Hi all,

I can't seem to figure out how to get networking to work on my BL860c i2 blades. My BL860c blades work fine in the same C7000 chassis running the same version of VMS though (8.4-2L3).

Whenever I go to setup networking, it shows 16 different interfaces. I've tried to manually assign IPs to all of these interfaces, but I couldn't ping any of them. I've also tried DHCP on all of the interfaces and all of them failed to get DHCP addresses. My BL860c (non-i2) blades are able to retrieve IPs over DHCP and they work fine on OpenVMS. Additionally, I remember being able to install windows on this same blade and get an IP address on it.

I should also mention that if I do MC LANCP SHO DEV /CHA, none of the mac addresses shown in the command are the same mac addresses that iLO claims this blade has (for example, the command shows a mac address of 00-21-5A-9C-36-1A when iLO says the mac address should be close to AC:16:2D:91:52:BA

If this helps, the blade switch I'm using is a gigabit Cisco Catalyst Blade Switch 3020 and the NIC in the blade just shows as a Flex-10 Embedded Ethernet.

I'm able to send more details if needed.

On Wednesday, March 16, 2022 at 1:16:57 PM UTC+1, funniray wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I can't seem to figure out how to get networking to work on my BL860c i2 blades. My BL860c blades work fine in the same C7000 chassis running the same version of VMS though (8.4-2L3).
>
> Whenever I go to setup networking, it shows 16 different interfaces. I've tried to manually assign IPs to all of these interfaces, but I couldn't ping any of them. I've also tried DHCP on all of the interfaces and all of them failed to get DHCP addresses. My BL860c (non-i2) blades are able to retrieve IPs over DHCP and they work fine on OpenVMS. Additionally, I remember being able to install windows on this same blade and get an IP address on it.
>
> I should also mention that if I do MC LANCP SHO DEV /CHA, none of the mac addresses shown in the command are the same mac addresses that iLO claims this blade has (for example, the command shows a mac address of 00-21-5A-9C-36-1A when iLO says the mac address should be close to AC:16:2D:91:52:BA
>
> If this helps, the blade switch I'm using is a gigabit Cisco Catalyst Blade Switch 3020 and the NIC in the blade just shows as a Flex-10 Embedded Ethernet.
>
> I'm able to send more details if needed.
Hi,
you need to check/change the vlan configuration in cisco switches.
There is an important feature: the c7000 requires separate vlans/ip
networks on blade management ports and on blade NIC ports.
You can access namagement ports from blade NIC ports only if they are
on separate IP address ranges connected using an external router.
Jiri

On Wednesday, March 16, 2022 at 1:55:58 PM UTC, kasp...@fit.cvut.cz wrote:
> On Wednesday, March 16, 2022 at 1:16:57 PM UTC+1, funniray wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I can't seem to figure out how to get networking to work on my BL860c i2 blades. My BL860c blades work fine in the same C7000 chassis running the same version of VMS though (8.4-2L3).
> >
> > Whenever I go to setup networking, it shows 16 different interfaces. I've tried to manually assign IPs to all of these interfaces, but I couldn't ping any of them. I've also tried DHCP on all of the interfaces and all of them failed to get DHCP addresses. My BL860c (non-i2) blades are able to retrieve IPs over DHCP and they work fine on OpenVMS. Additionally, I remember being able to install windows on this same blade and get an IP address on it.
> >
> > I should also mention that if I do MC LANCP SHO DEV /CHA, none of the mac addresses shown in the command are the same mac addresses that iLO claims this blade has (for example, the command shows a mac address of 00-21-5A-9C-36-1A when iLO says the mac address should be close to AC:16:2D:91:52:BA
> >
> > If this helps, the blade switch I'm using is a gigabit Cisco Catalyst Blade Switch 3020 and the NIC in the blade just shows as a Flex-10 Embedded Ethernet.
> >
> > I'm able to send more details if needed.

> Hi,
> you need to check/change the vlan configuration in cisco switches.
> There is an important feature: the c7000 requires separate vlans/ip
> networks on blade management ports and on blade NIC ports.
> You can access namagement ports from blade NIC ports only if they are
> on separate IP address ranges connected using an external router.
> Jiri

Hey there Jiri,
I do have all the switchports for all blades tagged to a VLAN with the correct trunk set to my uplink to router.
All of my other blades work fine with this network configuration except for these i2 blades (including my other BL860c blades).
I can try to remove all vlan traffic and just have all of the blades on the default vlan for testing.

With that being said, do you or anyone else know why 16 interfaces show up for my BL860c i2 blades when there should only be 4?

Ethan

On 3/16/2022 10:10 AM, funniray wrote:

> With that being said, do you or anyone else know why 16 interfaces show up for my BL860c i2 blades when there should only be 4?
While I have no reason to think this question is relevant, what are the OA and VC firmware versions?

--

-- Rob

On Wednesday, March 16, 2022 at 2:23:19 PM UTC, Robert A. Brooks wrote:
> On 3/16/2022 10:10 AM, funniray wrote:
>
> > With that being said, do you or anyone else know why 16 interfaces show up for my BL860c i2 blades when there should only be 4?
> While I have no reason to think this question is relevant, what are the OA and VC firmware versions?
>
> --
>
> -- Rob
Hi Rob,

The OA is running firmware version 4.97 Jan 28 2021.
I'm not quite sure what you mean by VC, but if you mean the ethernet switches both are running 15.0(2)SE11
Also, during troubleshooting yesterday, I updated the NIC firmware on the blade to 5.02.60

- Ethan

On 3/16/2022 10:53 AM, funniray wrote:

> The OA is running firmware version 4.97 Jan 28 2021.

That's the version I'm running, also.

> I'm not quite sure what you mean by VC, but if you mean the ethernet switches both are running 15.0(2)SE11
I guess it depends on what modules you have in the interconnect bays; not all modules in the interconnect
bays use the VirtualConnect firmware.

I've got redundant "HP VC FlexFabric 10Gb/24-port" modules in slots 1/2

With those, I'm using VirtualConnect firmware V4.85

--

-- Rob

On Wednesday, March 16, 2022 at 3:06:11 PM UTC, Robert A. Brooks wrote:
> On 3/16/2022 10:53 AM, funniray wrote:
>
> > The OA is running firmware version 4.97 Jan 28 2021.
> That's the version I'm running, also.
> > I'm not quite sure what you mean by VC, but if you mean the ethernet switches both are running 15.0(2)SE11
> I guess it depends on what modules you have in the interconnect bays; not all modules in the interconnect
> bays use the VirtualConnect firmware.
>
> I've got redundant "HP VC FlexFabric 10Gb/24-port" modules in slots 1/2
>
> With those, I'm using VirtualConnect firmware V4.85
>
> --
>
> -- Rob

Alright, so I double checked and apparently networking doesn't work on Windows Server 2008 R2 for Itanium Based Systems either.
Both of my i2 blades produce the same results where there's 16 interfaces and 6 interfaces are up. If I turn off 1 switch, then it drops to only 3 interfaces being up.
DHCP doesn't work on any adaptor and setting a static IP doesn't work either.

Does anyone have any suggestions for what I can try?

Thanks,
Ethan

On Wed, 16 Mar 2022 12:22:07 -0700 (PDT), funniray
<funniray10@gmail.com> wrote:

>On Wednesday, March 16, 2022 at 3:06:11 PM UTC, Robert A. Brooks wrote:
>> On 3/16/2022 10:53 AM, funniray wrote:
>>
>> > The OA is running firmware version 4.97 Jan 28 2021.
>> That's the version I'm running, also.
>> > I'm not quite sure what you mean by VC, but if you mean the ethernet switches both are running 15.0(2)SE11
>> I guess it depends on what modules you have in the interconnect bays; not all modules in the interconnect
>> bays use the VirtualConnect firmware.
>>
>> I've got redundant "HP VC FlexFabric 10Gb/24-port" modules in slots 1/2
>>
>> With those, I'm using VirtualConnect firmware V4.85
>>
>> --
>>
>> -- Rob
>
>Alright, so I double checked and apparently networking doesn't work on Windows Server 2008 R2 for Itanium Based Systems either.
>Both of my i2 blades produce the same results where there's 16 interfaces and 6 interfaces are up. If I turn off 1 switch, then it drops to only 3 interfaces being up.
>DHCP doesn't work on any adaptor and setting a static IP doesn't work either.
>
>Does anyone have any suggestions for what I can try?
>
>Thanks,
>Ethan

Did you look at the OA Portmapping for the blade just as a sanity
check?

Mark

On 3/16/2022 8:16 AM, funniray wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I can't seem to figure out how to get networking to work on my BL860c i2 blades. My BL860c blades work fine in the same C7000 chassis running the same version of VMS though (8.4-2L3).
>
> Whenever I go to setup networking, it shows 16 different interfaces. I've tried to manually assign IPs to all of these interfaces, but I couldn't ping any of them. I've also tried DHCP on all of the interfaces and all of them failed to get DHCP addresses. My BL860c (non-i2) blades are able to retrieve IPs over DHCP and they work fine on OpenVMS. Additionally, I remember being able to install windows on this same blade and get an IP address on it.
>
> I should also mention that if I do MC LANCP SHO DEV /CHA, none of the mac addresses shown in the command are the same mac addresses that iLO claims this blade has (for example, the command shows a mac address of 00-21-5A-9C-36-1A when iLO says the mac address should be close to AC:16:2D:91:52:BA
>
> If this helps, the blade switch I'm using is a gigabit Cisco Catalyst Blade Switch 3020 and the NIC in the blade just shows as a Flex-10 Embedded Ethernet.
>
> I'm able to send more details if needed.

There is a setting for the networks on the individual blades which cause
them to show up 4 times over, but I don't remember what or where or why,
virtualconnect, in the ILO or somewhere else. But there is a setting
somewhere, look for it.

> Did you look at the OA Portmapping for the blade just as a sanity
> check?
>
> Mark

Hi mark,

I've tried almost everything I could, I've verified ports in the OA and even tried putting this blade into the same spot that a working x86 blade was in. No luck at all.

> There is a setting for the networks on the individual blades which cause
> them to show up 4 times over, but I don't remember what or where or why,
> virtualconnect, in the ILO or somewhere else. But there is a setting
> somewhere, look for it.

Thanks for this info Michael,
It's a bit late for me and I've already turned the chassis off for the day. I'll do an in-depth check tomorrow.
Do you have any clue what the use is for the nics showing multiple times? I bought these used off a random seller on eBay if that helps, so I have no clue if it's from the past config from how the blades were previously used.

Thanks for everyone who helped me.

I figured out what the issue was. It turns out that these blades were previously used with HPE Virtual Connect and there's no way to reset the VC configuration on an Integrity blade without using the VCM. I just ended up buying a Virtual Connect FlexFabric 10Gb/24-Port interconnect module and after installing it and setting up a proper profile, I was able to get a DHCP IP both in Windows Server and VMS