NETAPP FAS2650 to HPE C3000

[Shawn-0]

I'm new to NETAPP world and was wondering if anyone has had previous experience connecting and HPE c3000 to a NETAPP *directly*.  Directly meaning, HPE Flex VCM to the NETAPP; my overall objective is to have fibre direcly connected between the Netapp and HPE c3000 (no switch), this wil be used soley for connectivity for the HPE c3000 blades to the CIFS, NFS, ETC.  I'll then create lifs to my switch for access for external devices.  Just a bit of background before you hammer me, I don't have the 10GB port capacity on my switch or I'd be using the switch and VLAN zones as per normal.  Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

[SpindleNinja]

I've done direct iSCSI to pizza boxes. 

http://docs.netapp.com/ontap-9/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.netapp.doc.dot-cm-sanconf%2FGUID-193CC377-5C6F-4D3C-B42E-CE71AB6AA77F.html&cp=12_7_1_1

Don't think it would be any different to a blade chassis,  the ports hand out virtual IPs off the vNICs. 

[AlexDawson · Accepted solution]

Unfortunately it is somewhat different - HP VCM (Virtual Connect Module - Flex Fabric / Flex 10) is a different networking concept to what you might otherwise be used to. I used to manage 9 x C7000s, as well as doing several implementations of C3000s. I'll be honest and say I wasn't a fan when I did touch them on a regular basis, and we're now probably 4 years out from the last time I did, and time hasn't softened my views on it.

It comes down to the issue that the VCM doesn't allow ports on the outside to talk to each other without going through a blade server in the middle. So while it looks like a switch, it doesn't act like one. This significantly complicates matters, to the point that I think you should not do this. LACP IFGRPs won't work, controller failover won't work. You should buy a cheap 10Gb external switch and use that for interconnect.

Sorry!