HP XC System Software Hardware Preparation Guide Version 2.1

switch. The branch switch is a ProCurve Sw itch 2848, and two-port trunking is used for the
connection between the Branch Administration Switch and the Root Administration Switch.
For physically larger platforms (2U and larger) such the HP Integrity rx2600 and HP Pro Liant
DL585 servers, a smaller number of servers can be placed in a single cabinet. I n this case, the
branch switch is a ProCurve Switch 2824, which i s sufficient to support up to 19 nodes.
2.3 Switch Port C o nnections
There are a number of switches with specialized uses in an XC system:
Root Administration Switch
This switch connects directly to Gigabit Ethernet po rts of the head node, the Root
Console Switch, nodes, and Branch Administration Switche s.
Root Console Switch
This switch connects to the Root Administration Switch and connects to the management
console Ethernet ports of any utility no des and Branch Console Switches.
Branch Administration Switch
This switch connects to t he Gigabit E thernet ports of compute nod es and connects to
the Root Admi n istr ation Sw itch.
Branch Console Switch
This switch connects to the Root Console S witch and connects to the manag emen t
console Ethernet ports of th e compute nodes.
Table 2-1 lists the switch m odels that are supported for each use.
Table 2-1: Supported Switch Types
Switch Use ProCurve Switch Model
Administration Switch
ProCurve 2848 or 2824
Console Switch
ProCurve 2650 or 2626
All systems will have at least one Root Administration Switch and one Root Console Switch.
The number of Branch Administration Sw itch es an d Branch Console Switches dep ends upon
the nu mber of total no des in your system.
The System Administration Network using the root and branch switches must be parallel to the
Console Network root and branch switches. In other words, if a particular no de uses port N
on the Root Adm inistration Switch, its management console port must be connected to port
N on th e Root Console Switch. If a particular node uses port N on the Branch A dm inistration
Switch, its management console port must be connected to port N on the corresponding Branch
Console Switch.
A graphical rep resentatio n o f the logical layout of the switch es a nd nodes is shown in Figure 2-2.
2-2 Making Node and Switch Connections