Older c3000 with current server blades?

[mchealy]

We have a C3000 purchased in 2008, part # 437507-B21, and I am getting conflicting information from VARs about whether it will accept current G8 server blades. Will it?

Is there a compatibility chart, or other documentation so that I know I've got the facts?

Thanks.

[David_Schwartzs · Accepted solution]

Gen8 blades will work in any c3000 or c7000 chassis, regardless of age, so long as the appropriate firmware updates are present for the administration and connectivity modules.

The only caveat to using newer blades in older chassis are that older chassis have less bandwidth through the backplane - this will mostly affect networking when a high number of 10Gb and/or 40Gb ports are present and in similtaneous heavy use. For the majority of typical workloads, though, you won't notice much of a downside.

Here's an HP link that explains this all, as well as provides more exact info about firmware revision compatibility:
http://h20565.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/template.PAGE/public/kb/docDisplay/?sp4ts.oid=3188465&spf_p.tpst=kbDocDisplay&spf_p.prp_kbDocDisplay=wsrp-navigationalState%3DdocId%253Dmmr_kc-0100204-12%257CdocLocale%253Den%257CcalledBy%253DSearch_Result&javax.portlet.begCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&javax.portlet.endCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken

[mchealy]

Thank you. I'm sharing this with the vendors who couldn't provide actual documentation to support their statements.