Oracle has designed the Fabric Interconnect F1-4 with forward compatibility in mind. As a result, the I/O Modules have been designed for interchangeability between the Fabric Interconnect F1-15 and the Fabric Interconnect F1-4:
10 GE modules
10-Port GE modules
4-Port 10 GE modules
Fibre Channel modules
The Front Panel is also interchangeable, but the behavior of the Fabric Interconnect F1-4 is different than the Fabric Interconnect F1-15 when the SCP reconnects to the Fabric Interconnect's midplane:
When removing the Front Panel from a Fabric Interconnect F1-15, the Fabric Interconnect remains online but tasks affecting the configuration (which resides on the SCP) do not complete. For example, traffic on vNICs and vHBAs will remain intact, but config exports, imports, system upgrades, and such will not complete.
When the Front Panel is inserted into a Fabric Interconnect F1-15, the Fabric Interconnect will shutdown. This will cause a service interruption, and powering the Fabric Interconnect F1-15 back on again requires physically pressing the Power button on the Front Panel. (For information about powering on the Fabric Interconnect F1-15, see Remove and Install a Fabric Interconnect F1-15 Front Panel Assembly.)
When the Front Panel is removed from a Fabric Interconnect F1-4, the Fabric Interconnect gracefully powers down when the SCP disconnects from the midplane. Because the power down causes a service interruption, if you will be removing a Front Panel from the Fabric Interconnect F1-4, Oracle strongly recommends that you perform this action in a service window or some other time when service interruptions are tolerable.
When the Front Panel is inserted into a Fabric Interconnect F1-4, the Fabric Interconnect remains powered down until you physically press the Power button on the Front Panel. (For information about powering on the Fabric Interconnect F1-15, see Remove a Fabric Interconnect F1-4 Front Panel Assembly). Software command that restart the Fabric Interconnect do not take affect. Instead, you must press the Power button.
Due to the different form factor between the Fabric Interconnect F1-15 and Fabric Interconnect F1-4, some hardware elements are not interchangeable between the Fabric Interconnect F1-15 and Fabric Interconnect F1-4:
Front Panel
PSUs
Fans
Management Module