45 connector for an external Ethernet connection to the
enclosure management network. Internally the OA is connected across the chassis midplane to the
management Ethernet ports of the enclosure’s iLO and Interconnect modules.
The OA module is responsible for routing network traffic between its external management
connection and the internal management connections of the enclosure components. This routing
allows remote computers and the blade servers to access the management interfaces of any
component in the c7000 enclosure.
The iLO and Interconnect module management interfaces acquire their interface IP addresses from
the OA through the OA’s EBIPA mechanism. When the IBRIX 9730 is initially configured, the block
of available management addresses is set up during OA configuration.
Server blades
The c7000 enclosure can accommodate up to 16 server blades. The server blades plug into the
bays in the front of the c7000 enclosure and all external connections to the blades are routed
through the chassis midplane. Each blade houses a server motherboard with an Integrated Lights
Out Controller. A mezzanine card in the blade provides multiple Ethernet connections between
the server and the chassis midplane. The iLO also has a dedicated Ethernet interface that connects
to the management network through the chassis midplane.
The server blades are implemented as IBRIX file serving nodes. A server must have continuous
access to the user, cluster, and management networks to function properly in an IBRIX cluster.
Integrated Lights Out Controller (iLO)
The HP Integrated Lights Out Controller (iLO) is an independent management processor integrated
with the blade server to provide remote management of the server. The iLO can remotely perform
most functions that otherwise would require a visit to servers at the data center, computer room,
or remote location. The iLO also provides health monitoring capabilities for its associated server.
To perform these remote management functions, the iLO processor has a dedicated Ethernet
connection that is routed through the chassis midplane to the enclosure OA modules.
26 IBRIX 9730 platform networking