User guide

HP Virtual Connect for Cisco Network Administrators (version 4.x)
Document Number: C01386629 Date: January 2014
page 6
Virtual Connect works seamlessly with the external storage fabrics:
 Supports industry standard NPIV on both uplinks and downlinks.
 Doesn’t consume Fibre Channel Domain IDs; therefore Virtual Connect doesn’t affect
the total number of devices that you can connect to an individual SAN Fabric.
 Compliant and compatible with SAN switches from any standards-based vendor.
 Transparently supports Cisco virtual storage area network (VSAN), Cisco inter VSAN
routing (IVR), and Brocade Virtual Fabric features.
 Separate Data Plane and Control / Management Planes – True out-of-band management
 Authentication methods that include local authentication, Lightweight Directory Access
Protocol (LDAP), Terminal Access Controller Access-Control System Plus
(TACACS+), and Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS).
Virtual Connect modules supporting Fibre Channel must attach to NPIV-capable SAN
switches. Most enterprise class SAN switches today support NPIV. It is possible to use NPV
switches as an intermediary devices as long as it attaches to a NPIV device directly up stream.
You can also connect VC FlexFabric modules directly to HP 3PAR StoreServ System arrays
using the Virtual Connect 3.70 firmware (see the Direct-Attach Fibre Channel for 3PAR
Storage Systems section).
Depending on the module, Virtual Connect-Fibre Channel modules can aggregate up to 255
physical or virtual server HBA ports through each of the module’s uplink ports. This
aggregation method is especially important to SAN administrators who struggle with SAN
fabric segmentation and Fibre Channel Domain ID consumption.
Virtual Connect Fibre Channel modules make it easier to provision virtual machines by
facilitating multiple HBA WWNs on the physical server. Each virtual machine can have its own
unique WWN that remains associated with that virtual machine even when you move the virtual
machine. Now SAN administrators can manage and provision storage to virtual HBAs, up to
128 per server blade, with the same methods and quality of service as physical HBAs.
Ethernet components and technology.
While this whitepaper assumes the reader is familiar with the basics of the HP BladeSystem
c-Class architecture, it will review some of the important aspects that are key to
understanding Virtual Connect technology/terminology. It will begin with a list of definitions
for terms that will be used extensively within the paper. Next, a brief overview of the core
networking components of the HP BladeSystem c- Class architecture will be covered,
followed by an in-depth discussion of the Virtual Connect.
The subsequent sections will be devoted to covering the details of many networking
features where Virtual Connect and the external Cisco infrastructure intersect.
Definitions
ACL (VACL) Access Control List or VLAN Access Control List: A set of rules that allows or
disallows network traffic to flow between network devices.