Any issues connecting EMC CX700 to K-series A6685A?

[Ray Ball]

We are about to attempt connecting a series of HP9000 K-series servers (K250, K370, K460) running HP-UX 11.0 to an EMC SAN containing a CLARiiON CX700 via A6685A FC_SW HBAs. I interested in hearing from anyone who has done this successfully in case there are some issues that I need to be aware of.

These systems are all currently connected to a Compaq SAN containing an EMA12000 via single FC_AL A3404A HBAs. With the exception of the K250 which only has one HSC slot, the intent is to connect the remaining two servers to both SANs simultaneouly so we can migrate the data from SAN to SAN via the host.

One issue in particular that I'm interested in getting feedback is that of installing HBAs in the HSC slot on the Core I/O board. I get conflicting opinions on whether this is a supported configuration or not. In the case of the K250, which doesn't support the use of an HSC Expansion card, there is no other choice but to use the Core I/O HSC slot (which we've been doing with the A3404A for some time). Has anyone had a bad experience that can be tied directly to installing an A6685A on the Core I/O board?

We're aware that we should be turning off BBR (the LVM Bad Block Relocation feature).

Any advice on patches would also be greatly appreciated.

Thanks...Ray

[Ashwani Kashyap · Accepted solution]

I was never able to configure a A6685A on the optional core HSC slot .My K boxes would always Panic . I remeber I has a hardware planing guide given to me by a reseller whereit mentioned thet A6685A is not supported on the core IO hsc slots . I seem to have misplaced it . I will try to look it up .

Ptched up to a current level is better however I recall for cx600 , the minimum requiremnt for HPUX 11i was a dec2002 patch level . I don't know for cx700 . But you can take dec2002 as baseline and go ahead with patch levels as much as you are comfortable with .

[Ray Ball]

Ashwani - thanks for the input. We'll attempt to avoid using the Core I/O slot but the K250 gives us no option but to use it. And based on the following link:
http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?admit=716493758+1086642156174+28353475&threadId=469254
HP seem to endorse using it on K250s.

Confused as ever...Ray