Virtual Connect (VC)Flex-10/C7000 Question

[chuckk281]

John had a customer question:

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Have a customer that has the below question:

Current environment: c7000, 4 bl460c G6 blades, FC HBA in Mezz 1, Flex-10 NIC in Mezz 2.  GbE2c Interconnect Modules in Bays 1,2,5,6 and Brocade FC Module in bays 3 and 4.

Customer wants to use the Flex capabilities on the NIC in Mezz 2, so can a Flex-10 module be put in bays 5 and 6.  Existing modules in bays 1,2,3,4 will remain.

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Reply from Dale:

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A couple of comments.  The Flex-10 interconnects have been discontinued and has been replaced by the Flex-10/10D.  There is no requirement for placement of a pair of Flex modules within a c7000 (since FW v3.10), but with the requirement of GbE2 modules in Bays 1 & 2 and Brocade modules in Bays 3 & 4, there may be caveats and FW minimums that are needed.

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Also from Mark:

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Regardless if you use Flex-10 or Flex-10/10D, the architecture is the same.

Virtual Connect does not care about the modules in Bay 1/2 and 3/4, as long as the I/O matches to the Mezz/NIC, it will be allowed. VC 3.10 removed the requirement that the Primary/Backup module be installed in Bay 1/2.

This is allowed and VC does not manage the Brocade FC module or the GBe2c modules so there is no relationship between versions of VC Firmware matched with non-VC modules firmware.

The Server profiles will show unassigned for Port 1 and 2 (maps to NULL) while Port 3-10 will map to the 8 Logical Functions of a 554M (flex).

VC will only write CLP for 554M, not 554FLB since it is connected to GBe2c.

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Questions?

[geoarchitect]

We had to initally start with Pass-Thru approach for our Networking and Storage.  We are now adding virtual connect for the networking side.   From your information, sounds like I can install the virtual connect Flex-10/10D modules on interconnect bays 5-6 or 7-8 and retain pass-thru in bay 1-2.    We would then transition servers to virtual connect as we define and apply the profiles.

Do we need to shutdown entire C7000 enclosure to add the new interconnect modules?

[Ashwin1120]

Hi Chuck,
Can you tell me How to view the CLP output as you showed in the orginal post?

Thanks