In this network topology, management communications, data
communications, and operating-system deployment occur over the same
network. This topology is referred to as a converged network.
Important: Implementing a shared
data and management network can cause disruptions in traffic, such
as packets being dropped or management-network connectivity issues,
depending on your network configuration (for example, if traffic from
servers have a high priority and traffic from the management controllers
have a low priority). The management network uses UDP traffic in addition
TCP. UDP traffic can have a lower priority when the network traffic
is high.
When you install
Lenovo XClarity Administrator, define the eth0 network interface using the following
considerations:
- The interface must be configured to support the device discovery
and management (such as server configuration and firmware updates).
It must be able to communicate with the CMMs and Flex switches in
each managed chassis, the baseboard management controller in each
managed server, and each RackSwitch switch.
- If you intend to acquire firmware and OS device-driver
updates using XClarity Administrator, at least one of the network interfaces must be connected
to the Internet, preferably through a firewall. Otherwise, you must
import updates into the repository.
- If you intend to collect service data or use automatic
problem notification (including Call Home and Lenovo Upload Facility),
at least one of the network interfaces must be connected to the Internet,
preferably through a firewall.
- If you intend to deploy operating-system images and update OS
device drivers, the interface must have IP network connectivity to
the server network interface that is used to access the host operating
system.
Note: If you implemented a separate network for OS deployment
and OS device-driver updates, you can configure the second network
interface to connect to that network instead of the data network.
However, if the operating system on each server does not have access
to the data network, configure an additional interface on the servers
to provide connectivity from the host operating system to the data
network for OS deployment and OS device-driver updates, if needed.
- You can set up XClarity Administrator on any system that meets the requirements for XClarity Administrator, including a managed server only when you implement either
a single data and management network topology or a virtually separate
data and management network topology; however, you cannot use XClarity Administrator to apply firmware updates to that managed server. Even
then, only some of the firmware is applied with immediate activation,
and XClarity Administrator forces the target server to restart, which would restart XClarity Administrator as well. When applied with deferred activation, only some
firmware is applied when XClarity Administrator host is restarted.
You can also configure a second network interface to connect to
the same network from XClarity Administrator to support redundancy.
The following figure shows an example implementation for a converged
network topology.
Figure 1. Example implementation of a single network for management,
data, and operating system deployment