HP Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager 7.0 User Guide

1 Introduction
HP Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager (VCEM) centralizes network connection management and
workload mobility for HP BladeSystem servers that use Virtual Connect to access local area networks
(LANs), storage area networks (SANs), and converged network environments. VCEM helps
organizations increase productivity, respond faster to workload and infrastructure changes, and
reduce operating costs.
Built on the Virtual Connect architecture integrated into every HP BladeSystem c-Class enclosure,
VCEM provides a central console to administer network address assignments, perform group-based
configuration management, and to rapidly deploy, move, and failover server connections and
workloads for 250 Virtual Connect Domains (designed to support up to 1,000 enclosures and
16,000 server blades when used with Virtual Connect multienclosure domain configurations).
Use VCEM to complete key data center tasks quickly and reliably, without impacting the
configuration and availability of production networks. VCEM enables you to:
• Deploy new BladeSystem enclosures, server blades, and Virtual Connect (VC) Domains
• Perform fast and cost-effective server recovery
• Complete planned systems maintenance with minimal downtime
• Rapidly migrate and repurpose server blades to meet changing workload and application
priorities
Together, Virtual Connect and VCEM create a change-ready infrastructure that enables system
administrators to add, replace, and recover blade servers and their workloads across the data
center in minutes without impacting production networks. This flexible infrastructure also provides
the foundation for logical server deployment and orchestration delivered with Matrix Operating
Environment software.
Key features and benefits
VCEM delivers the following key features and benefits.
Key features
• Single intuitive console to manage up to 250 VC Domains. VCEM is designed to support up
to 1,000 BladeSystem enclosures and 16,000 servers when used with Virtual Connect Ethernet
multienclosure domains.
• Central repository administers a total of 256K media access control (MAC) addresses and
world wide names (WWNs) per VCEM console.
• Group-based management of multiple Virtual Connect domains using master configuration
profiles
• Automated failover of server connection profiles and workloads to customer-defined spare
servers.
• Seamless integration with existing Virtual Connect infrastructures—discovers and aggregates
Virtual Connect resources into a central console.
• Licensed per c-Class enclosure—simplifies deployment and enables support for current and
future BladeSystem and Virtual Connect hardware.
8 Introduction