Implementing or Migrating to an IBM Gen 5 b-type SAN

Implementing or Migrating to an IBM Gen 5 b-type SAN

by Mirza Baig, Liam Dowds, Silviano Gaona, Paulo Neto, Gaston Rius, Megan Gilge
Released August 2016
Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
ISBN: 9780738441825

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Book description

The IBM® b-type Gen 5 Fibre Channel directors and switches provide reliable, scalable, and secure high-performance foundations for high-density server virtualization, cloud architectures, and next generation flash and SSD storage. They are designed to meet the demands of highly virtualized private cloud storage and data center environments.

This IBM Redbooks® publication helps administrators learn how to implement or migrate to an IBM Gen 5 b-type SAN. It provides an overview of the key hardware and software products and explains how to install, monitor, tune, and troubleshoot your storage area network (SAN).

Read this publication to learn about fabric design, managing and monitoring your network, key tools such as IBM Network Advisor and Fabric Vision, and troubleshooting.

Table of contents

  1. Front cover
  2. Notices
    1. Trademarks
  3. IBM Redbooks promotions
  4. Preface
    1. Authors
    2. Now you can become a published author, too!
    3. Comments welcome
    4. Stay connected to IBM Redbooks
  5. Chapter 1. Introduction
    1. 1.1 IBM SAN b-type Gen 5 technology overview
      1. 1.1.1 Hardware features
      2. 1.1.2 Hardware naming convention: IBM and Brocade
      3. 1.1.3 Fabric OS features
      4. 1.1.4 Fabric Operating System hardware support
      5. 1.1.5 Management
      6. 1.1.6 IBM Network Advisor
      7. 1.1.7 Monitoring
      8. 1.1.8 Brocade Fabric Vision technology
      9. 1.1.9 IBM Spectrum Control
    2. 1.2 Product descriptions
      1. 1.2.1 Enterprise SAN directors
      2. 1.2.2 Mid-range SAN switches
      3. 1.2.3 Entry SAN switches
      4. 1.2.4 Specialty switches
  6. Chapter 2. Fabric design overview
    1. 2.1 Topologies
      1. 2.1.1 Edge-core topology
      2. 2.1.2 Edge-core-edge topology
      3. 2.1.3 Full-mesh topology
    2. 2.2 Gen 5 Fibre Channel technology
      1. 2.2.1 Condor3 ASIC
      2. 2.2.2 Fabric Vision
    3. 2.3 Standard features
      1. 2.3.1 Zoning
      2. 2.3.2 ISL Trunking
      3. 2.3.3 Dynamic Path Selection
      4. 2.3.4 In-flight encryption and compression
      5. 2.3.5 NPIV
      6. 2.3.6 Dynamic Fabric Provisioning
  7. Chapter 3. Management and monitoring tools
    1. 3.1 Web Tools
      1. 3.1.1 Web Tools introduction and features
      2. 3.1.2 System requirements
      3. 3.1.3 Java plug-in configuration
      4. 3.1.4 Value line licenses
      5. 3.1.5 Opening Web Tools
    2. 3.2 Command-line interface
    3. 3.3 Storage Management Initiative Agent
    4. 3.4 Fabric Vision
      1. 3.4.1 Base Fabric OS and Fabric Vision enabled features
      2. 3.4.2 Fabric OS and Fabric Vision licensing considerations
    5. 3.5 IBM Network Advisor
    6. 3.6 IBM Spectrum Control
  8. Chapter 4. IBM Network Advisor
    1. 4.1 Planning for server and client system requirements
      1. 4.1.1 Operating system and hardware requirements for Server and Client
      2. 4.1.2 Browser requirements for IBM Network Advisor 12.4.2
      3. 4.1.3 IBM Network Advisor Server and concurrent client connections
    2. 4.2 IBM Network Advisor 12.4.2 upgrade path
    3. 4.3 Downloading the software
    4. 4.4 Pre-installation requirements
      1. 4.4.1 Additional pre-installation requirements for UNIX systems
      2. 4.4.2 Mapping a loopback address to the local host
    5. 4.5 Syslog troubleshooting
      1. 4.5.1 Finding the process
      2. 4.5.2 Stopping the process
    6. 4.6 IBM Network Advisor Version 12.4.2 installation
    7. 4.7 Upgrading to IBM Network Advisor V12.4.2 from an existing IBM Network Advisor installation
    8. 4.8 IBM Network Advisor web client
    9. 4.9 User, device discovery, and dashboard management
      1. 4.9.1 User management
      2. 4.9.2 Discovering and adding SAN fabrics
    10. 4.10 New features of IBM Network Advisor V12.4.2
    11. 4.11 IBM Network Advisor Dashboard overview
    12. 4.12 Scheduling daily or weekly backups for the fabric configuration
    13. 4.13 Call Home
      1. 4.13.1 System requirements
      2. 4.13.2 Editing an email Call Home center
  9. Chapter 5. Product hardware
    1. 5.1 Hardware overview
      1. 5.1.1 Entry level, midrange, and director models
      2. 5.1.2 IBM Gen 5 SAN b-type 16 Gbps family
    2. 5.2 IBM Gen 5 SAN b-type family
      1. 5.2.1 IBM SAN24B-5 (2498-F24, 2498-X24, and 2498-24G)
      2. 5.2.2 IBM System Networking SAN48B-5 (2498-F48)
      3. 5.2.3 IBM System Networking SAN96B-5 (2498-F96 / 2498-N96)
      4. 5.2.4 IBM System Networking SAN384B-2 (2499-416) and IBM System Networking SAN768B-2 (2499-816)
      5. 5.2.5 IBM Fabric backbone blades
      6. 5.2.6 Optical UltraScale Inter-Chassis Links
      7. 5.2.7 IBM System Storage SAN42B-R Extension Switch
  10. Chapter 6. B-type SAN monitoring and management with IBM Spectrum Control
    1. 6.1 Software prerequisites
    2. 6.2 Interoperability matrixes for supported switches and directors
      1. 6.2.1 Virtual Fabrics support
    3. 6.3 Monitoring agents for switches and fabrics
      1. 6.3.1 Monitoring and managing fabrics with the Storage Resource Agent (IBM Tivoli Storage Productivity Center 5.2.7 and earlier only)
      2. 6.3.2 Monitoring and managing fabrics with the SNMP Agent (out-of-band)
      3. 6.3.3 Monitoring and managing fabrics with the Brocade SMI Agent
      4. 6.3.4 Monitoring and managing fabrics with multiple agents
    4. 6.4 Adding switches and fabrics
      1. 6.4.1 Device discovery
      2. 6.4.2 Device probes
      3. 6.4.3 Adding switches by using SNMP Agent (out-of-band)
      4. 6.4.4 Adding switches with the SMI Agent
      5. 6.4.5 Adding switches by using Storage Resource Agent (IBM Tivoli Storage Productivity Center 5.2.7 and earlier)
    5. 6.5 Testing connectivity for a switch
    6. 6.6 Enabling the switch performance monitoring
      1. 6.6.1 Troubleshooting Performance Monitor data collection problems
    7. 6.7 Viewing Switches and Fabrics details
      1. 6.7.1 Viewing fabric details
    8. 6.8 Zoning
      1. 6.8.1 Non-standard zones
      2. 6.8.2 Zone control capabilities of IBM Spectrum Control
      3. 6.8.3 Setting the zoning policy (automatic zoning feature)
    9. 6.9 Alerting
      1. 6.9.1 Prerequisites for using alerts
      2. 6.9.2 Setting up the alert notification settings
      3. 6.9.3 Enabling the default alert definitions
      4. 6.9.4 Custom alert definitions
      5. 6.9.5 Managing and acknowledging alerts
    10. 6.10 Performance monitoring
      1. 6.10.1 Performance thresholds violations review
      2. 6.10.2 Performance review
  11. Chapter 7. Fabric Vision
    1. 7.1 Fabric Vision
      1. 7.1.1 Flow Vision
    2. 7.2 ClearLink Diagnostics Port
      1. 7.2.1 Enabling D_port Diagnostics by using IBM Network Advisor
      2. 7.2.2 Selecting and running D_port diagnostics
    3. 7.3 Bottleneck detection
      1. 7.3.1 Enabling, displaying, and disabling bottleneck detection
      2. 7.3.2 Enabling bottleneck monitor in IBM Network Advisor
      3. 7.3.3 Configuring Bottleneck monitors
      4. 7.3.4 Bottleneck Monitor Suggested initial settings
      5. 7.3.5 Displaying bottleneck statistics
    4. 7.4 Buffer credit depletion and recovery
    5. 7.5 Fabric Performance Impact monitoring
    6. 7.6 Managing Forward Error Correction
      1. 7.6.1 Enabling, disabling, and viewing FEC status
    7. 7.7 Monitoring, Alerting, and Performance Suite
      1. 7.7.1 Enabling MAPS
      2. 7.7.2 Configuring MAPS with Fabric Watch Rules
      3. 7.7.3 MAPS Slow Drain Device Quarantine
      4. 7.7.4 MAPS port fencing
      5. 7.7.5 MAPS Toggling and decommissioning
      6. 7.7.6 MAPS Dashboard
  12. Chapter 8. Virtual Fabrics
    1. 8.1 IBM b-type Virtual Fabric
      1. 8.1.1 Virtual Fabrics introduction
      2. 8.1.2 Logical switches and logical fabrics
    2. 8.2 Virtual Fabric features
      1. 8.2.1 Logical switch
      2. 8.2.2 Logical fabric
      3. 8.2.3 ISL sharing
      4. 8.2.4 User accounts
    3. 8.3 Configuring Virtual Fabrics
      1. 8.3.1 Changing the context to a different logical switch
      2. 8.3.2 Enabling Virtual Fabrics
      3. 8.3.3 Disabling Virtual Fabrics
      4. 8.3.4 Logical switch management
      5. 8.3.5 Modifying the base switch
      6. 8.3.6 Creating a logical switch
      7. 8.3.7 Deleting a logical switch
      8. 8.3.8 Displaying the logical switch configuration
      9. 8.3.9 Changing the fabric ID of a logical switch
      10. 8.3.10 Changing a logical switch to a base switch
      11. 8.3.11 Configuring a logical switch for XISL use
      12. 8.3.12 Creating a logical fabric that uses XISLs
  13. Chapter 9. Implementation and migration strategies
    1. 9.1 Designing a storage area network
      1. 9.1.1 Redundancy and resiliency
      2. 9.1.2 Switch interconnections
      3. 9.1.3 UltraScale ICL connectivity for Gen 5 directors
      4. 9.1.4 SAN768B-2 and SAN384B-2 UltraScale ICL connection preferred practices
      5. 9.1.5 Device placement
    2. 9.2 Migration assessment
      1. 9.2.1 Assessing the existing fabric topology
      2. 9.2.2 Assessing the new fabric
      3. 9.2.3 Logistic planning of hardware installation
      4. 9.2.4 Preliminary migration planning
      5. 9.2.5 Gather infrastructure information
    3. 9.3 Migration strategy
      1. 9.3.1 Migration methods
    4. 9.4 Developing a migration plan
    5. 9.5 Preparing to migrate
    6. 9.6 Performing the migration and validation
      1. 9.6.1 Offline migration
      2. 9.6.2 Redundant and single fabric online migration
    7. 9.7 Completing the migration
    8. 9.8 Licensing
      1. 9.8.1 Available Fabric OS licenses
      2. 9.8.2 License administration
  14. Chapter 10. Fabric administration
    1. 10.1 Administration practices
    2. 10.2 Initial setup
    3. 10.3 Audit and syslog configuration
      1. 10.3.1 Audit log
      2. 10.3.2 Syslog
    4. 10.4 Network Time Protocol
    5. 10.5 Zoning
      1. 10.5.1 Zoning preferred practices
      2. 10.5.2 Peer Zoning
    6. 10.6 Trunking
      1. 10.6.1 Configuring trunk groups
      2. 10.6.2 Enabling Trunking
      3. 10.6.3 Types of trunking
    7. 10.7 Fibre Channel over distance
      1. 10.7.1 Buffer credits
      2. 10.7.2 Fabric interconnectivity over Fibre Channel at longer distances
    8. 10.8 Fibre Channel over IP
      1. 10.8.1 Configuring an FCIP tunnel
    9. 10.9 FC-FC routing overview
      1. 10.9.1 Setting up FC to FC routing
      2. 10.9.2 Logical SAN Zones
      3. 10.9.3 Fibre Channel routing and virtual fabrics
    10. 10.10 FCIP and FCR
      1. 10.10.1 Using EX_Ports and VEX_Ports
    11. 10.11 Access Gateway and N_Port ID Virtualization
    12. 10.12 Inter-chassis links
      1. 10.12.1 Supported topologies
      2. 10.12.2 QSFP-based ICL connection requirements
      3. 10.12.3 ICL trunking and trunk groups
      4. 10.12.4 ICL diagnostic tests
      5. 10.12.5 Summary
    13. 10.13 Fabric OS management
      1. 10.13.1 Firmware download enhancements
    14. 10.14 Upgrading firmware or rolling back to an earlier version
      1. 10.14.1 Preparing for upgrades
      2. 10.14.2 Staging the Fabric OS package for download to the switch
      3. 10.14.3 Upgrading firmware
  15. Chapter 11. Security
    1. 11.1 Role-Based access controls
    2. 11.2 Default accounts
    3. 11.3 User accounts
    4. 11.4 Security protocols
    5. 11.5 Access control lists
      1. 11.5.1 SCC policy
      2. 11.5.2 DCC policy
      3. 11.5.3 FCS policy
      4. 11.5.4 IP Filter
      5. 11.5.5 Authentication protocols
    6. 11.6 Policy Database Distribution
    7. 11.7 In-flight encryption and compression: b-type (16 Gbps) platforms only
    8. 11.8 In-flight encryption and compression guidelines
  16. Chapter 12. Troubleshooting
    1. 12.1 General problem determination
    2. 12.2 Errors and symptoms
    3. 12.3 Switch and port status
      1. 12.3.1 Displaying the switch status
      2. 12.3.2 Port status
    4. 12.4 Port errors
      1. 12.4.1 Viewing port statistics with IBM Network Advisor
      2. 12.4.2 Viewing the port statistics in the CLI
      3. 12.4.3 Resetting the port error statistic counters
      4. 12.4.4 Understanding error counters
      5. 12.4.5 SFP and optic levels
    5. 12.5 System messages and RAS logs
      1. 12.5.1 System message types
      2. 12.5.2 RASLog messages
      3. 12.5.3 Audit log messages
      4. 12.5.4 First-Failure data capture messages
    6. 12.6 SAN health
      1. 12.6.1 Installing Brocade SAN Health
      2. 12.6.2 Using SAN Health Diagnostics Capture
      3. 12.6.3 SAN Health Professional
    7. 12.7 Collecting support data
      1. 12.7.1 Saving comprehensive diagnostic files to the server
      2. 12.7.2 Scheduling technical support and event information collection by using IBM Network Advisor
      3. 12.7.3 Starting immediate technical support information collection
    8. 12.8 Using MAPS for problem determination
      1. 12.8.1 Port health and cyclic redundancy checks monitoring
      2. 12.8.2 Back-end port monitoring
      3. 12.8.3 FRU Health
      4. 12.8.4 Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP) Health
    9. 12.9 Flow Vision
      1. 12.9.1 Flow Monitor
      2. 12.9.2 Flow Generator
      3. 12.9.3 Flow Mirroring
  17. Related publications
    1. IBM Redbooks
    2. Online resources
    3. Help from IBM
  18. Back cover

Product information

  • Title: Implementing or Migrating to an IBM Gen 5 b-type SAN
  • Author(s): Mirza Baig, Liam Dowds, Silviano Gaona, Paulo Neto, Gaston Rius, Megan Gilge
  • Release date: August 2016
  • Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
  • ISBN: 9780738441825