What's New; Platform Support; Architectural Overview; Hp Virtual Connect Technology - HP BL680c - ProLiant - G5 User Manual

Increase productivity and server-to-administrator ratios.
Release LAN and SAN administrators from routine server-centric tasks.
VCEM scales across small and large data centers.

What's new

VCEM 6.0 is an update to VCEM 1.20, 1.3x, and 1.40 that adds new features and support for the latest
Virtual Connect hardware and firmware which includes:
Support for the HP Virtual Connect 8Gb 20-Port Fibre Channel module for BladeSystem c-Class.
Operations with Virtual Connect firmware 2.30 features that include:
Updated SNMP events for Virtual Connect.
Number of VLANs per shared uplink increased to 128.
Dedicated VCEM 128K address ranges for MAC and World Wide Name assignments, for a total of
256K supported network addresses per VCEM console.
Role-based access and control for Virtual Connect Domain Groups.
Number of supported VC Domains increased to 250 per VCEM console (up to 1,000 BladeSystem
c-Class enclosures and 16,000 servers when used with Virtual Connect multienclosure domain
configurations).
Native installation and operations with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 64-bit.
Removes support for Virtual Connect firmware 1.2x and 1.3x. The minimum supported Virtual Connect
firmware version is 2.00.
VCEM 6.0 updates existing installations of VCEM 1.20, 1.3x, and 1.40, and is delivered on Insight
Software media 6.0 which can be downloaded from http://www.hp.com/go/vcem.
NOTE: VCEM 6.0 requires an existing installation of VCEM 1.20, 1.3x, or 1.40 and is delivered on HP
Insight Software media 6.0 or as a download at http://www.hp.com/go/vcem. The current version number
represents alignment and compatibility with other products delivered on HP Insight Software media 6.0.

Platform support

VCEM is supported on most HP BladeSystem c-Class hardware, storage, software, and third-party operating
platforms. For a full list of supported platforms and components, see the HP Insight Software Support Matrix.

Architectural overview

This section provides an overview of the architecture, functionality, and operations of Virtual Connect
technology and VCEM.

HP Virtual Connect technology

HP Virtual Connect is an interconnect option for HP BladeSystem c-Class enclosure that simplifies server
connectivity by reducing physical cabling and virtualizing network assignments. It puts an abstraction layer
between the servers and their external networks so that LANs and SANs see a pool of servers instead of
individual servers, providing real benefits over traditional managed switch and pass-thru network solutions.
The Virtual Connect architecture is built into every HP BladeSystem c-Class enclosure and extended through
standards-based Ethernet and Fibre Channel modules that plug into the enclosure interconnect bays. Virtual
Connect uses pools of unique media access control (MAC) addresses, World Wide Names (WWNs), and
server profiles to establish constant server-to-network connections. The server connection profiles contain
MAC, WWN, and boot-from-SAN definitions that are assigned to the enclosure bays and not the physical
servers. The physical servers use network assignments and the server profiles instead of default burned in
12 Introduction