June 2010

Monthly Technical & Sales Updates from HPM Networks

HP expanded ProLiant portfolio - PDF of all latest announcements.

HP ProLiant BL460c G7 Server Blade - G7 generation of BL460c server blade.

HP ProLiant BL465c G7 Server Blade -  Next-generation BL465c featuring next-generation AMD Opteron processor.

HP ProLiant BL685c G7 Server Blade - Next-generation BL685c featuring next-generation AMD Opteron processor.

HP Virtual Connect FlexFabric 10Gb/24-port Module - New Virtual Connect module for HP BladeSystem providing converged LAN and SAN access to ProLiant and Integrity server blades. Extends HP Flex-10 technology to include new industry standard Fiber Channel over Ethernet/Converged Enhanced Ethernet or Accelerated iSCSI connections. Connects server blades to legacy Ethernet and Fibre Channel networks.

HP ProLiant DL580 G7 - The best performing 4-way server, combining Intel’s latest processor technology, best-in-class manageability and reliability features, and unsurpassed flexibility in a system ideal for mission-critical data center deployments, virtualization and consolidation environments.

HP ProLiant DL585 G7 - The best performing 4-way server, combining AMD’s latest processor technology, best-in-class manageability and reliability features, and unsurpassed flexibility in a system ideal for mission-critical data center deployments, virtualization and consolidation environments.

Intelligent Power Toplogy - Combination of advanced fetures to support Data Center Smart Grid and the Converged Infrastructure strategy.

Brocade 804 8Gb FC HBA for HP BladeSystem c-Class - Dual-port 8Gb FC Host Bus Adapter mezz card options for c-Class servers.

HP NC551m Dual Port FlexFabric 10Gb Network Adapter - Converged Network Adapters, or CNAs, support both data networking (CEE) and  storage networking (FC) traffic on a single I/O adapter using two new technologies: Enhanced Ethernet and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE).

HP Virtual Connect Enterprise Edition v6.10 - VCEM v6.10 delivers new features and functionality to support the latest HP BladeSystem and Virtual Connect platforms.

HP BLc7000 2400 Watts Platinum Power Supply - 94%, Platinum level 2400W Blades enclosure power supply.

HP 600GB SAS 10K 2.5in NHP Non Hot Plug DP HDD
and HP 450GB SAS 10K 2.5in DP HDD
and HP 600GB SAS 10K 2.5in DP HDD

HP 750w CS Platinum Power Supply - Increased efficiency - 94% Platinum.

HP CS Platinum Power Supply - HP common Slot Platinum efficiency (94% efficiency) power supply.

HP Intelligent Power Distribution Unit - New PDU line that incorporate monitoring AND remote management along with advanced features in power management such as automatic topology discovery and Insight Power Manager coordination.
See more info below.

HP NC365T PCI Express Quad Port Gigabit Server Adapter - The HP NC365T PCI Express Quad Port Gigabit Server Adapter, is the follow-on adapter to the NC364T that currently ships on G5 & G6 platforms. Among many other features, the NC365T supports VMDq, 9K jumbo frames, Large Send Offload, PXE and the numerous IEEE specs typically associated with 1GbE networking adapters used on ProLiant servers. NC365T uses the Intel 82580 chipset and will be supported on certain ProLiant G6, G7 and future ProLiant platforms.

HP PCIe IO Accelerator for ProLiant Servers - HP PCIe IO Accelerator for ProLiant Servers.

HP SC08Ge Host Bus Adapter - This is a 6Gb SAS (HBA) Host Bus Adapter with two x4 external mini SAS Ports. This HBA will be the server SAS interface for the next generation MSA shared storage called P2000 G3.

HP Tesla M1060 2-Slot Passive Module - The HP Tesla Modules are general purpose graphics processing units for the acceleration of mathematical operations used in high performance computing calculation.

Voltaire 144 port IB switch - Voltaire 144 port InfiniBand switch

Voltaire IB 4X QDR 36P RAF Managed Switch - 36 port switch with reverses air flow to be used on SL server clusters.

HP StorageWorks P4800 G2 63TB SAS BladeSystem SAN Solution - The P4800 SAN combines the BladeSystem form factor, the fast SAS interconnects, the MDS600 and the full P4000 SAN/iQ storage clustering software and thus opens the door for compelling use cases. The P4800 is launched with the exclusive focus on Client Virtualization. Reference Architectures will be published for VMware View and Hyper-V Xen Desktop - both offering a unique price point and architecture for ~700 virtual desktops. The P4800 is a single product number with SAN/iQ 8.5, four dedicated SWD server blades, two redundant SAS interconnects, two MDS600 JBODs with a total of 140 450GB drives which ar e zoned into four 35-drive pools (1 drive pool for each SAN/iQ node).

HP LeftHand P4000 Virtual SAN Appliance Software - Addition of Hyper-V support to current VSA product.

HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array Cluster - This program combines EVAs with SVSP to create an EVA Cluster. The program will combine the product in Factory built configurations, using Factory Express, to improve the time to Install and Setup the configuration when it reaches the customer's site.

HP StorageWorks MSL Tape Libraries - Integrating LTO5 HH SAS drives into the 1/8G2 Tape Autoloader, MSL2024, MSL4048, MSL8096 Tape Libraries. Adding LTO5 HH SAS into portfolio. MSL tape libraries will already have LTO5 Full High Fibre channel drives.

HP StorageWorks SN6000C 8Gb Fibre Channel Switch - This is a mid range 8Gb fibre channel switch that scales form 16 to 48 ports. This is part of the C-series portfolio.

HP StorageWorks MPX200 Multifunction Router - EVA Fibre Channel over Ethernet support with MPX200.

HP StorageWorks SN6000 Fibre Channel Switch - SN6000 12 port switch (8 device ports/4 stacking (ISL) port AND Enterprise Fabric Management Suite software.

VCEM v6.10 delivers new features and functionality to support the latest HP BladeSystem and Virtual Connect platforms: Virtual Connect platform support Support for HP Virtual Connect FlexFabric 1024 module

Support for Virtual Connect firmware v3,00 BladeSystem Server support Introduces support for BL 860c i2 server

New VCEM functionality Network address and profile management for Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE) & Accelerated iSCSI connections

Updated profile configuration supports iSCSI offload and iSCSI boot for Virtual Connect Flex-10 and FlexFabric modules Enhanced VCEM role-based access includes additional access levals and domain group filtering

Upgrade from VCEM v1.20, 1.30, 1.40 and 6.00

New PDU line that incorporate monitoring AND remote management along with advanced features in power management such as automatic topology discovery and Insight Power Manager coordination.

• Mountable in 1U or zero U locations to save valuable space in the rack.
• Monitor and control outlets individually for the ultimate control of power distribution within the rack.
• Know exactly what the power consumption is for every component in the rack with an unmatched level of accuracy of less than 1% variation.
• Eliminate costly downtime caused by human errors in wiring and PDU configurations with Intelligent Power Discovery.
• Securely manage and monitor power distribution from anywhere to prevent problems and speed response times.

Visit HP's site here for more information about this new product.

HP StorageWorks Library and Tape Tools (L&TT)

Free, easy to install and easy to use diagnostic tool:

• Downloaded and installed form HP.com (http://www.hp.com/support/tapetools) in less than five minutes
• Intuitive user interface requires no customer training
• Choose between local installation or running from a remote installation, CD or memory stick

Reduce product downtime through preventative maintenance, fast issue diagnosis with corrective actions:

• Automated, smart firmware downloads, updates and notifications
• Comprehensive device analysis and troubleshooting tests
• First level failure analysis of both the device and system without HP involvement
• Troubleshoot system performance issues through the use of analysis tools
• Identify the most common host system configuration issues
• Provides a direct link to the ITRC web-based troubleshooting content

Seamless integration with HP’s hardware support organization

• Generate and e-mail support tickets to the support center for faster service and support
• Provides an all-inclusive source of device information for HP support center

Get the most out of your device through access to operational, health and usage data in the support ticket

• Drive health, life, usage, utilization, performance
• Media health, life, usage (Ultrium only)
• Backup quality (Ultrium only)

HP acquired TippingPoint solutions as part of the 3Com acquisition. TippingPoint vController won the Best of Interop 2010 award for the security category.

vController will give security administrators visibility into virtual environments, enabling them to see how the virtual network is configured and what types of traffic are crossing it. This type of data is what today's network and security administrators need in order to locate sensitive data, as well as where it's going and who's accessing it. 

Best of Interop 2010 - TippingPoint solutions

Register today to join HP and Intel® for live presentations and product demos at the HP Converged Infrastructure Road Show.

This is wave 2 for the US Converged Infrastructure Road Show.  This wave will be more technical in nature with live presentations and demonstrations supporting HP’s Converged Infrastructure strategy.  The theme for this event is “A Day in the Life of a Converged Infrastructure”.  The goal of this program is to demonstrate how HP can help IT Professionals build, implement and manage a Converged Infrastructure.  Please visit www.hp.com/go/ciroadshow to view the agenda. 

This is a technical event designed for IT Professional’s such as System Administrators, Network Administrators or Solution Architects.  Accounts from SMB through Enterprise may join us to learn.

Door Prize:  Register and attend for a chance to win an HP Mini 2102!

Registration site:  www.hp.com/go/ciroadshow

Tour Schedule:
August 3:  Sacramento, CA
August 5:  San Francisco, CA
August 10:  Los Angeles, CA

If you use Cisco vPC Virtual PortChannels you will be suprised to see what HP now has with their aquisition of 3COM / H3C.

Technology Introduction:  http://www.h3c.com/portal/Products___Solutions/Technology/IRF/Technology_Introduction/200910/652561_57_0.htm

Technology Whitepaper:  http://www.h3c.com/portal/Products___Solutions/Technology/IRF/Technology_White_Paper/200901/624932_57_0.htm

Nexus 1000V on HP BladeSystem: A Reference Architecture for optimal VMware vSphere design using HP BladeSystem (w/Virtual Connect) and Cisco Nexus network infrastructure
This Technology Brief is designed to better educate the reader on the use of HP BladeSystem (and Virtual Connect) with Cisco Nexus technology.  The document reviews all the VMware virtual switch technologies and it specifically addresses the potential issues surrounding the use of VNTag and the Cisco Nexus 1000V vDS.

This document is written in plain, easy to understand terms and it will help you have an informed discussion with your customers about these technologies.  This document does not review any future technology.  It is designed to inform the reader about current technologies. 
Click Here to View

Title: HP BladeSystem Reference Architecture: Virtual Connect Flex-10 and VMware vSphere 4.0
The Reference Architecture outlines several configuration scenarios deploying HP Virtual Connect and ESX vSphere technologies.  Discussed are some best practices to install and configure virtual connect Flex-10 and VSphere 4 Networking.
Click Here to View

Title: HP BladeSystem ProLiant firmware management best practices - General overview
The document details firmware best practices for HP c-Class BladeSystem products including:
• What firmware to update
• Which tools to use
• What dependencies to consider for the update process
• How to deploy firmware update

Click Here to View

Configuration best practices for HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA) family and VMware vSphere 4
Download Here

Best practices for deploying the HP XP24000 Disk Array with VMware vSphere 4(includes use of both ProCurve and Virtual Connect)
Download Here

HP reference configuration for virtualization - HP ProLiant BL490c G6 servers and VMware vSphere 4 (includes use of Flex-10, Virtual Connect and MSA2300fc)
Download Here

HP reference configuration for virtualization - HP ProLiant BL495c G6 servers and VMware vSphere 4 (includes use of Flex-10, Virtual Connect and MSA2300fc)
Download Here

ISS Technology Update Volume 9

• Recently published industry standard server technology papers
• How many bytes are in a GB?
• Disabling AMD® processor cores in ProLiant 300 series G5 and G6 servers
• Quick tip: Efficient deployments—Sun Solaris 10 for x86/x64 Systems
• Meet the Expert—Siamak Tavallaei

HP Power Advisor Utility: a tool for estimating power requirements for HP ProLiant Rack-Mounted Systems, Technology Brief

HP has created the HP Power Advisor utility to provide more accurate and meaningful estimates of power needs for HP ProLiant BL, DL, and SL systems so that IT infrastructure designers can determine the most efficient hardware configuration. This technology brief identifies factors affecting power requirements, explains how the Power Advisor works, and provides an example of how it can be used.

Utilize your datacenter or desktop capacity efficiently and cost-effectively. VMware vCenter CapacityIQ allows the right capacity to be delivered at the right time—anytime!

• Eliminate waste by identifying any unused or over-allocated capacity
• Reduce operational overhead by automating routine capacity monitoring and management tasks
• Minimize business risk of outages or failures resulting from capacity bottlenecks and shortfalls

• Cost avoidance and justification. Do more with the same or less! Optimize utilization of existing hardware resources or justify any new business purchases.
• Availability and risk mitigation. Plan for potential business and service disruptions proactively by modeling the impact of an outage, failure or disaster.
• Project planning and decision-making. Model the effect of one-time strategic business changes. Quantify the results of workload consolidations, company acquisitions, additional new headcounts or deployment of multi-tiered applications

See more information here at vmware.com.

Discover the relationship between VMs and applications shortly after installation. Group VMs into logical units with dependency mapping and gain an end-to-end view of application performance. Out-of-the-box views and dashboards identify the worst performing applications, applications with declining performance and applications experiencing high network error rates.

• Identify trends and gain insight into root cause analysis through AppSpeed’s time series data.
• Create performance thresholds based on automatically calculated performance baselines.

See more information here at vmware.com.