VCEM Profile Failover and Profile Moves

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Operating errors and system configuration errors.
Profile Failover depends on the following:
• Failover is applied only to SAN-boot ProLiant c-Class server blades.
• Servers are pre-configured to boot from SAN on power-up.
• Servers have no dependency on a local drive.
• The source server’s system drive image will run on the hardware-firmware configuration of
any spare server in the VC Domain Group that is the same model as the source server.
This includes server models of different generations, for example, the BL465-c and BL465-c
G5.
• Software is not bound to a server’s serial number or similar unique hardware identifier,
other than MAC or WWN addresses.
Recommendations and best practices
It is possible that a small difference in the hardware-firmware configuration of two servers
can create an incompatibility such that a system drive image that works on one server does
not work on the other, or performs at a degraded level. Therefore to ensure the best failover
results:
• For every VC Domain Group, standardize on one hardware configuration for all servers of
the same model. For each model, implement procedures to keep all firmware at the same
revision levels across the server population. It is best to upgrade the OA, iLO, and server
firmware to the latest revisions.
• Avoid placing different generations of the same model server in the same VC Domain
Group. The internal composition of the hardware and firmware items across different
generations of the same model is often significantly different.
• Test thoroughly to ensure boot images reliably start and run on all the server configurations
that could possibly be used, especially if you need to use different hardware and firmware
configurations for the same server model within a VC Domain Group.
Take a step-by-step approach to direct initiation of failover using HP SIM Automatic Event
Handling. If you choose to implement event-initiated failover, be certain that your selected
collection of failover events achieves a level of accuracy in problem detection that is
consistent with your operating procedures and service level objectives. For more information
see the section below, Initiating Failover using HP SIM Automatic Event Handling.