HP BL460c Managing the HP BladeSystem c-Class systems, 2nd edition - Page 14

Figure 13. c3000 KVM Option Main Menu HP Virtual Connect architecture Virtual Connect is an interconnect option for HP BladeSystem c-Class that simplifies server connectivity by reducing physical cabling and virtualizing network assignments. It puts an abstraction layer between the servers and their external networks so that LANs and SANs see a pool of servers instead of individual servers. The Virtual Connect architecture is built into every BladeSystem c-Class enclosure and extended with high performance Virtual Connect Ethernet and Fibre Channel modules that plug into the enclosure interconnect bays (Figure 14). Each Virtual Connect module provides dense port aggregation that turns multiple physical network connections to each server into a few simple, high-speed uplinks that greatly reduce infrastructure complexity and costs. To the external networks, Virtual Connect modules appear as regular pass-thru devices, but they provide the benefits of integrated switching. Virtual Connect uses pools of unique media access control (MAC) addresses, World Wide Names (WWNs), and server profiles to establish reliable server-to-network connections. The server connection profiles contain MAC, WWN, and boot-from-SAN definitions that are assigned to BladeSystem enclosure bays and not to individual servers. The physical server in each bay uses the MAC and WWN assignments in the bay profile instead of its default network interface (NIC) or host bus adapter (HBA) addresses. Even if a server is replaced, the MAC and WWN assignments for the enclosure bay remain constant, and the change is invisible to the network. 14