HP ProLiant Blade enclosure and CISCO Catalyst 3020 with ESX 3.5 configuration?

[jhiraldo]

Has anybody configure HP ProLiant Blade enclosure BLc3000 and CISCO 3020 with ESX 3.5 and is it efficient?

I'm buying 2 BLc3000 enclosure rack with 7 Proliant BL460c ( 1 enclosure will have 3 and the other 4 Hosts), the enclosure will also have 8 Interconnect Cisco Catalyst 3020 16 ports Blade Switch divided by the enclosure (4 on each enclosure).

I wanted to know if I can devide the ports to 8 per Host as PNics? Can someone tell if this is a good idea to use with ESX 3.5, thank you.

Is the Interconnect Cisco Catalyst 3020 16 ports Blade Switch a common hardware to use with Blade enclosure in an ESX environment to overcome the Network limitations?

[JPerf]

Hi

Under the same cover I send one document, who solve a sizing server BL460c and encl. c7000, maybe will be helpfull, although be in Slovak language

Julo Kovac

[rus1209]

It would be very useful if someone could recomend a translator as I am looking into this scenario at the moment.

Thanks,

[jhiraldo]

Can somene shed some light on how to best use the switch, can I assign 8 ports to each Host?

[BarryCoombs]

I would highly recommend you use a pass through modules in the back of the blades rather than 4 switches in each, from experience having all those switches plus trunks to your network etc can cause huge problems when it comes to diagnosing network issues. By using the pass through models you can just connect your blades to the network as you would have physical servers. I can get you a part numbers if you need it.

VCP

[mreferre]

I don't know how many ports you can assign to a single blade in a c3000 chassis but anyone end up using passthrough on such a small chassis I strongly suggest going for a bunch of standard rack optimized servers.

Massimo.

[JPerf]

I agree with Massimo

Julo Kovac

[Ken_Cline]

I don't know how many ports you can assign to a single blade in a c3000 chassis but anyone end up using passthrough on such a small chassis I strongly suggest going for a bunch of standard rack optimized servers.

Agreed - one of the major benefits of blades is reduction of cable clutter, which the passthrough pretty much eliminates. The c3000 is usually used in small/branch offices where power/cooling/footprint/support are at a premium - keep as much inside the box as possible.

Ken Cline

VMware vExpert 2009

VMware Communities User Moderator

[jhiraldo]

Hello BarryCoombs,

Can you give me that part number, thanks.

J-