One of the challenges with working with HP blades and HP Virtual Connect switches is ensuring all your software and firmware versions are in sync as unfortunately there have been many firmware incompatibility and reliability issues that have plagued the technology over the years and making sure you have firmware that works certainly helps with your sanity!
I’ve been tracking the firmware requirements in my Flex-10 ESX pre-requisites post.
With the release of vSphere 5, things are a little simpler as there is no longer an ESX platform, only ESXi so you don’t have to worry about tracking separate driver requirements for both hypervisor releases.
Read more…
Andre Leibovici, a fellow vExpert who works for EMC as a Sr. vSpecialist has blogged today about an issue with HP Blades and a power regulation setting where the default on HP Blades can cause performance issues.
http://myvirtualcloud.net/?p=1212
This is one of those great finds as it can be so difficult to troubleshoot “My VM is running slow” and you can go through your virtualisation environment with a fine tooth comb and find nothing as the issue is actually related to hardware settings.
Interestingly the issue manifests itself when the system is not fully utilised and CPU use is not high as Power Regulation only kicks in when it sees there are idle CPU cycles which makes it even more confusing to troubleshoot as you would be getting high CPU READY figures when CPU wasn’t stretched.
HP has a document, Power Regulator for ProLiant servers which explains it all.
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00300430/c00300430.pdf
The fix is to either disable Power Regulator on the hardware BIOS by setting it to Static High Performance mode which will disable any power savings or set it to a custom setting, OS Control mode and then configure ESX(i)’s Power Management Policy using the vSphere Client Host Configuration panel to High Performance to disable power management.
Thanks, Andre!
Updated: 9 September 2011 with new documentation links.
HP’s major announcement at VMworld was the HP VirtualSystem but also announced was the latest firmware update for Virtual Connect to 3.30 which is now available for download today.
HP says that 5 million ports have been shipped although I’m not sure how this is calculated. Each Flex-10 switch for example has 8 ports although typically most customers only use 1-3 so adding up all available ports in a switch which is typically underused seems like good old marketing hyperbole!
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HP was out in force at VMworld last week. Their major announcement was the HP VirtualSystem for VMware which is HPs pre-configured, tested and optimised converged infrastructure offering built for vSphere 5. This is HPs answer to FlexPod (Cisco, VMware, Netapp) and Vblock (Cisco, VMware, EMC) although with the HP VirtualSystem all the components (storage, networking, compute) are unsuprisingly HP rather than incorporating any other vendor other than VMware for the hypervisor.
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VMware has released a new Broadcom bnx2x Nic Driver for ESX(i) 4.1 which is used in HP blades for the HP NC532 Nics.
http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/dt_esxi40_broadcom_bcm_netxtreme/ZHcqYnQlZXBiZGgqag
The new version is 1.64.32.v41.1
I’ve had confirmation from Rotem Agmon, a VMware Technical Consultant at HP that this new driver is not supported by HP.
The currently supported Update Manager driver friendly versions are:
ESX(i) 4.0 – 1.62.11.v40.1
http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/dt_esxi40_broadcom_bcm57xxx/ZHcqYnR0d3BiZGVqdA==
ESX(i) 4.1 – 1.62.15.v41.2
http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/dt_esx41_broadcom_netxtremeii_032311/ZHcqYnR0anBiZGhwZA==
My Flex-10 ESX(i) pre-requisites post has all the driver and firmware required versions.
I have the privilege today of presenting at the London VMware User Group.
My presentation is split into two parts, first of all looking at why setting standards, creating processes and adding automation is now more important than ever as we work towards building an infrastructure for cloud computing.
I go through how “cloud thinking” is not just about the cloud being used to solve an IT problem but rather the cloud being a busines transformation to increase your business flexibility.
Your ESX(i) host build is the foundation of that cloud.
Then I head into the technical details of how to create a single PowerCLI script to build ESX or ESXi anywhere in your organisation. Using PowerCLI removes the dependency on any Service Console scripting so you can move towards an ESXi only infrastructure as that is the only hypervisor option for vSphere 5.
Having a single global script allows you to set standards and gives you way to reduce complexity & errors.
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There may be a situation where you need to downgrade your HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 firmware. You may need to downgrade to test/prove an upgrade again, you may have encountered a bug which forces you to downgrade or you may just need a roll back plan for your proposed upgrade.
In order to downgrade HP Virtual Connect firmware, you will need to shut down your HP blade environment as the downgrade procedure requires you to delete the Virtual Connect Domain which can only be done with all servers in all chassis in your Virtual Connect (VC) Domain powered down.
You need to ensure you have the local Administrator password for each Flex-10 module that came on the tag with the Flex-10 module. As you will be deleting the VC domain, any domain/local users created as part of the VC domain will not be available once the domain has been deleted.
Read more…
HP has now released their Onboard Administrator (OA) 3.30 firmware after last week’s Flex-10 Firmware 3.18 release which had recommended the 3.30 OA although it hadn’t been released yet.
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=329290&prodSeriesId=3188465&swItem=MTX-bc11d40cf7b0465eacabefb649&prodNameId=3188475&swEnvOID=4040&swLang=8&taskId=135&mode=4&idx=2
Looks like it is a bug fix release as there are no enhancement or new features.
I’ve updated my Flex-10 ESX pre-requisites post for the OA 3.30 release although I’m not updating my recommendation for Flex-10 to 3.18 yet pending further reports and testing.
HP has released new Flex-10 firmware 3.18 and marked it as a * RECOMMENDED * update.
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=3884098&swItem=MTX-accbd1282d3d4118bfe063350a&prodNameId=3884099&swEnvOID=4091&swLang=8&taskId=135&mode=4&idx=1
Problems Fixed:
• Resolved an issue where a Virtual Connect Domain with large number of networks may experience an unstable network condition when a VC Ethernet module is restarted in one of the following circumstances:
* A power-cycle (Off/On) from the Onboard Administrator
* A reset/reboot from the Onboard Administrator
* A removal/reinsert into the Interconnect Bay
Best to wait and see if there are any issues before applying but early adopters can go right ahead!
Interestingly the Firmware Dependency lists the following:
OA: Minimum firmware version: 3.11 / Recommended version: 3.30
OA firmware 3.30 has not been released yet so could be imminent. The link HP gives to list firmware dependency doesn’t work, HP isn’t known for having a great support site!
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