50 Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide
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Blade swapping
3
When an FR4-18i blade is replaced by an FC4-16, FC4-32, FC8-16, FC8-32, FC8-48, or FC8-64
blade, then the EX_Port configuration is removed from any ports that were configured as
EX_Ports (equivalent to disabling the EX_Port configuration using the portCfgEXPort
command). All remaining port configurations are retained.
NOTE
This is not true for the 8-Gbps port blades. Because FC8- type blades support EX_Ports, they
are still retained in the configuration, but the ports are persistently disabled.
The FC10-6 blade does not support EX_Ports.

Disabling blades

1. Connect to the switch and log in as admin.
2. Enter the bladeDisable command with the slot number of the port blade you want to disable.
ecp:admin> bladedisable 3
Slot 3 is being disabled

Blade swapping

Blade swapping allows you to swap one blade with another of the same type; in this way, you can
perform a FRU replacement with minimal traffic disruption. The entire operation is accomplished
when the bladeSwap command runs on the Fabric OS. The Fabric OS then validates each
command before actually implementing the command on the enterprise-class platform. If an error
is encountered then blade swap quits without disrupting traffic flowing through the blades. If an
unforeseen error does occur during the bladeSwap command, an entry will be made into the
RASlog and all ports that have been swapped as part of the blade swap operation will be swapped
back. On successful completion of the command, the source and destination blades are left in a
disabled state allowing you to complete the cable move.
Blade swapping is based on port swapping and has the same restrictions:
Shared area ports cannot be swapped.
Ports that are part of a trunk group cannot be swapped.
GbE ports cannot be swapped.
Swapping ports between different logical switches is not supported. The ports on the source
and destination blades need to be in the same logical switch.
Undetermined board types cannot be swapped. For example, a blade swap will fail if the blade
type cannot be identified.
Blade swapping is not supported when swapping to a different model of blade or a different
port count. For example, you cannot swap an FC8-32 blade with an FC8-48 port blade.
NOTE
This feature is not supported on the FX8-24 DCX Extension blade.