Virtual Connect - HP BladeSystem c3000 Technology Brief

Figure 13 lists the available configurations for half-height devices installed in device bay N (1–8).
Figure 13. Port mapping for HP BladeSystem c3000 half-height server blades to interconnect bays
Port mapping differs slightly between full-height and half-height server blades due to the support for
additional mezzanine cards on the full-height version. HP has simplified the process of mapping
mezzanine ports to switch ports by providing intelligent management tools through the Onboard
Administrator and HP Insight Manager software.

Virtual Connect

With the c-Class architecture, HP introduced a new type of interconnect technology: Virtual Connect.
As it is implemented in c-Class architecture, Virtual Connect technology provides virtualized server
connections to the Ethernet (LAN) or Fibre Channel (SAN) networks. Virtual Connect technology
virtualizes the server-edge so that networks can communicate with pools of HP BladeSystem server
blades instead of the conventional one-to-one relationship.
Virtual Connect consists of hardware (the Virtual Connect module) and a management agent that runs
on the Virtual Connect module. Like Ethernet and Fibre Channel switches, the Virtual Connect modules
slide into the interconnect bays of the c3000 Enclosure. The Ethernet module is necessary to install
Fibre Channel because the Virtual Connect Manager software runs on a processor on the Ethernet
module. The Ethernet module has sixteen 1-GbE downlinks to servers (connected across the signal
midplane), eight 1-GbE uplinks to the network (RJ-45 copper Ethernet connectors), two 10-GbE
connectors (for copper CX4 cables), and one 10-GbE internal inter-switch link (across the signal
midplane) for a failover connection between Virtual Connect modules. The Fibre Channel module has
sixteen 4-Gb Fibre Channel downlinks to servers and four 1/2/4-Gb auto-sensing Fibre Channel
uplinks to the network.
Virtual connect Ethernet modules can be used in interconnect bays 1, 2, 3 and 4 when Ethernet
mezzanine cards are used in the appropriate mezzanine slot on the server blade. Virtual Connect
Fibre Channel modules can only be used in interconnect bays 3 and 4 and require a Fibre Channel
mezzanine card in Mezzanine slot 2 or 3 in the server blade.
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