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HP C7000 Interconnect Bays
Posted on 2012-12-31
I have a HP C7000 Blade chassis that have Ethernet switches in Interconnect bays 1-4, 1GB Fiber Passthrus in 5-6 and SAS switches in 7-8.
Currently I have three blade servers that are using the fiber passthrus to connect to two HP FC switches. Each server has one connection through each passthru. I am running MPIO on each server.
I have recently purchased (2) HP Brodcade 8GB interconnect switches to replace the passthrus with. Ultimately the HP FC switches and connected SAN are being replaced with new equipment.
What I want to do it to replace the passthrus without any down time. Is is possible to remove one of the passthrus and replace it with the switch, get it configured so that server would be connected to the SAN through two switches (HP FC and Brodcade), then replace the other passthru with the other Brodcade switch?
If anyone has done this, do you have a procedure?
Currently I have three blade servers that are using the fiber passthrus to connect to two HP FC switches. Each server has one connection through each passthru. I am running MPIO on each server.
I have recently purchased (2) HP Brodcade 8GB interconnect switches to replace the passthrus with. Ultimately the HP FC switches and connected SAN are being replaced with new equipment.
What I want to do it to replace the passthrus without any down time. Is is possible to remove one of the passthrus and replace it with the switch, get it configured so that server would be connected to the SAN through two switches (HP FC and Brodcade), then replace the other passthru with the other Brodcade switch?
If anyone has done this, do you have a procedure?
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6 Comments
You can leave the C7000 out of the equation and it becomes a simple question of can you replace one Brocade switch with another one or can you insert an additional Brocade switch into a fabric.
Both can be done quite easily but I'm not sure which one you are doing. Will it remain a simple two switch dual fabric after your migration with the storage plugged innto the Brocades in the back of the C7000 or will the Brocades in the C7000 connect to external Brocade switches and then to the SAN? Are there additional non-blade servers connected to the current SAN or will there be in future (since not many externally accessible ports on the new enclosure switches to plug them into).
Are the curent switches connected together as a single redundant fabric or separate as dual fabrics? Should be separate fabrics preferably but it just alters the procedure a little bit.
A before and after sketch of what you intend will clear these Qs up, either way it's fairly simple but there may be fabric licensing issues.
Both can be done quite easily but I'm not sure which one you are doing. Will it remain a simple two switch dual fabric after your migration with the storage plugged innto the Brocades in the back of the C7000 or will the Brocades in the C7000 connect to external Brocade switches and then to the SAN? Are there additional non-blade servers connected to the current SAN or will there be in future (since not many externally accessible ports on the new enclosure switches to plug them into).
Are the curent switches connected together as a single redundant fabric or separate as dual fabrics? Should be separate fabrics preferably but it just alters the procedure a little bit.
A before and after sketch of what you intend will clear these Qs up, either way it's fairly simple but there may be fabric licensing issues.
Forgot to ask also, if it is just 3 blades and one storage box did anyone even bother to set up zones or is it just all open?
To anwer your questions in reverse order it is just one zone. Besides the 3 blades and one storage system there are 2 external servers that connect to these switches. The HP 2/8V FC switches only have standard software so the fabric is only licensed for two switches.
The remaining (9) blades in the chassis are currently going to a SAS storage unit. This unit is also being replaced as part of the project. In addition 3 additional blades are being added, (2) to repace the two external servers that are connected to the current FC SAN (HP MSA 1500) and (1) new blade.
The current HP 2/8V FC switches are not connected together so I am assuming that they are independant fabrics. The redundency is in the MPIO configuration on each server.
Also there wasn't anything special (programming) done to those switches when they were installed. Isolation of the logical disks by each server is accomplished with SSP on the MSA 1500.
By your post is sounds like I am going to want to replace one of the HP 2/8V FC switches and the current FC interconnect passthru with one of the new broadcade interconnect switches. Initially I need the two external servers and the MSA 1500 SAN connected so those should be connected to the new broadcade interconnect switch also.
Can this be accomplished without downtime?
In the end the two external servers are going, the MSA1500 is going and the SAS storage unit is going. All 15 blade servers will connect to the new storage (EMC VNX5300) after we replace the Array Controller cards in those servers with HBA's.
Does this provide enough information for a procedure?
The remaining (9) blades in the chassis are currently going to a SAS storage unit. This unit is also being replaced as part of the project. In addition 3 additional blades are being added, (2) to repace the two external servers that are connected to the current FC SAN (HP MSA 1500) and (1) new blade.
The current HP 2/8V FC switches are not connected together so I am assuming that they are independant fabrics. The redundency is in the MPIO configuration on each server.
Also there wasn't anything special (programming) done to those switches when they were installed. Isolation of the logical disks by each server is accomplished with SSP on the MSA 1500.
By your post is sounds like I am going to want to replace one of the HP 2/8V FC switches and the current FC interconnect passthru with one of the new broadcade interconnect switches. Initially I need the two external servers and the MSA 1500 SAN connected so those should be connected to the new broadcade interconnect switch also.
Can this be accomplished without downtime?
In the end the two external servers are going, the MSA1500 is going and the SAS storage unit is going. All 15 blade servers will connect to the new storage (EMC VNX5300) after we replace the Array Controller cards in those servers with HBA's.
Does this provide enough information for a procedure?
Pretty straight forward and can be done without downtime assuming you make sure all paths are visible under MPIO first.
1/ Upgrade OA firmware, this may be required if the blade switch is newer than the OA since it won't power on stuff it doesn't know about. You'll need to do that anyway when you get the new blades. Upgrading OA firmware is non-disruptive although if you don't have a redundant one the fans will go on full blast while it resets. You can even unplug both OAs and the tray they're in and it will all keep working.
2/ Turn off one external switch, remove cables and pass-thru. In effect we're pretending the switch has failed.
3/ Insert blade switch where pass-thru was, cable the external ports to the MSA1500cs and to the two external servers. Blade switch might be set to DHCP so you can use enclosure bay IP assignment through OA. If not you're going to have to SSH to the OA and use the serial port on the switch with "connect interconnect N" as per http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00702815/c00702815.pdf, then you can login and run ipaddrset to either set a static IP address in the right range or set it to DHCP. You can also try connecting to 10.77.77.77 with a browser and change IP address through GUI.
4/ Browse to IP address of blade switch (if you set it to DHCP and use EBIPA then you can use the OA GUI to connect). Login and check all the ports are connected.
5/ Zone the switch. Your current one has the "all access" zoning policy but that option isn't available any more. You can either create one big zone and put all ports/WWNs in it or use the recommended single initiator zoning where one initiator and all the targets it connects to are in a zone. Enable the config and check hosts have all paths connected again.
6/ repeat to replace other switch. Note there will be failovers of paths during the procedure so expect alerts in logs, even viewer etc.
Note I'm assuming the MSA1500cs doesn't have internal SAN switches so there are no ISLs.
1/ Upgrade OA firmware, this may be required if the blade switch is newer than the OA since it won't power on stuff it doesn't know about. You'll need to do that anyway when you get the new blades. Upgrading OA firmware is non-disruptive although if you don't have a redundant one the fans will go on full blast while it resets. You can even unplug both OAs and the tray they're in and it will all keep working.
2/ Turn off one external switch, remove cables and pass-thru. In effect we're pretending the switch has failed.
3/ Insert blade switch where pass-thru was, cable the external ports to the MSA1500cs and to the two external servers. Blade switch might be set to DHCP so you can use enclosure bay IP assignment through OA. If not you're going to have to SSH to the OA and use the serial port on the switch with "connect interconnect N" as per http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00702815/c00702815.pdf, then you can login and run ipaddrset to either set a static IP address in the right range or set it to DHCP. You can also try connecting to 10.77.77.77 with a browser and change IP address through GUI.
4/ Browse to IP address of blade switch (if you set it to DHCP and use EBIPA then you can use the OA GUI to connect). Login and check all the ports are connected.
5/ Zone the switch. Your current one has the "all access" zoning policy but that option isn't available any more. You can either create one big zone and put all ports/WWNs in it or use the recommended single initiator zoning where one initiator and all the targets it connects to are in a zone. Enable the config and check hosts have all paths connected again.
6/ repeat to replace other switch. Note there will be failovers of paths during the procedure so expect alerts in logs, even viewer etc.
Note I'm assuming the MSA1500cs doesn't have internal SAN switches so there are no ISLs.
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