Server profile connections settings

The maximum number of connections supported by a profile is dependent on the total number of virtual ports defined by the server hardware type and enclosure group associated with the profile. The total number of virtual ports is determined by multiplying the number of virtual ports per FlexFabric adapter by the number of FlexFabric adapters defined by the server hardware type. The maximum number of connections is 50 or the total number of virtual ports (plus two for unassigned connections), whichever is greater.

About network assignment

For a server profile, you can select either a network or network set to configure the traffic on the ports.

You can add a connection to a server profile without assigning a network or network set by choosing the Unassigned selection. By selecting Unassigned from the network drop-down, you reserve the associated server port to assign networks later.

You can use this selection to temporarily stop traffic forwarding on the interconnect or rack connectivity module port associated with the profile connection.

Valid networks or network sets can be selected for an active connection while the server power is on and without the need to reboot the server. All connection types, including Ethernet, FCoE, iSCSI, and FC, can be created without assigning a network using the Unassigned selection from the network drop-down.

The Unassigned selection also reserves virtual MAC and WWN addresses for a virtual port when used in conjunction with the blade servers.

Rack servers support FC connections. Rack servers can have one connection per physical port. Ethernet connections are supported in HPE Composable Rack.

For blade servers with an iSCSI connection, you can use static values or use DHCP to obtain the IP address, netmask, and gateway.

Network

The connection contains either an unassigned network (that reserves the associated port) or a valid Ethernet network, network set, Fibre Channel, or FCoE network.

Both rack and blade servers support unassigned connections.

An Ethernet network or network set can be accessed by an Ethernet device; a Fibre Channel or FCoE network can be accessed by a Fibre Channel device. To configure an iSCSI boot device with an Ethernet connection, you must select UEFI or UEFI optimized as the boot mode in the Boot Settings pane. Networks are filtered to both Fibre Channel and FCoE when Type is set to Fibre Channel.

NOTE:

Rack servers support managed iSCSI data volumes using an Ethernet connection, but do not support boot.

Typically, you assign each connection in a server profile template to a single network. Network sets enable you to select multiple networks for a single connection defined in a server profile or server profile template. Network sets are useful with hypervisors, where server profile templates need the ability to define multiple networks.

You can deploy Large network sets to rack servers allowing you to have up to a maximum of 4,000 networks at a time.

For blade servers, duplicate networks are not allowed on the same port. This restriction also applies to networks that belong to a network set. For example, if Network_A is part of NetworkSet_A, the individual network and the network set containing it cannot be assigned to FlexibleLOM 1.

Link Aggregation Group (LAG) selection

You can select either none or LAG1 for the link aggregation setting of server profiles or server profile templates for rack servers.
  • The none setting indicates that a link aggregation group is not created between the rack connectivity module ports connected to the server adapter ports.

  • The LAG1 setting indicates that a link aggregation group is created between the rack connectivity module ports connected to the server adapter ports. If LAG1 is selected on one of the connections of a rack server profile, it must also be selected for the other port. The same network selection must be used between the two connections when LAG1 is selected.

You can change the pair of rack server Ethernet connections to have either the same LAG or no LAG even while the server is powered on. Modify the LAG parameters to add or remove the LAG setting from both the profile Ethernet connections.

Fibre Channel ports on rack servers

When you create Fibre Channel connections for HPE ProLiant servers, the port is automatically assigned when you specify the World Wide Port Name (WWPN) of the server adapter port in the WWPN field. To identify the WWPN value of the server adapter port, use the WWPN reported by the iLO of the specified server. For unassigned profiles, the WWPN is optional.

Isolated Trunk

This option appears if there are networks present in the network set that is participating in private VLANs.

When isolated trunk is selected, for each PVLAN domain the primary VLAN ID tags will be translated to the isolated VLAN ID tags for traffic egressing to the downlink ports. Isolated trunk configuration is only recommended for PVLAN-unaware operating systems.

Boot

You can select a connection as a primary or secondary boot device. A template can contain bootable Ethernet, Fibre Channel, and iSCSI connections.

  • Ethernet: Not bootable, PXE primary, PXE secondary, iSCSI primary, or iSCSI secondary

    NOTE:

    If you select iSCSI primary or iSCSI secondary with an Ethernet function type, you must also select UEFI or UEFI optimized as the boot mode in the Boot Settings pane.

  • Fibre Channel: Not bootable, FC primary, or FC secondary

  • iSCSI: Not bootable, iSCSI primary, or iSCSI secondary

Requested bandwidth (Gb/s)

When you select a network, the appliance automatically populates this box with the preferred bandwidth. This field lets you specify the bandwidth for the connection.

You can specify a bandwidth value between 100 Mb/s and the maximum bandwidth of the selected network, in 100 Mb/s increments. The sum of the requested bandwidth values for all connections configured on a physical port cannot exceed the capacity of the port.

For Virtual Connect Fibre Channel connections, the available discrete values are based on the adapter and the Fibre Channel interconnect module. With Fibre Channel connections on FlexFabric adapters, you can select from a full range of speeds. However, if you change the HBA adapter speed through the BIOS setting, and then set the Requested bandwidth setting for a server profile connection to a noncompatible value, the link will not be established.

NOTE:

A discrepancy can exist between the Allocated Bandwidth of the server profile and what the server OS detects as the link speed for the connection network interface. You can take advantage of the unused bandwidth when the allocated bandwidth for a profile connection is set lower than the maximum bandwidth defined for the network or network set assigned to that connection. The server OS detects the maximum bandwidth only; the Server Profiles screen displays requested, allocated, and maximum bandwidth.

Managed connection

This option is available only for non-Virtual Connect modules with Fibre Channel Fabric Attached networks.

This option allows you to pass traffic through a module that is not managed by the appliance.

Deselecting managed connection enables you to create connections to unmanaged modules through mezzanine ports using Fibre Channel Fabric Attached networks.

Using iSCSI with managed storage volumes

You can configure storage volumes in profiles with connections using either iSCSI function type (HW-offload) or Ethernet function type (SW-initiator). The network selected for the connection can be a single network, or a network-set. Storage systems managed by HPE OneView must have one or more of these networks assigned to its ports for the storage pools to be available to the profile. By default, the server-profile UI creates two storage attachment paths for each volume from the networks used by the connections. These paths are assigned to the storage system ports. Volume attachment paths can be added or removed as required.