HP Comprehensive Guide to VSC VMware Setup and Best Practices

Emulated Ethernet NIC Notes

Two emulated e1000 Ethernet NICs are required. The HP VSC expects the first NIC to be connected to the management network and the second NIC to be connected to the data network.

The recommended configuration is to set up two independent bridges (br## devices in Linux) and attach the emulated NICs and the corresponding physical NICs to each of these bridges. See Appendix: Emulated Ethernet NIC Notes.

HP VSC Software Installation Procedure on VMware

Starting with VSP 3.0, the HP ESXi implementation will provide a new mode of operation that enables leveraging the underlying ESXi standard Vswitch or distributed Vswitch. As a result, multiple VMs on the same ESXi host will be able to communicate directly without bridging over the HP VRS-VM. This brings a tradeoff between performance, use of the underlying Vswitch (VMware standard vSwitch or dvS) and flow controls inside the same port-group.

The HP implementation is based on VMware's networking paradigm. That is, when multiple virtual NICs (VNICs) are put together on the same port-group they are able to communicate with each other (in much the same way that multiple ports on the same VLAN are able to exchange frames with each other).

When starting a VM, you choose the port-group in which to place the VNICs. Typically, VMs are placed in the same port-group when they belong to the same subnet. However, there are other reasons why VNICS might be put together on the same port-group. In any case, communication is allowed in the same port-group.

The general user workflow for the standard Vswitch mode is the following:

1.Hypervisor installation

a.A Vswitch is defined with at least one port group.

b.The VRS-VM is installed on the hypervisor and the access VNIC is placed on the standard Vswitch, on a special port-group configured in trunk mode (VLAN 4095). The VRS-VM is configured at installation time in standard Vswitch mode.

2.Hypervisor usage

a.A new VM A is defined with one VNIC. The VNIC is put into one of the port-groups of the standard Vswitch (your choice).

b.The VRS-VM receives an event and knows on which VLAN to receive that VM traffic on its trunk port.

c.The whole instantiation process continues and the VRS-VM hands on the IP on that specific VLAN.

d.The VNIC is able to communicate through the VRS-VM in a standard HP fashion AND is also able to communicate with any other VNIC on the same port-group.

HP VSC Software Installation Procedure on VMware 25