HP hardware: c-class blades & ESX

I recently visited a Citrix conference in Antwerp. There was a very technical session on the new HP c-class blades. I can only imagine the things you could do with this hardware setup in an ESX environment. 16 HH blades in a small 10 U enclosure, in combination with a 2 socket, quad-core CPU blade. A true datacenter-in-a-box. The thing that really did stand out is HP Virtual Connect or the ability to virtualize hardware (say HBAs or NICs) inside the enclosure. Finally, true plug-and-play of a blade can be achieved in this way.Cool!

HP Virtual Connect for the HP BladeSystem c-Class

HP has addressed connectivity as part of an overall virtualization strategy. HP Virtual Connect technology works with other virtualization technologies – such as virtual machines, clients and storage to make a fully virtualized environment a reality.

HP Virtual Connect pools and abstracts the LAN and SAN connections to servers and virtual machines in the HP BladeSystem to provide ultimate server flexibility and eliminate time intensive management processes.

HP Virtual Connect – Breaking down barriers to change

HP Virtual Connect modules for HP BladeSystem make LAN and SAN connections available to a pool of up to 64 servers, allowing administrators to define a server’s I/O connections to independently manage blade servers and their connectivity. Connections and configurations between server blades and the LAN and SAN can then be deployed at the click of a button, and migrated to another server bay instantly – all without disturbing the LAN or the SAN settings or administrators. Provisioning and maintenance time are slashed, productivity is improved, and customers gain the ability to more easily pool server resources.