Anyone else seeing the issue below?
I’m using HP BL685G6 blades but I understand this issue also happens with the half heights.
Virtual Connect Flex-10 modules running firmware v2.30
ESX 4.0 or 4.0 U1, either shows the issue.
What we’re seeing is when an uplink from the Flex-10 module is pulled out, the status of the vmnics does not change. We should see the vmnics as ‘down’ but they continue to show as active.
Although an alert is shown in vCenter to say redundancy is lost, you do not see any red crosses by the cards in the networking configuration screen.
Because of this issue, unless you configure network failover to use beacon probing, you will lose connection if a link goes down.
I’ve actually posted the same content on the VMTN in an attempt to gain some feedback which has started:
http://communities.vmware.com/thread/247205?tstart=0
A call is currently open with HP and I’d expect to feedback more very soon.
B.T.W – Firmware v2.31 doesn’t make any difference
Follow up — 18th Dec 2009
It seems this is a known issue within HP, but you won’t find any kb articles or information in the public domain.
The following gives a little more background on the issue and when we’re likely to see a fix.
Flex-10 Virtual Connect Ethernet modules support Smartlink per flexnic as of 2.30 Virtual Connect Manager. It uses DCC to accomplish this. (Device Control Channel: method for Virtual Connect to change Flex-10 NIC port settings on the fly without power no/off).
Prior to Virtual Connect Manager version 2.30, flex-10 Ethernet modules would shutdown all 4 flexnics, which could be a real problem if each flexnic was connected to a different network.
For example, flexnics 1a,1b,1c,1d connected to networks Red, Green, Blue, Black and network Black lost its uplink port , Smartlink would disable all 4 flexnixs. With Virtual Connect Manager version 2.30 or above Smartlink will disable only the flexnic connected to the network that triggered Smartlink. In the above example only flexnics assigned to network Black will be disabled.
Requirements:
The requirements for Virtual Connect Manager 2.30 or above to support Smartlink with DCC are:
1. The operation system driver must support DCC (VDB driver version 5.0.32.0 for Windows2003/2008). For ESX, VMware will have to supply the driver.
So when will VMware have a driver to support DCC?
The answer is hopefully the back end of January 2010. I understand Broadcom have written the driver and it’s currently going through testing with HP and VMware to gain certification.
Update June 8th 2010
Sorry it’s taken me so long to update this blog but the driver required to fix the issue can be located at the following location:
http://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere4/doc/drivercd/esx40-net-bnx2x_400.1.48.107-1.0.4.html
I’ve got the “reversed” problem; Whenever my vmnic connection dies it will never come back online again.
This issue is vSphere specific and I’ve got a support call open for this for about 1.5 month now. VMware US is building the same environment right now to reproduce the problem. (i’ve got it on 4 enclosures on all HP BL 460G6 blades so it’s definitly reproc
See: http://kennethvanditmarsch.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/understanding-hp-flex-10-mappings-with-vmware/ for more information on this.
Kenneth van Ditmarsch
Hi,
I’m curious to know if you ever came up with a solution for this problem? Was/is there a new driver from VMware?
Thanks!
We did finally get a resolution.
The drivers needed are provided at the following location.
http://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere4/doc/drivercd/esx40-net-bnx2x_400.1.48.107-1.0.4.html
Thanks for the response….
Yes we found that ESX driver and can confirm that it resolved the issue for us. In subsequent testing SmartLink disabled the server NICs when we disconnected the interconnect uplinks.
Cheers!
Actually, you need the 1.52.12.v40.3 version of the driver for this to work which can be found here: http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/esx_40_broadcom_bnx2xu1_dt/ZHcqYmRqcGhidGR3
This is confirmed with VC 2.33 on BL460 G6′s, the 1.48 version had the same outcome if the VC uplinks were down’d.
After all our hard work discovering a fix to the original issue, it seems it’s back.
Essentially if you want to use c-class blades, virtual connect & vSphere 4.1 we’re back where we were about 10 months ago. You MUST configure beacon probing.
The following link is a customer advisory from HP which provides more detail:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&objectID=c02476622&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN
You only have to use Beacon Probing if you are running ESX 4.1 and want similar functionality to SmartLink in terms of your VMware hosts detecting failures and responding automatically. If you want SmartLink, you can stay and the lower firmware code and run any ESX 4.0.x. I have chosen to modify my Flex-10 config to handle the fail-over if the issue is not a link status on the host problem.
We are seeing this again on the latest drivers with Flex 10 and ESX4. Have a ticket open to HP on the issue. I will test with Beacon like suggested. Thanks all !