Best Practices for HP BladeSystem Deployments using HP Serviceguard Solutions for HP-UX 11i (May 2010)

– For more information on setting this parameter, see the Serviceguard Network Manager Inbound

Failure Detection white paper at: http://docs.hp.com/en/5568/serviceguard.network.manager.pdf

– This issue also affects HP-UX APA (Auto-Port Aggregation) link aggregates and APA failover

groups (LAN_MONITOR mode)

– This hardware issue and a list of available solutions is documented in the HP Support

Communication Customer Advisory at:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c01814615&lang=en&cc

=us&taskId=101&prodSeriesId=3676868&prodTypeId=3709945

• Recommend using network ports from different LOM port controllers for redundant active/standby

Serviceguard site and heartbeat network configurations

Fibre Channel Connectivity:

• Each server blade must have at least 1 Mezzanine card for Fiber Channel connectivity

– If a server blade has 2 or more Fiber Channel Mezzanine cards, it is recommended that the

primary and alternate Fiber Channel paths use different Mezzanine cards to prevent a

Mezzanine card from being a single point of failure

Virtual Connect:

• Uplinks between Virtual Connect modules can be used for private cluster heartbeat networks

between blade enclosures (note stacking links between adjacent VC Ethernet modules is internal)

– Note when using dedicated internal cluster heartbeat networks, it can be difficult to test cluster

failover due to a loss of heartbeat as there is no physical LAN cable available to disconnect

Flex-10:

• The HP NC532m Dual Port 10GbE BL-c Adapter is supported with HP-UX and Serviceguard

• Can use the 1Gb Ethernet Mezzanine or LOM with the HP BLc Virtual Connect Flex-10 10Gb

Ethernet interconnect module (figure 14) with server blades running either HP-UX or Windows

The Flex-10 module will only operate as a 1Gb, non-Flex-10 module for HP-UX. While it cannot take

advantage of some Flex-10 features; it can be used at 1Gb and is supported with HP-UX and

Serviceguard.

Figure 14: HP BLc Virtual Connect Flex-10 10Gb Ethernet Interconnect Module