HP Virtual Connect Version 3.10 Release Notes

Transcription

1 HP Virtual Connect Version 3.10 Release Notes Part Number December 2010 (Fifth Edition)

2 Copyright 2010 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein. Confidential computer software. Valid license from HP required for possession, use or copying. Consistent with FAR and , Commercial Computer Software, Computer Software Documentation, and Technical Data for Commercial Items are licensed to the U.S. Government under vendor s standard commercial license. Microsoft and Windows are U.S. registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Adobe is a trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated. Intended audience This document is for the person who installs, administers, and troubleshoots servers and storage systems. HP assumes you are qualified in the servicing of computer equipment and trained in recognizing hazards in products with hazardous energy levels. About this document These release notes provide information that supersedes the information in the documentation set released with version 2.3x and 3.0x of Virtual Connect.

3 Contents Hardware and firmware requirements... 4 HP Virtual Connect firmware... 4 Firmware upgrade requirements... 4 Recommended firmware versions for this release... 5 New features... 8 Resolved issues... 9 Known issues General Firmware update Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager Support Contents 3

4 Hardware and firmware requirements HP Virtual Connect firmware The latest HP Virtual Connect firmware package (version 3.10) contains the following firmware versions: HP VC-Enet version 3.10 HP VC 4Gb FC version 1.41 HP VC 8Gb 24-Port FC version 1.03 HP VC 8Gb 20-Port FC version 1.41 IMPORTANT: When updating firmware, update each domain with the entire firmware package, which includes the individual VC-Enet and VC-FC firmware. Updating only the VC- Enet firmware or only the VC-FC firmware is not supported. Firmware upgrade requirements IMPORTANT: For optimal operation of HP Virtual Connect, use the recommended firmware versions. IMPORTANT: When using Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager (VCEM) for firmware upgrades, the VCEM version used must support the VC release. For the correct VCEM version, see "Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager Support (on page 16)." Always install the firmware recommended for this release for the following items: Server blade system ROMs Ethernet mezzanines Fibre Channel mezzanines HP BladeSystem Onboard Administrator ilo Each HP Virtual Connect firmware package contains a separate HP VC-FC firmware version. The following tables show the version of VC-FC firmware included with each VC firmware package. IMPORTANT: When upgrading the HP VC 4Gb FC firmware from version VC-FC 1.2x to version VC-FC 1.4x, the VC-FC module can drop connectivity temporarily during the activation process. A redundant customer configuration experiences a failover with no loss of application connectivity to the fabric. Virtual Connect firmware VC 4Gb FC firmware within Virtual Connect v1.31 v1.32, v1.34 v2.01, v2.02 v2.10, v2.12 v2.30 v2.33 v2.34 v3.0x v Hardware and firmware requirements 4

5 VC 8Gb 20-Port FC firmware within Virtual Connect VC 8Gb 24-Port FC firmware within Virtual Connect The following table shows firmware upgrade/downgrade support for the HP VC 4Gb FC Modules or HP VC 8Gb 20-Port FC Modules. Upgrade to or downgrade from , , 2.02 VC 1.31 Normal VC 1.32/1.34 Normal VC 2.01/2.02 VC 2.10/2.12 VC 2.3x VC 3.0x VC 3.10 * Always reset the module after the upgrade or downgrade. 2.10, 2.12 v2.3x 3.0x 3.10 Normal Normal Normal Normal Normal Normal Normal Normal Normal Normal Normal Normal Normal Normal Normal Normal Normal Normal Normal Normal On HP Virtual Connect 4Gb Fibre Channel Modules (with enhanced NPIV), downgrading the firmware to any version older than VC 2.10 is not supported. Recommended firmware versions for this release Product HP Onboard Administrator ilo 2 Minimum firmware version Minimum 3.11 ilo 3 Minimum 1.05 Minimum HP recommends 2.01 or higher. For more information on required firmware versions and to download firmware upgrades, see the HP website ( Version 3.10 of HP Virtual Connect Manager checks the server ROM image version and displays an incompatible state only for server blades that have a VC Server Profile assigned and are using incompatible server ROM versions. Version checking of mezzanine card firmware is not available, so be sure to verify that the mezzanine card firmware is up-to-date. Server blades and mezzanine cards that do not meet the required firmware versions do not accept Virtual Connect-assigned parameters such as MACs and WWNs properly, and therefore maintain factory defaults. However, these server blades do have the Ethernet network and Fibre Channel fabric Hardware and firmware requirements 5

6 connectivity specified in their Virtual Connect server profiles. This connectivity enables you to use networkbased firmware update tools for server blade and mezzanine firmware updates. Important notes If you need to downgrade the VC Domain firmware from VC 3.10 to an earlier version, save the existing VC Domain configuration files before starting the downgrade. The VC Domain configuration is deleted during the downgrade, so the configuration files are required to restore the original VC Domain configuration after the firmware downgrade completes. QLogic QMH2562 8Gb FC HBA and HP Emulex LPe Gb FC HBA are supported with Integrity server blades and ProLiant BL G6 server blades or later only. To operate with HP VC 8Gb 20-Port FC modules, all HP Emulex LPe Gb FC HBAs that are revision A (identified by label EDC A-4904) must perform a CFL region 19 flash update. For download and installation instructions, see the LPe1205 product page on the HP website ( Although the GUI enables the selection of SNMP v2 traps, the VC 4Gb FC module and VC 8Gb 20- Port FC module default to v1 traps. Configuring more than one FC trap destination with the same IP trap destination address results in only one entry, with the community string being the latter of the duplicated trap entries. The other community strings in the duplicate traps are not used to send traps. Changes in the server RBSU can override Virtual Connect server profile settings for PXE (enabled or disabled). If you make a change in RBSU, that change is not reflected in Virtual Connect Manager. If you set PXE through RBSU, HP recommends using the "Use-BIOS" setting. For proper server functionality in a Virtual Connect environment, enable the RBSU option by selecting System Options > Embedded NIC Boot Options > Network Boot. If you disable the RBSU option with RBSU, ProLiant G7 servers may not accept Virtual Connect configuration information correctly, which causes the server to malfunction. Although 320 VLANs can be supported within each module, the overall number of VLANs within the VC Domain is also restricted because of performance limitations of the VC Manager during module restore or recovery. The limits are defined based on usage scenarios. New GUI components The VCM GUI introduces a new visual component in 3.0x. Data grids add simplicity and pleasant tone by accessing available operations through a right-click context menu. To add, delete, or edit a row (such as a connection or a profile), select the row and right-click it to access the context menu. Some properties displayed in a data grid are editable. An editable indicator provides feedback on which items can be edited inside a data grid. The editable indicator underlines a property when you move the cursor over the property. If the property is underlined, left-click on the property to edit it. After an enclosure import, the Virtual Connect CLI shows the Stacking Links "Connections Status" as "Failed" until all modules have been initialized. Depending on the actual configuration, this may take up to 30 seconds. Before installing any BL8*0c i2 servers, be sure to do the following: o Verify that no profiles are assigned to any of the bays where the BL8*0c i2 servers will be installed. o Perform the updates to the recommended OA and VC FW revisions. If any BL8*0c i2 servers have already been installed, then they should remain powered off during the entire update to the recommended OA and VC firmware revisions. Hardware and firmware requirements 6

7 Brocade 804 8Gb FC HBA for HP BladeSystem c-class is supported only with HP ProLiant G6 servers or later. Each FlexNIC and FlexHBA is recognized by the server as a PCIe physical function device. Adjustable speeds range from 100Mb to 10Gb in 100-Mb increments when connected to an HP NC553i 10Gb 2-port Flex Converged Network Adapter or any Flex-10 NIC. Adjustable speeds range from 1Gb to 10Gb in 100-Mb increments when connected to an NC551i Dual Port Flex 10Gb Converged Network Adapter. Virtual Connect Manager version 3.00 or higher requires Adobe Flash Player 10.x or higher. Adobe recommends updating Adobe Flash Player or earlier to Adobe Flash Player or higher. For the latest Adobe Flash Player Security Bulletin Updates, see the Adobe website ( Releases of Virtual Connect Manager after version 3.15 may require Adobe Flash Player 10.x or higher (including security updates from the Adobe website ( and will no longer function with older 9.x versions of the Adobe Flash Player. Hardware and firmware requirements 7

8 New features The VC 3.10 release includes the following new features: Support for the HP ProLiant BL460c G7 Server Blades Support for the HP ProLiant BL490c G7 Server Blades Support for the HP NC522m Dual Port Flex-10 10GbE Multifunction BL-c Adapter Removes the VCM requirement for Primary/Secondary VC interconnect modules to be placed in I/O bays 1 and 2 Support for the full iscsi and TCP offload with NC551i Flex adapters and Flex-10 modules Support for the full iscsi and TCP offload with NC553i Flex adapters and Flex-10 modules Support for the iscsi boot with NC551i Flex adapters and Flex-10 modules Support for the iscsi boot with NC553i Flex adapters and Flex-10 modules Support for the Brocade 804 8Gb FC HBA for HP BladeSystem c-class Provides the ability to display Fibre Channel and Ethernet port statistics via the VCM CL NOTE: HP Virtual Connect Flex technology will be available in a future HP BladeSystem c-class Virtual Connect Firmware release. New features 8

9 Resolved issues The following issues have been resolved in the VC 3.10 release: Resolved an issue where Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) joins were only processed by VC on the first VLAN when a PF has multiple mapped VLANs. Resolved IGMP Query Tx issues when IGMP joins to grp 01:00:5e:00:00:01. Enhanced the VC Manager recovery mechanism to ensure that an enclosure serial number is validated after an OA firmware upgrade while VC Manager is recovering the domain. Resolved an issue where VC Ethernet modules running v2.30 or later could unexpectedly lose stacking link connectivity due to CPU-generated data traffic, such as LACP and Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP), no longer transmitting. Resolved an issue where the VC Manager daemon process would occasionally terminate and cause a network outage due to a Segmentation Violation after a failover processing. This also resolved the issue documented by Customer Advisory c , which can be found on the HP website ( ). Resolved an issue where an OA Apache web server hang could cause VC Manager to crash while assigning a server profile to a device bay. VCM error handling has been enhanced to properly handle this error condition. Resolved an issue where an OA Apache web server hang could cause a miscommunication between the OA and VCM. Therefore, VCM was forced to perform steps leading to a temporary loss of the Ethernet and SAN connectivity due to its inability to detect the current physical server state in the enclosure with the unresponsive OA Apache web server. Resolved an issue with VC-FC 4/8Gb 20-port modules where during an attempt to register with the DNS server, an update request would fail causing VC-FC modules to write an entry in one of the system logs. Depending on the frequency of the DHCP lease expiration, this log could cause the root file system to fill up to 100 percent capacity. VC-FC firmware 1.41 prevents the error log message from filling up the root file system. Resolved an issue where changing the auto power options on the ilo and then shutting down or starting up the server blade caused the VCM to display the connection reset or connection timeout message. Resolved an issue where when taking a support dump, some older models of SFP modules were affected, resulting in a link down situation. This also resolved the issue documented by Customer Advisory c , which can be found on the HP website ( ). Resolved an issue where the Dot1dBasePortMTUExceededDiscards statistic was incremented, even with jumbo frames enabled. This also resolved the issue documented by Customer Advisory c , which can be found on the HP website ( ). Resolved issues 9

10 Resolved an issue where HP Insight Orchestration Software (HP IO) deployment could stop responding with continuous looping on the target server while the 'Boot device is being configured by Virtual Connect' error message displayed. Resolved issues 10

11 Known issues General There is no support for 1 Gb of memory with the NC5xxM Mezzanine card with the 1/10 and 1/10F modules. iscsi Boot from SAN is supported only on the NC551i and NC553i Dual-Port Flex adapter when boot LUN IDs are specified in the range of 0 to 8. Replacing a primary or backup VC Module with a different VC Module type is not allowed without first deleting the domain. No System Log message is logged for FC contact name changes. For server or I/O interconnect hardware changes that involve adding or removing Flex-10 functionality, the profile assigned to a server or server bay must be removed, all hardware changes performed, and the profile reassigned. Otherwise, indeterminate network operation might occur. After a configuration is changed, the VC Manager can take up to 90 seconds to save the new information to non-volatile storage. If power is removed during this update, configuration information might be lost. An icon on the Virtual Connect Manager banner line indicates that a configuration update is in progress or that the backup module has not been updated to the current configuration changes. During an Onboard Administrator failover, VC Manager can lose communication with the Onboard Administrator for several minutes. During this time, VC Manager cannot make profile changes to server blades or perform some enclosure administration functions, such as powering server blades on and off. Replacing the OA in an enclosure containing only one OA causes the OA to leave VC mode. This mode change requires the VC Manager to re-establish credentials with the OA. During this process, VC Manager rewrites all server settings and sets the state of the servers to "profile recovered." There should not be any disruption to the servers, but the administrator should be sure that all servers have the correct MAC addresses and WWNs. Powering off the server clears the "profile recovered" state. If any servers are rebooted or power-cycled while the credential recovery occurs, the MAC addresses and WWNs might be returned to the factory default settings. If an enclosure import is attempted with a server blade in a failed state, VC Manager might report an erroneous error. If the import completes, close the browser and log in again to verify the import was successful. Use the OA to verify the working state of all server blades. When scripting CLI commands, only a single scripting client should perform remote management operations to a remote VC Manager. If multiple scripting clients are used to perform a heavy load of CLI commands to a single VC Manager, some management commands might fail. In some cases, the primary module might need to be reset to recover properly. If a BL2x220c server blade is present in an enclosure, the Hardware overview page in VC does not display a picture of the server in the Enclosure View. The picture can be seen on the OA web page. When a VC-FC module is replaced with another VC-FC module in a Virtual Connect domain, server blade Fibre Channel SAN connectivity might not be restored properly. To resolve this problem after Known issues 11

12 the module is installed, either reset the VC-FC module from the Onboard Administrator GUI or reboot the affected server blades. Under certain circumstances, the checkpoint status icon in the GUI persists for a long time and is not cleared. The CLI also shows a "Checkpoint Status: Invalid" status in the "show domain" output. This condition has been observed periodically after a VCSU firmware upgrade of the VC module firmware. To resolve this issue, reset the VCM on the primary module, or reset the primary module using the OA. If a VC-FC module is replaced with a spare VC-FC module without powering down the servers, and if the server has profiles assigned to it with FC connections, servers are allowed to log in for a brief period through an uplink of the new module. Approximately 8 seconds after discovering the new VC-FC module, VCM configures it with the correct information, mapping downlinks to the correct uplinks. To work around this problem, power down the servers in the enclosure before replacing or swapping FC modules. If an HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 10Gb Ethernet Module is removed from an enclosure, it cannot be removed administratively unless it is re-inserted and removed a second time. If NPIV capability of a SAN switch port is lost, the disabled uplink port of the VC 8Gb 24-Port FC module remains disabled until the module is reset. HP requires connectivity to NPIV-enabled switches for all HP VC-FC modules. For VC 8Gb 24-Port FC modules, if an uplink port 8 is present in the VC SAN definition and the fabric type is set to Dynamic, this port is treated as the lowest-numbered port and receives server logins before any other uplink ports. When a VCM domain is deleted, VCM resets VC 8Gb 24-Port FC modules to a factory default condition. This operation can take up to 50 seconds per VC 8Gb 24-Port FC module. When Dynamic Login Distribution is selected, servers connected through VC 8Gb 24-Port FC modules can take between 15 and 25 seconds to recover from a module uplink port failure. Multi-enclosure (ME) Double Dense domains require similar and compatible FC modules in bays 5, 6, 7, and 8 in all enclosures. If an ME Double Dense configuration contains incompatible FC modules in bays 5, 6, 7, or 8 in either the local or remote enclosures, some or all of the compatible FC modules in the remote enclosures might be designated INCOMPATIBLE after import. To work around this issue, do the following: a. Replace incompatible FC modules with similar and compatible FC modules in bays 5, 6, 7, and 8 in all enclosures. b. Power cycle any FC module that still remains in an INCOMPATIBLE state. The SNMP Managed Status Change trap (vcprofilemanagedstatuschange) for all unassigned Profiles is not sent by VC when the profile status transitions to a Normal state. In a multi-enclosure environment, if local and remote enclosures are shut down and powered back up, VC might incorrectly report that some empty I/O module bays in a remote enclosure are "NO- COMM". This error occurs if VC-FC modules are installed in the local enclosure and the corresponding bays in the remote enclosure are empty. The empty module bays should have been reported as "MISSING". If an adapter is inserted in a server that is incompatible with the VC module that it maps to, the SNMP Physical Server Managed Status trap (vcphysicalservermanagedstatuschange) is not sent when this mismatch is corrected. In a multi-enclosure domain, the VC CLI reports an incorrect error and fails when an Ethernet uplink is enabled or disabled. This error occurs only if you try to enable or disable uplinks that are part of a Known issues 12

13 VC network, and if one or more uplinks are on the remote enclosures. Use the VC GUI to enable or disable links in these instances. The VC CLI incorrectly allows invalid speeds to be set on the uplinks of Ethernet modules. If an invalid speed (for example, setting 100 Mb on an SFP RJ-45 pluggable module uplink) is set using the CLI, the link state is disabled. This problem does not appear in the VC GUI. Use only valid speeds when the VC CLI is being used to configure the uplinks on Ethernet modules. When upgrading from VC v2.10 to VC v2.3x or higher, the VC 2.10 SNMP configuration is converted to a comparable VC 2.3x or higher SNMP configuration. If a downgrade is performed from VC 2.3x to v2.10, the SNMP configuration prior to the v2.3x upgrade is restored. Therefore, any changes made to the 2.3x SNMP configuration are not reflected in the downgraded v2.10 SNMP configuration. Even though the system might not prompt for a server reboot, server reboot is required after the server is upgraded successfully with the latest firmware and drivers for HP Dual Port Flex-10 10GbE Multifunctional BL-c Adapters, NC532i or NC532m. The reboot enables the newly upgraded drivers and boot code to run, which then enables Virtual Connect to configure the new feature "Dynamic Changes to FlexNICs," which is included in this release. The process to assign, modify, or unassign a profile to an Integrity BL8*0c i2 server blade can take up to several minutes (longer for the Integrity BL890c i2 server blade, proportionately shorter for the Integrity BL870c i2 server blade, and even shorter for the Integrity BL860c i2 sever blade). FC Boot Parameter Specification After selecting an item from the drop down menu in the Boot Setting column, you must click outside the grid to complete the selection. This is the same procedure that is followed when selecting a or Network for an FC or Ethernet connection, respectively. Once the Boot Setting column has been completed, you can then edit the Target Port Name and LUN. In Virtual Connect Manager 3.10 or later, when a Virtual Connect Manager domain is configured with a Primary module installed in a bay other than bays 1 or 2, you must have both a Primary module and a Backup module. If the Primary module is installed in a bay other than bay 1 or bay 2, and no Backup module is installed, running Virtual Connect Support Utility results in an unconfigured domain after the upgrade and requires you to restore the domain configuration from a backup file. When VC is used and Integrity BL870c i2 or BL890c i2 server blades are present, after an OA is reset the OA occasionally displays factory-assigned WWNs and MAC addresses for the auxiliary blades in a multi-blade server even though VC-assigned values exist. This problem does not affect the operation of the server. The server blades have and operate with the correct VC-assigned WWNs and MAC addresses. To work around this issue, do the following: a. Power off the server blade, if necessary. b. Unassign the VC profile. c. Reassign the VC profile. d. Power on the server blade. In Virtual Connect release 3.0x, the Server Admin user is not able to modify the IGMP Snooping settings. This known issue is related to the authorizations of the Server Admin user in the security token being passed between Virtual Connect software components. This issue will be fixed in a later release of Virtual Connect. To work around this issue, the Server Admin user must log in as an Administrator user to change IGMP Snooping settings. WWNs Used by Other Ports Known issues 13

14 In some circumstances, ports are shown as having WWNs that are in use by other ports. Observe the Server Profile page to be sure which mezzanine ports are in use. This issue will be addressed in a future Virtual Connect release. Multiple or unsupported versions of Adobe Flash Player cause the Firefox web browser to crash On some combinations of the Firefox web browser, Adobe Flash Player, and the operating system, the Adobe Flash Player causes the Firefox web browser to crash unexpectedly especially if multiple versions or an older/unsupported version of the Flash Player (for example, Flash v8.0) is installed with Firefox, even if the older/unsupported version of the Flash plugin is disabled. HP recommends that Virtual Connect 3.0x users install only one supported version of the Adobe Flash Player plugin with the Firefox web browser. Depending on the installed versions of the Firefox web browser, Adobe Flash Player, and the operating system (for example, Firefox v3.5.9 and Adobe Flash Player v9.0/v10.0 installed on GNU Linux v2.6.9), certain fix patches from Adobe for the Adobe Flash Player may be needed. For the latest information on fix patches from Adobe for the Flash Player plugin, see the Adobe website ( Also, users might experience problems with the Firefox web browser hanging or crashing and then showing the "failed to create MSXML object" error. This is a known issue with XSLT transformations for the Firefox web browser. For more information about downloading and installing a patch for your specific version of the Firefox web browser, see the following: o Foundation Security Advisory ( o Security Advisories for Firefox 3.0 ( If the VC Domain is configured for double-dense Server mode, and a profile is assigned to an empty server bay, then a hot-plug installation of a single-dense server into that server bay results in the profile not being activated. To recover the profile, unassign the profile, and then reassign it. The server Profile Wizard is not supported by VC GUI. It will be supported in a future release. Internet Explorer 8 is only supported in IE7 compatibility mode. If the OA Administrator has configured VLANs for I/O modules, the Primary and Standby Virtual Connect modules must be installed in bays 1 and 2. This constraint will be removed when OA 3.20 or higher is installed. Editing the SAN should not allow changes to the fabric's I/O bay. The Add Port menu may show incorrect menu entries instead of showing the port details only for the current or previously added Bay entries. If they are selected, the SAN will not get updated with the current modifications. Multiple IE7 sessions can cause VC GUI to hang, crash, or slow down. During a Profile assignment, if the port number of an existing fabric has been changed to another physical port, the state of the fabric and the domain will go into a failed state until the reconfiguration is complete. This also may result in SNMP traps being sent to report the interim failed state. When a user clicks on the Name link in the Device Bay Summary screen, the user may get redirected to the Edit screen for the wrong fabric. To avoid this issue, click on the fabric name in the left navigation tree. Known issues 14

15 When multiple Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 browser sessions are open to the Virtual Connect Manager application, the VC graphical user interface may hang. To avoid this issue, add the following registry value: [HKLM\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Intern et Settings] "MaxConnectionsPerServer"=dword:6 By default, this registry value does not exist and Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 defaults to the value of 2. Increasing the value to 6 resolves the hanging issue. Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 defaults to a value of 6, so this issue does not occur. The Firefox web browser may also default to a higher value. The Virtual Connect iscsi bootable LUN is limited to LUN numbers 0 7. When a user is using Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 to display the Help > About HP Virtual Connect Manager pop-up window, the page could take over a couple minutes to display. When user clicks on the OK button, this causes the IE8 browser windows to crash. This is a known issue in Virtual Connect Manager version 3.10 or older and it is scheduled to be fixed in a later release of Virtual Connect Manager. Firmware update HP BladeSystem c-class Virtual Connect Support Utility v or later is required to install the HP VC 3.10 or later firmware package. For more information on installing the firmware, see the HP BladeSystem c-class Virtual Connect Support Utility release notes on the HP website ( IMPORTANT: When upgrading the HP VC 4Gb FC firmware from version VC-FC 1.2x to version VC-FC 1.4x, the VC-FC module can drop connectivity temporarily during the activation process. A redundant customer configuration experiences a failover with no loss of application connectivity to the fabric. Known issues 15

16 Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager Support Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager (VCEM) v6.2 provides full compatibility and support for VC firmware v2.x, v2.1x, v2.3x, v3.0x, and v3.10. For VCEM availability and full product details, visit the HP website ( or contact your HP representative. Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager Support 16