HP dc73 HP Blade Workstation Solution Planning Guide - Page 26

Corporate LAN 5-1-1 Recommendations to maximize RGS interactivity HP recommends the following practices to maximize RGS interactivity: • Separate the RGS network from the data network-With RGS 5.1 and later, you can specify which NIC on the blade workstation should be used for RGS traffic. This allows the system architect to create a dedicated RGS network to separate RGS traffic from data traffic. Most applications attach to the first listed NIC (NIC1), so RGS should typically attach to NIC2 (see Figure 5-3. This will keep RGS connections responsive during, for example, wholesale network backups or a 9:00 AM Outlook synchronization spike. • Minimize the network hops from the blade workstation to the client computer-Keep blades "close" to clients as measured by the tracert command. While it is possible to directly wire the client computers to the blade workstations using the pass-through network module in the enclosure, this would eliminate most of the flexibility of the solution. • Use Gb Ethernet between all switches (100 Mb to the client computer is OK) • Minimize buffering to slower links • No bottlenecks for larger installations • Size trunks to have > 2X anticipated average bandwidth Figure 5-3 shows a network topology where the RGS traffic and data traffic are on separate networks Figure 5-3 Separation of RGS traffic from data traffic Subnet Legend Data Display SAM server #1 Desk Area Data Center 5-1-2 Design issues The simplified design in Figure 5-3 has several issues related to reliability and accessibility: • Several critical components are not redundant, so a loss of any one component would render the entire environment inoperative. • The SAM Server-If Session Allocation Manager (SAM) is used to assign blades to clients, a SAM failure would prevent any new connections between blades and clients. However, any existing connection would remain live, as SAM is only used to initiate connections. • Network switch-A single switch connects all blades and clients. If this switch fails, the blade workstation environment is down for all users. • Blade enclosure to switch links-A single cable connects each enclosure to the switch. Loss of that link will bring down all users on that enclosure. Network Planning 26