topic Re: brocade/upgrade in ONTAP Discussions

brocade/upgrade

PZHADMIN — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 07:08:42 GMT

Hi All,

We need to add a shelf to both sides of a MetroCluster and because the customer has bought only licenses for the amount of shelfs(ports) they initially bought we need to also add SFPs and licenses to the Brocade 300 switches.

According to the hardware-provider all needs to go down to facilitate such an upgrade. I tend to disagree, but i can't find any documentation on such an upgrade on the Netapp website.

Brocade says yes, it's an online process but they are simiply looking at their stuff, not taking into account the sensitivity of MetroCluster.

Long story short:

Anyone done this before?

thanks,

Re: brocade/upgrade

BrendonHiggins — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 08:39:17 GMT

Hi, welcome to the community

I am not sure about your question and we do not have metro cluster here. However I have added extra SFPs to brocade switches before.

Purchase the port license and SFPs from NetApp
Copy the swicth port license code from the NetApp now site
Paste it into the brocade web site - Manage licenses
Copy the new brocade license
Log into the brocade switch, browse to licenses and select add license, then paste in the license code
Add SFPs to switch
Cable up and zone as required

Hope this helps

Bren

Re: brocade/upgrade

PZHADMIN — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 08:45:36 GMT

Hi Brendon and thanks for your answer. Brocade says the same thing about adding SFPs and port on demand, that it can be done online.

but the scenario in the case of a MetroCluster may be different as MetroCluster partners need to have an equal amount of ports on either side of the fabric.

my ideal scenario would be:

location a:

down odd fabric, add licenses, add SFPs.

location b:

during the same time:

down odd fabric, add licenses, add SFPs.

repeat for even fabric.

This would leave the cluster running, the hosts aware of new ports/channels, and the equality of the cluster intact, right?

Re: brocade/upgrade

jcosta — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 11:09:07 GMT

Are you talking about the backend switches or the front end switches ?

Re: brocade/upgrade

PZHADMIN — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 12:43:05 GMT

i am talking about the brocade fabric switches between disk(shelfs) and storage controllers. no front end or back end switches (or please elaborate on your question)