Using an Optional Fibre Channel PCIe Card

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Optional Fibre Channel PCIe cards are available to facilitate migration of data from legacy storage subsystems to the Exadata Storage Servers integrated with Oracle SuperCluster T5-8 for Database Domains, or to access SAN-based storage for the Application Domains. The optional Fibre Channel PCIe cards are not included in standard Oracle SuperCluster T5-8 configurations and must be purchased separately.

The following options are supported:

StorageTek 8 Gb FC PCI-Express HBA, Qlogic
StorageTek 8 Gb FC PCI-Express HBA, Emulex

For the Half Rack system, the optional Fibre Channel PCIe cards can be installed in any or all of these remaining PCIe card slots that are not populated by 10 GbE NICs or InfiniBand HCAs:

Slot 2
Slot 4
Slot 5
Slot 7
Slot 10
Slot 12
Slot 13
Slot 15

See Card Locations (SPARC T5-8 Servers) for more information on the slot locations on the SPARC T5-8 servers.

For the Full Rack system, all 16 PCIe slots are occupied with either 10 GbE NICs or InfiniBand HCAs, so installing an optional Fibre Channel PCIe card requires the removal of certain 10 GbE NICs in order to free up a PCIe slot. However, because the PCIe slots are assigned to various domains, and the PCIe slots that are assigned to domains vary depending on your domain configuration, it is recommended that you contact Oracle to install Fibre Channel PCIe cards in the Full Rack version of Oracle SuperCluster T5-8 to ensure that the domains are configured correctly after the 10 GbE NIC has been replaced with a Fibre Channel card.

Note - If you have the Full Rack, you can not install a Fibre Channel PCIe card in a slot that is associated with a Small Domain. In Full Rack configurations, Fibre Channel PCIe cards can only be added to domains with more than one 10-GbE NIC. One 10-GbE NIC must be left for connectivity to the client access network, but for domains with more than one 10-GbE NICs, other 10-GbE NICs can be replaced with Fibre Channel HBAs. See Understanding Full Rack Configurations and Understanding Small Domains (Full Rack) for more information on the configurations with Small Domains.

Once you have installed the optional Fibre Channel PCIe card, it will be associated with a specific domain, depending on the slot it was installed in and your domain configuration. See Understanding the Software Configurations for more information.

Note the following restrictions when using the optional Fibre Channel PCIe cards:

When installed in slots associated with Application Domains running either Oracle Solaris 10 or Oracle Solaris 11, the Fibre Channel PCIe cards can be used for any purpose, including database file storage for supported databases other than Oracle Database 11gR2.
When installed in slots associated with Database Domains, the Fibre Channel PCIe cards can be used for data migration only, and not for storage of Oracle Database 11gR2 data.
Oracle discourages the use of additional network interfaces based on the GbE ports on the Fibre Channel PCIe cards. Oracle will not support questions or issues with networks based on these ports.

For instructions for installing a PCIe card, refer to:

The documentation provided with your PCIe card
The SPARC T5-8 server service manual at:

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E35078_01/index.html