The software also includes the automated provisioning, optimization, and recovery management capabilities for HP BladeSystem Matrix, a fully integrated converged infrastructure platform for delivering shared services. For more information about HP Insight Dynamics suite for ProLiant, visit www.hp.com/go/insightdynamics.
Virtual Connect Flex-10 technology
Virtual Connect Flex-10 is available on all ProLiant 400 and 600 series G6 BladeSystem servers. It is a hardware-based solution that allows your administrators to obtain maximum VM density by fine- tuning 10 gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) networking bandwidth. As they add VMs to a single physical ProLiant server blade, Flex-10 allows them to partition each 10GbE network connection and regulate the speed of each partition based on the performance requirements of each VM. Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager software lets your system administrators manage all Flex-10 connections and add, replace, and recover servers across the data center in minutes without impacting LAN and SAN availability.
Flex-10 technology enables Virtual Connect to configure a single 10Gb network port of a server blade to represent four physical network interface controller (NIC) devices (also called FlexNICs) with a total bandwidth of 10Gb/s. To the OS, these four FlexNICs appear as discrete NICs, each with its own driver. Each dual-port Flex-10 device supports up to eight FlexNICs, four on each physical port. Each Flex-10 Interconnect Module can support up to 64 FlexNICs. Administrators can use the Virtual Connect interface to adjust the bandwidth available to each FlexNIC from 100Mb to 10Gb in 100Mb increments.
The advantages of using Flex-10 technology are significant. The 10GbE infrastructure becomes more cost efficient and easier to manage because Flex-10 allows full utilization of the 10-Gb bandwidth. It provides four times more network ports per server blade, cutting network connection costs by up to 75% per virtual server. The fact that Flex-10 is hardware based means that multiple FlexNICs are added without the additional processor overhead or latency associated with server virtualization. Flex- 10 also reduces infrastructure costs by eliminating the need for additional server NIC mezzanine cards and interconnect modules.
HP Insight Server Migration software for ProLiant
As part of the HP Insight Control, HP Insight Server Migration software for ProLiant automates the migration process, moving existing physical or virtual servers to the latest ProLiant G6 servers or to the latest virtualization platforms from VMware, Microsoft, and Citrix. Without Insight Server Migration software, administrators need to manually install the drivers, OS, and applications, and transfer the data to the new server.
Off-the-shelf image capture products often produce a migration process filled with errors, requiring several man-hours to troubleshoot. Insight Server Migration software eases the migration process using a series of steps: identify the source; identify the target; click “GO.” Insight Server Migration software transfers the OS, applications, and data without any errors; it even installs the required drivers on the destination server. This automated process can take one-fourth the time of a manual migration.
Insight Server Migration software supports four types of server migrations: physical-to-physical, physical-to-virtual, virtual-to-physical, and virtual-to-virtual. For physical-to-physical server migrations, the source server can be any vendor’s x86 server. For virtual-to-virtual migrations, Insight Server Migration software can migrate between the different virtualization platforms mentioned previously.