Management architecture of HP BladeSystem c-Class systems technology brief, 3 rd edition Table of contents Abstract .............................................................................................................................................. 2 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 3 Enclosure models ................................................................................................................................. 3 Enclosure-level management.................................................................................................................. 4 Enclosure management modules (HP Onboard Administrator)................................................................ 5 Provisioning and managing network and storage connections (HP Virtual Connect) ............................... 11 Managing network connections across the datacenter (Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager) .................. 15 Infrastructure management and control (HP SIM) ................................................................................ 19 Centralized management software for HP BladeSystem .......................................................................... 19 HP Insight Control for BladeSystem................................................................................................... 19 HP Insight Control for Linux ............................................................................................................. 21 Advanced infrastructure management (HP Insight Dynamics) ............................................................... 21 BladeSystem Matrix........................................................................................................................ 24 For more information.......................................................................................................................... 25 Call to action .................................................................................................................................... 25
Transcript
Management architecture of HP BladeSystem c-Class systems
Enclosure management modules (HP Onboard Administrator)................................................................ 5 Provisioning and managing network and storage connections (HP Virtual Connect) ............................... 11 Managing network connections across the datacenter (Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager) .................. 15 Infrastructure management and control (HP SIM) ................................................................................ 19
Centralized management software for HP BladeSystem .......................................................................... 19 HP Insight Control for BladeSystem................................................................................................... 19 HP Insight Control for Linux ............................................................................................................. 21 Advanced infrastructure management (HP Insight Dynamics) ............................................................... 21 BladeSystem Matrix........................................................................................................................ 24
For more information.......................................................................................................................... 25 Call to action .................................................................................................................................... 25
2
Abstract The HP BladeSystem c-Class consolidates power, cooling, connectivity, redundancy, and security into a modular, self-tuning, flexible infrastructure. Embedded management capabilities provide simple control interfaces. Management software monitors the infrastructure to streamline operations and increase productivity. The complete solution is manageable as one system, saving administration time and ensuring high quality service levels. Customers that implement a BladeSystem Matrix solution have the capability to manage the entire infrastructure, including management of physical and virtual servers, hardware and software policies, capacity optimization, and orchestration and provisioning of IT services.
This paper describes management technologies for HP BladeSystem and how they are integrated, including the following:
• Embedded enclosure and remote server management HP Onboard Administrator for BladeSystem c-Class simplifies enclosure setup and provides integrated enclosure management, including management of power and cooling. HP Integrated Lights-Out (iLO) is the processor that powers the HP Onboard Administrator (OA) by sending it information to monitor all the compute blades in an enclosure. Additionally, HP iLO technology underlies power capping, which lets an administrator control server power use. HP iLO Advanced for BladeSystem provides enhanced management capabilities.
• Server connectivity virtualization Virtual Connect simplifies server connectivity to LANs and SANs, enables server workload mobility, reduces infrastructure costs and helps IT administrators work more intelligently.
• Software deployment and core systems management HP Insight Control provides a single, integrated management solution for both physical and virtual servers. HP Insight Control offers the flexibility to integrate seamlessly into Microsoft System Center and VMware vCenter Server environments without any additional licensing cost if the IT environment has already standardized on those management platforms. For Linux-centric environments, HP also offers Insight Control for Linux. HP Systems Insight Manager provides a comprehensive management interface.
• Advanced infrastructure management to provision, optimize, and protect HP Insight Dynamics is advanced infrastructure management software that builds on Insight Control and Systems Insight Manager, and provides the ability to instantly adjust to dynamic business demands. With advanced planning, visualization, and control, HP Insight Dynamics makes change easier to manage. It can help consolidate, perform energy-aware capacity planning, and dynamically provision infrastructure, while achieving affordable high availability.
3
Introduction As business pressures drive demands on IT for greater efficiency and responsiveness, simplifying management and provisioning becomes increasingly critical. The complexity, high costs, and inflexibility of a conventional IT infrastructure are the direct result of the sprawl of resources, the static and hardwired way the infrastructure is built, and the interdependent processes behind it. Because of the manual coordination required between administrators managing the servers, the network, the shared storage, and facilities, what sounds simple, such as deploying a new server, can turn into a much longer than expected ordeal. The HP BladeSystem environment eliminates or streamlines many of these coordination challenges.
Enclosure models HP offers two versatile c-Class enclosure models: the HP BladeSystem c7000 and the HP BladeSystem c3000.1 The c7000 (Figures 2 and 3) provides sixteen device bays and eight interconnect module bays in a 10U rack-mount configuration. The c3000 provides eight device bays and four interconnect module bays in a 6U rack-mount or tower configuration. Both enclosure models also include the Onboard Administrator and the Insight Display diagnostic LCD panel. Both enclosures use the same hardware, software, and processes for management.
Figure 2. Front view of an HP BladeSystem c7000 enclosure
HP also offers BladeSystem c-Class Integrity compute blades. For more information, see the HP website at http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/blades/components/c-class-integrity-bladeservers.html.
1 More information about the BladeSystem enclosures is available at: c7000: http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00816246/c00816246.pdf. c3000: http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01508406/c01508406.pdf.
4
Figure 3. Rear view of an HP BladeSystem c7000 enclosure
Enclosure-level management HP BladeSystem enclosures accommodate BladeSystem c-Class compute blades, storage blades, and interconnect modules. The enclosure has extensive embedded management capabilities:
• Onboard Administrator delivers enclosure management functions like configuring power and cooling. It also discovers, identifies, and facilitates the management of components in the enclosure.
• Integrated Lights-Out management processors in BladeSystem c-Class servers. Each blade includes iLO as the base management controller. The iLO management processors communicate with the Onboard Administrator controller to form the core of the built-in component management for BladeSystem.
• Virtual Connect Ethernet and storage interconnect modules have embedded management to allow “wire once” network connection management. Virtual Connect modules plug into the interconnect bays and virtualize connections between HP BladeSystem servers and data center LANs and SANs. This lets administrators pool and share Ethernet and Fibre Channel connections within the enclosure and make server changes transparent to external networks.
• HP Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager (VCEM) is a centralized console that provides network connection management and workload mobility for hundreds of Virtual Connect domains. VCEM helps organizations respond faster to workload and infrastructure changes and reduce operating costs across the datacenter.
• HP Systems Insight Manager (HP SIM) delivers unified infrastructure management and control for HP BladeSystem and other infrastructure resources. Enhanced functionality and control is provided for HP BladeSystem c-Class, including automatically generated rack and enclosure visualization of blade resources and access to Onboard Administrator and iLO consoles.
These integrated management elements provide powerful hardware management for remote administration and local diagnostics, as well as component and enclosure troubleshooting.
5
Enclosure management modules (HP Onboard Administrator) The heart of c-Class enclosure management is the BladeSystem Onboard Administrator module. It performs four management functions for the entire enclosure:
• Detecting component insertion and removal • Identifying components and required connectivity • Managing power and cooling • Controlling components
The Onboard Administrator provides both i2C and Ethernet management networks to manage all the bays in the enclosure. Embedded processors connected to the active Onboard Administrator using either i2C or Ethernet manage each device, interconnect fan, and power supply. On the compute blades, iLO provides the embedded management function. Each iLO processor can be directly accessed through the Onboard Administrator Ethernet management network. Interconnect modules may also contain an interconnect processor that uses the management Ethernet connection to the Onboard Administrator. Management signals are completely isolated from the high-speed server-to-interconnect signals.
IT technicians and administrators have four ways to access the Onboard Administrator:
• An Insight Display screen on each HP BladeSystem c-Class Enclosure provides ready access for quick setup and daily maintenance.
• A web graphical user interface (GUI) uses event-driven, push technology. No screen refresh is necessary to view failures or events. If an event occurs, its status is pushed to the web GUI immediately.
• A Command Line Interface (CLI) provides command line and scripting interfaces. • Enclosure KVM provides Onboard Administrator, CLI, Insight Display, and KVM console connections
to all compute blades in an enclosure to control server power, connectivity to the enclosure DVD, and server-embedded health status. The KVM module is optional for c3000 enclosures, and standard in the c7000 Onboard Administrator with KVM module.
Both c-Class enclosure models offer an optional redundant enclosure management feature. This requires installing a second Onboard Administrator module to act as a completely redundant controller in an active-standby mode. Using redundant modules provides complete fault tolerance. The redundancy logic is based on a continuous heartbeat between the two modules over a dedicated serial connection. If the period between heartbeats exceeds a timeout, the standby module automatically takes control of the enclosure and becomes the active Onboard Administrator.
The Onboard Administrator is the brains of the c-Class infrastructure. Together with the enclosure’s HP Insight Display, the Onboard Administrator is designed for both local and remote administration of HP BladeSystem c-Class. The Onboard Administrator and its firmware provide the following functions:
• Wizards for setup and configuration • Highly available and secure access to the HP BladeSystem infrastructure • Security roles for server, network, and storage administrators • Automated power and cooling of the HP BladeSystem infrastructure • Agent-less device health and status • Thermal Logic power and cooling information and control
The Onboard Administrator uses embedded processors to identify and manage all the components in the enclosure. To identify a component that has been inserted into a BladeSystem c-Class enclosure, the Onboard Administrator reads a Field-Replaceable Unit (FRU) Electrically Erasable Programmable Read
6
Only Memory (EEPROM) that contains factory information (product name, part number, and serial number) for that component. All the FRU EEPROMs in c-Class enclosures are always powered, even if the component is off, so that the Onboard Administrator can identify the component before granting power requests. The Onboard Administrator directly reads the FRU EEPROMs for simple devices such as the fans, power supplies, and the Insight Display.
Each compute blade contains several FRU EEPROMs — one on the server board that contains server and embedded NIC information, and one on each of the installed mezzanine option boards. The NIC and mezzanine option EEPROM information informs the Onboard Administrator of the type of interconnects each server requires. Accessing the HP BladeSystem Onboard Administrator web interface requires the Onboard Administrator IP address and a compatible web browser. Access to the application must be through HTTPS (HTTP packets exchanged over an SSL-encrypted session).
The Onboard Administrator includes a feature called Enclosure Dynamic Power Capping that can maintain an enclosure’s power consumption at or below the cap value set by an administrator by actively monitoring and adjusting compute blade power consumption. When enabled, this feature will automatically change the performance of compute blades to ensure the enclosure power cap is not exceeded.
Embedded management processors (iLO) Each c-Class compute blade contains an HP Integrated Lights-Out embedded management processor. The iLO architecture consists of an independent firmware-based operating environment and a management processor. These iLO management processors reside on server system boards, using auxiliary power and operating independently of the host processor and the OS. HP iLO acts as a conduit for sending information to the Onboard Administrator by allowing it to access compute blade information. HP iLO monitors a “sea of sensors” on each compute blade, including fan sensor that the Onboard Administrator uses to control enclosure fans to provide optimal cooling for each server.
HP BladeSystem c-Class employs iLO to configure, update, and operate individual compute blades remotely. The iLO management processor enables remote management capabilities, including access to a remote console, to virtual media access, to a virtual power button, and to system management information such as hardware health, event logs, and configuration. The iLO device provides a higher-performance remote console (virtual KVM) as well as virtual media functionality that administrators can access from a web browser, command line, or script.
On c-Class compute blades, iLO performs typical out-of-band management functions similar to the management it performs on stand-alone ProLiant DL or ML servers. HP ProLiant Power Regulator, a feature of iLO, is an OS-independent power management feature that lets an administrator control power use without significantly impacting server performance. HP Power Regulator provides iLO-controlled speed stepping for x86 processors. Power Regulator improves server energy efficiency by giving CPUs full power for applications when they need it and reduced power when they do not. This power management feature lets ProLiant servers with policy-based power management control CPU power state. Additional information about HP Power Regulator is provided in the paper titled “Power Regulator for ProLiant,” available at www.hp.com/servers/power-regulator.
Additional information on HP Integrated Lights-Out, including iLO Advanced for BladeSystem, is available at www.hp.com/go/iLO.
Insight Display The Insight Display, shown in Figure 4, is an enclosure-mounted information exchange device with access to all Onboard Administrator setup, management, and troubleshooting features. It provides a quick and easy method for initially configuring the enclosure. It also provides information about the health and operation of the enclosure.
7
Figure 4. BladeSystem c-Class Insight Display and its Main Menu
Configuration logic One of the major advantages of the HP BladeSystem c-Class is its configuration flexibility. To assist the IT administrator in the configuration and setup process, the Onboard Administrator verifies the following attributes for each compute blade and interconnect module as they are added to the enclosure:
• I/O Configuration—The Onboard Administrator automatically queries all the field replaceable unit (FRU) data for each server, including mezzanine cards. The Onboard Administrator compares this information to the installed interconnect modules to ensure that the I/O fabric types match. If they do not, the Onboard Administrator issues a warning on the Insight Display with suggested corrective action. Typically the corrective action will be to move a mezzanine card to a different slot.
• Enclosure configuration—If the enclosure is not fully populated, the Onboard Administrator makes sure that compute blades, storage blades, Active Cool fans, and power supplies are in the correct locations to receive the proper cooling and to support the chosen power configuration. For example, if the administrator is installing only two compute blades in the c7000 enclosure, the Onboard Administrator ensures the blades are in bays 1, 2, 9, or 10. Similarly, fans must go into bays 4, 5, 9, and 10.
• Available Power—The Onboard Administrator ensures that there is sufficient power available to power up a compute blade or interconnect module.
• Cooling capacity—The Onboard Administrator uses multiple sensors and adjusts fan speed to make sure there is sufficient cooling capacity for the compute blade or interconnect module.
• Device—The Onboard Administrator indicates device failure or degraded health. Typically the corrective action will be to replace a failed device.
The Onboard Administrator configuration logic powers up the interconnect modules first. Any given blade is not powered up until the Onboard Administrator has verified that the configuration is correct. If there is a configuration issue, the Insight Display indicates what the issue is and possible remedies.
Enclosure bay IP addressing The Onboard Administrator significantly enhances the management network infrastructure by offering a single point from which to assign IP addresses to the compute blade iLO management ports and the interconnect module management ports. By default, the Onboard Administrator, iLO, and supported interconnect module management processors such as Virtual Connect Manager are configured to acquire an IP address using Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) on the external management
8
network. For installations using static IP addressing, the Onboard Administrator offers Enclosure Bay IP Addressing (EBIPA) as an alternative to manual configuration.
If EBIPA is enabled and the management ports are set to receive an IP address using DHCP, the Onboard Administrator can manage the IP address settings using EBIPA. Using the autofill feature, the administrator can input a range of IP addresses into the Onboard Administrator form (Figure 5). For example, if the address of bay 1 is input as 12.240.62.11, autofill creates consecutively numbered IP addresses for bays 2 through 16, starting with 12.240.62.12. IP addresses can be assigned to unpopulated bays. Once a server or interconnect module is inserted into an EBIPA-enabled bay, it will receive the pre-set IP address for that bay as well as the Shared Device Settings.
EBIPA settings are also present in the First Time Setup Wizard. There they provide the same functionality; however, the wizard allows the address range to span multiple enclosures.
Figure 5. Onboard Administrator web GUI – Device Bay EBIPA settings
Onboard Administrator graphical user interface The GUI provides remote administration capabilities from a desktop web-browser. The GUI allows administrators to simplify tasks such as managing users and network settings, Virtual Power control, boot order control, and enclosure DVD attachment to one or more blades. The GUI can also simplify administrative tasks when identical operations are performed on multiple compute blades.
The GUI contains graphical views for server-to-interconnect port mapping, zone cooling measurements, and power use history. The GUI displays a graphical view of one or multiple enclosures showing the status for each device (Figure 6). At a glance, the administrator can tell if any devices in the enclosure need attention. If multiple enclosures in a rack are connected using the enclosure links, the admin can view and control one or more enclosures from a single GUI.
9
Figure 6. Onboard Administrator GUI – Device Bay Summary
Onboard Administrator command line interface The Onboard Administrator CLI (Figure 7) allows administrators to use serial, telnet, or SSH connections to control enclosure and device operation, including the use of scripts for automation. CLI commands include commands to connect to the ILO on each compute blade and to any supported interconnect module management processors such as Virtual Connect. The Onboard Administrator CLI supports role-based user accounts, provides for auto login to iLO devices, and provides a utility for configuring or updating iLO using existing XML scripts.
10
Figure 7. Onboard Administrator Command Line Interface
Enclosure DVD The Onboard Administrator can provide USB CD/DVD drive connectivity to one or more servers in an enclosure with the Enclosure DVD feature. In addition, with a USB key plugged into the Onboard Administrator, ISO files can be connected to one or more servers, the OA firmware can be updated from a file, and the enclosure configuration can be saved or restored from a file on the USB key. This feature can dramatically simplify the firmware update of all servers or the Onboard Administrator modules, or initial setup of an enclosure from a custom configuration file.
Enclosure KVM The c7000 Onboard Administrator with KVM and the optional c3000 KVM module provides an easy method to connect a standard VGA monitor, keyboard, and mouse to the enclosure and connect to any of the server video consoles. Administrators can perform several functions using the KVM module:
• Control server power • Connect to the enclosure DVD for software installation or firmware upgrades • Connect to the Onboard Administrator CLI for full control of the enclosure • Diagnose problems easily using an on-screen version of the Insight Display
The user interface (Figure 8) is very similar to the Insight Display, but it employs the keyboard cursor keys to select a particular server console, power the server on and off, or connect to the enclosure DVD.
11
Figure 8. Enclosure KVM Menu
Firmware updates The Onboard Administrator manages firmware updates for the enclosure’s management devices. Updating compute blade firmware is possible using HP System Update Manager or the blade firmware update maintenance CD. These utilities can be connected to all the compute blades in the enclosure using the Onboard Administrator enclosure DVD feature. When the active Onboard Administrator detects an external USB DVD drive plugged into the USB port, it scans the DVD drive for a CD or DVD disk. This disk can then be connected to one or more compute blades at the same time using the Onboard Administrator GUI, CLI, or Insight Display.
For more information about Onboard Administrator, see http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/blades/components/onboard/index.html.
Provisioning and managing network and storage connections (HP Virtual Connect) HP Virtual Connect (VC) is the preferred interconnect technology for HP BladeSystem environments that simplifies blade server connectivity to production LANs and SANs and reduces costs, and it is used instead of traditional pass-thru and network switch options. VC virtualizes I/O connections by putting an abstraction layer between the servers and their external networks, so that the LANs and SANs see the network interface (NIC) or host bus adapter (HBA) addresses presented by the VC modules. Virtual Connect provides several advantages:
• Reduces physical server-to-network cabling and complexity and requires fewer leased network ports • Enables administrators to wire LAN / SAN connections once and limit changes • Allows network assignments to be pre-provisioned even to empty server bays, which enables rapid
server deployment and limits configuration errors • Separates server and network administration
– Enables system administrators to be self-sufficient, so they can add, replace, or recover servers in minutes to quickly meet changing workload and business needs
– Enables IT staff to make server changes without impacting network configurations and availability
12
• Reduces time and costs to configure and administer BladeSystem infrastructures.
HP Virtual Connect builds on industry standards, allowing integration with both organizations’ established procedures and leading core network switch brands, such as Cisco, Brocade, BNT, Juniper, and HP ProCurve. Virtual Connect capabilities are built into every BladeSystem c-Class enclosure. Virtual Connect incorporates other integrated technologies, including the Onboard Administrator, c-Class PCI-Express mezzanine cards, embedded NICs and iLO. Virtual Connect functionality is delivered using high performance Virtual Connect Ethernet and Fibre Channel modules that plug into the standard BladeSystem c-Class enclosure interconnect bays (Figure 9).
Figure 9. Examples of possible Virtual Connect modules in an HP BladeSystem c7000 enclosure
Each Virtual Connect module provides dense port aggregation that turns multiple physical network connections to each server into a few simple high-speed uplinks that greatly reduce infrastructure complexity and costs. To the external networks, Virtual Connect modules appear as regular pass-thru devices, but they provide the benefits of integrated switching.
To establish server connections to LANs and SANs, Virtual Connect uses connection profiles in combination with dynamic pools of unique media access control (MAC) addresses and World Wide Names (WWN). The server connection profiles contain MAC, WWN, and boot-from-SAN definitions that are assigned to BladeSystem enclosure bays and not to individual servers. The physical server in each bay uses the MAC and WWN assignments in the bay profile instead of its default network interface (NIC) or host bus adapter (HBA) addresses. Even if a server is replaced, the MAC and WWN assignments for the enclosure bay remain constant, and the change is invisible to the network.
HP BladeSystem enclosures configured with Virtual Connect Ethernet and Fiber Channel modules are referred to as Virtual Connect domains. A VC domain can be a single enclosure with up to 16 servers, or can be multi-enclosures (up four linked physical enclosures with up to 64 servers) that are managed as a single logical entity.
13
HP Virtual Connect Ethernet and Fibre Channel modules can be used independently, as redundant pairs, or daisy-chained to expand the number of available uplinks and network connections. Instead of the ever growing number of cables used with pass-thru and traditional managed switches, Virtual Connect provides high speed connectivity for all servers in the blade enclosure with just a few high speed uplinks. Virtual Connect enables organizations to work intelligently and realize tangible benefits of a truly converged infrastructure (Figure 10).
During Virtual Connect installation, the LAN and SAN administrators are still responsible for defining the networks, subnets, and storage LUNs that the servers will use, but they no longer have to be involved in every server-centric change. Once implemented, Virtual Connect allows system administrators to be more self-sufficient, they can add, replace, and modify servers in minutes without affecting LAN and SAN availability or burdening network administration staff.
Figure 10. Virtual Connect reduces complexity and creates an adaptive infrastructure
To configure and manage single Virtual Connect domains, HP provides options for both small and large environments. Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager (VCEM) is the primary HP application for managing Virtual Connect across the datacenter. This scalable solution delivers centralized group-based management for hundreds of Virtual Connect domains and thousands of BladeSystem c-Class servers. It is ideal for environments with more than one rack of enclosures. To manage single Virtual Connect domains, the Virtual Connect Manager (VCM) is a simple web console built into the firmware of Virtual Connect Ethernet modules that is also accessible through the Onboard Administrator. This option is ideal for environments with up to 4 enclosures.
A more detailed overview of HP Virtual Connect management options is provided in the Centralized management software section of this document.
14
Managing multiple network connections with Virtual Connect Flex-10 Virtual Connect Flex-10 technology (Figure 11) allows customers to partition a single 10 gigabit (Gb) Ethernet port into four individual server NIC connections called FlexNICs. By providing servers with a 4:1 physical NIC and switch port consolidation, Flex-10 helps organizations make more efficient use of available network resources, reduce infrastructure costs up to 60%, and reduce power use by up to 56%. A standard BladeSystem c-Class server with just two ports can now present eight individual network connections and 20Gb of bandwidth. A full height BladeSystem c-Class server can support up to 40 FlexNIC network connections, while a half-height server can support 32 FlexNIC connections.
The Flex-10 hardware consists of two components: the HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 10Gb Ethernet Module, and a 10Gb Flex-10 LAN-on-motherboard (LOM) device (or a 10 Gb Flex-10 mezzanine card). Each 10Gb Flex-10 LOM or mezzanine card contains two physical network ports that connect to internal ports on the Flex-10 Ethernet modules, plus four independent FlexNICs that can be allocated and prioritized in increments of 100Mb, up to a total bandwidth of 10 Gbps, to meet individual application requirements.
Figure 11. FlexNics share a physical link
VC Flex-10 Enet Module
BladeSystem Server
Flex10 LOM or Mezz Card
Flex10 NIC (port 1)
FlexNIC FlexNIC FlexNIC FlexNIC
vNet 2 vNet 3 vNet 4vNet 1
Flex10 NIC (port 2)
FlexNIC FlexNIC FlexNIC FlexNIC
Single lane of 10Gb/s Ethernetfor each Port
To the server operating system (bare-metal operating system), each of the four FlexNICs appears as a discrete NIC with its own driver. The administrator defines the bandwidth available to each FlexNIC—from 100Mb to 10Gb—using one of the Virtual Connect management tools. While the FlexNICs share the same physical port, traffic flow for each FlexNIC is isolated with its own MAC address and virtual local area network (VLAN) tags (see Figure 11). The Virtual Connect Flex-10 Ethernet Module recognizes Flex-10 connections from the server as part of a Virtual Connect profile.
For virtual server environments that require more bandwidth and NICs to support higher virtual machine densities, Flex-10 offers network scalability plus greater configuration flexibility with dynamic bandwidth allocations for each FlexNIC. In the future, HP plans to broaden Virtual Connect Flex-10 technology into the HP FlexFabric technology, which will provide solutions for converging different network protocols within an interconnect module.
Flex-10 is currently available with supported HP BladeSystem servers (for supported servers, see http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/blades/components/ethernet/10-10gb-f/questionsanswers.html#c1).
15
For more information about Flex-10 technology, see the technology brief “HP Flexfabric and Flex-10 technology” at http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01608922/c01608922.pdf.
Managing single Virtual Connect domains To setup and manage individual Virtual Connect domains, HP Virtual Connect Manager (Figure 12) is a web console built into the firmware of Virtual Connect Ethernet modules. This could be a single enclosure domain, or a multi-enclosure domain containing up to four physically linked enclosures in the same rack. In a multi-enclosure domain, Virtual Connect Manager would be able to move server profiles between all four enclosures (up to 64 servers) in the domain. This option is ideal for small environments with up to four enclosures.
To centrally manage multiple Virtual Connect domains and perform advanced workload administration HP provides the Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager application, which is described the Managing network connections across the datacenter section of this document.
Figure 12. HP Virtual Connect Manager for administering individual Virtual Connect Domains - Profile summary screen where IT administrators can create, edit, and delete Virtual Connect profiles
For more detailed information on the Virtual Connect family, see www.hp.com/go/virtualconnect.
Managing network connections across the datacenter (Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager) HP Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager (VCEM) is a software application that centralizes network connection management and workload mobility for hundreds of Virtual Connect Domains and thousands of BladeSystem servers (see Figure 13).
16
Organizations can use VCEM to complete core datacenter tasks more quickly, and without impacting the configuration and availability of production LANs and SANs:
• Deploy network server connections • Perform cost-effective physical server recovery • Complete planned system maintenance with minimal downtime • Migrate and repurpose blade servers to meet changing workload and application priorities
VCEM presents an intuitive console (Figure 14), and uses a central repository to administer and control 256K MAC addresses and World Wide Names (based on VCEM v1.40 and higher), which reduces the risk of address conflicts. VCEM performs group-based configuration management of Virtual Connect domains using master configuration profiles that increase infrastructure consistency, simplify new/bare-metal enclosure deployment, and enable configuration changes to be made once and pushed to multiple Virtual Connect domains. The VCEM group management capabilities are also used to execute the rapid movement and failover of server connections and their workloads for up to 250 Virtual Connect domains across the datacenter – up to 1,000 enclosures and 16,000 compute blades when used with Virtual Connect multi-enclosure domain configurations.
VCEM works with Virtual Connect hardware and the Onboard Administrator to create new Virtual Connect domains and to discover and import existing domains. Existing Virtual Connect domains can be imported without any downtime and they retain their existing MAC and WWN assignments. The VCEM console can be installed on system hosts running Microsoft Windows Server 2003 or 2008 in a variety of configurations, as a physical stand-alone console, as a plug-in to an HP SIM central management server, or on a virtual machine guest.
Figure 14. HP Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager home page
VCEM enables administrators to move Virtual Connect server profiles and their workloads between Virtual Connect domains that are part of the same Virtual Connect Domain Group. VC domains can include servers in an adjacent enclosure, in a rack across the datacenter, or at a remote location.
When a profile is moved, the LAN/SAN connections plus any boot-from-SAN credentials move with the profile and are re-established on the target server. Server profile movement can be initiated manually through the VCEM UI or scripted through a command line. VCEM also provides profile failover capabilities that automatically move server connections and workloads to customer-defined spare servers.
18
Figure 15 illustrates a profile move from “Server A” to “Server C” using any of the VCEM profile movement options. Note that the LANs associated with each uplink port and the contents of the Virtual Connect server profile remain the same; only the location of the profile changes. When a Virtual Connect server connection profile is moved, the serial number, UUID, MAC address, WWN, boot-from-SAN parameters, and related workload always move with the profile.
Figure 15. Using VCEM profile options to move a profile from Server A to Server C
For more detailed information about VCEM, see www.hp.com/go/vcem.
19
Infrastructure management and control (HP SIM) Since most HP BladeSystem users have more than one enclosure, it makes sense to have a way to centrally manage an entire environment comprised of tens or hundreds of HP BladeSystem enclosures. HP SIM delivers unified infrastructure management and control for server and storage resources from HP and other vendors.
HP SIM is a hardware-level management product that supports multiple operating systems on a variety of platforms. Through a single management view, HP SIM provides the basic management features of system discovery and identification, single-event view, inventory data collection, and reporting. The core HP SIM software uses Web Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) to deliver the essential capabilities required to manage all HP server platforms.
HP SIM can be extended with Insight Control and Insight Dynamics. Together, this complete infrastructure management package delivers infrastructure deployment, migration, power and performance management, remote monitoring and control, integrated support for virtualization, infrastructure provisioning and optimization, and continuity of services protection.
HP SIM provides enhanced functionality and control for HP BladeSystem c-Class, including automatically generated rack and enclosure visualization of blade resources and access to Onboard Administrator and iLO consoles. HP SIM also automatically draws views of blade rack topology and enables users to quickly navigate their entire blade environment. System administrators can perform management tasks to individual units or groups of servers and storage resources.
For more detailed information about HP SIM, visit the HP web site: http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/servers/management/hpsim/index.html.
Centralized management software for HP BladeSystem The primary centralized management components for HP BladeSystem are HP Insight Control and HP Insight Dynamics.
HP Insight Control for BladeSystem deploys, migrates, monitors, configures, and controls HP BladeSystem servers.
Also built on HP SIM, HP Insight Control for Linux provides discovery, imaging, deployment, monitoring, and management for Linux-based platforms from a Linux-hosted CMS.
HP Insight Dynamics brings powerful infrastructure service-level management, orchestration, and recovery functionality to the BladeSystem c-Class.
HP Insight Control for BladeSystem HP Insight Control for BladeSystem is a software product that uses a single installer to deploy, migrate, monitor, configure, and control HP BladeSystem servers that use Microsoft Windows operating systems. It provides a single, integrated management solution for both physical and virtual servers. Insight Control uses HP System Insight Manager as a central management console that provides a comprehensive interface for running an entire set of management tasks. HP Insight Control can also integrate into Microsoft System Center and VMware vCenter Server for IT environments that have these management platforms.
Insight Control can be purchased either as a standalone software license or bundled with HP ProLiant servers and BladeSystem enclosures.
Insight Control provides deployment, migration, performance and power management, health management, and advanced remote control for HP BladeSystem plus HP ProLiant and Integrity systems. It includes the functionality listed in Table 1.
20
Table 1. Components of HP Insight Control for BladeSystem
Component Description
HP Systems Insight Manager (HP SIM) and its built-in blade management interface
HP SIM delivers unified infrastructure management and control for HP and non-HP server and storage resources. The integrated blade management interface provides enhanced functionality and control for HP BladeSystem c-Class, including automatically generated rack and enclosure visualization of blade resources and access to Onboard Administrator and iLO consoles.
HP Integrated Lights-Out (iLO)
iLO Advanced for BladeSystem complements standard iLO. iLO Advanced for BladeSystem activates additional features needed to enable full remote control of ProLiant servers in routine and emergency situations.
Insight Control server deployment
Insight Control server deployment configures and deploys multiple automatically using scripts and system images. Insight Control includes predefined scripts to configure HP server hardware and to deploy operating systems for Microsoft® Windows® and Linux® platforms. Insight Control provides blade-specific features such as rip-and-replace server recovery and pre-provisioning of device bays.
Insight Control server migration
HP Insight Control offers server migration as a standard functional. Insight Control server migration lets administrators physically and virtually migrate HP BladeSystem c-Class servers from a single console. Its point-click-and-migrate functionality automates the process of migrating to a new server. Essentially, it moves all the existing data, settings, applications, and operating system, simultaneously adding new drivers as needed.
Insight Control power management
Insight Control power management provides centralized control over server power consumption and thermal output at the datacenter level. It extends datacenter capacity by reducing the amount of power and cooling required for BladeSystem and ProLiant servers.
Insight Control virtual machine management
Insight Control virtual machine management extends HP Systems Insight Manager capabilities to manage virtual machines and provides central management and control of VMware® and Microsoft virtual machines with physical host-to-virtual machine association. Insight Control integrates with virtualization management tools such as VMware VirtualCenter. Insight Control is the only solution available that, out of the box, can initiate VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) to relocate virtual machines based on hardware predictive failure alerts.
Insight Control performance management
Insight Control performance management monitors system performance thresholds and detects and analyzes hardware bottlenecks on BladeSystem, HP ProLiant servers, HP Integrity servers, and HP Modular Smart Array (MSA) shared storage systems.
Insight Remote Support Advanced software
Remotely monitor systems for hardware events using secure, proven technology to detect problems before they occur. HP Insight Remote Support Advanced software is integrated with HP Systems Insight Manager to deliver secure remote support for HP servers, storage, network SAN environments, and selected multi-vendor devices.
Insight Control uses a single integrated installer to rapidly and consistently install, configure, and license the management software. Insight Control is delivered on DVD media with HP BladeSystem c-Class enclosures. HP Insight Control is installed on a Windows central management server (CMS) and manages servers running Windows, Microsoft Hyper-V, Linux distributions, VMware ESX, and Citrix XenServer. For Linux-centric environments that manage primarily Linux servers and have a desire to run their CMS on a Linux server, Insight Control for Linux offers similar functionality.
21
HP Insight Control for Linux HP Insight Control for Linux is essential server management that unlocks the management capabilities for those users with Linux-centric environments and/or those requiring a Linux-hosted management server. Insight Control for Linux delivers integrated toolsets for system administrators to manage business-critical Linux environments in both enterprise and scale-out environments with HP BladeSystem.
Insight Control for Linux integrates a robust feature set of the best of open source and HP technologies on HP SIM (running on Linux) for discovery, imaging and provisioning, rapid deployment, health and performance management, remote management, virtualization, and power management. Lifecycle management is complemented by multisystem scaling, thermal and power management, and direct-to-the-hardware control. Insight Control for Linux is backed by the Linux expertise of HP and global HP Support.
HP Insight Control for Linux provides an integrated solution with the following capabilities:
• HP Systems Insight Manager (on Linux). • HP Insight Control server deployment for schedulable and customizable execution of scripts, firmware
updates, images, and installations, with bare metal discovery and a choice of deployment modes. • HP Insight Control health and performance management for scale-optimized control of large
environments using performance dashboards, open source-based monitoring tools, and an extensible Nagios®2 interface for connecting to industry-common plug-ins.
• HP Insight Control virtual machine management to manage host and guest environments using XEN® (open source hypervisor) and VMware ESX®.
• HP Insight Control remote management for secure lights-out remote access and server control with virtual media support and out-of-band hardware monitoring.
• HP Insight Control power management with Dynamic Power Capping and Datacenter Power Control for precise power and thermal management.
• Installer to assist with installation of the integrated component capabilities.
HP Insight Control for Linux does not include a Linux distribution. Customers can choose from HP-supported RHEL or SLES distributions, or select community-supported distributions from the wider community.
HP Insight Control for Linux is the type of management solution that Linux administrators would design for themselves, given the opportunity. This solution brings the full expertise of HP’s management investments from UNIX and Windows to the Linux environment, while providing flexibility and productivity to fulfill the variety of usual management tasks.
For more detailed information about Insight Control for Linux, see www.hp.com/go/ic-linux.
For more detailed information about Insight Control, see www.hp.com/go/InsightControl.
Advanced infrastructure management (HP Insight Dynamics) HP Insight Dynamics is an integrated service-centric management environment for the entire infrastructure that can map directly to application services. It helps organizations quickly adjust their infrastructure to business demands. This software reduces the cost of common data center tasks by up to 40% while keeping pace with changing business. Insight Dynamics is built on proven technologies from HP, such as HP Insight Control, and can take advantage of HP Virtual Connect to bring the flexibility of virtualization to physical environments. It allows workloads from virtualized and non-virtualized environments to be moved across data centers. Another important characteristic is its integration with
2 Nagios® is an open source host, service, and network monitoring program. For more information, visit their web
site at http://www.nagios.org.
22
other software environments, such as VMware vCenter and Microsoft System Center, for bidirectional synchronization and control. Changes can be seamlessly triggered in the converged infrastructure and reflected in third-party software and Insight Dynamics.
Infrastructure orchestration and automated infrastructure provisioning HP Insight Dynamics provides the ability to provision and manage the lifecycle of complete infrastructure services by automating the provisioning of virtual and physical servers with associated storage and with networking connections. A complex application infrastructure such as a multi-tier enterprise application infrastructure can be up and running in minutes, rather than weeks or months. Insight Dynamics infrastructure orchestration allows for the easy design of best-practice infrastructure templates, reliable provisioning of infrastructure through a self-service portal, and seamless integration and extensibility with existing systems, management tools, and IT processes. Infrastructure orchestration also includes a powerful embedded workflow automation tool powered by HP Operations Orchestration. Customizable workflows allow for integration of existing IT processes for approvals, operating system deployment, and storage provisioning.
The template designer (shown in Figure 16) is used to plan and design infrastructures to fit the needs of business applications.
Figure 16. Creating a template with Insight Dynamics infrastructure orchestration
For more information about HP Insight Dynamics infrastructure orchestration, see http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/solutions/insightdynamics/provision.html.
23
Infrastructure optimization through capacity planning HP Insight Dynamics provides deep insight into infrastructure and quick adjustment of an environment over its lifecycle, allowing for predictable change capability without time-consuming analysis. Key data points such as power, CPU, memory, disk, and network utilization are captured every five minutes and are used to generate consolidation scenarios. When combined with built-in rebalancing tools, this can reduce weeks or months of tedious planning and implementation.
HP Insight Dynamics provides a capacity planning tool that provides both real-time and historical system utilization and power. This tool offers the industry’s first lightweight, integrated tool for ongoing capacity planning by simulating the placement of application workloads to help IT administrators improve server utilization. It captures real-world server utilization data to pre-test different scenarios before making changes to critical applications.
The capacity planning software can collect and analyze more than 1,000 data points per server per day from both virtual and physical resources to create a clear record of server resource utilization. This data can be used to easily detect systems that are over- or under-utilized. Drawing on this data, HP Insight Dynamics can proactively rebalance and consolidate server workloads to increase utilization, reduce power consumption, improve application performance, and meet other objectives.
HP Insight Dynamics is set to automatically collect data from all discovered managed nodes that are licensed to run HP Insight Dynamics and from managed nodes that have HP Insight Capacity Advisor Consolidation software.
Figure 17 illustrates how HP Insight Dynamics capacity planning collects and analyzes data.
Figure 17. HP Insight Dynamics capacity planning
For more information about HP Insight Dynamics capacity planning, see http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/solutions/insightdynamics/optimize-capacity.html.
Protect continuity of services The combination of advanced visualization, real-time planning, and the speed and ease of moving resources allows Insight Dynamics to help achieve higher availability levels and protect overall continuity of services. Administrators can quickly move server profiles to maintain availability. Stored templates can be activated to restart applications to maintain the level of service quality to the business.
Maintenance windows can be shortened by using server profiles to create and move workloads. For integrated disaster recovery, Insight Dynamics recovery management allows moving workloads to other servers or sites with a simple mouse click, improving recovery time up to 80% or more. Failed-over workloads are dealt with in as little as five minutes across physical and virtual servers. There are several core capabilities of Insight Dynamics recovery management:
24
• Failover and recovery for both physical and virtual environments • Integration with VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V virtualization environments • Integration with HP EVA and XP storage data replication solutions, providing recovery for
environments from metropolitan to continental distances • User interface for creating and testing of failover and recovery scenarios
An example of an Insight Dynamics recovery management configuration is shown in Figure 18.
Figure 18 illustrates configurations at both primary and recovery sites. The main hardware and software components of an Insight Recovery solution are also shown. At each site, there is a Central Management Server (CMS), which hosts HP SIM and the Insight Dynamics software. The Insight Recovery software runs on the CMS.
For more information about Insight Dynamics Recovery Management, see http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/solutions/insightdynamics/protect-recovery.html.
BladeSystem Matrix HP BladeSystem Matrix is a leading packaged instantiation of HP’s Converged Infrastructure approach. With BladeSystem Matrix, a customer has converged pools of compute, network, and storage resources, along with the complete infrastructure services management and orchestration capabilities to manage physical and virtual configuration, hardware and software policies, capacity optimization, and provisioning of IT services.
For more information about HP BladeSystem Matrix, see http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/blades/components/matrix/main.html.
For an overview white paper on HP BladeSystem Matrix, see http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/GetPDF.aspx/4AA0-5550ENW.pdf.
