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9513 to 9710 migration
Current environment is two separate fabrics made up of 9513's running 5.2.8a. attached through ISL's are IBM Blade centers using Cisco 4GB switch modules running various versions of 5.2.8. Also IBM Blade centers using Brocade 8GB switch modules in native mode (VSAN in interop 3) . I want to migrate current environment to new environment which is to replace 9513's with 9710's with 32GB cards running 8.1.1a. I know that interop mode is no longer supported so I can only use Brocades if I convert them to AGM. Can I ISL the 9513's to the 9710's and have it work. All the comp matrices I have read seem to indicate that it will not work.?
ErikS1
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October 12th, 2018 10:00
The first problem would be with the Cisco 4G switch modules. They will not be able to connect to a 32G blade using 32G optics. 16G optics would be required because they can negotiate down to 4G.
With regards to ISL interop between the 9513 and 9710, you'd need to upgrade the 9513 to one of the 6.2.x firmware versions that we support.
Anonymous
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October 12th, 2018 11:00
ErikS, I understand about the optics and have a plan to do as you described but how will the upgrade to 6.2.X on the 9513’s affect the 4GB modules which cannot be upgraded any further than they are. IS ALL levels of NX-OS downward level compatible? What specifically is it that keeps a switch running 5.2.X from being compatible with one running 8.1.X? Was there an architecture change.? Customer asking all these questions so I do appreciate your help.Thanks
ErikS1
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October 12th, 2018 11:00
Hi Daniel, I suspect that Cisco doesn't support 8.x and 5.x interop due to lack of testing. It could be that you connect them together and it would work fine.
With regards to the 4G Cisco blades, do they support an NPV mode ? I was reading through the documentation and it doesn't appear that they do, but that would address the issue.
If NPV mode isn't supported on the cisco blades, you could submit an RPQ and we could provide you a more formal answer with regards to 5.x and 8.x interop..
Anonymous
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October 12th, 2018 12:00
ErikS,
All of our chassis' go EOL in a year anyway. Hoping customer will refresh those as well, but if they choose to keep it I need to plan for a san topology that works. I may just move the servers and storage that will run on 9710 at 8.1 and leave the rest to time out.