HP Cisco MDS 8/12c HP Virtual Connect: Common Myths, Misperceptions, and Objec - Page 1

HP Virtual Connect: Common Myths, Misperceptions, and Objections, Second Edition A technical discussion of common myths, misperceptions, and objections to the deployment and use of HP Virtual Connect technology Table of contents Abstract...3 Target Audience ...3 Prerequisites and Versioning ...3 Introduction...3 Myths, Misconceptions and Objections...5 #1: VC Ethernet is just another switch ...5 Comparing VC and Server Virtualization Hypervisor Networking Technology 5 #2: VC Ethernet is really a ProCurve switch and may not be interoperable with 3rd party network switches ...7 #3: VC Ethernet doesn't support Spanning Tree (STP 7 #4: VC can cause duplicate MACs and WWNs on the network 7 #5: VC users cannot leverage existing network management tools (for example, CiscoWorks) ........ 8 #6: VC doesn't provide secure external management 8 #7: VC Ethernet doesn't support Private VLANs 8 #8: VC doesn't provide deterministic load balancing for multiple LACP channels 9 #9: VC Ethernet doesn't support VLAN Trunking to Server Blade NICs 9 #10: VC Ethernet and Fibre Channel modules require a clunky hardware failure recovery (RMA) process ...9 #11: VC doesn't provide network visibility into the VC Domain for network administrators 10 #12: Many customers experience problems with VC deployment consistency 10 #13: VC doesn't support non-disruptive firmware upgrades ("hot code load 10 #14: HP server blade NICs stay active even after VC Ethernet uplink failure 11 #15: VC is proprietary to HP; VC locks a user to a single blade vendor 11 #16: VC modules form a master/slave relationship with separate IP addresses that aren't transferred during a failover. When multiple VC modules are present, only one module is elected to forward traffic ...11 #17: VC only supports a limited number of VLANs 12 #18: VC Ethernet doesn't provide Layer 3 routing capabilities 12 #19: VC's CX4 cables are not ideal for 10Gbe uplinks because of distance limitation 12 #20: VC doesn't support stacking multiple VC modules 13 #21: VC doesn't offer Access Control Lists or VLAN Access Control Lists (ACLs or VACLs 13 #22: VC Ethernet doesn't support user configurable Quality of Service (QoS) features 13 #23: VC Ethernet doesn't provide diagnostic tools (SPAN 13 #24: VC Ethernet doesn't support the Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP 13