C7000 serial number change w/ system online

[chuckk281]

Andrew had a c7000 enclosure question:

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Have a customer that noticed the electronic serial number that doesn’t match label serial number. I know the process of changing the serial number of the enclosure, but can it be safely done with production running in enclosure?

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Input from Hoa:

You can do this via OA GUI in 3 seconds, if you do nothave Virtual Connect modules in the enclosire.

Advice from Lawrence:

If you have Virtual Connect on the enclosure, then you CANNOT change the serial number of the chassis.

Doing so will cause VC to crash.  As me how I know this.  ☺

My understanding is that VC uses the serial number provided by OA to create the VC domain and so if the s/n changes, this causes serious issues to the VC domain.  I’ve had the misfortune of finding out the hard way back in VC f/w version 1.34 on 1/10GB modules, and I would expect that this has not changed with the later versions of VC firmware.  The reason why I had to change the s/n on the chassis was because the field engineer had not updated the s/n after replacing the enclosure’s midplane.  And this caused HP SIM to have inconsistencies when it discovered this “new” chassis, so the customer wanted to correct the issue.

I also think that there should be some strong warnings within the OA GUI when attempting to change the s/n of the chassis.

If there is no Virtual Connect, but other interconnects like pass thru or Cisco 3xxx switches, then the s/n change is a relatively trivial matter and there will be no interruption to the comms on the servers, i.e. can be done online.

Again from Hoa:

You can with some issues...

Backup VC config.

Bring enclosure Blades down, pull them out partially from midplane.   Same action to all VC modules.

Telnet or serial to ative OA, change enclosure s/n, verify.

Log back OA veify again, insert all VC modules.

Log in VCM GUI, this point VCM wants to import the enclosure, do so but don't create any new domain, cancel out VCM wizard, go up to Tools drop down to restore/backup option.

Restore saved VC backup config WITH 'Ignoe Serial Number' option box check, you know why.

Log back to VCM GUI, looking good, push in the Blades, check everything....you are done.

How much time you need for this?   May be under two hours.     Back up enclosure & VC Config strongly recommended.

Please make sure you DO have VC modules 1 and module 2 toe tags, if not you can find the tags on the modules after you pull them out.    Record that because the set pasword in VCM no longer valid.   You must use VC module 1 default toe tag to log on then after VC backup is restored,  all users credential will be working again.    Sorry I forget to mention.

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Other comments or questions?