ESX 5.5 Update 1 and HP FlexFabric 10Gb 2-Port 534FLB Adapter

[LeslieBNS9]

Does anyone know if the HP FlexFabric 10Gb 2-Port 534FLB Adapter supports 8Gb Fiber Channel? For some reason I can only get this adapter to show up in VMWare as a Fiber Channel over Ethernet storage adapter. I have installed using HP's Custom image and ensured the latest firmware and drivers were installed. The HP blades that have the HP FlexFabric 10Gb 2-Port 554FLB Adapter are all showing up correctly in VMWare.

HP Blades with 554FLB Adapter

HP Blades with 534FLB Adapter

[rcporto]

Seems like it support FCoE, not native FC, anyway you can check the QuickSpecs here: HP FlexFabric 10Gb 2-port 534FLB Adapter (QuickSpecs/c04111268.pdf)

[LeslieBNS9]

That's what I'm thinking as well, but when I talked to HP support they say that the 534FLB (Broadcom) and the 554FLB (Emulux) should work exactly the same except one is Emulex and one is Broadcom.

I also checked the specs on the 554FLB and it doesn't specifically call out support for native Fiber Channel only FCoE. HP FlexFabric 10Gb 2-port 554FLB Adapter(647586-B21)

I'm going to call support again to see if they can provide more assistance.

[LeslieBNS9 · Accepted solution]

Just spoke with HP again. It seems like our sales people and the support people have differing information. The sales staff states that the 554FLB and the 534FLB should work the same, but support says that the 534FLB only supports FCoE. If we want native FC we need to move back to the 554FLB.

[LeslieBNS9]

We ended up purchasing the 554FLBs and now our hosts are working fine using native Fiber Channel.