A particular FC-AL Sbus card, HBA part number 501-3060, is not supported on the A3500-FC and can cause loop offline/loop online problems. Unfortunately, prtdiag has been producing misleading output.

HBA Part Numbers

• There are 3 HBA part numbers for FC-AL Sbus cards. (501-3060, 501-5202, 501-5266)
• The 501-3060 part is not supported on the A3500-FC. This is stated in the FE handbook. Some later versions(501-3060-05 and later) might work, but they are not supported.
• Unfortunately, prtdiag reports all three part numbers as 501-3060 regardless. You must determine the real part number by physically examining the part number on the board.

More unfortunately, the part number is located on the Sbus connector (501-3060xxxxxx, 501-5202xxxxxx, 501-5266xxxxxx). You cannot examine HBAs that are in current use without scheduling downtime.

Huon Sok and Jeff Farmer have learned the following from A3500 engineers Jackson Wang and Joe Harman.