HP has released a significant firmware update to its Virtual Connect line of HP Blade chassis switches. The main highlights are Dual-hop FCoE support and enhancements to QoS and bandwidth optimisation.
This is part 1 of a 6 part post on HP Virtual Connect 4.01:
- HP Virtual Connect 4.01: What’s New
- HP Virtual Connect 4.01: Dual-hop FcOE support
- HP Virtual Connect 4.01: Min/Max Bandwidth Optimisation
- HP Virtual Connect 4.01: Priority Queue QoS
- HP Virtual Connect 4.01: SNMP and sFlow enhancements
- HP Virtual Connect 4.01: RBAC and Multicast + some more
The full list of new features is:
| Dual-hop FCoE Support | Extending convergence for Flex-10 and FlexFabric |
|---|---|
| Bandwidth Optimization | Min/Max for NIC Bandwidth |
| Priority Queue QoS | Prioritizing critical application traffic |
| SNMP MIB enhancements | Improved monitoring and troubleshooting |
| sFlow monitoring | Monitoring and planning at flow level |
| Multicast Filtering | Single source multicast |
| Custom role-based configuration | Delegate management permissions |
| GUI and CLI enhancements | Session timeout and CLI tab completion |
There are a number of dependencies for VC 4.01
- Onboard Administrator – v3.70 recommended, 3.11 minimum
- Virtual Connect Support Utility (VCSU) – v1.8.1 or later
- Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager (VCEM) – v7.2 (Will work in older VCEMs in compatibility mode, i.e. no new VCM features will be supported)
HP says Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP) 2013.02.00 is recommended as a Baseline Release Set but VC 4.01 has also been tested with SPP 2012.08.0, and SPP 2012.06.0 (B). Not quite sure what this means as if it has been tested with the previous versions they should be the minimum. Knowing the historical issues with firmware incompatibility, I would suggest ensuring you have SPP 2013.02.00 on your blades first.
It’s worth noting that VC 4.01 is not part of any particular SPP package. HPSUM or the VCSU can be used to upgrade to VC 4.01 after you have upgraded your blade firmware.
The Emulex firmware version for the built in LOMs on a G7 Blade server (HP NC553i or NC551i) or Mezz card (HP NC554m) or the CNA LOM added to a Gen8 Blade server (HP 554FLB) need to have their firmware upgraded to support dual hop FCoE. The latest Emulex firmware version for the NC55x controllers is currently 4.2.401.2215. This firmware is NOT included in the SPP 2013.02.0, but it can be downloaded as a separate standalone update tool (bootable ISO file) or as a HP SUM component.
HP Virtual Connect 4.01 can be downloaded from here
You can read the Release Notes which detail the list of other fixes and also highlight some of the issues so a must read before deploying in case they affect you.
You can also read the User Guide and the Setup and Installation Guide
I have not updated my HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 & VMware ESX(i) pre-requisites post yet to reflect this new version as with such a major change it’s worth checking everything works as advertised so get testing!