What is Virtual Connect - Module 1

Welcome to the Virtual Connect Fundamentals course. This course will provide a high level overview of important
topics related to Virtual Connect.

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What is Virtual Connect - Module 1

Virtual Connect is HPE's solution for virtualized and cloud-ready environments. Virtual Connect helps users
virtualize their LAN and SAN connections at the server edge for simplicity, flexibility, and mobility.

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What is Virtual Connect - Module 1

HP Virtual Connect Family

The Virtual Connect family is a set of interconnect modules for HPE’s BladeSystem c-Class enclosures that
simplifies the setup and administration of server connections.
The VC modules support the c7000 and c3000 Enclosures, and the blade servers contained within the enclosure.
The Virtual Connect Family includes Ethernet modules, Fibre Channel Modules, and FlexFabric modules.

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What is Virtual Connect - Module 1

VC Naming Convention
The current Virtual Connect naming convention allows you to identify the VC module downlinks and uplinks
capabilities.
The FlexFabric modules names have 3 sets of numbers representing respectively their internal capability, their
external Ethernet capability and finally their external fiber channel capability.
For instance, a FlexFabric module (1) labeled FlexFabric 20 (pause) 40 (pause) F8 would have a maximum of:
– 20Gb Downlink ports speed (2) to the server ports,
– A 40Gb Uplink ports speed (3) when using Ethernet networks
– And an 8Gb Uplink ports speed (4) when using Fibre Channel connections. The FlexFabric module requires
the use of a Converged Network Adapter to support Native Fiber Channel frames, or FCoE streaming frames.
The Virtual Connect Ethernet modules have a slightly different naming conventions.
Their names have 2 sets of numbers, representing respectively, their internal capability and their external Ethernet
capability. They also have the letter D appended to their name if they are enabled for Data Center Bridging.
As an example, (5) the Flex10/10-D module has a maximum of:
– 10G Downlink ports speed (6) to server,
– A 10Gb Uplink ports speed (7) when using Ethernet networks,
– And it has DCB faceplate enablement (8), which means it is able to forward FCoE streaming frames to an
external switch if used in conjunction with a Converged Network Adapter. However, the Flex10/10D module
does NOT support the transport of Native Fiber Channel frames.
On Flex10/10D and FlexFabric modules, the transport of FCoE frames is only possible if using Virtual Connect
Manager 4.01 and later, or OneView 2.0 and newer.
Note that all Virtual Connect Ethernet and FlexFabric modules are able to transport iSCSI frames.

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What is Virtual Connect - Module 1

Switch or Virtual Connect

What is the difference?
What is the difference between a Switch and a Virtual Connect module?
In part, it depends on where the interconnect device sits in the data center architecture and who manages it.
– A switch is part of the Ethernet Network or the Storage Network:
– It is directly connected to a server NIC or HBA (1),
– it communicates with the other switches that make up the data center fabrics,
– and it is managed as part of those fabrics.
– In most enterprises, a switch by definition is owned and managed by the Network operations group or the
Storage operations group. In whatever way the device works, if it is a switch it must be managed by the LAN or
SAN administrator because they must have total control over their network fabrics to make sure they can
operate securely and efficiently.
– The major distinction between Virtual Connect and a switch,
– resides in the fact that Virtual Connect is a layer (2) between the servers and the Datacenter.
– Virtual Connect forms a layer 2 bridge between the servers and the Ethernet and Storage Networks (3). For
most part, it will not interfere with layer 3 devices.
– The main advantage is that virtual connect is managed as part of the server system, instead of being managed
from the network. Because it is part of the server system, it requires less effort to manage VC because it isn’t
as complicated as a switch.

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What is Virtual Connect - Module 1

Virtual Connect Environment - Key components

Physically, there are three major components in the Virtual Connect Environment.
– The Virtual Connect Ethernet Modules;(1)
– The Virtual Connect Fibre Channel modules;(2)
– And The Virtual Connect FlexFabric modules.(3)
The VC Ethernet modules are layer 2 devices. The best practice is to (4) create redundant modules by
interconnecting bays one and two. They are connected with an internal cross-connect through the c-class
enclosure. The Virtual Connect Ethernet modules allow (5) to connect selected server Ethernet ports to specific
data center networks. They support (6) aggregation and/or tagging of uplink ports to any data center switch.
The VC Fibre Channel modules (7) are functionally aggregators, not switches. (8) They selectively aggregate
multiple server FC HBA ports on a FC uplink using NPIV. (9) The VC Fiber Channel uplinks display as a set of
HBA ports to external FC switches.
The VC FlexFabric modules (10) manage and connect to both Ethernet and SAN storage. They also (11) enable
DirectAttach Fabric to 3PAR Storage System, also known as FlatSAN.
Note that All Virtual Connect modules are managed by either VC Manager or OneView.

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What is Virtual Connect - Module 1

Virtual Connect Management

In terms of management capability, there are three solutions that can be used to manage your Virtual Connect
Environment.
– The Virtual Connect Manager(1);
– The Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager(2);
– Or OneView. (We will discuss OneView on the next slide.)
The Virtual Connect Manager, also known as VCM, requires no license (3). It is the native solution used to
manage all Virtual Connect modules connections from servers to Datacenters.
VCM resides in all VC Ethernet and FlexFabric module firmware.
Although all Ethernet and FlexFabric modules have the capability to run VCM, only a single VCM instance can
ever be active at one time within a VCM Domain.
The enclosures containing the VC modules managed by a single VCM instance is also known as a VCM Domain
(4). A VCM Domain can consist of 1 c-3000 enclosure or up to 4 c-7000 enclosures.
Users can access VCM through a web-based Guided User Interface or a Command Line Interface.
The VC Enterprise Manager, also known as VCEM, is a data-center-wide component, installed as a plugin to HPE
Systems Insight Manager (5).
VCEM gives you the capability of managing multiple VCM domains from a single interface.
Note that Virtual Connect Manager is still present and continues to manage the local VCM domain.
But VCEM enables the management of all VCM domains from a single console, while also providing enhanced
management capabilities, such as:
– profile movement across VCM domains,
– and unified MAC addresses, WWNs, and Serial Numbers pools for all the VCM Domains it manages.

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What is Virtual Connect - Module 1

Virtual Connect Management

OneView is the new method of management for Virtual Connect modules, but also for your servers.
OneView can be deployed as a Virtual Machine appliance and it requires one license per server managed.
OneView can manage up to forty c7000 enclosures, allowing profile movements across managed enclosures, and
centralized MAC addresses, WWNs and SN pools.
VCM can only manage 1024 MAC addresses and WWNs.
VCEM can manage 128 thousand MAC addresses and WWNs, but OneView manages one million MACs and
WWNs to begin, and more can be added.
As of OneView 3.0 a Global Dashboard appliance can be used to manage up to 10 OneView appliances from a
single interface, allowing to ensure no collision occurs on up to 400 enclosures.
OneView doesn’t only manage the Virtual Connect Ethernet, iSCSI, Fiber Channel and FCoE connectivity, it also
manages servers’ drivers and agents, BIOS settings, BOOT order, Local RAID Storage, Volume attachments, and
FW update on all enclosure components.
OneView 3.0 also allows automatic AgentLess management configuration; allowing automatic fault detection and
Service automation using HPE’s Remote Support DataCenter structure.
Note that OneView can be accessed from its default Guided User Interface, or if you prefer to use a Command
Line Interface, you can access OneView REST API by using pre-configured PowerShell Libraries, or other industry
standard REST Clients tools.
All this, makes OneView the preferred Virtual Connect management choice at this point.

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What is Virtual Connect - Module 1

Coexistence: HPE OneView with VCM or VCEM

OneView and VCM, or VCEM, are mutually exclusive management options. Therefore an enclosure can be
managed by either OneView or VCM but not by both.
The Onboard Administrator provides a web link to VCM or OneView depending on which is currently enabled.
For enclosures already configured with VCM Domains, OneView offers an automated migration for most VCM
configurations.
If you decide to continue using VCM or VCEM to manage Virtual Connect connectivity, you can still monitor the
VCM or VCEM managed enclosures using OneView at no extra cost. However, this will prevent the enclosure and
server configuration management capabilities from OneView.
HPE OneView is the future ongoing product, while development of VCM and VCEM will be eventually stopped.

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What is Virtual Connect - Module 1

VC FlexFabric Compatibility
Virtual Connect modules need to respect certain compatibility and module placement rules. For instance, VC
modules can only be placed next to another identical VC module.
However there are (1) two exceptions to this rule:
– The VC Ethernet 1/10 & 1/10F modules (2) can be placed next to each other.
– Also, the VC-FC 4Gb 20-port module and the 8Gb 20ports module (3) can be placed next to each other if
using the 4Gb uplink port speed.
Note that any other configuration (4) will be unsupported and marked as “Incompatible” in VCM or OneView.

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What is Virtual Connect - Module 1

Virtual Connect Default Behaviors - Before VCM or OneView management

The first time you place the VC modules in your enclosure, there will be no VCM or OneView configuration.
HPE ships the VC Ethernet capable modules with all downlinks enabled and connects them to the X1 uplink port
they are physically mapped to.
Be aware that at this point:
– All stacking links and cross-connects are disabled,
– And there is no VLAN tagging support; This means that if the VC module was connected to an untagged switch
port, all servers in the enclosure would be connected to that network.
– Whether the servers will connect beyond that will depend on whether the data center switch ports are
configured for untagged traffic or not.
As far as the VC Fiber Channel modules are concerned, when there is no VC management in place, the uplink
ports are grouped together and the connectivity is dynamically distributed from all servers across all available
uplink ports as a single fabric.
Once the enclosure is managed by VCM or OneView, all downlinks are shutdown until a server profile is created,
configured, and applied to a server bay. This implies the Server Admin will need to create server profiles to create
Ethernet and SAN connections for the servers from VCM or OneView; otherwise no LAN and SAN connection
exists at this time.

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What is Virtual Connect - Module 1

This concludes the What is Virtual Connect module.

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