Defaults On the switches there are some default settings which you should enable before taking it into production. First we enable virtual fabrics. (Some OEM\’s have this enabled by default, others don\’t). For the sake of simplicity just enable it. SW0X:>fosconfig –enable vf
5 – Standard configuration options Read More »
Consistency is one of the most important things in a computing environment. There are abundant examples where configuration inconsistencies have led to disastrous events leading up to dropped databases, setting up disk-mirrors in the wrong direction (ie overwriting a perfectly good partition with an empty one), operational mistakes due to wrong or unclear naming conventions
4 – Standards in operation Read More »
In this series of post I will start with a simplified SAN architecture based upon a dual-fabric edge-core-edge design. (Remember this might not be a good design as I described here but for the purpose of this guide it will suffice.) As we go along with other topics we’ll extend it as needed. The top
3 – Reference architecture Read More »
The first thing to think of when creating a Brocade storage network has nothing to do with a switch configuration at all. Its about the surrounding management landscape. There are numerous management software options available from a multitude of vendors including Brocade with Network Advisor. If you have purchased BNA then congratulations, you have a
2 – Creating the management landscape Read More »
There is already a fair chunk of functionality in FOS but, being a support-engineer, you always come up with features and functions that will improve storage fabrics. Being on a Ficon course last week and meeting some Brocade friends I requested them to add the following to the (most likely) long RFE (Request for Enhancement)
RFE for Brocade FOS Read More »
Introduction For many years I\’ve been working with Brocade fibre channel equipment and handled from small to very large storage networks. In these +- 18 years a lot of companies I worked for or who\’s storage infrastructure I had the pleasure to work on or with have changed their view on design, operational management, performance,
The Brocade best practices configuration guide Read More »
I recently was involved in a discussion around QD settings and vendor comparisons. It almost got to a point where the QD capabilities were inherently linked to the quality and capabilities of the arrays. Total and absolute nonsense of course. Let me make one thing clear \”QUEUING IS BAD\”. In the general sense that is.
I really think I should stop with fillword discussions but here is one more. What happens even if you have set the correct fillword, have made sure all hardware is in tip-top shape and still the encoding errors fly around like a swarm of hornets. Then the problem of ISI might be more problematic. The
Signal quality and link stability Read More »
Houdini was a master in getting out of these things. Out of a swimming pool with a Straight-Jacket on I mean. This week I had an analogy to his problem. At a customer site Brocade Network Advisor (BNA) became totally unresponsive up to a point where it just stopped.
Brocade Network Advisor – Java memory size. Read More »
I\’ve written about fillwords a lot (see here, here, and here) but I didn\’t show you much about the different symptoms an incorrect fillword setting may incur. As you\’ve seen fillwords are a very nifty way of maintaining bit and word-sync on a serial transmission link when no actual frames are sent. Furthermore they also
Fillwords IDLE vs ARBff (one last time) Read More »
