IBM Flex System and PureFlex System Network Implementation

IBM Flex System and PureFlex System Network Implementation

by Jon Tate, Jure Arzensek, David Cain, Ken Corkins, William King, Gaston Sancassano Rodriguez, Tiago Nunes dos Santos
Released July 2013
Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
ISBN: None

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Book description

To meet today's complex and ever-changing business demands, you need a solid foundation of server, storage, networking, and software resources that are simple to deploy and can quickly and automatically adapt to changing conditions. You also need access to, and the ability to take advantage of, broad expertise and proven best practices in systems management, applications, hardware maintenance, and more.

IBM® PureFlex™ System, which is a part of the IBM PureSystems™ family of expert integrated systems, combines advanced IBM hardware and software along with patterns of expertise and integrates them into three optimized configurations that are simple to acquire and deploy so that you can achieve faster time to value.

If you want a preconfigured, preintegrated infrastructure with integrated management and cloud capabilities, factory tuned from IBM with x86 and Power Systems™ hybrid solution, IBM PureFlex System is the answer.

In this IBM Redbooks® publication, which is aimed at system and network administrators, we show the design and architecture, how to configure hosts and switches, maintain, and troubleshoot using the IBM Flex System™ Ethernet I/O modules (EN2091 1Gb Ethernet Scalable Switch and EN4093R 10Gb Scalable Switch).

Table of contents

  1. Front cover
  2. Notices
    1. Trademarks
  3. Preface
    1. Authors
    2. Now you can become a published author, too!
    3. Comments welcome
    4. Stay connected to IBM Redbooks
  4. Chapter 1. Introduction to IBM PureFlex System Networking
    1. 1.1 Introduction to IBM PureSystems
      1. 1.1.1 IBM Flex System Enterprise Chassis
    2. 1.2 IBM Flex System Networking product family
      1. 1.2.1 IBM Flex System Fabric EN4093 and EN4093R 10Gb Scalable Switch
      2. 1.2.2 IBM Flex System EN4091 10Gb Ethernet Pass-thru Module
      3. 1.2.3 IBM Flex System EN2092 1Gb Ethernet Scalable Switch
      4. 1.2.4 I/O modules and cables
    3. 1.3 IBM Flex System Ethernet adapters
      1. 1.3.1 IBM Flex System CN4054 10Gb Virtual Fabric Adapter
      2. 1.3.2 IBM Flex System EN4054 4-port 10Gb Ethernet Adapter
      3. 1.3.3 IBM Flex System EN2024 4-port 1Gb Ethernet Adapter
      4. 1.3.4 IBM Flex System EN4132 2-port 10Gb Ethernet Adapter
    4. 1.4 IBM Networking Operating System
      1. 1.4.1 Command-line interface
      2. 1.4.2 Browser-Based Interface
  5. Chapter 2. Data center design and architecture
    1. 2.1 Open Data Center Interoperable Network
    2. 2.2 VMready
      1. 2.2.1 VMready benefits
      2. 2.2.2 VMready compatibility
      3. 2.2.3 VMready references
    3. 2.3 IBM Flex System data center high availability components
      1. 2.3.1 The Ethernet switch I/O module
      2. 2.3.2 Virtual local area networks
      3. 2.3.3 Scalability and performance
      4. 2.3.4 Link aggregation
      5. 2.3.5 Layer 2 failover
      6. 2.3.6 NIC teaming
    4. 2.4 Fibre Channel over Ethernet solution capabilities
      1. 2.4.1 FCoE references
    5. 2.5 Virtual Fabric vNIC solution capabilities
      1. 2.5.1 Virtual Fabric mode vNIC
      2. 2.5.2 Switch-independent mode vNIC
      3. 2.5.3 Virtual Fabric references
    6. 2.6 High availability use cases
      1. 2.6.1 Highly available topologies
    7. 2.7 Practical Use Case 1: Fully redundant with virtualized chassis technology (VSS/vPC/VLAG)
    8. 2.8 Other use cases
      1. 2.8.1 Practical Use Case 2: Fully redundant with traditional Spanning Tree
      2. 2.8.2 Practical Use Case 3: Fully redundant with Open Shortest Path First
    9. 2.9 Summary and conclusions
  6. Chapter 3. Planning and hardware selection
    1. 3.1 Hardware selection and interoperability
      1. 3.1.1 Selecting the Ethernet switch module
      2. 3.1.2 Selecting the compute node NICs
      3. 3.1.3 Interoperability considerations
    2. 3.2 Virtual local area networks
    3. 3.3 Scalability and performance
    4. 3.4 High availability
      1. 3.4.1 Examples of topologies
      2. 3.4.2 Spanning Tree
      3. 3.4.3 Link aggregation
      4. 3.4.4 Network interface card teaming
      5. 3.4.5 Trunk failover
      6. 3.4.6 Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol
    5. 3.5 Virtual Fabric vNIC solution capabilities
      1. 3.5.1 Virtual Fabric mode vNIC
      2. 3.5.2 Switch-independent mode vNIC
    6. 3.6 Management
      1. 3.6.1 Management tools and their capabilities
  7. Chapter 4. Initial configuration
    1. 4.1 Initial hardware installation
      1. 4.1.1 Installing a switch
    2. 4.2 Initial Software Configuration
      1. 4.2.1 Administration interfaces
      2. 4.2.2 First boot of the IBM Flex System Ethernet I/O modules
      3. 4.2.3 Connecting to the switch
      4. 4.2.4 Setup Tool
      5. 4.2.5 Setup command-line interface procedure
      6. 4.2.6 User management
  8. Chapter 5. Compute node network configuration
    1. 5.1 Introduction and background
      1. 5.1.1 NIC teaming
    2. 5.2 Components used and setup
      1. 5.2.1 Testing methodology
      2. 5.2.2 Logical diagram
    3. 5.3 Microsoft Windows Server 2008
      1. 5.3.1 Implementation
    4. 5.4 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 6
      1. 5.4.1 Implementation
    5. 5.5 VMware ESXi 5
      1. 5.5.1 Implementation
  9. Chapter 6. Implementation of IBM PureFlex Systems and IBM System Networking connectivity
    1. 6.1 Introduction
    2. 6.2 IBM System Networking components used
    3. 6.3 Physical setup
    4. 6.4 EN4093flex_1 configuration
    5. 6.5 G8264tor_1 configuration
    6. 6.6 Verification and show command output
    7. 6.7 Full configuration files
  10. Chapter 7. System management
    1. 7.1 Management network
    2. 7.2 Chassis Management Module
      1. 7.2.1 Overview
      2. 7.2.2 Chassis Management Module user interfaces
    3. 7.3 Security
    4. 7.4 Compute node management
      1. 7.4.1 Integrated management module II
      2. 7.4.2 Flexible service processor
    5. 7.5 I/O modules management
      1. 7.5.1 I/O module management in Chassis Management Module web interface
    6. 7.6 IBM Flex System Manager
      1. 7.6.1 Hardware overview
      2. 7.6.2 Software features
      3. 7.6.3 Supported agents, hardware, operating systems and tasks
    7. 7.7 IBM System Networking Element Manager Component
      1. 7.7.1 Health Summary pane
      2. 7.7.2 Viewing Health Status
      3. 7.7.3 Viewing reports
    8. 7.8 IBM System Networking Element Manager Solution
      1. 7.8.1 IBM System Networking Element Manager solution requirements
  11. Chapter 8. Troubleshooting and maintenance
    1. 8.1 Troubleshooting
      1. 8.1.1 Basic troubleshooting procedures
      2. 8.1.2 Connectivity troubleshooting
      3. 8.1.3 Port mirroring
      4. 8.1.4 Serial cable troubleshooting procedures
    2. 8.2 Configuration management
      1. 8.2.1 Configuration files
      2. 8.2.2 Configuration blocks
      3. 8.2.3 Managing configuration files
      4. 8.2.4 Resetting to factory defaults
      5. 8.2.5 Password recovery
    3. 8.3 Firmware management
      1. 8.3.1 Firmware images
      2. 8.3.2 Upgrading the firmware with ISCLI
      3. 8.3.3 Recovering from a failed firmware upgrade
    4. 8.4 Logging and reporting
      1. 8.4.1 System logs
      2. 8.4.2 Simple Network Management Protocol
      3. 8.4.3 Remote Monitoring
      4. 8.4.4 Using sFlow to monitor traffic
  12. Appendix A. An integration guide to the IBM Flex System Fabric EN4093/EN4093R 10Gb Scalable Switch
    1. Overview of the factory network configuration
    2. EN4093/EN4093R VLAN configuration
    3. Consolidating VLANs across Link Aggregation Groups
    4. Consolidating VLANs across a single link
    5. Cisco Nexus switch configuration
    6. Changing the VLAN IDs in the Flex
    7. Show EN4093/EN4093R running configuration
    8. Adding a second IBM EN4093/EN4093R switch to the setup
  13. Appendix B. Easy Connect
    1. 8.5 Introduction to IBM Easy Connect
    2. 8.6 Easy Connect Single Mode
      1. 8.6.1 Implementation
    3. 8.7 Storage Mode
      1. 8.7.1 Implementation
    4. 8.8 Easy Connect Multi-Chassis Mode
      1. 8.8.1 Implementation with CN/EN4093/R
      2. 8.8.2 Implementation with G8264
    5. 8.9 Client examples with diagrams
      1. 8.9.1 Telecommunications client
      2. 8.9.2 State government client
      3. 8.9.3 Medical center client
    6. 8.10 Easy Connect limitations
  14. Related publications
    1. IBM Redbooks
    2. Online resources
    3. Help from IBM
  15. Back cover

Product information

  • Title: IBM Flex System and PureFlex System Network Implementation
  • Author(s): Jon Tate, Jure Arzensek, David Cain, Ken Corkins, William King, Gaston Sancassano Rodriguez, Tiago Nunes dos Santos
  • Release date: July 2013
  • Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
  • ISBN: None