VCEM Profile Failover and Profile Moves White Paper

Executive summary

Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager (VCEM) profile failover provides a way to quickly move

a Virtual Connect (VC) profile from one system to another. Profile failover can be triggered

using the VCEM GUI or via the VCEM failover command line. The failover command line

may also be used in conjunction with Systems Insight Manager event monitoring to

automatically trigger a failover if a particular event is received for a specific system. VCEM

profile failover is not disaster recovery but rather a fast-recovery tool that can help you

minimize unplanned downtime.

The basic steps of VCEM failover are:

1. Spares are designated via the VCEM GUI.

2. VCEM profile failover is invoked via the CLI or the GUI.

3. VCEM profile failover moves the VC profile from the source system to a designated spare

system that is the same blade model type. The following occurs:

a) The source system is powered down.

b) An appropriate spare is chosen from the designated spares within the same

Virtual Connect Domain Group as the source system.

c) The spare system is assigned the VC profile.

d) The spare system is powered up.

The outcome is that the failed system is powered off and the OS and application stack is

now running on the spare blade.

VCEM failover can be invoked by:

•

CLI – The CLI may be invoked using:

o The failed system’s hostname.

o The failed system’s IP address.

o The failed system’s enclosure and bay number.

•

GUI – The GUI has failover buttons on:

o The Profiles tab.

o The Bays tab.

This whitepaper describes how you can use VCEM failover. It explains the following:

• Usage: Covers preparation, initiation, and expected results.

• Limitations: Includes constraints and dependencies. The most important limitation is that

the boot LUN associated with the VC profile must be portable enough to function on the

original system as well as potential spare systems. Pre-testing a boot LUN across possible

spares is the best way to address the risk associated with this limitation.