Beginning with Cisco UCS Manager, Release 4.3(2b), You can migrate Cisco UCS 6400 Series Fabric Interconnects to Cisco UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnect with B-Series servers, C-Series, or S-Series servers.

To migrate from Cisco UCS 6400 Series Fabric Interconnects to Cisco UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnect:

• Cisco UCS 6400 Series Fabric Interconnects must be on Cisco UCS Manager 4.3(2b) or a later release.

• Cisco UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnect must be loaded with the same Infrastructure Firmware version that is on the Cisco UCS 6400 Series Fabric Interconnect that it will replace.

Prerequisites

Before performing the migration from Cisco UCS 6400 Series Fabric Interconnects to Cisco UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnect, ensure that the following prerequisites are met for a successful migration:

• Back up and export Cisco UCS Manager configuration before initiating the upgrade.

• Take an inventory of the Cisco UCS domain and remove any unsupported hardware.

• Ensure to enable the cluster failover.

• Do not attempt to implement new software features from the new Cisco UCS software version until all required hardware is installed.

• Validate the software features and configurations between Cisco UCS 6400 series and UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnects. Before migration, ensure that 6400 series Fabric Interconnect is reconfigured to only have features that are supported with 6536 Fabric Interconnects.

  Note	This is one of the most common reasons for migration failures.

• Make sure both Cisco UCS 6400 series and 6500 series Fabric Interconnects are on the same UCSM build before migration.

• Licenses from Cisco UCS 6400 Series Fabric Interconnects are not transferable to Cisco UCS 6500 Series Fabric Interconnects. Cisco UCS 6500 Series Fabric Interconnects has perpetual license enabled by default.

• Standalone installations should expect down time. In a cluster configuration, migrating the Fabric Interconnects can result in a small traffic disruption when the traffic fails over from one Fabric Interconnect to another. To avoid that there is no permanent traffic loss during migration, ensure that there is redundancy in the UCS domain on both Fabric Interconnects before migration and test the redundancy before starting the migration.

• Cisco UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnect use the IDLE fill pattern for FC uplink ports and FC storage ports when using 8 Gbps speed.

  When migrating to Cisco UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnect and configuring FC Uplink Ports or FC Storage Ports at 8Gbps speed, ensure that the fill pattern is set as IDLE on the corresponding FC switch ports and the direct-attached FC storage array ports. If the fill pattern is not set as IDLE, FC uplink ports and FC storage ports operating at 8 Gbps might go to an errDisabled state, lose SYNC intermittently, or receive errors or bad packets.

  Cisco UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnects supports 8 Gbps only with fill-pattern set to IDLE for direct-attached FC connectivity (FC uplink ports or FC storage ports). This limitation is not applicable for Cisco UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnects with Fibre Channel (FC) ports at 16 Gbps and 32 Gbps. When migrating to Cisco UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnect for direct-attached storage arrays that don’t support IDLE fill-pattern at 8 Gbps do one of the following:

  • Use a SAN switch between the Cisco UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnect and the storage array with 8 GB FC connectivity.

  • Upgrade the storage array to 16 GB or 32 GB FC connectivity.

• Ensure the latest firmware bundle is downloaded and upgraded through GUI or CLI. Incase of attempting to upgrade the firmware bundle using other methods (loader prompt/erase configuration) can result in missing package version.

• Before migration, make sure that the FC Speed is 8Gbps on Cisco UCS 6400 Fabric Interconnects or the connected switch supports 8Gbps speed.

  Note	Post migration, you can configure the FC Port (Scalability Port) speed on Cisco UCS 6500 Fabric Interconnects.

• Migrating to different IOM models can result in peer communication issue between IOMs of the Primary and Secondary Fabric Interconnects.

• Make a detailed record of the cabling between FEX and fabric interconnects. You must preserve the physical port mapping to maintain the server pinning already configured and minimize down time.

• For a cluster configuration, both fabric interconnects must have symmetrical connection topologies between fabric interconnect and FEX.

• Use the same speed cables on all the adapter ports that are connected to same Fabric Interconnect. Cisco UCS VIC adapter ports connected to Cisco UCS 6536 fabric interconnect through a mix of 10G and 25G cables can result in UCS rack-mount server discovery failure and ports moving to suspended state.

• Cisco UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnect only supports 25/40/100G direct connectivity for C-series rack servers and 10G direct-connect is not supported on C-series rack servers. The Cisco UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnect supports 10G server connectivity only with 2348-UPQ FEX.

• A WWN pool can include only WWNNs or WWPNs in the ranges from 20:00:00:00:00:00:00:00 to 20:FF:00:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF or from 50:00:00:00:00:00:00:00 to 5F:FF:00:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF. All other WWN ranges are reserved. When fibre channel traffic is sent through the UCS infrastructure the source WWPN is converted to a MAC address. You cannot use WWPN pool which can translate to source multicast MAC addresses. To ensure the uniqueness of the Cisco UCS WWNNs and WWPNs in the SAN fabric, Cisco recommends using the following WWN prefix for all blocks in a pool: 20:00:00:25:B5:XX:XX:XX

• Unconfigure the fibre channel ports on the migrating subordinate Cisco UCS 6400 series Fabric Interconnect and reconfigure on the Cisco UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnect.

Recommendations

Following are the best practices for a successful migration:

• For minimal disruption during migration, ensure that there is redundancy for Ethernet and FC traffic from the servers in the UCS domain across both 6400 series fabric interconnects before migration.

• Changes to the topology, such as the number of servers or uplink connections, should be performed after the fabric interconnect migration is complete.

• During the migration of Fabric Interconnects, ensure the Cluster ID is not changed.

• During the migration, image synchronization between fabric interconnects is not allowed. This is done to prevent incompatible images from getting synchronized. It is necessary to download B-Series, C-Series, and S-Series server software bundles again after migration is complete.

• During the migration, ensure that VLAN is not created in the range of 3915 to 4042 which are the reserved VLAN range for Cisco UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnects.

• The Cisco UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnect supports only port-channel mode for chassis-discovery. Hence, before starting migration, change the chassis/FEX discovery policy on the Cisco UCS 6400 series Fabric Interconnect to port-channel and immediately re-acknowledge the chassis.

  Note	The migration can fail when the chassis is not immediately re-acknowledged.

Note	For more information on migrating Cisco UCS 6400 series Fabric Interconnects to Cisco UCS 6500 series Fabric Interconnect with UCS Central, see Considerations for migrating Cisco UCS 6400 Series Fabric Interconnects to Cisco UCS 6500 Series Fabric Interconnects with Cisco UCS Central.

Beginning with Cisco UCS Manager, Release 4.2(3b), Cisco UCS Manager provides support for Cisco UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnect. You can migrate Cisco UCS 6300 Series Fabric Interconnects to Cisco UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnect with B-Series servers, C-Series, or S-Series servers.

To migrate from Cisco UCS 6300 Series Fabric Interconnects to Cisco UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnect:

• Cisco UCS 6300 Series Fabric Interconnects must be on Cisco UCS Manager 4.2(3b) or a later release.

• Cisco UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnect must be loaded with the same Infrastructure Firmware version that is on the Cisco UCS 6300 Series Fabric Interconnect that it will replace.

Prerequisites

Before performing the migration from Cisco UCS 6300 Series Fabric Interconnects to Cisco UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnect, ensure that the following prerequisites are met for a successful migration:

• Back up and export Cisco UCS Manager configuration before initiating the upgrade. Ensure that the backup file from the 6300 Series Fabric Interconnects is compatible with the 6536 Fabric Interconnects. You can follow any of the backup methods:

  • Online Migration: This method allows for backing up the configuration while the Fabric Interconnect is operational. It ensures minimal disruption and maintains continuous availability during the migration process.

  • Offline Migration: This method involves taking the fabric interconnect offline to perform the backup, which may result in downtime.

• Take an inventory of the Cisco UCS domain and remove any unsupported hardware.

• Ensure to enable the cluster failover.

• Do not attempt to implement new software features from the new Cisco UCS software version until all required hardware is installed.

• Validate the software features and configurations between Cisco UCS 6300 series and UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnects. Before migration, ensure that 6300 series Fabric Interconnect is reconfigured to only have features that are supported with 6536 Fabric Interconnects.

  Note	This is one of the most common reasons for migration failures.

• Make sure both Cisco UCS 6300 series and 6500 series Fabric Interconnects are on the same UCSM build before migration.

• Licenses from Cisco UCS 6300 Series Fabric Interconnects are not transferable to Cisco UCS 6500 Series Fabric Interconnects.

• Standalone installations should expect down time. In a cluster configuration, migrating the Fabric Interconnects can result in a small traffic disruption when the traffic fails over from one Fabric Interconnect to another. To avoid that there is no permanent traffic loss during migration, ensure that there is redundancy in the UCS domain on both Fabric Interconnects before migration and test the redundancy before starting the migration.

• Cisco UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnect use the IDLE fill pattern for FC uplink ports and FC storage ports when using 8 Gbps speed.

  When migrating to Cisco UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnect and configuring FC Uplink Ports or FC Storage Ports at 8Gbps speed, ensure that the fill pattern is set as IDLE on the corresponding FC switch ports and the direct-attached FC storage array ports. If the fill pattern is not set as IDLE, FC uplink ports and FC storage ports operating at 8 Gbps might go to an errDisabled state, lose SYNC intermittently, or receive errors or bad packets.

  Cisco UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnects supports 8 Gbps only with fill-pattern set to IDLE for direct-attached FC connectivity (FC uplink ports or FC storage ports). This limitation is not applicable for Cisco UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnects with Fibre Channel (FC) ports at 16 Gbps and 32 Gbps. When migrating to Cisco UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnect for direct-attached storage arrays that don’t support IDLE fill-pattern at 8 Gbps do one of the following:

  • Use a SAN switch between the Cisco UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnect and the storage array with 8 GB FC connectivity.

  • Upgrade the storage array to 16 GB or 32 GB FC connectivity.

• Ensure the latest firmware bundle is downloaded and upgraded through GUI or CLI. Incase of attempting to upgrade the firmware bundle using other methods (loader prompt/erase configuration) can result in missing package version.

• Before migration, make sure that the FC Speed is 8Gbps on Cisco UCS 6300 Fabric Interconnects or the connected switch supports 8Gbps speed.

  Note	Post migration, you can configure the FC Port (Scalability Port) speed on Cisco UCS 6500 Fabric Interconnects.

• Migrating to different IOM models can result in peer communication issue between IOMs of the Primary and Secondary Fabric Interconnects.

• Make a detailed record of the cabling between FEX and fabric interconnects. You must preserve the physical port mapping to maintain the server pinning already configured and minimize down time.

• For a cluster configuration, both fabric interconnects must have symmetrical connection topologies between fabric interconnect and FEX.

• Use the same speed cables on all the adapter ports that are connected to same Fabric Interconnect. Cisco UCS VIC adapter ports connected to Cisco UCS 6536 fabric interconnect through a mix of 10G and 25G cables can result in UCS rack-mount server discovery failure and ports moving to suspended state.

• Cisco UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnect only supports 25/40/100G direct connectivity for C-series rack servers and 10G direct-connect is not supported on C-series rack servers. The Cisco UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnect supports 10G server connectivity only with 2348-UPQ FEX.

• A WWN pool can include only WWNNs or WWPNs in the ranges from 20:00:00:00:00:00:00:00 to 20:FF:00:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF or from 50:00:00:00:00:00:00:00 to 5F:FF:00:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF. All other WWN ranges are reserved. When fibre channel traffic is sent through the UCS infrastructure the source WWPN is converted to a MAC address. You cannot use WWPN pool which can translate to source multicast MAC addresses. To ensure the uniqueness of the Cisco UCS WWNNs and WWPNs in the SAN fabric, Cisco recommends using the following WWN prefix for all blocks in a pool: 20:00:00:25:B5:XX:XX:XX

• Unconfigure the fibre channel ports on the migrating subordinate Cisco UCS 6300 series Fabric Interconnect and reconfigure on the Cisco UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnect.

Recommendations

Following are the best practices for a successful migration:

• For minimal disruption during migration, ensure that there is redundancy for Ethernet and FC traffic from the servers in the UCS domain across both 6300 series fabric interconnects before migration.

• Changes to the topology, such as the number of servers or uplink connections, should be performed after the fabric interconnect migration is complete.

• During the migration of Fabric Interconnects, ensure the Cluster ID is not changed.

• During the migration, image synchronization between fabric interconnects is not allowed. This is done to prevent incompatible images from getting synchronized. It is necessary to download B-Series, C-Series, and S-Series server software bundles again after migration is complete.

• During the migration, ensure that VLAN is not created in the range of 3915 to 4042 which are the reserved VLAN range for Cisco UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnects.

• The Cisco UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnect supports only port-channel mode for chassis-discovery. Hence change the Chassis/FEX discovery policy on the Cisco UCS 6300 series Fabric Interconnect to port-channel and immediately re-acknowledge the Cisco UCS 5108 chassis.

  Note	The migration can fail when the chassis is not immediately re-acknowledged.