HP Brocade 8/24c HP Virtual Connect: Common Myths, Misperceptions, and Objecti - Page 10

#11: VC doesn't provide network visibility into the VC Domain for network administrators Incorrect: Virtual Connect provides several user interfaces options and features for managing and monitoring Virtual Connect to fit with the variety of methods our customers use. VC supports both a Web interface (HTTPS) and a CLI interface (SSH). In addition, VC supports per-interface statistics for every server NIC port, server HBA port, VC Ethernet uplink port, and VC Fibre Channel uplink port. These statistics can be monitored via the management interfaces or via SNMP/SMI-S polling. In addition to local statistics and SNMP polling of statistics, VC provides SNMP traps for events that cause VC Domain status changes. Virtual Connect also supports port mirroring, to an external network analyzer, of Ethernet traffic to/from any server NIC port(s). #12: Many customers experience problems with VC deployment consistency Incorrect: Any mature, flexible, and feature-rich product provides the administrator with options for configuring and customizing it. These configurations and customizations should be tested and methodically applied to the product as it is deployed by the user. Virtual Connect is just such a product and HP always recommends that an administrator purposefully customize and deploy a VC configuration that is tailored to their environment. To help simplify and ensure configuration consistency across similarly configured VC Domains, HP provides enhanced configuration features. Virtual Connect allows VC Domain configurations to be exported from a configured VC Domain and then imported on a non-configured VC Domain. Scripting via the VC CLI can also be used to deploy consist VC Domain configurations across multiple enclosures. Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager also provides enhanced configuration consistency across VC Domains that are grouped together as "like" configurations. #13: VC doesn't support non-disruptive firmware upgrades ("hot code load") Incorrect: Virtual Connect allows the administrator to upload firmware to each individual VC Ethernet or Fibre Channel module without interfering with that module's operation or the operation of any other VC module. Once the new firmware is uploaded, VC allows the administrator to choose when to activate the new firmware on a module-by-module basis (usually during a change window). If using a "no single point of failure" configuration for the HP server blades, individual VC modules may have their firmware activated while other VC modules maintain connectivity for HP server blades. When upgrading VC firmware, there are two VC components to consider - the VC Manager interface (analogous to a supervisor module on a Cisco 6500) and the individual VC modules (analogous to the individual switch modules inserted into a Cisco 6500 chassis). The VC Ethernet modules in bay 1 and bay 2 of the c-Class enclosure work together to provide redundancy for the VC Manager interface (like redundant supervisor modules in a Cisco 6500). A customer can choose to upgrade VC Ethernet in bay 1 while VC Ethernet in bay 2 runs as the active VC Manager. This provides a means for upgrading VC firmware while maintaining an active VC Manager. In addition, all server blades are connected to multiple VC Ethernet and VC Fibre Channel modules when using HP's best practices. Since server NICs and HBAs are redundantly connected to VC Ethernet and Fibre Channel modules, each VC module can be individually upgraded and activated while adjacent VC modules in the enclosure provide active connectivity for the server (when using NIC Teaming for Ethernet and MPIO 10