HP Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager v6.3.1

HP Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager (VCEM) centralizes connection management and workload mobility for HP BladeSystem servers that use Virtual Connect to access LANs, SANs and converged network infrastructures. VCEM helps organizations increase productivity, respond faster to workload and configuration changes, and reduce operating costs.

Built on the Virtual Connect architecture integrated into every BladeSystem c-Class enclosure, VCEM provides a central console to administer network address assignments, perform group-based configuration management and to rapidly deploy, move and failover server connections for 250 Virtual Connect domains (up to 1,000 BladeSystem enclosures and 16,000 blade servers).

Together, Virtual Connect and VCEM create a change-ready infrastructure that enables system administrators to add, replace and recover servers and their workloads across the data center in minutes without impacting network configurations and availability.

What's new

HP Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager v6.3.1 adds new features plus support for the latest Virtual Connect hardware and firmware. Incorporates new functionality, compatibility and feature support delivered with Virtual Connect firmware v3.30 Exporting VC Server profiles between VC Domain Groups Multiple server profile creation leave the profile assigned or unassigned ( up to 50 profiles can be created) Automatically resynchronize mismatched VC Domains Large VLAN- Domain Wide Tunnel/Mapped Telemetry- through-put (bandwidth and packets) on all physical ports VCEM Extended Command Line Interface and SDK support (NAG and Large VLAN) VCEM sub ranges, multi-CMS Federated CMS enhancements VCEM v6.3.1 can be used to update existing installations of VCEM v1.20 through v6.3 Refer to the support matrix (HP Insight Software Support Matrix) for the latest supported HP Blade System server and network options Delivered on Insight Software media v6.3, which can be downloaded from this website

Ideal environment

Ideal for... VCEM is a highly scalable management solution, designed to meet the growing needs of small and large environments that use Virtual Connect to control server access to data and storage networks. Datacenters with multiple BladeSystem enclosures Centralize connectivity and workload management for thousands of servers Simplify the deployment of new blade enclosures and servers, and reduce configuration errors Increase infrastructure consistency, IT productivity and respond faster to changing workload and business demands Scalable to meet the growing needs of small and large Virtual Connect environments Reduce time and costs to deploy and maintain server connectivity to production networks Organizations that need dynamic infrastructure management Add, modify and failover server connections and their workloads in minutes without impacting LANs and SANs Rapidly repurpose server resources to meet changing business demands and application priorities Simplify the migration of severs from test to production Organizations with multiple locations Centralize server connection management to LANs and SANs Simplify the deployment of new blade enclosures and servers Limit management overheads and configuration errors Reduce travel, response times and operating costs Cloud Computing Simplified /Efficiency: simplified management saves user time by eliminating manual entries Performance and scale for improved scalability and flexibility Availability/Security: enhances safe and secure networking Together, Virtual Connect and VCEM create a change-ready infrastructure that enables system administrators to add, replace and recover servers and their workloads across the data center in minutes without impacting network configurations and availability. HP also offers a VCEM Software Developer's Kit (SDK) for those with an interest to integrate their applications with Virtual Connect.

Questions

Answers

General

Built on the Virtual Connect architecture integrated into every BladeSystem c-Class enclosure, VCEM provides a central console to programmatically administer LAN and SAN address assignments, perform group-based configuration management, and rapidly deploy, move and failover server connections and their workloads for up to 250 Virtual Connect domains (1,000 BladeSystem enclosures and 16.000 servers when used with Virtual Connect Ethernet enclosure stacking).

Together, Virtual Connect and Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager create a change-ready infrastructure that enables system administrators to add, replace and recover servers across the datacenter without impacting network configurations and availability.

In contrast, Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager is HP's primary application for managing smaller or larger infrastructures and groups of Virtual Connect domains across the data center. It provides centralized management for up to 250 Virtual Connect domains and administers a total of 256K LAN and SAN addresses from a central repository.

VCEM also provides the ability to create Domain Groups that use a master configuration profile for multiple VC domains that connect to the same networks. With VCEM, administrators can move profiles and server workloads between any enclosures that belong to the same or different Domain Group, which could be the same rack, across the data center or even a different physical location. The domain group functionality in VCEM also simplifies the addition of new / bare metal enclosures, helping organizations develop more consistent infrastructure configurations as the datacenter expands.

VCEM is highly scalable to meet the growing needs of small and large datacenters, and is ideal for distributed BladeSystem environments with more than one rack of enclosures.

• Enables organizations to centrally manage network connections and workloads for hundreds of Virtual Connect domains and thousands of server blades
• The VCEM repository provides programmatic LAN and SAN address administration and eliminates the risk of address conflicts
• Group-based management of Virtual Connect domains increases infrastructure consistency, limits configuration errors and enables rapid change management across multiple HP BladeSystem enclosures
• Enables system administrators to add, change, and replace physical servers and their workloads across the datacenter in minutes, when the business needs to, without impacting production LAN and SAN configurations
• Reduces the costs and time to establish and maintain server blade connectivity
• Increases productivity and server-to-administrator ratios
• Releases LAN and SAN administrators from routine server-centric tasks
• VCEM is highly scalable to meet the growing needs of small and large infrastructures

• Deploying, new Virtual Connect domains, BladeSystem servers and enclosures
• Performing fast cost-effective server and workload recovery
• Scheduling planned system maintenance with minimal downtime
• Rapidly migrating and repurposing server resources across the datacenter to meet changing workloads and application priorities

A Virtual Connect Domain can be further defined as a single enclosure domain, which consists of one BladeSystem enclosure and up to 16 servers, or as a multi enclosure domain which can contain up to four physically linked enclosures and 64 servers managed as a single logical group.

A Virtual Connect Domain simplifies the management of the enclosures in that domain and allows the configuration to be maintained consistently.

VCEM is designed to centrally manage server connection profiles, their assignments to enclosure bays, and maintain connectivity when server profiles are modified or moved.

In the event that a server profile is moved to another enclosure bay, such as during server recovery operations or planned maintenance, VCEM will complete the operations in the fastest time and with minimal manual intervention if the server connection profile is configured to boot-from-SAN.

If a local boot configuration is used, the same profile movement will require additional administration and manual processing to ensure the target boot environment is operational before the server profile is moved. In this scenario the HP Insight Rapid Deployment Software would be an ideal solution to provision a local boot image.

Delivery and Licensing

Selected VCEM software updates are also provided as downloads from this web site. The Insight Software media kit can also be purchased by ordering part number 436222-B21.

VCEM is also included with the following Virtual Connect module SKUs:

• HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 10Gb Enterprise Edition for BladeSystem c-Class (591973-B21). This deliverable includes 2 x HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 10Gb Ethernet modules plus 1 x VCEM BL-c7000 enclosure license.
• HP Virtual Connect FlexFabric 10Gb / 24-port Enterprise Edition for BladeSystem c-Class (SKU 605865-B21). This deliverable includes 2 x HP Virtual Connect FlexFabric modules plus 1 x VCEM BL-c7000 enclosure license.

• HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 10Gb Enterprise Edition for BL c7000 (591973-B21). This SKU combines 2 x HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 10Gb Ethernet modules and 1 x VCEM enclosure license for a BL c7000 as a single deliverable.
• HP Virtual Connect FlexFabric 10Gb / 24-port Enterprise Edition for BladeSystem c-Class (SKU 605865-B21). This SKU combines 2 x HP Virtual Connect FlexFabric modules plus 1 x VCEM BL-c7000 enclosure license as a single deliverable.

VCEM is also licensed with HP BladeSystem Matrix Infrastructure solutions:

• HP BladeSystem Matrix Starter Kit, part number 535888-B21
• HP BladeSystem Matrix Expansion Kit, part number 507021-B21

Service & Support

The HP Installation and Startup Service for HP Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager (Part # UF816E) and the HP Custom Deployment Service (Part # HJ898A1) are also available.