[ATTO] Replacing ATTO Bridge 7500N with 7600N

The ATTO Bridge 7500N went End-Of-Support on 30th June 2024 (went End-Of-Availability on 10th May 2019). Last supported ONTAP version with the 7500N is 9.14.1. And I have to replace 4 of these.

The official documentation is in places:

And I have written my own ATTO posts over the years, the most recent and relevant being:

Step-By-Step Guide

  1. Read documentation, download documentation, download software, plan and prepare.
  2. Verify from the NetApp IMT and HWU that you will have a supported configuration with the 7600N. Things do sometimes drift out of support, but - if you're the one doing the 7500N to 7600N upgrade - you want to be sure it's leading to a supported configuration.
  3. Gather information from the ONTAP cluster and Fabric Metrocluster switches (for instance:
    1. You want to know what switch ports are connected to the old ATTO, as you'll be disabling these ports.
    2. Does the switch support 32Gbps FC - since the 7500N supported  up to 16Gbps, and 7600N up to 32Gbps):
    • [Useful commands - Brocade]:
      • version
      • firmwareshow
      • fabricshow
      • switchshow
      • portcfgshow
      • zoneshow
      • cfgshow
      • sfpshow -all
  4. Follow this document:
  5. Make sure the firmware is up to date on the newly installed ATTO:
    • Updating firmware on a FibreBridge bridge 
      • Note: This is also covered in the document in (3). Presenting it here for awareness.
      • Note: The document in (3) says to update firmware on ATTO bridge (step 17) before you've enabled the FC switch ports (step 21), but since the communication is in-band, this won't work (without the FC ports being enabled, there is no in-band way for ONTAP to talk to the ATTO bridge). Really, step 17 should be after step 21 (perhaps miniSAS ports should be connected after this step, and not at 18!? Order: 21, 17, 18!?)
  6. Repeat 4 and 5 to replace the other ATTO bridges.

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