HP StorageWorks 4000/6000/8000 .HP StorageWorks SAN Design Reference Guide, Pa - Page 187

Blade servers Switches BL3xp B-series Brocade 4Gb SAN Switch for HP p-Class BladeSystem C-series M-series Edge Switch 2/12 and 2/24 only McDATA 4Gb SAN Switch for HP p-Class BladeSystem BL40p B-series C-series M-series For HP ProLiant BL c-Class SAN product support, see the support matrix at http:// h18006.www1.hp.com/storage/saninfrastructure/switches/b4gbsscblade. For HP ProLiant BL p-Class SAN product support, see http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/ storageworks/bladesystemmatrix/index.html. For fabric rules when using the HP p-Class BladeSystem SAN switches, see: • B-series switches and fabric rules, page 93 • C-series Fibre Channel and FCoE switches and fabric rules, page 135 • M-series switches and fabric rules, page 157 • SAN fabric connectivity and switch interoperability rules, page 167 For third-party fabrics, HP supports the blade server, the HP p-Class BladeSystem SAN switch, and switch connectivity (including the switch interface) to the non-HP fabric. See "Third-party switch support" on page 179. HP c-Class BladeSystem Virtual Connect The HP 4Gb VC-FC module is an optional Fibre Channel interconnect offered on HP BladeSystem c-Class servers. VC-FC employs NPIV protocol to aggregate multiple Fibre Channel HBAs over a smaller number of N_Port uplinks. The VC-FC module is Fibre Channel standards based and is compatible with all NPIV standards-compliant switch products. The VC-FC module can aggregate up to sixteen Fibre Channel HBA ports at the back end connected through the enclosure backplane, and comes with four uplinks or N_Ports which connect to an external Fibre Channel fabric. Each of the four uplinks is configurable to aggregate between zero and sixteen Fibre Channel HBAs resulting in an over-subscription ratio of up to 16:1. The default over-subscription ratio is 4:1 with other user configurable options of 8:1 and 16:1. The VC-FC module appears as a pass-thru device to the network. Any changes to the server are transparent to its associated network. This separates the servers from the fabric and relieves SAN administrators from server maintenance. The VC-FC module is one of two components of the HP Virtual Connect technology. The other component of the solution is the HP Virtual Connect Ethernet (VC-Enet) module. Both modules are managed by Virtual Connect manager software embedded on VC-Enet module. The HP Virtual Connect solution requires at least one VC-Enet module and one VC-FC module. HP Virtual Connect advantages Advantages of HP Virtual Connect include: • Simplifies server connections by separating server management from LAN and SAN management. SANs are managed at the core switch, separate from blade enclosure. SAN Design Reference Guide 187