Internal Ethernet Ports; External Ethernet Ports; Port Speed, Duplex, And Flow Control - HP Bc1500 - BladeSystem - Blade PC Supplementary Manual

Internal Ethernet ports

The HP PC Blade switch comes pre-configured with two Virtual LANs, VLAN 1 and VLAN 2. VLAN 1 is
assigned to odd numbered ports e1 through e39, which physically connect blade PC NIC A to the switch
by way of the passive centerwall assembly. Blade PC NIC A in bay 1 is connected to port e1 and blade
PC NIC A in bay 2 is connected to port e3 and so forth. VLAN 2 is assigned to even numbered ports e2
through e40, which physically connect blade PC NIC B to the switch by way of the passive centerwall
assembly. Blade PC NIC B in bay 1 is connected to port e2 and blade PC NIC A in bay 2 is connected
to port e4 and so forth. Port e41 internally connects the Integrated Administrator to VLAN 1 for IA-to-
Switch Ethernet communication.

External Ethernet ports

The HP PC Blade Switch includes four external RJ-45 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet "uplink" ports (e43
- e46) and one 10/100Mbps FastEthernet port (e42). Ports e43 - e46 are each partnered with a Small
Form-factor Pluggable (SFP) GBIC port. When the SFP port is in use, its RJ-45 counterpart is automatically
disabled.
By default, e43 and e44 are assigned to VLAN 2, while e42, e45 and e46 are assigned to VLAN 1.
These assignments provide segmented network support for blade PC NIC A and NIC B, which should
coincide with most CCI solution implementations. However, to meet customer-specific requirements for
CCI, the configuration can be changed.
Even though port e42 is assigned to VLAN 1, you can use the port for dedicated connectivity to a man-
agement network or for local administration and diagnostic tasks without unplugging a dedicated uplink.
Simultaneous management of the HP PC Blade Switch and the Integrated Administrator is possible using
this single port (or any other external Ethernet port). Although ideally suited for management, you can use
this port for other purposes, such as for additional network connectivity with reduced bandwidth.
NOTE: Pay careful attention if you use port e42 in a redundant scenario using spanning tree. Without
proper adjustment, port e42's default spanning tree cost and priority give it the highest priority of all
external uplinks on the HP PC Blade Switch. If connected to the same spanning-tree topology as one or
more of the other uplinks, e42 is put into a forwarding state, while other uplink(s) are put into a blocking
(alternate) state. The switch will function normally, but with significantly reduced performance. Consider
adjusting either the cost or priority attributes to make this port operate as the alternate (blocking) path
when used in conjunction with any of the other uplink port(s).

Port speed, duplex, and flow control

The HP PC Blade Switch is configured by default to auto negotiate the port speed and duplex for all
uplink ports (e43-e46). Port speed has been pre-configured to 100Mbit and duplex has been set to Full
for ports (e1-e42). When making network design decisions, it is imperative to consider the settings of the
upstream switch, blade PCs, and data center policy.
HP recommends you manually configure and set the settings for any external uplink at deployment time:
•
Port Speed - 1G
•
Duplex - Full
•
Flow Control - OFF
If you want to use the auto negotiate setting, HP recommends that you verify each of the parameters once
a connection is made to the upstream switch(es).
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