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HP C7000 Interconnect Bays
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?
Server Hardware
Last Comment
JeffcoSheriff
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?
ASKER
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?
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ASKER
Yes that is correct - The MSA1500 has no Internal SAN switches and there are no ISLs
ASKER
No additional SAN switches and no ISLs. Thanks for the help
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.