BL460Gen8, Requirement of RJ-45 Opt Kit when Customer Environment is only 1GB

[chuckk281]

Joe was looking for 1Gb SFP confirmation:

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I have been looking for a statement that specifies RJ-45 SFP Opt Kit, 453154-B21 when the customer has only a 1GB infrastructure.  The customer order has VC FlexFabric 10GB/24-Port Opt  and FlexFabric 10GB 2P 554FLB Adapter.  The RJ-45 SFP is required for G7 and below, it really makes sense  that it would apply for Gen8.  The Quick Specs of the Gen8 does not address it that I can find, the Quick Specs for VC FlexFabric does not distinguish a different requirement.  So RJ-45 is required by deduction.

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Reply from Dan:

There is no requirement in Gen8, G7, etc for 1Gb SFPs because FlexFabric, Flex-10 or any Blade Switch for that matter adds a layer of abstraction to the mix. 

It would be like saying if you pick apples you have to use a small truck to haul them in, when in reality the requirement is that the bridge to the orchard can only supports light vehicles and not heavy trucks.  I wouldn’t expect the apple barrels to have a warning about the bridge.

If it was there in the G7 Quickspecs then IMHO it was added as a bit of handholding.

Flex-10 and FlexFabric Quickspecs mention both RJ45 Copper and 1000-SX Fiber transceiver, so the RJ45 Option kit you mentioned isn’t really required because we also support 1Gb Fiber.

Response from Joe:

I don’t know if we missed the point here or not.

The customer’s infrastructure is 1Gb, i.e. the upstream switches are 1Gb with RJ-45 ports.

We must use 1Gb components to connect the uplink ports of the VC FlexFabric module to the upstream switch, i.e. 1Gb RJ-45 option kits or 1Gb SX kits for fiber Channel connectivity.

The customer was sold 10Gb SR SFP+ Option kits which they cannot use with upstream switches because they are 1Gb switches today.

When the customer moves to a 10Gb infrastructure, then he will be able to use the 10Gb components.

Reply from Dan:

All I was saying is don’t expect the mention of 1Gb SFPs to be in the BL460c Gen8 QuickSpecs or other docs.  Its simply the wrong place for that information.  If anything it should be spelled out in the Flex-10 and FlexFabric QuickSpecs.

If your customer has the wrong parts, as you mentioned, they can simply hold on to them and order some RJ45 SFPs (drop ship from a Reseller might be fastest) or if they have an HP ISS Specialist, that person can put in a request through “Customer First” to swap out the 10Gb SFP+s with 1GB SFPs.

BTW, I have also been a victim of this problem numerous times because I do a lot of the same work you do but in the PoC (PreSales) arena.  It got so bad I eventually just started carrying a pair of 1Gb SFPs in my bag for emergencies. 

And input from Vincent:

And bear in mind that in a FlexFabric module 1Gb SFPs can only work in ports X5-X8. And if you do put transceivers in X7 and X8 it will disable the internal cross-links with the adjacent module and you will have to use another way (i.e. a cable) to satisfy the stacking requirements (all VC Ethernet modules in a domain must be connected via stacking links)

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Comments?