Stacking Flex-10 and 1/10Gb VC-Enet Modules

[sgunelius]

We now have 10GbE available in our data center and I'm considering reconfiguring the (3) C7000 enclosures to best leverage those connections.  One of the enclosures has (2) Flex-10 Enet modules and the other two enclosures have the original 1/10Gb VC-Enet modules.  I know I can't use the older modules to manage the stacking, but can I run 10GbE uplinks to the enclosure with Flex-10 modules and then use the CX4 interfaces to connect the 1/10Gb modules in the two other enclosures?

I was hoping to consolidate all of the 1GbE connections from the 1/10Gb VC-Enet modules in the enclosures (about 4-5 per module/8-10 per enclosure with current Active/Standby configuration) to 1 or 2 10GbE connections.  Thank you.

Scott

[Steven Clementi]

Scott:

I'd like to say that what you want to do is feasible, but I almost remember reading somewhere, probably the VC Cookbook, that all modules in Bay1/Bay2 in all enclosures needed to be the same.  I'll have to try to find the reference and re-post it.

[sgunelius]

Steven,

Thank you for your reply.  I recently received an answer from HP technical support on this and as long as I use the enclosure with Flex-10 modules as the "base" enclosure, it sounds like I can interconnect with the other enclosures via CX4.

The only downside is that implementing multi-enclosure stacking will require that I migrate to a single domain and this means reconfiguring the existing enclosures, more importantly the WWPNs for those blade servers that are SAN attached and redefining the zoning on my SAN switches, as well as changes within Command View where the storage is presented to those server.  That's a considerable undertaking and outage we'll have to sustain to implement 10GbE uplinks.

I'm more tempted to replace all of the 1/10Gb VC-Enet modules with Flex-10 modules to provide 10GbE connectivity for each enclosure without stacking.

Scott

[Steven Clementi]

"I'm more tempted to replace all of the 1/10Gb VC-Enet modules with Flex-10 modules to provide 10GbE connectivity for each enclosure without stacking."

Sounds like a better plan... might be cheaper too... ;o)