HP Cisco MDS 8/24c HP Virtual Connect: Common Myths, Misperceptions, and Objec - Page 29

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A19: No, only HP branded SFP and XFP modules are supported.

Q20: Will upgrading the VC firmware require an outage?

A20: In general, HP recommends upgrading VC firmware during a scheduled maintenance window.

However,

VC is able to perform a rolling, non-intrusive upgrade of all modules so long as redundancy is configured

throughout the solution.

Q21: How fast should I expect a failed VC uplink port to failover to a standby VC uplink port?

A21: 5 seconds or less for an optimized configuration

Q22: How fast should I expect a port channel (LAG) to failover?

A22: 5 seconds or less for an optimized configuration.

Q23: How fast should I expect my teamed NICs to failover when a vNet fails over between uplinks?

A23: 5 seconds or less for an optimized configuration.

Q24: Can I connect VC-Enet’s XFP ports to XENPACK or X2 ports on a Cisco switch?

A24: Cisco states that XENPACK, X2, and XFP modules are compatible if using the same port type.

Since VC

only supports 10GB-LR and 10GB-SR, Virtual Connect should be compatible with XENPACK, X2, and XFP

modules from Cisco as long as they are using 10GBASE-LR or 10GBASE-SR modules.

Since Cisco supports

several port types, several transceiver types, and many different interface modules for their switches, HP does not

test every combination.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/modules/ps5455/prod_brochure0900aecd8034bba6.pdf

Q25: Is Virtual Connect compatible with layer 3 protocols other than IP?

For instance, does VC support IPv6,

IPX, AppleTalk, etc.?

A25: Virtual Connect only supports IP (IPv4) on its management interfaces (Web, SSH CLI, or SNMP).

In

reference to Virtual Connect’s bridging functionality, VC supports any layer 3 or higher protocol in use on server

blades.

Since Virtual Connect is a layer 2 device, it is layer 3 protocol agnostic.

Meaning, the server blades

can communicate through VC using any upper layer protocol (for example, IPv4, IPv6, IPX, AppleTalk, etc.) that’s

carried within an Ethernet frame.

Q26: Does Virtual Connect support jumbo frames?

A26: Yes, VC-Enet supports Ethernet frames sizes up to 9216 bytes.

Q27: Does Virtual Connect support EtherChannel/802.3ad/SLB on the downlinks to the server NICs?

Can I use

LACP port trunking on the server NICs connected to Virtual Connect?

A27: No, Virtual Connect does not support EtherChannel/802.3ad on the downlinks to server NIC ports.

Typically, EtherChannel/802.3ad support is usually to increase the available bandwidth.

With VC Flex-10 and

the HP NC532-series, customers can increase available bandwidth for servers without requiring LAG protocols.

Section	Page
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
A Description of the Hypervisor Components	5
A Comparative Description of the VC Components	6
#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
#25: VC requires a separate web management window to manage each VC module	14
#26: VC doesn’t support IGMP Snooping	14
#27: VC Fibre Channel doesn’t support nested NPIV	14
#28: Virtualized MAC and WWN (NAT) features on some switches (for example, Cisco’s FlexAttach8F feature) provide the same benefits as VC’s Managed MAC addresses and WWNs	14
#29: DHCP Option 82 provides the same server redundancy features as Virtual Connect	16
#30: VC-FC doesn’t provide login distribution and failover on FC uplinks to the SAN	17
#31: All VC-FC uplinks have to be connected to the same SAN fabric	17
#32: VC-FC does not support Cisco’s VSAN or Brocades Virtual Fabric features	17
#33: VC implements an immature loop avoidance mechanism	18
#34: VC Uplink failures require re-convergence on the external network and may cause dropped server sessions	18
#35: Cisco’s N-Port Virtualization (NPV10F ) or Brocade Access Gateway11F provide all the same advantages as VC-FC	18
#36: Cisco VFrame Data Center provides the same capabilities as VC	18
#37: VC Ethernet can’t be connected to Cisco 6500 switches using Virtual Switching System (VSS)	19
#38: VC Ethernet does not support Unidirectional Link Detection (UDLD)	19
#39: VC Ethernet only provides port counters on uplinks	19
#40: QoS can provide the same functionality of VC Flex-10	20
Unique Features Provided By HP Virtual Connect	20
Managed Server Identities	21
Internal Server Identity	21
External Server Identity	21
Preprovisioning Using Managed Server Identities	21
“LAN Safe” Network Connectivity	22
Consolidate Network Infrastructure with VC Flex-10	22
Server Adds, Moves, and Replacements are Transparent to LAN & SAN	22
Summary of the Virtual Connect Capabilities	23
Additional Resources and References	26
Appendixes	27
Appendix A: Frequently Asked Questions	27

HP Cisco MDS 8/24c HP Virtual Connect: Common Myths, Misperceptions, and Objec - Page 29

A25: Virtual Connect only supports IP IPv4 on its management interfaces Web, SSH CLI, or SNMP.

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