Quick compatibility question on GBE2c Ethernet Blade switch

[chuckk281]

Question from Kim:

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I have a customer with a C3000.

It has 2 x HP GbE2c Ethernet Blade Switch for c-Class BladeSystem… ( the oldest one)

He has 5 BL460 servers… a mix of gen 1 and 5.

Now he added a BL460Gen8 BTO  model with FlexFabric adapter 554FLB

In Qspec the 554FLB is only supported on the layer2/3 version: HP GbE2c Layer 2/3 Ethernet Blade Switch

Does the customer have to buy new switches, or will 554FLB connect to the old GbE2 switch…????

Any experience on this ?

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Info from Hoa:

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GbE2c does not support Gen8 http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12514_div/12514_div.HTML

Gbe2c Layer 2/3, another product,  supports Gen8 http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12670_na/12670_na.HTML

Both support Flex-10 based networking.   As Jerome said, VC Flex-10 would be better choice, no support for VC FlexFabric on C3000.

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Questions or comments?

[chuckk281]

Comment from Steve:

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The old GbE2c and the current GbE2c L2/3 are electrically the same internally and also share similar FW.  Since the old GbE2c has been EOL for 3 years, we did not test with latest generation of servers and NICs and of course there have not been any recent changes to the GbE2c firmware.  While there is every indication that the original GbE2c will work with the Gen8 servers and NICs, as Jerome mentioned below they are not officially supported.

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