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 »
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 »
I\’ve been focusing on the implications of physical issues a lot in my posts over the last ~2 years. What I haven\’t touched on is logical performance boundaries which also cause extreme grief in many storage infrastructures which lead to performance problems, IO errors, data-corruption and other nasty stuff you do not want to see
Speed mismatch is the death-trap for shared storage Read More »
So this week I had an interesting case. As you know the Hitachi arrays have a replication functionality called HUR (Hitachi Universal Replicator) which is an advanced a-synchronous replication solution offered for Mainframe and OpenSystems environments. HUR does not use a primary to secondary push method but rather the target system is issuing reads to
Performance expectations with ISL compression Read More »
Ok this may seem a bit of me having a go at Brocade\’s successor to Fabric Watch but it isn\’t. This week I ran into a couple of cases where switches were upgraded to FOS 7.2.x and Fabric Watch was converted to MAPS. Nothing wrong with that but it seems that many administrators blindly kick
Brocade MAPS \”non-management\” Read More »
Ok this may seem a bit of me having a go at Brocade\’s successor to Fabric Watch but it isn\’t. This week I ran into a couple of cases where switches were upgraded to FOS 7.2.x and Fabric Watch was converted to MAPS. Nothing wrong with that but it seems that many administrators blindly kick
Brocade MAPS \”non-management\” Read More »
