brocade 4gbit upgrade to 8gbit..

[toregil]

Hi,

We're planning upgrade of our c-class dual 4gbit brocade san to 8gbit.. Is it possible to hotplug this or do we need to shutdown all servers in c7000 enclosure?

My guess is hot-plug one 4gbit fc switch and plug in 8gbit sw with isl's to se if the paths comes up again, then the other fc switch a day later..

Any help would be helpfull.

Regards, Tor Egil

[Torsten.]

No reason to shutdown the servers, but you need to adjust or re-create the zoning on the new switch.

Additional steps may be needed if you have more than 1 switch in each SAN (take care about the domain ID!).

[Ivan Lyanguzov]

Tor,

Despite your hotplug action plan, one of my customers recently had issue when upgrading from pass-through module to 8/24c switches. They ended up with re-seating all blades.

So, I would recommend planning downtime in case hotplug switch replacement will not be hotplug.

Ivan.

[Johan Guldmyr]

Tor, how is your environment? Do you only have these two switches in the c-class or do you have more?
If you have more switches, then less configuration is needed.

[toregil]

We have two fabrics of brocades like this:

2x 8gbit 40porter samt 1x8gbit c-class 1x4gbit c-class (for upgrade to 8gbit) 2x 4gbit 32porter (migrating away from).

Regards,

Tor Egil

[Johan Guldmyr]

Good, 

I presume upgrading should follow the same steps as for when replacing a broken SAN-switch.

See the 8/24 SAN switch user guide: http://bizsupport.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c01505736/c01505736.pdf

There is a step by step guide in there.