moving an ESX server blade between chassis

[archer_327]

We are using HP blade servers for our ESX servers. Up until today, we only have 1 bladesystem chassis. I have 2 ESX clusters, each cluster comprised on 2 blades, for a total of 4 blades. We have a new HP bladesystem chassis, and now contemplating moving 2 of the blade servers to the new chassis, so that cluster1 has 1 blade on chassis1 and 1 blade on chassis2, and so on for cluster2. We are not using the HP VirtualConnect. Both chassis will be connected to the same network and SAN. My understanding is that if I move a blade to a different chassis, that the NICs and FC HBAs will still have the same MACs and WWNs, so that there is no further reconfiguration to be done on any of the switches. The Brocade switch zoning uses port WWNs. Am I correct in my assumption?

I guess I could test this by putting 1 ESX server (1 blade) under maintenance, vmotion all VMs to a single host, moving the ESX blade under maintenance to the new chassis, and test moving 1 VM to see if it can vmotion back.

Thanks.

-Mark

[AndreTheGiant]

I do not know how HP blade are build, but if WWN and MAC address are on the blade, you can simple move it without problem.

Andre

[savantsingh]

It should be fine as long as you have configured the same network profiles on both enclosures.

From storage prospective it should be fine as long as the brocade modules on the enclosure are in open access mode and can see the fabric.

Hope this helps!!