Mac address settings – HP 1.10GB Virtual Connect Ethernet Module for c-Class BladeSystem User Manual

Page 63

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Network management 63

For additional information, see "MAC address settings (on page

63

)."

MAC Address Settings

IMPORTANT:

Configuring Virtual Connect to assign server blade MAC addresses requires

careful planning to ensure that the configured range of MAC addresses is used once within

the environment. Duplicate MAC addresses on an Ethernet network can result in a server
network outage.

Each server blade Ethernet NIC ships with a factory default MAC address. The MAC address is a 48-bit
number that uniquely identifies the Ethernet interface to other devices on the network. While the hardware
ships with default MAC addresses, Virtual Connect has the ability to assign MAC addresses that will

override the factory default MAC addresses while the server remains in that Virtual Connect enclosure.
When configured to assign MAC addresses, Virtual Connect securely manages the MAC addresses by

accessing the physical NICs through the enclosure Onboard Administrator and the iLO interfaces on the
individual server blades.
Always establish control processes to ensure that a unique MAC address range is used in each Virtual

Connect domain in the environment. Reusing address ranges could result in server network outages
caused by multiple servers having the same MAC addresses.
If using Virtual Connect assigned MAC addresses, the following notes apply:

Virtual Connect automatically reserves both a primary address and an iSCSI MAC address for use

by multifunction gigabit server adapters, such as the HP NC373m PCI Express Dual Port

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