User's Guide

Planning the Fabric
Hyper Messaging Protocol (HMP)
Chapter 2
33
A maximum of 8 HyperFabric adapter cards are supported per instance of the
HP-UX operating system. The actual number of adapter cards a particular node is
able to accommodate also depends on slot availability and system resources. See
node specific documentation for details.
A maximum of 8 configured IP addresses are supported by the HyperFabric
subsystem per instance of the HP-UX operating system.
• Maximum Number of Switches:
You can interconnect (mesh) up to 4 switches (16 port fibre or Mixed 8 fibre ports) in
a single HyperFabric cluster.
• Trunking Between Switches (multiple connections).
HMP is supported in configurations where switches are interconnected through
multiple cables. However, with the current release of HMP software, this
configuration will not eliminate a single point of failure or increase performance.
Instead, all of the traffic will be sent over a single connection with no failover
capability and without the performance increase that would come from balancing the
load over multiple connections.
• Maximum Cable Lengths:
HF2 (fibre): The maximum distance is 200m (4 standard cable lengths are sold and
supported: 2m, 16m, 50m and 200m).
HMP supports up to four HF2 switches connected in series with a maximum cable
length of 200m between the switches and 200m between switches and nodes.
HMP supports up to 4 hybrid HF2 switches connected in series with a maximum
cable length of 200m between fibre ports.
• HMP is supported on the PCI 4X adapters, A6386A.
• For a list of HF2 hardware that supports HMP on HP-UX 11i v3, see HyperFabric
Release Notes (B6257-90056).
• Speed and Latency
For a list of HF2 hardware that supports HMP on HP-UX 11i v3, see HyperFabric
Release Notes (B6257-90056).
HMP Supported Configurations
Multiple HMP HyperFabric configurations are supported to match the performance, cost
and scaling requirements of each installation.
In the previous “Configuration Guidelines” section, the maximum limits for HMP
enabled HyperFabric hardware configurations were outlined. In this section, the HMP
enabled HyperFabric configurations that HP supports will be detailed. These
recommended configurations offer an optimal mix of performance, availability and
practicality for a variety of operating environments.
Table 2-2 HF2 Speed and Latency w/ HMP Applications
Server Class Maximum Speed Latency
rp7420 2 + 2 Gbps full duplex per link < 22 microsec