Hp on sigtar.com

HP Gen 8 servers and networking issues - TG3 driver

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +1300

There is a bug in the tg3 driver on the ESXi hosts (1gbit broadcom cards in the new hosts). If the network card is put under load and netqueue is enabled it will sometimes decide to drop all traffic. Essentially i’ve disabled netqueue and the problems have gone away…. as per this vm kb :

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2035701

The isues will present themselves as log entires like so;

2012-11-19T18:58:52.137Z cpu17:4155)<6>tg3 : vmnic8: RX NetQ allocated on 1 2012-11-19T18:58:52.138Z cpu17:4155)<6>tg3 : vmnic8: NetQ set RX Filter: 1 [00:50:56:71:46:87 0] 2012-11-19T18:58:52.138Z cpu17:4155)<6>tg3 : vmnic7: RX NetQ allocated on 1 2012-11-19T18:58:52.138Z cpu17:4155)<6>tg3 : vmnic7: NetQ set RX Filter: 1 [00:50:56:71:46:87 0] 2012-11-19T18:59:12.139Z cpu21:4155)<6>tg3 : vmnic4: NetQ remove RX filter: 1 2012-11-19T18:59:12.139Z cpu21:4155)<6>tg3 : vmnic4: Free NetQ RX Queue: 1 2012-11-19T18:59:22.137Z cpu24:4155)<6>tg3 : vmnic4: RX NetQ allocated on 1 2012-11-19T18:59:22.138Z cpu24:4155)<6>tg3 : vmnic4: NetQ set RX Filter: 1 [00:50:56:71:46:87 0] 2012-11-19T18:59:42.138Z cpu21:4155)<6>tg3 : vmnic7: NetQ remove RX filter: 1 2012-11-19T18:59:42.138Z cpu21:4155)<6>tg3 : vmnic7: Free NetQ RX Queue: 1 2012-11-19T18:59:42.140Z cpu21:4155)<6>tg3 : vmnic4: NetQ remove RX filter: 1 2012-11-19T18:59:42.140Z cpu21:4155)<6>tg3 : vmnic4: Free NetQ RX Queue: 1 2012-11-19T19:00:02.139Z cpu28:4155)<6>tg3 : vmnic8: NetQ remove RX filter: 1

When Is A Trunk Not A Trunk?

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +1300

Very good article here - http://networkingnerd.net/2011/02/02/when-is-a-trunk-not-a-trunk/

Particuly like setting of Native vLAN and tagged networks over an HP trunk;

So, if HP refers to an uplink carrying multiple VLANs are a tagged port, then does HP have a “trunk”? In fact they do. In HPvania, a trunk is a logical construct that aggregates multiple ports into one logical link. For those of you that might be out there scratching your heads about this one, this means that when you “trunk” a group of ports on an HP switch, you are creating one LACP link from up to four individual ports. This kind of configuration should look like this:

HP Flex 10 - Setup on VMWare

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +1300

Some really good info at this site : http://kennethvanditmarsch.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/understanding-hp-flex-10-mappings-with-vmware/

A bit more around his finding during some tests : http://kennethvanditmarsch.wordpress.com/2009/12/04/testing-scenarios-vmware-hp-c-class-infrastructure/

LACP - HP vs Cisco

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +1300

Great article on setting up connection between HP & Cisco….

http://evilrouters.net/2011/08/12/configure-lacp-between-hp-procurve-and-cisco-catalyst-switches/

Cisco VTP on HP Switches?

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +1300

Want to propergate vLan information across multiple switches?

Easy in the Cisco world… Just use VTP - configure a server switch and your away… (it also has its risks if you introduce another server switch with a lower ID)

What does HP have? – GVRP (MVRP newer iteration).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_Registration_Protocol

Multiple VLAN Registration Protocol (MVRP), which replaced GARP VLAN Registration Protocol (GVRP), is a standards-based Layer 2 network protocol, for automatic configuration of VLAN information on switches. It was defined in the 802.1ak amendment to 802.1Q-2005.

HP Blade Switch - enable crossover

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +1300

HP GbE2c Ethernet Blade Switch for HP c-Class BladeSystem User Guide Click here to view the “HP GbE2c Ethernet Blade Switch for HP c-Class BladeSystem User Guide” (http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00701541/c00701541.pdf) HP GbE2c Layer 2/3 Ethernet Blade Switch for c-Class BladeSystem User Guide Click here to go to the “HP GbE2c Layer 2/3 Ethernet Blade Switch for c-Class BladeSystem User Guide” (http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00865010/c00865010.pdf)

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00700745/c00700745.pdf

Crosslinks

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00816246/c00816246.pdf

HP ProCurve 5400zl Switch Series - How to Enable Jumbo Frames?

Mon, 02 May 2011 00:00:00 +1200

I couldn’t find how to do this via the web GUI (hate the new 5400 web console - what happened to the performance graphs??) – anyhow this is the commands to do it via commandline…

5406zl-A# show vlan 200 Status and Counters - VLAN Information - Ports - VLAN 200 VLAN ID : 200 Name : VLAN200 Status : Port-based Voice : No Jumbo : No

5406zl-A# configure 5406zl-A(config)# vlan 200 jumbo 5406zl-A(config)# end 5406zl-A# sho vlan 200

vmware - hp procurve lacp / trunk

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +1200

Cisco’s Etherchannel and HP’s LACP are very similar – probably why I assumed both are supported by vmware. But as per below – it is not the case.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1004048

From a procurve perspective the differences between a “trunk” and “static lacp” trunk is the total bandwidth per connection. A typical end point on a “trunk” trunk can transmit various connections down both pipes, but only receive down one – sometimes refered to as TLB (transmit load balancing). In vmwares case when you are using a “trunk” trunk you will have ip hash set as a load balancer, effectively meaning a different nic will be used on the vmware side for each connection a virtual machine makes.

OpenSolaris on HP server

Sat, 24 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +1200

A nice easy post by Evgeniy on getting opensolaris on HP kit….

http://www.eject.name/2009/07/opensolaris-and-hp-smartarray.html

vMA - Using HP Power Protector agent to shutdown virtual hosts

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +1300

Goal was to create a vMA which would send a shutdown signal to all the virtual hosts it knows about. I’ve assumed that ESX and management agents that live within the service console will eventually be phased out.

The steps…

Download and install the vMA from vmware - fire up the vm and setup the basic networking required
Create trusts within the vMA to each of the vmware hosts you wish to manage (sudo vifp addserver )
Install HP Power Protector (linux agent) - you could substitute for your UPS client software
Modify the shutdown script (may differ per vendor) to shutdown the esxboxs- “SDScript” (hostops.pl)

The 1st step is easy enough. Find the download at vmware and install (Deploy OVF Template…)