About Hot-Plug and Hot-Swap Operations

Sun Fire 880 systems support hot-pluggable Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) cards. This hot-plug capability enables you to add, remove, or replace a PCI card on a powered-on system, while the rest of the system's capabilities remain unaffected.

Hot-plugging significantly reduces system downtime associated with PCI card replacement. However, the hot-plug procedure involves software commands for preparing the system prior to removal of a PCI card and for reconfiguring the operating environment after installation of a new card.

In contrast, Sun Fire 880 fan trays and power supplies are hot-swappable. You can remove or insert these components at any time without any prior software preparation. For more information about hot-swappable system components, refer to the Sun Fire 880 Server Owner's Guide.

The Sun Fire 880 Remote System Control (RSC) card is not a hot-pluggable component. Before installing or removing an RSC card, you must power off the system and disconnect all system power cords.