Swapping out HBA's

[VMwareman85]

Details:

Version: ESX 3.5

Hello All,

I wanted to see if anyone has swapped out HBA's on their ESX host, if so what steps did you take? All VM's have been migrated off....do not want to reload OS.

Thank you

[mcowger]

Swap them out, adjust san zoning, adjust array masking, reboot.

--Matt

[kjb007]

I've done this several times. The high level steps have already been posted. There should be no need to reinstall anything, either for boot-from-san, or otherwise. As long as the storage is presented to the new HBA, you're good to go. That's usually the hardest part, getting the storage presented and made available, the data stored on them will be fine once it gets there.

-KjB

[doubleH]

You didn't mention if you are talking about iSCSI or FC HBA's. I had to swap out my iSCSI HBA last weekend. Here is what I had to do...

1. Put host into maintenance mode and vMotion VM's to other hosts

2. Remove old HBA and Install HBA

3. Assign IP address to HBA

4. Set iSCSI target IP address

5. Rescan and iSCSI volumes should appear.

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[VMwareman85]

FC HBA's

I will be swapping out the HBA's with different chipset, going from an HP to an EMC card, will ESX automatically detect the new drivers?

Thank you

[doubleH]

as long as the EMC HBA is on the HCL esx will load the drivers upon reboot.

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[kjb007]

HP/EMC don't really make HBA's. They are most likely re-branded QLogic or Emulex cards. Both of which are fine. As stated, check the HCL, and if it's in the HCL, you know you're good.

-KjB