Hp C-Class Bladesystem Virtual Connect; Hp Virtual Connect Advantages - HP StorageWorks 4000/6000/8000 - Enterprise Virtual Arrays Reference Manual

Blade servers
BL3xp
BL40p
For HP ProLiant BL c-Class SAN product support, see the support matrix at
h18006.www1.hp.com/storage/saninfrastructure/switches/b4gbsscblade.
For HP ProLiant BL p-Class SAN product support, see
storageworks/bladesystemmatrix/index.html.
For fabric rules when using the HP p-Class BladeSystem SAN switches, see:
B-series switches and fabric
C-series Fibre Channel and FCoE switches and fabric
M-series switches and fabric
SAN fabric connectivity and switch interoperability
For third-party fabrics, HP supports the blade server, the HP p-Class BladeSystem SAN switch, and
switch connectivity (including the switch interface) to the non-HP fabric. See
"Third-party switch

HP c-Class BladeSystem Virtual Connect

The HP 4Gb VC-FC module is an optional Fibre Channel interconnect offered on HP BladeSystem
c-Class servers. VC-FC employs NPIV protocol to aggregate multiple Fibre Channel HBAs over a
smaller number of N_Port uplinks. The VC-FC module is Fibre Channel standards based and is
compatible with all NPIV standards-compliant switch products.
The VC-FC module can aggregate up to sixteen Fibre Channel HBA ports at the back end connected
through the enclosure backplane, and comes with four uplinks or N_Ports which connect to an external
Fibre Channel fabric. Each of the four uplinks is configurable to aggregate between zero and sixteen
Fibre Channel HBAs resulting in an over-subscription ratio of up to 16:1. The default over-subscription
ratio is 4:1 with other user configurable options of 8:1 and 16:1. The VC-FC module appears as a
pass-thru device to the network. Any changes to the server are transparent to its associated network.
This separates the servers from the fabric and relieves SAN administrators from server maintenance.
The VC-FC module is one of two components of the HP Virtual Connect technology. The other component
of the solution is the HP Virtual Connect Ethernet (VC-Enet) module. Both modules are managed by
Virtual Connect manager software embedded on VC-Enet module. The HP Virtual Connect solution
requires at least one VC-Enet module and one VC-FC module.

HP Virtual Connect advantages

Advantages of HP Virtual Connect include:
Simplifies server connections by separating server management from LAN and SAN management.
SANs are managed at the core switch, separate from blade enclosure.
B-series
Brocade 4Gb SAN Switch for HP p-Class BladeSystem
C-series
M-series Edge Switch 2/12 and 2/24 only
McDATA 4Gb SAN Switch for HP p-Class BladeSystem
B-series
C-series
M-series
rules, page 93
rules, page 157
support" on page 179.
Switches
http://
http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/
rules, page 135
rules, page 167
SAN Design Reference Guide 187