[Info-vax] HBAs on x86

[John H. Reinhardt]

On 4/12/2019 1:38 PM, Robert A. Brooks wrote:
> On 4/12/2019 1:57 PM, John H. Reinhardt wrote:
>> On 4/12/2019 12:47 PM, Robert A. Brooks wrote:
>>> On 4/12/2019 1:33 PM, Mark Berryman wrote:
>>>> The storage in my cluster is all SAN based so I am wondering what HBA(s) VSI will be initially supporting in the x86 port.
>>>>
>>>> Has this information been released yet?
>>>
>>> Probably not released yet, but it'll definitely be Qlogic to start.
>>>
>>> Certainly the 16GB adapter we support now; early work with a 32GB adapter shows promise.
>>>
>>
>> How about the older adapters?  4GB and 8GB?  IIRC these are already supported in the Itanium versions so will they just be ported and included?
> 
> I don't know that much about what adapters are offered on Gen 9 and newer ProLiants.  It's the same port device driver that deals with all of the Qlogic hardware, so we would certainly not remove support, given that the driver will be common code across IA64 and X86_64.
> 
> Having said that, if you cannot buy a Gen9 or newer ProLiant with a 2/4/8 Gb/sec
> adapter, then we likely would not support it.  However, it's not my call.
> 
> Would it still work?  I'd expect so.
> 

It's possible now that by the time OpenVMS x86 is available, the C-Class blade may be irrelevant.  Just got this from an HP reseller:

HPE C-CLASS BLADES ARE GOING END OF LIFE

That's right! HPE c-Class Blades are going End of Life after Gen10, which also means End of Support for all previous generations. HPE will not be manufacturing Gen11 Blades, but instead move to a new technology that will replace and surpass blade infrastructure, HPE Synergy.


I haven't looked into the "Synergy" product yet to see what it is.  At the very least though it should mean that C-Class blades will start to be available on the surplus market at much cheaper prices.



-- 
John H. Reinhardt