HP 2/8Q fibre channel switch, upgrade or replace

[STEVEN WINTERKORN]

I have an old hp 2/8q fibre channel switch that came with 2 gig sfp. I need to use 4gig hba card with a new project. can i upgrade the hp 2/8q with 4 gig sfp and expect it to work? Will it work with a specific firmware upgrade. I will need to connect up to four fiber channel switches eventually, what is the best recommendation to replace the 2/8q with so I can do this? I beleive the hp 2/8q will only let me connect 2 switches at a time. thanks.

[Uwe Zessin]

Changing the SFP in the switch will NOT make it go faster - you would have to replace the whole switch. A 4 GBit FC adaper is supposed to work with 2 (or even 1) GBit switch ports.

The 2/8q was a special low-end QLogic OEMed switch to be plugged in into an MSA1000 box. As far as I can tell, it is no longer on the support lists and it never did provide much if any interoperability.

I would replace it with a Brocade or CISCO one.