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Category Archives: Brocade
Reset the Zoning Configuration and Prevent Mistakes.
There are occasions where you need to remove an entire zoning configuration from a switch. One of them is if you need to add a switch to an existing fabric and it still has a configuration in it. If these two conflict the switch will simply segment and the ISL’s get disabled. Another reason might be in case of configuration conflicts where and administrator had made zone changes whilst one switch was not participating in the fabric. Depending on how the switch is set up and the actual fabric state you need to follow different procedures.
Appalling state of Storage Networks
In the IT world a panic is most often related to a operating systems kernel to run out of resources or some unknown state where it cannot recover and stops. Depending on the configuration it might dump its memory contents to a file or a remote system. This allows developers to check this file and look for the reason why it happened.
A fibre-channel switch running Linux as OS is no different but the consequences can be far more severe.
9.2 – Long Distance configurations – CWDM/DWDM
One of the most complex ways of implementing long distance connectivity is using CWDM or DWDM extension equipment. Reason being is that the technology is often fairly complex and diagnostics in case of troubleshooting is most often done on a layer 1 level which means you need to have extensive knowledge of not only the way Fibre-Channel operates on a FC-PI (Physical Interface) but also how it aligns to the standards described by the ITU.
Traffic Isolation Zoning – The mistake of FOS
If there is one thing I would consider “the” blunder of FOS engineering it has to be Traffic Isolation zoning. I mean, creating such an administrative nightmare with obscure directions causing confusion and nasty pitfalls when one thing goes wrong is in many occasions a recipe for disaster.
Read on
1.2 Flow Vision
This subject will be divided in two sections.
- Flow Monitor and Generator
- Flow Mirror
In FOS 7 the concept of frame-monitoring was introduced on Condor2 and Condor3 ASICs. This allowed an administrator to create a frame template based on the FC frameheader (see here) and obtain statistics on these frames. Flow Vision is somewhat progressing on this technology and has been extended significantly. Flow Vision is a 3 way solution which requires a switch capable of providing the functionality, software licensed to be able to configure and capture flows and a tool to collect and interpret these flows. All Condor 3 based switches (16G), FOS 7.4 and up, and Brocade Network Advisor 12.4.x are needed to be able to fully utilise the base flow-vision functionality. (The Brocade AMP platform is an extension but will be discussed later.)
Time to rethink your zoning strategy –peerzones
With the advance of the FC-GS and FC-SW protocols the change, or more the enhancement, of being able to use Target Driven Zoning provided Brocade with the option to tinker a bit on the implementation of the functionality.
tim_txcrd_z What is it? What does it represent?
I get a huge amount of questions and nervous customers who tell me they see this counter increasing at an alarming rate and want to know if this is a problem or not.
The answer is yes and no. 🙂
That doesn’t help you much does it? Read on…..
Why FDMI is compulsory (or should be!!)
FDMI stands for Fabric Device Management Interface and is such an enormously cool feature and unfortunately one of the least used. From an operational management perspective FDMI provides a wealth of information to the fabric regarding the attached devices. The thing that flabbergasted me is that almost no device (HBA/Array) has this turned on of even has the functionality embedded.
9.1 – Long Distance configurations – Direct Connect
Switch fabric configurations over dark fibre, direct connect, links are not much different then connecting them when they sit next to each other. There is no physical interference which has an impact on protocol behavior.