Flex-10 overview – HP 1.10GB Virtual Connect Ethernet Module for c-Class BladeSystem User Manual

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Virtual Connect server profiles 124

Rare situations exist where VCM is not able to retrieve information about all of the blades in multi-blade

server (such as certain hardware failures that keep a blade from being in a normal state prior to applying
power). In such cases, VCM displays the Major error status icon. Where text is shown with the icon, the text

is “Missing Data”. This indicates a serious problem with the multi-blade server that needs to be fixed. VCM

cannot properly map profile connections to a server when it is in this state.
Multi-blade servers do not support iSCSI.

Flex-10 overview

Flex-10 technology is exclusive to Virtual Connect environments. When Flex-10-enabled 10Gb NICs are

connected to an HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 10Gb Ethernet Module, each NIC port becomes four individual
NICs, called FlexNICs.
Although these four FlexNICs share a single 10Gb physical interface, Virtual Connect is able to keep traffic

for the FlexNICs isolated, and each FlexNIC is assigned to one or more distinct Virtual Connect networks.

Each FlexNIC can be assigned a different transmit bandwidth (from 100Mb to 10Gb), which is enforced by
hardware mechanisms. The FlexNICs share a total of 10Gb, so one could be set to 5Gb, one could be set

to 1Gb, and the remaining two could each be set to 2Gb. The total shareable bandwidth cannot exceed

10Gb.
A Flex-10 capable NIC (embedded Ethernet or mezzanine card) is only seen as four FlexNICs per 10Gb port
if that NIC is directly connected to an HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 or FlexFabric module or an empty

interconnect bay. Eight FlexNICs are indicated when connected to an empty interconnect bay because it is

assumed that an HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 or FlexFabric module will be installed in that bay. If a

Flex-10-capable NIC is connected to a Virtual Connect interconnect module that does not support Flex-10 or

a non-Virtual Connect interconnect module, that NIC is seen as only one Ethernet device per physical port.
The following table shows an example of how a BL495c Flex-10 embedded dual port NIC would be

presented when connected to different interconnects. For more information about mapping between servers

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