Upgrade 4GB 4024 Switches to 5480 8GB switches

[jmozes50]

Hello,

I currently have a situation where a client has three c7000 chassis' with 4gb Brocade 4024 switches in them and need to upgrade them to the 8GB 5480 switches.  

The current switches are being utilized by a single ISL port up to the main storage switches and all applications are multipathed to the storage.

In addition the 5480s, once installed, will no longer be connected to the current SAN, but moved to a new SAN.

My question is can the 4024 switches be removed one at a time to maintain uptime, and replaced with the 5480 switches without a compatibility issue on the interconnect bays.

Thanks for any and all help.  

[Casper42]

I can't say yes with 100% certainty, but the only modules I know HAVE to have a matching pair on horizontally adjacent bays are the Virtual Connect modules.

The Brocade based FC modules SHOULD support what you want to do, but I would dig through the User Guides to double check.
If you have 8GB HBAs, I would also check that they support running the 2 ports at different speeds. If they don't, you might need to put the 8GB Switches in bays that dont map to anything or an alternate chassis and configure the link speed for 4Gb mode.