Brocade Administration & troubleshooting

Brocade Administration
&
Troubleshooting
10th Jan 2014
Jayaprakash Aridos

Brocade Storage SAN Family
The Leading SAN Connectivity Solutions
for Open Systems & Mainframe Environments
FC Routing, iSCSI
and Extension
Solutions
Fabric Manager
SAN16B-2
(2005-B16)
8 to 16-ports
1, 2, 4Gbps FC
SAN64B-2
(2005-B64)
32 to 64-ports
1, 2, 4Gbps
FC, FICON
4 Gbps SAN
Switch Module
for IBM BladeCenter®
1, 2, 4Gbps FC
SAN256B-2
(2109-M48)
16 to 384-ports
1, 2, 4, 10Gbps
FC, FICON
*10 Gbps on SAN256B in 3Q07
NEW
SAN32B-3
(2005-B5K)
16 to 32-ports
1, 2, 4Gbps FC
EFCM
SAN Fabric Management Tools
SAN256M
(2027-256)
32 to 256-ports
1, 2, 4, 10Gbps
FC, FICONSAN140M
(2027-140)
4 to 140-ports
1, 2, 4, 10Gbps
FC, FICON
SAN18B-R (2005-R18)
256B FCR Blade (FC #3450)
256B iSCSI (FC #3460)
6/1/2015 Brocade Administration & Troubleshooting 2

Feature Description SAN Benefits
8 Gbit/sec
Bandwidth
Next generation SAN
performance today.
Double SAN
bandwidth.
Dynamic Path
Selection
Dynamically balance
traffic across multiple
links and trunk
groups.
ISL Trunking
Build SAN with
up to 32 Gbit/sec
performance
optimized trunks.
Extended
Fabric
Extend native FC
links up to 500 km.
Combine with ISL
Trunking up to
250 km.
Enhanced Business Continuity
Improved distances and
performance for Metro Mirroring
and Remote Backup
8 Gbit/sec
Link
Performance
Up to 32Gbit/sec Trunk
SAN
Brocade Advanced Features
Enhancing Performance and Availability
SAN
Improved Performance
8 Gbit/sec Inter-Switch Links (ISLs)
8 Gbit/sec links to next-gen
devices
Up to 32 Gbit/sec ISL Trunks
Infrastructure Simplification
Simpler SAN topology
Increased SAN Availability
Investment Protection

Hardware
Enforced
Zoning
Prevents one device
from communicating to
another device it is not
authorized to access.
Enforced at the ASIC
level
Isolate devices from each other in
the fabric such that there is no
possible interaction between
devices that are not explicitly
defined. Enhance security and fault
isolation.
Fabric
Watch
Monitoring and alerting
of key SAN statistics
such as perf, error,
security
Enhance Business Continuity
Improve application availability
Alert admin of marginal/hard errors
Advanced
Performance
Monitoring
Highly granular SAN
perf. monitoring to
differentiate traffic
between devices
Enhance performance monitoring
Simplify capacity planning
Enable bill-back capabilities
Advanced
Security
Robust encryption,
authentication and
authorization SAN
policies
Enhance Business Continuity
Protect SAN from hackers
Reduce user errors
SAN
SAN
Enhancing Fault Isolation, Management and Security
SAN

FCIP, FC Routing and Partitioning
Virtual SAN
Fabrics
Partition the SAN fabric
at port level to isolate
mngt, admin roles,
RSCNs, fabric events
Allows separation of a SAN fabric into
smaller fabrics that may overlap and
share devices
SAN LPARS Create HW logical
partition at card level
for independent
managed directors in a
single chassis
Independent fabric services per
partition allows true Segmentation
of data, control and management
traffic
FCIP
Tunneling
Extends FC links up to
1000’s km over IP
network. FC and FCIP
Fast Write
Enhanced Business Continuity.
Improved Global Mirroring and
Tape Vaulting
FC Routing Route selected SAN
traffic between SAN
islands w/o merging
fabrics and admin
Improve storage resource sharing,
Enables SAN consolidation,
Maintains SAN security and fault
isolation
SAN
SAN
Production
Test
Backup
Spare
ports

FICON/FC
Intermix
FICON and FCP
protocol intermix at the
port level.
Auto-sensing protocol and port
speeds increase flexibility and
provides greater port level
granularity.
N-Port
Virtualization
(NPIV)
Allows multiple Linux
Logical Partitions to
share a single FCP
channel
Use fewer FCP channels on
Mainframe
Better channel utilization and
simpler infrastructure
High Integrity
Fabrics
(FICON
Cascading)
Binds Switches to
Fabric for increased
Security
Enhanced Business Continuity.
Improved distances/performance
for Metro Mirroring and Remote
Backup
FICON CUP FICON in-band
management of
Directors from the
Mainframe
Simplify management and
monitoring of directors
Single point of management for
Enterprises
In-band
Management
z9
M48
FICON Specific Features
M48
z9
xSeries
zSeries
DS4000
iSeries
pSeries DS6000
DS8000
M48
M48

New Hardware from Brocade
•10Gbps blade (FC #3470)
• 6-ports for 10Gbps ISL connectivity using SW, LW and ELW XFP media
• All Brocade directors now offer 10Gbps inter-switch links
• Ideal for Long distance, high bandwidth BC/DR solutions
• Support distances over 100km
– iSCSI blade (FC #3460)
• Supports iSCSI initiators and Fibre Channel
target/initiator
• 8 GigE ports and 8 FC ports (1/2/4 Gbps)
• 64 iSCSI initiators per port, 512 initiators per blade
• Up to 4 blades per SAN256B (2048 tested)

FOS Enhancements from Brocade
•FC Routing and FCIP:
• Increased Scalability for the SAN18B-R or FC-FCIP Routing Blade for M48
• Up to 12 Layer 2 switches and 12 FC Routers in the backbone fabric
• FCIP tunnels offer QoS capabilities to ensure specific bandwidth
• FC and FCIP FastWrite capabilities to enhance long distance mirroring solutions
•Security management:
• Complete migration of Secure Fabric OS features in the base FOS code
• A new Security Administrator role for separation of security and fabric
administrators
• Tracking of logins to see breaches in the fabric.
• Fabric authentication with standards-based improvement for device-to-fabric
attachment (FC-SP DH-CHAP)
• IPv6 capabilities for all management interfaces
– IP over FC support:
• Supporting Broadcast Zoning to reduce device interruption
• Targeted for the film industry
• When using FC as a common backbone for for host-to-storage and host-to-host file
transfer.
• Reducing overall production time and improving the integrity/security of digital
data transfers.
•Access Gateway feature added to SAN16B-2 to allow greater scalability and simplify connectivity

Brocade Switch Module for BladeCenter
Connecting to McDATA SAN fabrics
Brocade
BladeCenter
SAN Switch
Modules
20072006
Access Gateway
Interoperability
Native McDATA
Interoperability
McDATA/QLogic
FC Switch
Modules
End
Sale
Connecting BladeCenter to McDATA fabrics:
•2007 – use the no-cost feature on Brocade called Access Gateway
•2008 – use Access Gateway feature or the M-EOS (NI) mode
Do not use the former McDATA/QLogic module
•QLogic HW and firmware
•Being End-of-Lifed
•Not as good a solution as Brocade SAN Switch in long run
2008

NPIV & NPV
• Two technologies that seem to have come to the fore recently are NPIV (N_Port ID
Virtualization) and NPV (N_Port Virtualization).
NPIV
• What NPIV does is allow a single physical N_Port to have multiple WWPNs, and therefore
multiple N_Port_IDs, associated with it. After the normal FLOGI process, an NPIV-enabled
physical N_Port can subsequently issue additional commands to register more WWPNs and
receive more N_Port_IDs (one for each WWPN). The Fibre Channel switch must also support
NPIV, as the F_Port on the other end of the link would “see” multiple WWPNs and multiple
N_Port_IDs coming from the host and must know how to handle this behavior.
• N port identifier virtualization (NPIV) provides a means to assign multiple FC IDs to a single N
port. This feature allows multiple applications on the N port to use different identifiers and
allows access control, zoning, and port security to be implemented at the application level.
The following figure shows an example application using NPIV.

NPV
– NPV introduces a new type of Fibre Channel port, the NP_Port. The NP_Port connects to an F_Port
and acts as a proxy for other N_Ports on the NPV-enabled switch. Essentially, the NP_Port “looks”
like an NPIV-enabled host to the F_Port on the other end. An NPV-enabled switch will register
additional WWPNs (and receive additional N_Port_IDs) via NPIV on behalf of the N_Ports connected
to it. The physical N_Ports don’t have any knowledge this is occurring and don’t need any support for
it; it’s all handled by the NPV-enabled switch.
• So why is this functionality useful? There is the immediate benefit of being able to scale your
Fibre Channel fabric without having to add domain IDs, yes, but in what sorts of environments
might this be particularly useful? Consider a blade server environment, like an HP c7000 chassis,
where there are Fibre Channel switches in the back of the chassis. By using NPV on these
switches, you can add them to your fabric without having to assign a domain ID to each and
every one of them.
Benefits of NPIV
– Without NPIV, it’s not possible because the N_Port on the physical host would have only a single
WWPN (and N_Port_ID). Any LUNs would have to be zoned and presented to this single WWPN.
Because all VMs would be sharing the same WWPN on the one single physical N_Port, any LUNs
zoned to this WWPN would be visible to all VMs on that host because all VMs are using the same
physical N_Port, same WWPN, and same N_Port_ID.
– With NPIV, the physical N_Port can register additional WWPNs (and N_Port_IDs). Each VM can have
its own WWPN. When you build SAN zones and present LUNs using the VM-specific WWPN, then the
LUNs will only be visible to that VM and not to any other VMs.

Ex., VMWare hosts & TOPS LPARS
Ex., SANTap Module in Meritor

Traditional Datacenter
Brocade
Cisco
McData
Benefits of Brocade Access Gateway
No cost feature solves real-world SAN issues
Access Gateway Access Gateway Access Gateway
Concerns with Bladed Servers:
•Difficult to connect to McDATA fabrics
•Limited SAN scalability
•Obscure Admin responsibility (SAN admin vs
Server admin)
Datacenter using Access Gateway
Access Gateway offers these benefits:
•Connects to McDATA Fabrics
•Simplifies fabric & allows greater scalability
•Clear Admin responsibility
SAN
FC
Switch
FC
Switch
FC
Switch
FC
Switch
FC
Switch
FC
Switch
FC
Switch
FC
Switch
Change
Modes
SW
AG

SAN16B-2 using Brocade Access Gateway
No cost feature simplifies edge connectivity
Typical Core-Edge Topology:
•One to two core switches
•3 to many edge switches
•In this example:
•1 SAN32B-3 core switch
•3 SAN16B-2 edge switches
•4 domains to manage
SAN32B-3
SAN16B-2 SAN16B-2 SAN16B-2
Change 16B
from Switch
mode to AG
mode
SAN32B-3
Core-Edge Topology with Access Gateway:
•Reduce the total number of domains
•Connect to FOS, M-EOS and Cisco fabrics with NPIV
•In this example:
•1 SAN32B-3 core switch
•3 SAN16B-2 edge Access Gateways
•1 domain to manage
NEW

AG Feature Support Statement
•AG is supported on the 4Gb Brocade SAN Switch Module for
BladeCenter and SAN16B-2:
– FOS 5.2.1b or above for SAN Switch Module for BladeCenter
– FOS 5.3+ for SAN16B-2
•Access Gateway feature requires that NPIV (N-port ID virtualization)
capability be enabled on the external switches:
– Brocade switches running FOS 5.1 with NPIV enabled
– McDATA switches running EOS 9.0 with NPIV enabled
• M-EOS 9.6 offers NPIV in base code
– Cisco switches running OS 3.0 with NPIV enabled

Typical AG Deployment Scenarios
•When to use AG?
– Enterprise and large data centers where the fabric size is becoming a burden
• Greater than 50 switches in an all b-type (Brocade) fabric
• Greater than 30 switches in a fabric that includes m-type (McDATA) products
– Connecting BladeCenter or 16B-2 to McDATA or Cisco SAN fabrics
• Requires NPIV feature on the external switches
– Customer’s SAN Admin group does not want an embedded switch in server products
(i.e. BladeCenter)
•When NOT to use AG?
– Connecting SAN targets (such as storage) directly to switch module
– Environments where customers require switch features not supported by AG
• ISL Trunking
• Long Distance support greater than 10km (using Extended Fabric license)
Use AG Feature only when needed to help overcome an issue.
Default mode for switch module should always be FC switch.

Brocade Director Roadmap
Investing Today & Tomorrow
256M Director
• 256-ports 1,2,4 Gig
• Hard Partitions
• Virtual Fabrics
• 10Gbit/sec ISL
• Open Trunking
140M Director
• 140-ports 1,2,4 Gig
• 10Gbit/sec ISL
• Open Trunking
• NPIV
Next Generation Core
• Common Management - EFCM
• Native Interoperability (M-EOS)
• Partitioning
• Virtual Fabrics
• Features:
•1, 2, 4, 8 and 10Gbps
•FCP, FICON, FCIP,
•FCR, iSCSI, Apps
Seamless growth for all
director platforms
20072006 2008 & beyond
256B Director
• 384-ports 1,2,4 Gig
• FCP, FICON, FCIP
• FC Routing
• Virtual Fabrics
• NPIV
SAN32B-3BROCADE AG
(BladeCenter)
•10Gig blade (ISL)
• iSCSI Blade
FOS 6.x
• 8Gbps blades
• FCP and FICON
• Native Interoperability (M-EOS)
E/OS 9.6
 NPIV
 Security Ench
 Interoperability
enhancements and
validation
E/OS 9.7
 IPv6
• Interoperability enhancements
and validation
E/OS 9.7
• IPv6
• Interoperability enhancements
and validation
 Interoperability
enhancements and
validation

Next Generation Core Platform
Consolidating and Scaling Your Infrastructure
Next Gen
Core
No rip-and-replace for Next Gen SAN.
Seamless growth for all director platforms.
NG Core Director connects
to all 4Gb directors
Edge
Core
140M 256M 256B
2007:
4Gb products are just now
becoming prevalent. End-to-End
solutions with servers, disk and
tape.
2008-2011:
4Gb directors will connect into hi-perf Core.
Multiple protocols & very high bandwidth allow
for greatest data center consolidation. 8Gb
FC devices will start rolling out.
8Gb 8Gb 4Gb

Networking Fundamentals
• FC Topology
• Fabric Scalability
• Initiator/Target relationship
• Switch Ports
• FC definitions
• ISL Concepts
• Cable selection
• Host Support

Core-Edge
Design the Fabric for your requirements
Full mesh
Cascade
Mesh Configurations are appropriate when:
Traffic patterns are evenly distributed
Overall bandwidth consumption is low
The maximum config is four to five switches
Cascade Configurations are appropriate
when:
Traffic patterns are localized onto individual
switches
Core-Edge Configs are appropriate when:
Fabric is likely to grow
A flexible system is required because of
unknown or undefined requirements
Reliability is required – this type of config has
been well-tested and is used in most
production environments
Consider the Fabric Port Count :
The total number of FC ports in the Fabric,
this would include ALL ports on ALL switches
for A fabric, remember that you have dual
fabrics, larger numbers should mean moving
from cascade / mesh to core-edge

Fabric or Network Architectures
• Types of architectures are:
– Single-Switch
– Cascade
– Mesh
– Core-Edge
– Director

Cascade
• Maximum hop count supported is three

Mesh
Partial Mesh

Core-Edge

Fabric Choices – What are they?
FC Switch FC Switch
FC Switch FC Switch
FC Switch FC Switch
FC Switch FC Switch
FC Switch
FC Switch
FC Switch
FC Switch
FC Switch
FC Switch
FC Switch
FC Switch

How many fabrics are show below?
FC_Switch4
FC_Switch8
FC_Switch2
FC_Switch5
FC_Switch3
FC_Switch6 FC_Switch7
FC_Switch1
FC_Switch10FC_Switch9

Fabric Scalability
Scale fabric size by replacing
existing core with a larger
core
Scale # Core Switches
Scale # ISLs
Scale performance by adding ISLs or
additional core switches
Scale fabric size by
adding switches
Scale # ports
Examples of Fabric Scalability

1 2 3
Storage Storage
New
Firmware
Storage
Both Switches
have New
Firmware
Design the Fabric for your
requirements
Serviceability using a Dual Fabric Design
• Firmware upgrade can be done without I/O interruption if the following
Rolling Upgrade is applied
– Dual path is required from server and storage
• Add new switches or upgrade current switches easily

Initiator/Target Relationship
SCSI over
Fibre Channel
SCSI over TCP/IP
(iSCSI)
TCP/
IP
TCP/
IP
HOST (Initiator) Controller (Target)
FC
driver
FC
driver
SCSI
WAFL
RAID
iGroup
SCSI
driver
File
System
Application
SCSI Adapters
Windows or UNIX
Fibre Channel HBAs
Data ONTA
LUN
iSCSI HBAs or Ethernet NICs
Direct Attached Storage (DAS)
Fabric/Network
iSCSI
driver
Fibre Channel or
Serial ATA Attach
iSCSI
driver

WWNN and WWPN Examples
HBA WWNN (World Wide Node
Name)
20:00:00:2b:34:26:a6:54
HBA WWPN (World Wide Port
Name)
21:00:00:2b:34:26:a6:54
22:00:00:2b:34:26:a6:54

Switch Ports
• E_Port - An expansion port connecting two switches to make a
fabric.
• F_Port - A fabric port to which an N_Port attaches.
• FL_Port - A fabric loop port to which a loop attaches; needs FL
card LED turned on. It is the gateway to the fabric for NL_Ports
on a loop.
• G_Port - A generic port that supports either E_Port or F_Port
functionality.
• L_Port - Node Loop port; a port supporting the Arbitrated Loop
protocol.
• N_Port - A fibre channel port in a fabric or point-to-point
connection.

SAN Made Easy – Auto Discovery
What do I want to be when
I grow up?
y/n Do you want to talk loop?
G_Port I’m waiting for someone to talk to me…
yes
no
Are you a switch or a fabric point-to-point
device?
F_Port
fabric
pt-to-pt
E_Port
switch
y/n Is something plugged into the port?
n
o yes
U_Port
FL_Port

FC Definitions
• ISL: Inter-Switch Link or a Switch-to-Switch Link; ISLs connect between two switch nodes to
form E_ports.
• Locality: The degree that I/O is confined to a particular switch or segment of a fabric. If two
devices that need to communicate with each other are located on the same switch or
segment, then these two devices are said to have high locality. If these same devices are
located on different switches or segments of a fabric and these two devices need to
communicate with each other, then these devices are said to have low locality.
• Redundancy: When devices have two or more fabrics and multiple paths for a source to
reach its destination the fabric is considered to have redundancy. This is critical so that when
an initiator primary path fails, the secondary initiator path will be available so that initiator
hosts can still communicate with their targets, at reduced performance.
• Resiliency: The ability of a fabric to adapt to or tolerate a failure of a component. A fabric is
said to have resiliency when it can tolerate 1 or more device failures from any component
within the fabric, whether it is a switch, ISL, or HBA failure.
• RSCN: Registered State Change Notification is the fabric mechanism that allows notifications
to be sent to nodes if a change occurs within the fabric, ie. device going offline or online on a
fabric port.
• SCR: State Change Registrations are used by devices to register to receive RSCNs.

FC Definitions
• ISL Oversubscription Ratio: Inter-switch Link Oversubscription Ratio is the ratio of device, or data input
ports that might drive I/O between switches to the number of ISLs over which the traffic could cross.
• ISL Oversubscription = Number of Host Nodes: Number of ISLs, or IO=Nhn:Ni.
• Fan-in ratio: The ratio of storage ports to a single host port
• Fan-out ratio: The ratio of host ports to a single storage port
• Buffer-to-buffer credits: The number of buffer-to-buffer credits determines the number of Fibre
Channel frames that a switch can transmit on a link at one time before requiring an acknowledgement
back from the receiver. Performance degradation may occur if there aren’t enough credits available to
sustain communication between switches. As the distance between switches increases, additional
buffer-to-buffer credits are required to maintain maximum performance. Credits are allocated from a
common pool of memory on the switch ASIC.
Formula to approximate # of Credits required over long distance:
• Buffer Credits = ((Distance in KM) * (Data Rate) * 1000) / 2112
• Data Rate = 1.0625 Mbaud for 1 Gbit/sec Fibre Channel

Best Practice – ISL Oversubscription
• A 7:1 ISL oversubscription ratio is aligned with an industry average of 6:1 fan-out.
The trend in the storage industry is that the hosts to storage ratios are increasing,
as is the performance of storage devices. A 7:1 ISL oversubscription ratio should be
targeted in SAN designs, with the ISL oversubscription ratio being adjusted higher
or lower to meet particular performance requirements. While this ISL
oversubscription ratio is conservative, it is felt that the cost of not having enough
performance and having to reshuffle devices and ISLs is much greater than the
cost of having a few extra spare ports that can be used to connect SAN devices at a
later point in time.
• Rule of thumb: The higher the ISL oversubscription ratio, the lower the
performance and conversely, the lower the ISL oversubscription ratio, the higher
the expected I/O performance. An ISL oversubscription ratio of 3:1 results in high
performance and fewer available ports while an ISL oversubscription ratio of 15:1
results in lower potential performance and additional available ports reserved for
devices. With the advent of 4Gbps ISLs, higher oversubscription ratios can exist
while maintaining more than adequate bandwidth (since bandwidth is doubled
per ISL) and higher device port counts for 2Gbps devices.

FC SAN Host Support
Host ClusterOS
Vendor
Multipath File SystemHBA
Native
HP PVLinks /
VERITAS DMP
MC ServiceGuard /
VERITAS VCS
Native
MSCS
VERITAS VCS
Emulex /
Qlogic
HACMP
QLogic QLogic
QLogic QLogic
QLogic QLogic
Emulex
QLogic
VMware MSCS
VirtualCenter (VMotion)
Volume Mgr
LVM
VERITAS
VxVM
NSS
VMware
NTFS
VERITAS
VxFS
JFS/2
Raw
LVM /
VERITAS VxVM
JFS/ HFS
Raw
VERITAS VxFS
ext3 / ext2 /
Reiser /
GFS*
ext3
ext2
Reiser
VMFS 2.x
Raw
LVM Under Test
Oracle 9i, 10g, RAC
Novell Clusters
SANpath /
MPIO
VERITAS DMP /
MPxIO*
VERITAS VCS /
Native SUN Cluster*
Oracle 9i, 10g RAC /
RH Cluster Suite*
* (via PVR)
MPIO NetApp DSM /
VERITAS DSM for MPIO*
MMC /
VERITAS VxVM*
Emulex /
Native 4Gb

Cable Distance Chart

Zoning and Troubleshooting
• Important Commands
• Zoning (how to zone)
• Zoning Best practices
• Troubleshooting Procedure
• Basic Troubleshooting

FC switch tools – provided by switch manufacturer (Brocade)
– switchshow
• Displays status of the FC switch and all its ports
• Show FC nodes currently logged into the switch (depends on FC zones, if any)
– cfgshow
• Show zones currently available on the FC switch
• Shows information about the current FC configuration and which zone(s) are enabled
– supportshow: Displays switch information for debugging purposes
– ssshow: Displays information about the name server
– nsshow: Verifies that clients are logged into the name server
– fabricshow: Displays fabric membership information
– configure
• Changes switch configuration settings.
• Switch need to be offline to run this command

FC switch tools – provided by manufacturer (Brocade) (cont.)
– alicreate, zonecreate: Create aliases and zones
– cfgcreate, cfgsave, cfgenable,cfgshow: Manage zone
configs
– version: Displays firmware version information
– portshow, portcfgshow, porterrshow,
portLogDumpPort, portenable, portdisable
• Manage ports
– diagshow: Displays switch diagnostics
– webUI: Web GUI available by browsing to the switch ip adress
– nodefind, nszonemeber – To search wwns across fabric and
inside zoning6/1/2015 Brocade Administration & Troubleshooting 41

Domain on Brocade Switches
• Make sure that the Domain ID is set to a different value on all
switches in a fabric
• Example : if there are two fabrics in solution then the Domain
ID on each switch in Fabric A should be set to an increasing
odd number and for Fabric B set each Domain ID to an
increasing even number
– Fabric A – 11, 13, 15, 17, etc.
– Fabric B – 10, 12, 14, 16, etc.
Note: if HP-UX is involved then skip 8, this ID was used for Loop Configs
• Name Server – service in fabric that provides directory
services and info about ALL devices in the fabric

Define and Implement Zoning
How do I manage Zoning?
• Manage zone physically or Logically
• Three components to the zone information
– One or more devices are placed in a zone
– One or more zones are placed in a configuration
– One and only one config is made the effective
• Soft Zoning: Name Server assisted
– Name Server restricts visibility
– Always available when zoning enabled
– No reduction in performance
• Hard Zoning: Hardware Enforced
– Available when certain rule checking criteria are met through hardware logic checking.
– Provides additional security in addition to Soft zoning
– Prevents illegal access from “bad” citizens.
– No reduction in performance with hard-Port level zoning.
– Available using port or WWN with Brocade 2 Gbit/sec

Zoning Setup Guidelines
• Create a detailed diagram of the fabric, showing all the switches with their ISLs
• Create a “blowup” diagram of each switch in the fabric to account for devices
• Account for private loop devices if they exist
• There are special considerations for mixed 1 Gbit/sec and 2Gbit/sec based fabrics
• For security reasons, consider disabling a port if the zoned fabric is going to
contain unused ports, with nothing connected to them
• Configure one zone at a time and then test it
– Do not create all the zones at once; it will be troublesome to debug
– After the first zone is setup in the fabric, plug in devices and then test the connections to
confirm that everything is functioning properly
– This process may seem a little tedious, but it will save time and money trying to debug
this after creating all the zones and then plugging in the devices

Implementing Zoning
• Naming convention
– There typically of three types of devices, server HBA, the storage port, and the tape port.
– These will have an alias.
• SRV – for servers
• STO – for Storage
• TPE – for Tape
• For example,
SRV_MAILPROD_SLT5 – a server, hostname “mailprod”, in PCI slot 5
– Keep names as small as possible to conserve space in zone database
– Minimize duplication in alias definitions where possible
– Keep zoning database as clean and accurate as possible
• Fabric Name
– Fabric name is the name that the fabric is generally known by.
– PROD configuration is to easily identify the configuration that can be implemented and
provide the most generic services.
– BACKUP_XX, TEST_XX may be used

10 Zoning Rules - Brocade
1) If security is a priority, then a Hard Zone-based architecture coupled with
Hardware Enforcement is recommended
2) Using aliases, though optional, should force some structure when
defining your zones.
3) Add Secure Fabric OS® into the Zone Architecture if extra security is
required.
4) If a SilkWorm 12000 is part of the fabric, then use it to administer zoning
within the Fabric
5) If QuickLoop is required for legacy devices and the switch is running
Brocade Fabric OS v4.x:
– QuickLoop / QuickLoop zones cannot run on switches running
Brocade Fabric OS v4.x.
– QuickLoop Fabric Assist - Brocade Fabric OS v4.x cannot have a Fabric
Assist host directly connected to it.

10 Zoning Rules - Brocade
6) Before implementing a zone run the Zone Analyzer and isolate any
possible problems.
7) Before enabling or changing a fabric configuration, verify that no one
is issuing I/O in the zone that will change.
8) Changes to zoning should be done during preventative maintenance
to minimize any potential disruption.
9) After changing or enabling a zone configuration, confirm that nodes
and storage are able to see and access one another.
10) LUN Masking should be used in conjunction with fabric zoning for
maximum effectiveness.

Zoning Example – Single Fabric
zone1
zone2
Storage
Host1
Host2 Host3
Host4
FC Fabric
What is needed on the hosts
systems and on which systems is
it needed in this configuration?

Simple Troublshooting Cmds
• cfgactshow |grep cfg =====>to check the current zoneset config
•
• zoneshow *zone_name* <-- To search in zones
• alishow *alias_name* <-- To search in alias
• cfgactshow |grep <host_name> To search zone in active zoneset
• switchshow |grep <wwn> <-- to check flogi information
• nszonemember <wwn> <-- FCNS database and to check zoned'
objects
• portshow <interface> <-- To Show interface
• portloginshow <interface> <-- To list port logins
• fabricshow <-- To check switch topology

Zoning Ex.,
• Step by step zone creation and activation
• cfgactvshow |grep cfg - check the current activated zoneset or configuration
• alicreate "S0ADCF1S2P8_HBA2_PROD", "c0:50:76:00:51:3e:00:06" <-- To create fcalias
• alicreate "S0ADCF1S2P8_HBA2_LPM", "c0:50:76:00:51:3e:00:07"
•
• zonecreate "USCLSITPS002_S0ADCF1S2P8_HBA2_CX1571_SPA0", "S0ADCF1S2P8_HBA2_PROD;
S0ADCF1S2P8_HBA2_LPM; CX1571_SPA0" <-- To create zone
• zoneshow *USCLSITPS002_S0ADCF1S2P8_HBA2_CX1571_SPA0* <--- Check the zone is created on
the switch
•
• cfgsave <-- To save configuration file
•
• cfgadd "Fab2_VF70_10212013", "USCLSITPS002_S0ADCF1S2P8_HBA2_CX1571_SPA0" <-- To add
zone into existing configuration (zoneset)
• cfgsave <-- To save latest configuration
•
• cfgenable "Fab2_VF70_10212013" <-- To activate configuration file (activate zoneset)

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Brocade Administration & troubleshooting

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