Fabrics

Fabrics

From Release 12.0.1a, SAN Controller allows you to create SAN Fabrics.

The following table describes the fields that appear on SAN Controller > SAN > Fabrics > Fabrics.

Field Description

Fabric Name

Specifies the name of the fabric.

Seed Switch

Specifies the seed switch used to discover switches in the fabric.

State

Specifies the state of the fabric.

SNMPv3/SSH

Specifies if SNMP and SSH access is allowed.

User/Community

Specifies the role of the user who created the fabric.

Auth/Privacy

Displays the authentication type.

Licensed

Specifies if all the switches in the fabric are licensed or not.

Health

Displays the health of the fabric.

Performance Collection

Specifies if performance collection is enabled or disabled on the fabric.

Updated Time

Specifies the time when the fabric was created or updated.

Incl. VSANS

Specifies the VSANS included with the fabric.

Excl. VSANS

Specifies the excluded VSANS.

The following table describes the action items, in the Actions menu drop‐down list, that appear on SAN > Fabrics > Fabrics.

Action Item Description

Add Fabric

From the Actions drop-down list, select Add Fabric. For more instructions, see Adding a Fabric.

Edit Fabrics

Select a fabric to edit. From the Actions drop-down list, select Edit Fabrics. Make the necessary changes and click Apply. For more instructions, see Editing a Fabric.

Delete Fabrics

Select one or more fabrics to delete. From the Actions drop-down list, select Delete Fabrics. Click Confirm to delete the fabrics. For more instructions, see Deleting a Fabric.

Rediscover Fabrics

Allows you to rediscover the switches, links, and end devices associated with the fabric. Select one or more fabrics to rediscover. From the Actions drop-down list, select Rediscover Fabrics. A progress bar in the State column displays the rediscovery progress. For more instructions, see Rediscovering a Fabric.

Purge Fabrics

Allows you to purge non-existent switches, links, and end devices of the fabric. Select one or more fabrics to purge. From the Actions drop-down list, select Purge Fabrics. For more instructions, see Purging a Fabric.

Configure Performance

Allows you to enable performance monitoring on links, switch interfaces, and end devices associated with the fabric. Select one or more fabrics for performance monitoring. From the Actions drop-down list, select Configure Performance. Make the necessary changes and click Apply.

For more instructions, see Configuring Performance.

Configure SAN Insights

Allows you configure SAN Insights on the selected fabric.

For more instructions, see Configure SAN Insights.

Configure Backup

Allows you to configure and schedule backup for the fabric data.

For more instructions, see Configuring Fabric Backup.

This chapter contains below sections:

Adding a Fabric

To create a fabric using Cisco SAN Controller Web UI, perform the following steps:

Procedure

Step 1

Choose SAN > Fabrics > SAN Fabrics.

Step 2

Choose Actions > Add Fabrics.

Step 3

In the Fabric Name field, enter a unique name for the fabric.

Step 4

Select the Fabric Seed Switch Type.

From Release 12.1.2e, NDFC allows you to discover Cisco and Non-Cisco switches to SAN Fabrics.

Step 5

If you chose Cisco in the Fabric Seed Switch Type, perform the following:

  1. In the Fabric Seed Switch field, enter the IP address of the seed switch.

    You can also enter the DNS name of the seed switch.

  2. Check the SNMPv3/SSH check box to enable access.

  3. From the Authentication / Privacy drop-down list, choose appropriate authentication for switch discovery.

  4. In the User Name and Password fields, enter appropriate details to access the seed switch if SNMPv3 is used.

    Note

     

    If SNMPv3/SSH is not used, enter appropriate community string in the Community String field.

  5. To discover switches using VSANs only, check the Limit Discovery by VSAN check box.

    • Select Included VSAN List to discovery switches included in VSANs.

    • Select Excluded VSAN List to discovery switches excluded in VSANs.

    • Enter the included or excluded VSANs in the VSAN List field.

  6. To discover switches using UCS credentials, check the Use UCS Credentials check box.

    • Enter the appropriate UCS CLI Credentials in the username and password fields.

    • To use the same SNMP credentials, check the Use same SNMP Credentials for UCS check box.

      You must provide different SNMP details if you uncheck this check box.

    • To use SNMP for UCS, check the Use SNMPv3 for UCS check box.

    • In the User Name and Password fields, enter appropriate details to access the seed switch if SNMPv3 is used.

      Note

       

      If SNMPv3/SSH is not used, enter appropriate community string in the UCS SNMP Community String field.

    • Enter appropriate community string in the UCS SNMP Community String field, if SNMPv3 is not used.

Step 6

If you chose Non-Cisco in the Fabric Seed Switch Type, perform the following:

  1. In the Fabric Seed Switch field, enter the IP address of the seed switch.

    You can also enter the DNS name of the seed switch.

  2. Check the SNMPv3/SSH check box to enable access.

  3. From the Authentication / Privacy drop-down list, choose appropriate authentication for switch discovery.

  4. In the User Name and Password fields, enter appropriate details to access the seed switch.

  5. In the Non-Cisco Switch CLI Credentials, provide appropriate username and password to access non-Cisco seed switch.

  6. (Optional) To discover switches using UCS credentials, check the Use UCS Credentials check box.

    • Enter the appropriate UCS CLI Credentials in the username and password fields.

    • To use the same SNMP credentials, check the Use same SNMP Credentials for UCS check box.

      You must provide different SNMP details if you uncheck this check box.

    • To use SNMP for UCS, check the Use SNMPv3 for UCS check box.

      From the UCS Authentication / Privacy drop-down list, choose appropriate authentication for switch discovery.

      Enter UCS SNMP username and password in appropriate fields.

    • If Use SNMPv3 for UCS is unchecked, enter appropriate community string in the UCS SNMP Community String field.

Step 7

Click Add to add a Fabric.

Note

 

When you start SAN fabric discovery, after 15 minutes of fabric discovery the following process are scheduled on NDFC:

  • If the fabric is licensed, Performance Manager (PM) collection is initiated.

  • The Congestion Analysis job is scheduled to run continuously for a year. This job run will initiate after an hour of the schedule.

ESXi Networking for Promiscuous Mode

From Cisco NDFC Release 12.1.2e, you can run NDFC on top of virtual Nexus Dashboard (vND) instance with promiscuous mode that is disabled on port groups that are associated with Nexus Dashboard interfaces where External Service IP addresses are specified. vND comprises Nexus Dashboard management interface and data interface. By default, for fabric controller persona, two external service IP addresses are required for the Nexus Dashboard management interface subnet.

Before the NDFC Release 12.1.2e, if Inband management or Endpoint Locator or POAP feature was enabled on NDFC, you must also enable promiscuous mode for the Nexus Dashboard data or fabric interface port-group. This setting was mandatory for traffic flow that is associated for these features.

Enabling promiscuous mode raise risk of security issues in NDFC, it is recommended to set default setting for promiscuous mode.


Note

  • Disabling promiscuous mode is supported from Cisco Nexus Dashboard Release 2.3.1c.

  • You can disable promiscuous mode when Nexus Dashboard nodes are layer-3 adjacent on the Data network, BGP is configured, and fabric switches are reachable through the data interface.

  • You can disable promiscuous mode when Nexus Dashboard interfaces are layer-2 adjacent to switch mgmt0 interface.

If Inband management or EPL is enabled, you must specify External Service IP addresses in the Nexus Dashboard data interface subnet. You can disable promiscuous mode for the Nexus Dashboard data or fabric interface port-group. For more information, refer to Cisco Nexus Dashboard Deployment Guide


Note

Default option for promiscuous mode is Reject.

Procedure

Step 1

Log into your vSphere Client.

Step 2

Navigate to the ESXi host.

Step 3

Right-click the host and choose Settings.

A sub-menu appears.

Step 4

Choose Networking > Virtual Switches.

All the virtual switches appear as blocks.

Step 5

Click Edit Settings of the VM Network.

Step 6

Navigate to the Security tab.

Step 7

Update the Promiscuous mode settings as follows:

  • Check the Override check box.

  • Choose Accept from the drop-down list.

Step 8

Click OK.

Editing a Fabric

To edit a fabric from the Cisco SAN Controller Web UI, perform the following steps:

Procedure

Step 1

Choose SAN > Fabrics > SAN Fabrics.

Step 2

Choose check box to edit required fabric name, choose the Actions > Edit Fabrics.

Step 3

You see the Edit Fabrics window. You can edit only one fabric at a time.

Step 4

Enter a new fabric Fabric Name

Step 5

(Optional) Check the SNMPV3 check box. If you check SNMPV3, the Community field change to Username and Password.

Step 6

Enter the Username and Password, privacy and specify how you want SAN Controller Web Client to manage the fabric by selecting one of the status options.

Step 7

Change the status to Managed, Unmanaged, or Managed Continuously.

Step 8

(Optional) Check the Use UCS Credentials check box. If you want to modify UCS credentials.

Step 9

Enter the Username and Password

Step 10

Click Apply to save the changes.

Deleting a Fabric

To delete a fabric using SAN Controller Web UI, perform the following steps:

Procedure

Step 1

Choose SAN > Fabrics > SAN Fabrics.

Step 2

Choose Actions > Delete Fabrics to remove the fabric from the data source and to discontinue data collection for that fabric.

Rediscovering a Fabric

To discover a fabric using Cisco SAN Controller Web UI, perform the following steps:

Procedure

Step 1

Choose SAN > Fabrics > SAN Fabrics.

Step 2

Choose check box to rediscover required fabric name, choose the Actions > Rediscover Fabrics.

Step 3

Click Yes in the dialog box.

In a fabric window, State column displays the progress of rediscovery for selected fabric.

The Fabric is rediscovered.

Purging a Fabric

You can clean and update the fabric discovery table through the Purge option.

Procedure

Step 1

Choose SAN > Fabrics.

Step 2

Choose the check box next to the fabric you want to purge.

Step 3

Choose Action > Purge Fabrics.

The Fabric is purged.

From SAN Controller Release 12.0.1a, you can purge fabric on Topology window.

  • Choose Topology, choose a fabric, Right-click on fabric, choose Purge Down Fabric.

    The Fabric is purged.

Configuring Performance

If you are managing your switches with the performance manager, you must set up an initial set of flows and collections on the switch. You can use SAN Controller to add and remove performance collections. License the switch and keep it in the managedContinuously state before creating a collection for the switch. Only licensed fabrics appear in this window.

Procedure

Step 1

Choose SAN > Fabrics.

Step 2

Choose the check box next to the fabric you want to configure performance collections.

Step 3

Choose Action > Configure Performance.

The Performance Data Collection Settings window appears.

Step 4

Choose check box Performance Collection, to enable other check boxes.

Step 5

Choose required ISL/NPV Links, Hosts, Storage, and FC Ethernet, or choose box Select All to enable performance collection for these data types.

  1. To collect temperature data for SAN devices, choose Settings > Server Settings > PM.

  2. On PM tab, choose check box for Enable SAN Sensor Discovery and Collect Temperature for SAN Switches.

Step 6

Click Apply to save the configuration.

Step 7

In the confirmation dialog box, click Yes to restart the performance collector.

What to do next

After upgrading to Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller, to view the restored old Performance Manager and high chart data, you must manually enable Performance Manager for each fabric. However, any old Temperature data is not restored.

To begin collecting Temperature data on the upgraded Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller setup, go to Settings > Server Settings PM tab. Check Collect Temperature for LAN Switches checkbox and click Save.. Note that Enable LAN Sensor Discovery checkbox is enabled by default.

SAN Insights

The SAN Insights feature enables you to configure, monitor, and view the flow analytics in fabrics. SAN Insights features of SAN Controller enable you to visualize the health-related indicators in the interface so that you can quickly identify issues in fabrics. Also, the health indicators enable you to understand the problems in fabrics. The SAN Insights feature also provides more comprehensive end-to-end flow-based data from the host to LUN.

SAN Controller supports SAN Telemetry Streaming (STS) using compact GPB transport, for better telemetry performance and to improve the overall scalability of SAN Insights.

For SAN Insights streaming stability and performance, see Required System Memory for SAN Controller deployment. Ensure that the system RAM, vCPU, and SSDs are used for deploying SAN Insights. Use of NTP is recommended to maintain time synchronization between the SAN Controller and the switches. Enable PM collection for viewing counter statistics.

From Release 12.0.1a, you can create policy based alarms generation for SAN ITL/ITN flow. From Web UI, choose Operations > Event Analytics > Alarms > Alarm Policies to create policies.

Prerequisites

  • SAN Insights is supported on virtual-data node and physical node.

  • The SAN Insights feature isn’t supported on app-node deployment for Nexus Dashboard.

  • Single node and three nodes deployments of Nexus Dashboard are supported for deploying SAN Insights.

  • If SAN Insights streaming was configured with KVGPB encoding using versions of Cisco SAN Insights older than 11.2(1), the switch continues to stream with KVGPB encoding while configuring streaming with SAN Insights versions 11.2(1) and above. Compact GPB streaming configuration for SAN Insights is supported starting from SAN Controller 11.2(1). To stream using Compact GPB, disable the old KVGPB streaming before configuring SAN Insights newly, after the upgrade. To disable analytics and telemetry, on the Cisco SAN Controller Web UI, choose SAN > Fabrics, select a fabric, choose Actions > Configure SAN Insights and click Next. On the Switch Configuration screen, select required switch, choose Actions > Disable Analytics to clear all the analytics and telemetry configuration on the selected switches.

  • The SAN Insights feature is supported for Cisco MDS NX-OS Release 8.3(1) and later.

Configuring Persistent IP Address

Before you install or upgrade to SAN Controller Release 12.1.1e, you must configure persistent IP addresses on Cisco Nexus Dashboard.

Ensure that the services are allocated with IP pool addresses on the Cisco Nexus Dashboard. For more information, refer to Cluster Configuration section in Cisco Nexus Dashboard User Guide.


Note

To configure SAN Insights on one node for SAN Controller deployment, the SAN Insights receiver requires one available Persistent IP. Similarly, to configure SAN Insights on three nodes for SAN Controller deployment, it requires three available Persistent IP addressees.

To configure Persistent IP addresses on Cisco Nexus Dashboard, perform the following steps:

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Infrastructure > Cluster Configuration.

Step 2

On General tab, in External Service Pools card, click Edit icon.

The External Service Pools window appears.

Step 3

To configure IP addresses for SAN Controller, in Data Service IP's, click Add IP Address, enter required IP addresses and click check icon.

Step 4

Click Save.

Changing Persistent IP Address

From Cisco NDFC Release 12.1.2e, you can change persistent IP addresses which are assigned for mandatory pods such as POAP-SCP and SNMP trap. To change the persistent IP address, perform the following steps:

Procedure

Step 1

On Cisco NDFC Web UI, navigate to Settings > Server Settings > Admin under LAN Device Management Connectivity drop-down list change Management to Data or conversely.

Changing option results in migration of SNMP and POAP-SCP pods to the persistent IP addresses associated with External Service Pool on Nexus Dashboard connected with the new LAN Device Management Connectivity option. After the completion of this process, the following message is displayed:

Some features have been updated. Reload the page to see latest changes.

Click Reload the page.

Step 2

On Cisco Nexus Dashboard Web UI, navigate to Infrastructure > Cluster Configuration > General, in External Service Pools card, change the required IP addresses for Management Service IP Usage or Data Service IP Usage.

Step 3

Navigate to NDFC Web UI Server Settings page, change the option in LAN Device Management Connectivity drop-down list to its initial selection.

Restoring this option to initial settings, results in migration of the SNMP and POAP-SCP pods to use the updated persistent IP address from the appropriate External Service IP pool.

Guidelines and Limitations

  • Ensure that the time configurations in SAN Controller and the supported switches are synchronized to the local NTP server for deploying the SAN Insights feature.

  • Any applicable daylight time savings settings must be consistent across the switches and SAN Controller.

  • To modify the streaming interval, use the CLI from the switch, and remove the installed query for SAN Controller. Modify the san.telemetry.streaming.interval property in the SAN Controller server properties. The allowed values for the interval are 30–300 seconds. The default value is 30 seconds. If there is an issue with the default value or to increase the value, set default value to 60 seconds. You can change the default value while configuring SAN Insights. On Switch configuration wizard in Interval(s) column select required value from drop-down list.

  • The port sampling window on the switch side should have all ports (default).

  • Use the ISL query installation type only for the switches that have storage connected (storage-edge switches).

  • For the ISL query installation type, in the Configure SAN Insights wizard, analytics can’t be enabled on interfaces that are members of port-channel ISL to non-MDS platform switches.

  • After installing the switch-based FM_Server_PKG license, the Configure SAN Insights wizard may take upto 5 minutes to detect the installed license.

For information about the SAN Insights dashboard, see SAN Insights Dashboard.

For information about configuring the SAN Insights, see Configuring SAN Insights.

Server Properties for SAN Insights

To modify server settings values, navigate to Settings > Server Settings > Insights on the Web UI.


Note
If you change the server properties, ensure that you restart the SAN Controller to use the new properties value.

The following table describes the field names, descriptions, and its default values.

Table 1. Server Properties for SAN Insights
Field Name Description Default Value
Telemetry pages default protocol scsi/nvme Specifies the required default protocol selection in the SAN Insights UI pages to view corresponding data: SCSI or NVMe. SCSI
SAN Insights ECT thread count Specifies number of threads to use for ECT queries. 4
Max. Aggregation bucket size Specifies maximum number of buckets to use for aggregation queries. 40,000
Data table download size Specifies number of records for table download. 1000
ECT Data limit Specifies the ECT Data limit.

14

Note

 

The value of ECT data limit must be less than or equal to the value of SAN Telemetry retention policy - baseline / post processed.
SAN Telemetry deviation low threshold Specifies the value that is the change point between normal and low. 1
SAN Telemetry deviation med threshold Specifies the value that is the change point between low and medium. 15
SAN Telemetry deviation high threshold Specifies the value that is the change point between medium and high. 30
SAN Telemetry deviation low threshold for NVMe Specifies the value that is the change point between normal and low for NVMe. 1
SAN Telemetry deviation med threshold for NVMe Specifies the value that is the change point between low and medium for NVMe. 2
SAN Telemetry deviation high threshold for NVMe Specifies the value that is the change point between medium and high for NVMe. 5
SAN Telemetry training timeframe Specifies the training time frame for flows ECT baseline. 7 days
SAN Telemetry training reset timeframe Specifies the time duration to periodically restart the ECT baseline training after number of days. 14 days
SAN Telemetry retention policy - baseline / post processed Specifies the retention policy - baseline / post processed. 14
SAN Telemetry retention policy - hourly rollups Specifies the retention policy - hourly rollups 90
Telemetry Gap Reset Interval Specify maximum valid time gap between records (before drop) time is in seconds 750
Active Anomaly Capture Specify maximum number of actively tracked anomalies per post processor. 500
Baseline training include NOOP frames Specify if the baseline learning should reference noop frames. Not selected
Baseline training includes negative deviation Specify if the baseline deviation must include negatives. Selected
Use telemetry Gap Reset Interval Specifies the use telemetry reset based on time gap between records Selected

The following table describes the system requirement for installation of SAN Controller:

Table 2. Required System Memory for SAN Controller with SAN Insights
Node Type vCPUs Memory Storage

Virtual Data Node

32

128 GB

3 TB SSD

Physical Data Node

40

256 GB

4*2.2 TB HDD, 370G SSD, 1.5 TB NVMe
Table 3. Verified limit for SAN Insights deployment
Deployment Type Verified Limit1 2

Cisco Virtual Nexus Dashboard (1 Node)

1M ITLs/ITNs

80K ITLs/ITNs

Cisco Physical Nexus Dashboard (1 Node)

120K ITLs/ITNs

Cisco Virtual Nexus Dashboard (3 Node)

150K ITLs/ITNs

Cisco Physical Nexus Dashboard (3 Node)

500K ITLs/ITNs
1 Initiator-Target-LUNs (ITLs)
2 Initiator-Target-Namespace ID (ITNs)

Note

For one Node vND to support 1M ITLs/ITNs, it requires 3TB of SSD and 128 GB of memory Nexus Dashboard as system requirement.

Configuring SAN Insights

From SAN Controller Release 12.0.1a, you can configure SAN fabrics on topology window, apart from configuring on fabric window.

On topology window, right-click on a SAN fabric, choose Configure SAN Insights and follow procedure to configure.

To configure SAN Insights on the SAN Controller Web UI, perform the following steps:
Before you begin

Ensure that you configure persistent IP addresses, before you configure SAN Insights. Refer to Configuring persistent IP addresses.

Ensure that you have enabled SAN Insights feature for SAN Controller. Choose Settings > Feature Management, choose check box SAN Insights.


Note

You must configure with sufficient system requirements and IP addresses. For more information on scale limits, refer to table Required System Memory for SAN deployment in Server Properties for SAN Insights.

Procedure

Step 1

Choose SAN > Fabrics.

Step 2

Choose required fabric, click Actions > Configure SAN Insights.

The SAN Insights Configuration wizard appears.

san-insights-config

Step 3

In the SAN Insights Configuration wizard, click Next.

The Switch Configuration wizard appears.

Step 4

Select the switches where SAN Insights analytics and telemetry streaming need to be configured, after you select the appropriate values from the drop-down list as mentioned below.

san-insights-switch-config

If the switches don’t have SAN Insights license, the status in the Licensed column shows No (install licenses). Click on Install licenses to apply license to the switch.

Note

 

SAN Controller time is displayed on this UI and switch time is marked in RED if the switch time is found to be deviating from the SAN Controller time.

For the selected SAN Controller Receiver in the last column, the receiver can subscribe to telemetry: SCSI only, NVMe only, both SCSI & NVMe, or None. This allows you to configure one SAN Controller server to receive SCSI telemetry and another SAN Controller server to receive NVMe telemetry.

In SAN Controller deployment, the IP address assigned to eth0 or eth1 can be used for receiving SAN Insights streaming from the switch. However, ensure that streaming is configured to the SAN Controller interface having IP reachability from the respective switches. In the Receiver column all the discovered interfaces are listed. Choose the corresponding interface IP address that is configured while installing SAN Controller for streaming analytics data from the switch.

You can provide management IP eth0 and data IP eth1 for fabric access to bootstrap the SAN Controller. Therefore, the streaming must be configured to the persistent IP assigned in the data-IP subnet. Refer to the Configuring Persistent IP Address section for more information.

To configure promiscuous mode to have multiple persistent IPs reachable on the same port group. See Cluster Configuration section in Nexus Dashboard Guide.

The Subscription column allows you to specify which protocol to which the Receiver subscribes. You can choose from SCSI, NVMe, both or none from drop-down list.

Note

 

If you choose None for Subscription, a warning message is displayed to select an appropriate Subscription before you proceed. Select the desired protocols for Subscription.

You can click the i icon in the Switch Name column to get the configuration details for analytics and telemetry features from the switch (if Analytics Query and Telemetry features are configured).

san-insights-telemetry

If Analytics Query of either type (dcnminitITL, dcnmtgtITL, dcnmislpcITL, dcnminitITN, dcnmtgtITN, or dcnmislpcITN) isn’t configured on the switch, the telemetry configurations won’t be displayed.

Note

 

If there is more than a single receiver for an example in a cluster mode, click dropdown icon next to the receiver to select required receiver.

Step 5

Click Next. The switches that are capable of streaming analytics are listed in the Select Switches page.

Step 6

Select the switches on which SAN Insights must be configured.

Note

 

Both SAN Controller and Switch time are recorded and displayed when you navigate to the Select Switches page. This helps you to ensure that the clocks of SAN Controller and switch are in sync.

Choose single or multiple switches, click Actions > Disable Analytics to clear all the analytics and telemetry configuration on the selected switches.

Compact GPB streaming configuration for SAN Insights is supported. To stream using Compact GPB, the old KVGPB streaming must be disabled and removed before configuring SAN Insights, newly after the upgrade.

In the Install Query column, type of port per switch is displayed. The port types are:ISL, host, or storage.

  • host—lists all ports where hosts or initiators are connected on the switch.

  • storage—lists all ports where storage or targets are connected on the switch.

  • ISL—lists all ISL and port channel ISL ports on the switch.

  • None—indicates that no query is installed.

The following queries are used:

  • dcnmtgtITL/dcnmtgtITN—This is the storage-only query.

  • dcnminitITL/dcnminitITN—This is the host-only query.

  • dcnmislpcITL/dcnmislpcITN—This is the ISL and pc-member query.

Note

 

ISL based queries must be added when you use the ISL query installation type for the switches that has connected to storage (storage-edge switches).

Note

 

SAN Controller doesn't manage duplicate ITLs\ITNs. If you configure both host and storage queries (on the switches where their Hosts and Storage are connected respectively), the data is duplicated for the same ITL\ITN. This results in inconsistencies in the computed metrics.

When the administrator selects the ISL\Host\Storage on the configure wizard, the respective ports are filtered and listed on the next step.

Step 7

Click Next.

You can see all the analytics supported modules on the switches selected in the previous view, listed with the respective instantaneous NPU load in the last column. Port-sampling configuration (optional) and port-sampling rotation interval for the module can be specified in this step. The default configuration on the switch is to monitor all analytics-enabled ports on the switch for analytics.

Note

 

If port sampling is enabled on multiple ISL ports with ISL query installed, the metrics aggregation isn’t accurate. Because all exchanges won’t be available at the same time, the metrics aggregation isn’t accurate. We recommend that you don’t use port sampling with ISL queries, with multiple ISLs.

Step 8

In the Module Configuration tab, configure the module(s) for SAN Insights functionality.

Beginning with Release 12.1.1e, Cisco NDFC supports discovery of 64G modules and can be selected during SAN Insights configuration. Port-sampling is not supported on these modules and NPU load is not applicable for 64G SAN analytics. Therefore, you cannot configure sample window and rotation interval for 64G modules.

san-insights-module

To change the values for Sample Window (ports) and Rotation Interval (seconds), click the row and enter the desired values.

  • To undo the changes, click Cancel.

  • To save changes, click Save.

The NPU Load column displays the network processing unit (NPU) within a module.

Step 9

Click Next.

Step 10

In the Interface Selection tab, select the interfaces that generate analytics data within the fabric.

san-insights-interface

For each interface, you can enable or disable metrics. Choose check box in SCSI Metrics and NVMe Metrics column to enable or disable analytics on the desired port.

Step 11

Click Next, and then review the changes that you have made.

san-insights-review

Step 12

Click Commit. The CLI is executed on the switch.

Step 13

Review the results and see that the response is successful.

Note

 

Some SAN Insights window can take up to 2 hours to display data.

Step 14

Click Close to return to the home page.

Close icon appears only after all CLI commands are executed on the switch.

Navigate to the SAN > Fabrics or topology page again, to modify the SAN Insights configurations.

Configuring Fabric Backup

You can configure backup for selected fabric, from Fabric window, similarly you can configure backup on Fabric Overview window. Choose Fabric Overview > Actions on main window, click Configure Backup.

You can back up all fabric configurations and intents automatically or manually. You can save configurations in SAN Controller, which are the intents. The intent may or may not be pushed on to the switches.

SAN Controller doesn’t back up the following fabrics:

  • External fabrics in monitor-only mode: You can take a backup of external fabrics in monitor-only mode, but can’t restore them. You can restore this backup when the external fabric isn’t in monitor-only mode.

  • Parent MSD fabric: You can take backups of MSD fabrics. When you initiate a backup from the parent fabric, the backup process is applicable for the member fabrics as well. However, SAN Controller stores all the backed-up information of the member fabrics and the MSD fabric together in a single directory.

The backed-up configuration files can be found in the corresponding directory with the fabric name. Each backup of a fabric is treated as a different version, regardless if it is backed up manually or automatically. You can find all versions of the backup in the corresponding fabric directories.

You can enable scheduled backup for fabric configurations and intents.

The backup has the information related to intent and fabric configurations in addition to associated state of the resource manager in terms of used resources on fabrics. SAN Controller backs up only when there’s a configuration push. SAN Controller triggers the automatic backup only if you didn’t trigger any manual backup after the last configuration push.

Golden Backup

You can now mark the backups that you don’t want to delete even after you reach the archiving limit. These backups are the golden backups. You can’t delete golden backups of fabrics. However, SAN Controller archives only up to 10 golden backups. You can mark a backup as golden backup while restoring the fabric. To mark a backup as golden backup, perform the following steps from the Web UI:

Procedure

Step 1

Choose a fabric and choose Fabrics > Fabric Overview > Backup.

The Backup tab appears.

Step 2

On main window, choose Actions > Configure Backup.

The Scheduled Archive window appears.

Step 3

Choose the time period from where you want to choose the backup.

Valid values are 1m, 3m, 6m, YTD, 1y, and All. You can zoom into the graph. By default the backup information for 1m, which is one month, appears. You can also choose a custom date range. The backup information includes the following information:

  • Backup date

  • Total number of devices

  • Number of devices in sync

  • Number of devices out of sync

Step 4

Choose the backup you want to mark as golden by clicking the backup.

You can choose the automatic or manual backup. These backups are color-coded. Automatic backups are indicated in blue color. Manual backups are indicated in midnight blue color. Golden backups are indicated in orange color. The automatic backups have only the versions in their names. Whereas the manual backups have tag names, which you gave when you initiated a manual backup, along with the version in the backup name. Hover over a backup to see the name. The automatic backup is initiated from the Backup tab in the Fabric Overview window. The manual backup is initiated by clicking Backup Now from the Actions pane in the backup tab.

Step 5

Navigate to switch window, choose check box for required switch name, choose Switch > Switch Overview > Backup > Actions > Mark as golden backup to mark golden backup.

A confirmation dialog box appears.

Step 6

Click Yes.

Step 7

Continue with rest of the fabric restore procedure as mentioned in the Restoring Fabrics section or exit the window.

Fabric Overview

The Actions drop-down list at the Fabric level allows you to Configure backup, Refer Configuring Fabric Backup for more information.

Fabric Overview contains tabs that allows you view and perform the below operations on the fabric:

Fabric Summary

Click on a fabric to open the side kick panel. The following sections display the summary of the fabric:

  • Health - Shows the health of the Fabric.

  • Alarms - Displays the alarms based on the categories.

  • Fabric Info - Provides basic about the Fabric.

  • Inventory - Provides information about Switch Configuration and Switch Health.

Click the Launch icon to the right top corner to view the Fabric Overview.

Switches

The following table describes the fields that appear on Switches window.

Field

Description
Switch Name

Specifies name of the switch.
IP Address

Specifies IP address of the switch.
Fabric Name

Specifies the associated fabric name for the switch.
Status Specifies the status of the switch.

Health

 Specifies the health status of the switch. The following are health status:

  • Healthy

  • Critical

  • Warning

  • OK
Ports

Specifies the total number of ports on switch.
Used Ports

Specifies the total number of used ports on switch.

Model

Specifies the switch model.
Serial Number

Specifies the serial number of the switch.
Release Specifies the release number of the switch.
Up Time

Specifies the switch up time details.

The following table describes the action items, in the Actions menu drop‐down list, that appear on SAN > Switches > Switches.

Action Item

Description

Device Manager

You can log in to Device Manager for required switch. The Device Manager login window appears, enter credentials and log in.

See Device Manager to view descriptions and instructions for using the Cisco MDS 9000 Device Manager.

Tech Support

Allows you to initiate log collection. For more information, see Tech Support.

Execute CLI

Allows you to run multiple CLI commands on multiple switches and collect output as zipped text file for each switch. For more information, see Execute CLI.

Modules

To view the inventory information for modules from the SAN Controller Web UI, perform the following steps:

Procedure

Step 1

Choose SAN > Switch > Switch Overview > Modules. Similarly you can view modules from fabric overview window, SAN > Fabric > Fabric Overview > Modules

The Modules tab is displayed with a list of all the switches and its details for a selected Scope.

You can view required information in table, enter details in Filter by Attributes.

Step 2

You can view the following information.

  • Name displays the module name.

  • Model displays the model name.

  • Serial Number column displays the serial number.

  • Type column displays the type of the module.

  • Oper. Status column displays the operation status of the module.

  • Slot column displays the slot number.

  • HW Revision column displays the hardware version of the module.

  • Software Revision column displays the software version of the module.

  • Asset ID column displays the asset id of the module.

Viewing Interface

UI Path: SAN > Switch > Switch Overview > Interface

Similarly you can view interface on fabric overview window.

SAN > Fabric > Fabric Overview > Interface

The following table describes the fields that appear on the Interfaces tab.

Field

Description
Name

Specifies the interface name.
Admin. Status

Specifies the administration status of the interface.
Oper. Status

Specifies the operational status of the interface.
Reason

Specifies the reason for failure.
Speed

Specifies the speed of the interface in Gbs.
Mode

Specifies the mode of the interface.

Switch

Specifies the name of the switch.

VSAN

Specifies the name of the connected VSAN.

Connected To

Specifies the connection details.

Connected To Type

Specifies the type of connection.

Description

Specifies the details about the interface.

Owner

Specifies the port owner name.

Port Group

Specifies the port group number for the interface connected.

To perform various operations on the inventory tab, follow the below procedures:

Procedure

Step 1

To perform no shutdown for an interface, select the check box for the required interface and choose Actions > No Shutdown.

A warning window appears, click Confirm.

Step 2

To shutdown an interface, select the check box for the required interface and choose Actions > Shutdown.

A warning window appears, click Confirm.

Step 3

To assign a port owner for an interface, do the following:

  1. Select the check box for the required interface and choose Actions > Owner.

  2. In the Set Port Owner dialog box that appears, enter a required name and click Apply.

Step 4

To set up diagnostic for an interface, select the check box for the required interface and choose Actions > Link Diagnostics.

VSANs

You can configure and manage Virtual SANs (VSANs) from Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller. From the menu, choose Virtual Management > VSANS to view VSAN information. You can view or configure VSAN for the discovered fabrics, with either Manageable or Manage Continuously status. For a selected fabric, a VSAN Scope tree is displayed in the left panel.

You can achieve higher security and greater stability in Fibre Channel fabrics by using virtual SANs (VSANs) on Cisco Data Center Switches and Cisco MDS 9000 Series switches. VSANs provide isolation among devices that are physically connected to the same fabric. With VSANs, you can create multiple logical SANs over a common physical infrastructure. Each VSAN can contain up to 239 switches and has an independent address space that allows identical Fibre Channel IDs (FC IDs) to be used simultaneously in different VSANs.


Note
Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller does not discover, nor display any suspended VSAN.

The VSANs tab displays the following fields.

Field

Description

VSAN Name

Displays the VSAN name.

The information that is associated with the selected VSAN scope appears in the right panel. If a VSAN is segmented, each individual segmented VSAN is a VSAN scope. For every selected VSAN scope, you can view information in tabs.

VSAN ID

Specifies the VSAN ID.

Segments

Specifies the Segments on this VSAN.

Click on segments to open a slide-in pane to view summary information about each segment.

Status

Specifies if VSAN is Up or Down.

The following table describes the action items, in the Actions menu drop-down list, that appear on Fabrics Overview > VSANs tab.

Action Item

Description

Create VSAN

Allows you to launch wizard to create VSAN. For more information, click Create VSAN Wizard.

Delete VSAN

Select the VSAN and click Delete VSAN to delete the VSAN. For more information, click Delete VSAN.


Note

When changing VSAN of the Switch port in Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller, If the port was associated with Isolated VSAN, then the previous VSAN column will be blank.

For description on all fields that appear on the tabs, refer Field and Descriptions for VSANs.

This section includes the following topics:

Default VSAN Settings

The following table lists the default settings for all configured VSANs.

Parameters

Default

Default VSAN

VSAN 1.

State

Active State

Name

Concatenation of VSAN and a four-digit string representing the VSAN ID. For example, VSAN 3 is VSAN0003.

Load-balancing attribute

OX ID (src-dst-ox-id).

Create VSAN Wizard

VSAN Creation Wizard workflow includes:

  • Specify VSAN ID and name.

  • Select Switches.

  • Specify VSAN attributes.

  • Specify VSAN Domain.

  • Specify VSAN Members.

Choose Virtual Management > VSANS. After you select a Fabric from the drop-down list, click Create New VSAN icon. The Welcome screen of the wizard is displayed.


Note
Ensure that the VSAN is not already created.

To create and configure VSANs from the Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller Web UI, perform the following steps:

Before you begin

You cannot configure any application-specific parameters for a VSAN before creating the VSAN.

Ensure that the VSAN is not already created. Do not create the VSAN in suspended state.


Note

The suspended VSANs are not managed.
Procedure

Step 1

In the VSAN ID and Name window, perform the following steps:

  1. Ensure that the correct Fabric is against the Fabric field.

  2. In the VSAN ID field, select VSAN ID from the drop-down list.

    The range is 2–4094. Create the list of VSAN ID in at least one Switch in the Fabric. VSAN ID 4079 is for reserved VSAN.

  3. In the VSAN Name field, enter a name for VSAN.

    Note

     
    If the field is left blank, the Switch assigns a default name to the VSAN.

  4. Click the FICON check box to enable FICON on the switch.

  5. Click Next.

Step 2

In the Select Switches screen, click the check box next to the Switch Name, to create the VSAN.

If the switch name is grayed out, it implies that the switch is already part of a VSAN. It may also imply that the switch doesn’t have FICON feature enabled, if FICON is checked in the previous step.

Click Next.

Step 3

In the Configure VSAN Attributes screen, configure the VSAN attributes.

Note

 
If you create a VSAN in a suspended state, it doesn’t appear on the Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller as it doesn’t manage suspended VSANs.

  1. In Load Balancing, select the load balancing type to be used on the VSAN.

    The following types are available:

    • Src ID/Dest ID: Based on only source ID (Src_ID) and destination ID (Dest_ID).

    • Src ID/Dest ID/Ox ID (default): Originator exchange ID (Ox_ID) is also used for load balancing, in addition to Src_ID and Dest_ID. 0x_ID is an exchange ID assigned by the originator Interconnect Port for an exchange with the target Interconnect Port.

    Note

     
    Src ID/Dest ID/0x ID is the default Load Balancing type for non-FICON VSAN and it isn’t available for FICON VSAN, Src ID/Dest ID is the default for FICON VSAN.

  2. In InterOp, select an interoperability value.

    The InterOp value is used to interoperate with different vendor devices. You can choose from one of the following:

    • Default: implies that the interoperability is disabled.

    • InterOp-1: implies that the VSAN can interoperate with all the Fibre Channel vendor devices.

    • InterOp-2: implies that the VSAN can interoperate with specific Fibre Channel vendor devices for basic to advanced functionalities.

    • InterOp-3: implies that the VSAN can interoperate with specific Fibre Channel vendor devices for basic to advanced functionalities.

    • InterOp-4: implies that the VSAN can interoperate with specific Fibre Channel vendor devices for basic to advanced functionalities.

    Note

     
    InterOp isn’t supported on FICON VSAN.

  3. In Admin State, select the configurable state for this VSAN.

    • Active: implies that the VSAN is configured and services for this VSAN is activated.

    • Suspended: implies that the VSAN is configured, but the service for this VSAN is deactivated.

      Choose this state to preconfigure all the VSAN parameters for the whole Fabric.

      Note

       
      Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller doesn’t manage a suspended VSAN, and therefore it does not appear in the VSAN scope.

  4. Check the InOrder delivery check box to allow in-order delivery.

    When the value of fcInorderDelivery is changed, the value of this object is set to the new value of that object.

  5. Check the Add Fabric Binding DB check box if you want to enable the fabric binding for the FICON VSAN.

    If the check box is selected, all the peers in the selected switches are added to each switch in the selected list.

  6. Check the All Port Prohibited check box if you want to prohibit all the ports for FICON VSAN.

    If the check box is selected, the FICON VSAN is created as all Ports prohibited, by default.

  7. Click Next.

Step 4

In the Configure VSAN Domain screen, configure the static domain IDs for FICON VSAN.

  1. Check the Use Static Domain IDs check box to configure the domain ID for the switches in the VSAN.

  2. The Available Domain IDs field shows all the available Domain IDs in the Fabric.

    Click Automatically apply available domain IDs to assign the domain ID for every switch that is selected to be a part of the VSAN.

  3. For every switch in the table, enter the domain ID from the list of available Domain IDs.

  4. Click Next.

Step 5

In the Configure Port Membership screen, for every switch in the VSAN, configure the interfaces as the member of the new VSAN.

Note

 
Modifying the Port VSAN may affect the I/O of the interface.

Click Next.

Step 6

In the Review screen, verify if you have configured the VSAN correctly.

Click Previous to navigate to the earlier screen and modify the configuration.

Click Finish to confirm and configure the VSAN. The VSAN creation result is displayed at the bottom of the window.

Note

 

After the VSAN is created, it will take few minutes for the new VSAN to appear in the VSAN scope tree.

Note

 

If the switch port is associated with Isolated VSAN then the previous VSAN information will be blank.

Delete VSAN

To delete a VSAN and its attributes from the Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller Web UI, perform the following steps:

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Virtual Management > VSANS.

The VSANS window is displayed.

Step 2

From the Select a fabric drop-down list, select the Fabric to which the VSAN is associated.

The VSAN scope tree for the selected Fabric is displayed in the VSANS area.

Step 3

Expand the Fabric and click the delete icon next to the VSAN.

The Delete VSAN screen appears, showing the switches associated with the VSAN.

Note

 
You can’t delete Segmented VSAN.

Step 4

Select the check box of the Switch for which you want to remove the VSAN.

Click Delete VSAN.

A confirmation window appears.

Step 5

Click Confirm to confirm the deletion or click Cancel to close the dialog box without deleting the VSAN.

Note

 

After the VSAN is deleted, it will take few minutes for the new VSAN to disappear from the VSAN scope tree.

Field and Descriptions for VSANs

The Field and Descriptions for all the tabs that are displayed on Virtual Management > VSANS are explained in the following tables.

Switches Tab

This tab displays Switches in the VSAN scope. Click the Switch name to view the summary information of the switch. The following table describes the fields that appear on the Switches tab.

Table 4. Field and Description on Switches Tab
Field Description
Name Specifies the name of the switch in the VSAN.

Click the name to view the switch summary.

Click Show more Details to view complete information.

Domain ID Specifies an insistent domain ID.
VSAN WWN Specifies the world wide name (WWN) of the VSAN.
Principal WWN Specifies the world wide name (WWN) of the switch.

Note

 
For the principal switch, the value is self.
Model Specifies the model name of the switch.
Release Specifies the NX-OS version on the switch.
Up Time Specifies the time from which the switch is up.
ISLs Tab

This tab displays information about the ISLs about the switches in the VSAN scope. The following table describes the fields that appear on the ISLs tab. If the VSAN is configured on both the switches across the ISL and if VSAN is not enabled on the ISL, Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller considers VSAN as segmented. Therefore, add the VSAN to the trunked VSANs across the ISL to clear the warning message. Alternatively, you can ignore this warning message.

Table 5. Field and Description on ISL Tab
Field Description
VSANs All VSANs which this ISL runs traffic on.
From Switch The source switch of the link.
From Interface The port index of source E_port of the link.
To Switch The switch on the other end of the link.
To Interface The port index of destination E_port of the link.
Speed The speed of this ISL.
Status The operational status of the link.
Port Channel Members The member of Port Channel if the ISL is a Port Channel.
Additional Info Additional information for this ISL, such as, TE/TF/TNP ISL.
Host Ports Tab

This tab displays information about the host ports on the switches in the VSAN scope. The following table describes the fields that appear on the Host Ports tab.

Table 6. Field and Description on Host Ports Tab
Field Description
Enclosure The name of the enclosure.
Device Alias The device alias of this entry.
Port WWN The assigned PWWN for this host.
Fcid The FC ID assigned for this host.
Switch Interface Interface on the switch that is connected with the end device.
Link Status The operational status of the link.
Vendor Specifies the name of the vendor.
Serial Number

Specifies the serial number of the enclosure.
Model Specifies the name of the model.
Firmware The version of the firmware that is executed by this HBA.
Driver The version of the driver that is executed by this HBA.
Additional Info The information list corresponding to this HBA.
Storage Ports Tab

This tab displays information about the storage ports on the switches in the VSAN scope. The following table describes the fields that appear on the Storage Ports tab.

Table 7. Field and Description on Storage Ports Tab
Field Description
Enclosure The name of the enclosure.
Device Alias The device alias of this entry.
Port WWN The assigned PWWN for this host.
Fcid The FC ID assigned for this host.
Switch Interface Interface on the switch that is connected with the end device.
Link Status The operational status of the link.
Attributes Tab

This tab displays the attributes of all the switches in the VSAN scope. The following table describes the fields that appear on the Attributes tab.

Table 8. Field and Description on Attributes Tab
Field Description
Edit

Click Edit to modify the attributes of the VSAN and to push the same VSAN attributes to the selected switches.

If the VSAN is FICON VSAN in any selected switch, the following fields won’t appear on the UI, as they can’t be modified for the FICON VSAN.

  • vsanLoadBalancing

  • InterOp

  • Inorder Delivery

After modify the attributes, you can click Save to save changes or Cancel to discard.

Switch Name Displays the name of the switch that is associated with the VSAN.
VSAN Name Displays the name of the VSAN.
Admin Specifies if the status of the Admin is either Active or Suspend.

  • Active implies that the VSAN is configured and services for the VSAN is activated.

  • Down implies that the VSAN is configured; however, the service for the VSAN is deactivated. You can use set this state to preconfigure all the VSAN parameters by using the CLI only.

Note

 
If you suspend a VSAN, it’s removed from Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller as well.
Oper The operational state of the VSAN.
MTU Displays the MTU for the switch.
Load Balancing Specifies the load-balancing type that is used in the VSAN.

The type of load balancing used on this VSAN.

  • srcId/DestId—use source and destination ID for path selection

  • srcdId/DestId/Oxld—use source, destination, and exchange IDs

InterOp The interoperability mode of the local switch on this VSAN.

  • default

  • interop-1

  • interop-2

  • interop-3

Inorder Delivery The Inorder Delivery guarantee flag of device. If true, then the inorder delivery is guaranteed. If false, it’s not guaranteed.
FICON True if the VSAN is FICON-enabled.
Domain ID Tab

This tab displays information about the VSAN domain and its parameters. The following table describes the fields that appear on the Domain ID tab.

Table 9. Field and Description on Domain ID Tab
Field Description
Edit Select a switch and click the Edit icon to modify the Domain ID information for the selected switch.
Switch Name Specifies the switch name in the VSAN.

Note

 

NPV switches aren’t listed in this column. However, the NPV switches exist in this VSAN fabric.
State Specifies the state of the Switch.
Enable Specifies if the Domain ID is enabled or disabled.
Running Specifies the running domain.
Config Specifies the configuration.
Config Type Specifies the usage of the domain ID type—preferred or static.
Icons
Total The number next to Table specifies the entries under this tab.
Refresh Icon Click the Refresh icon to refresh the entries.
VSAN Membership Tab

This tab displays information about the interfaces on the switches that form the VSAN. The following table describes the fields that appear on the VSAN Membership tab.

Table 10. Field and Description on VSAN Membership Tab
Field Description
Edit

Select a switch and click the Edit icon to modify Port VSAN Membership for selected VSAN and selected switch.

Port VSAN Membership is presented by different types including FC (physical), Port Channel, FCIP, iSCSI, VFC (slot/port), VFC (ID), VFC Channel, VFC FEX, and VFC Breakout, PortChooser is provided for each type to show all existing interfaces on a selected switch for the user to choose from.

Note

 
If you modify Post VSAN Membership for any operational trunking port or port channel members, a warning appears. Use the Device Manager to change Allowed VSAN List for Trunking Interface.
Switch Name Name of the switch
Interfaces FC Ports in VSAN

Device Aliases

A device aliases is a user-friendly name for a port WWN. Device alias name can be specified when configuring features such as zoning, QoS, and port security. The device alias application uses the Cisco Fabric Services (CFS) infrastructure to enable efficient database management and fabric-wide distribution.

The following table describes the fields that appear under Device Aliases tab.

Field

Description

Switch

Displays the device alias switch name.

Device Alias

Displays the alias retrieved from the switch.

pWWN

Displays the port WWN

This section contains the following:

Configuring Device Aliases

Click a required Fabric from Fabrics table, a Slide-in panel is displayed. Click Launch icon to view Fabric Overview window, and click Device Aliases tab.

Before performing any Device Alias configuration, check the status on the CFS tab, to ensure that the status is success.


Note

To perform Device Alias configuration from the SAN Controller Web UI, the fabric must be configured as Device Alias enhanced mode.

To add, or edit, or delete device aliases, perform the following steps:

Procedure

Step 1

Choose check box next to the switch column for which you need to add the device alias

  1. Click Actions > Add device alias.

    The Add device alias windows appears.

    All the provisioned port WWNs are populated in the table.

  2. Enter a device alias name in the Device Alias field to indicate to create a device alias for the selected pWWN.

  3. Click Save to exit the inline editor mode.

  4. Click Apply to assign the device alias to the switches.

You can also create a device alias with a non-provisioned port WWN.

  1. Click + icon of Pre-provision device aliases to create a new table row in inline editor mode.

  2. In the pWWN field, enter the non-provisioned port WWN and device alias for the new alias.

  3. Click Save to exit the inline editor mode.

  4. Click Apply to assign the device alias and the associated pWWN to the switches.

Note

 

If you close the Add device alias window before applying the device alias to the switches, the changes will be discarded and the device alias will not be created.

Step 2

To edit the device alias, choose the check box next to the switch column, and then click Actions > Edit device aliases.

Note

 

You can select multiples switches to edit device aliases.

The Edit device aliases windows appears.

All the selected port WWNs are populated in the table.

  1. Click Edit icon next to the pWWN column.

  2. Enter a required device alias name in the Device Alias field and click tick icon to save the name.

  3. Repeat the same procedure to edit other device alias names.

  4. Click Apply to save edited device aliases to the switches.

    Note

     

    When you rename a device alias, a warning message appears that editing device alias causes traffic interruption and to review the zone member type. For Cisco NX-OS Releases in:

    • 7.x releases - before 7.3(0) releases

    • 6.x releases - before 6.2(15) releases

  5. Click Cancel to discard changes or click Confirm to save changes.

Step 3

Choose check box next to the switch column for which you need to delete the device alias.

  1. Click Actions > Delete device alias.

    A confirmation window appears.

    Note

     

    Deleting the device alias may cause traffic interruption.

  2. Click Yes to delete the device alias.

Step 4

For end devices with an attached service profile, the service profile name is populated to the Device Alias field. This allows the service profile name as a device alias name for those devices.

Device Alias creation is CFS auto committed after clicking Apply. Click CFS tab to check if CFS is properly performed after the device alias created. In case of failure, you must troubleshoot and fix the problem.

CFS

CFS information is listed for all the eligible switches in the fabric. Before performing any Device Alias configuration, check the status on the CFS tab to ensure that the status is "success". If the CFS is locked by another user, or if the previous operation failed, ensure that the CFS session is unlocked.

The following table describes the columns that appears on CFS tab:

Fields

Descriptions
Switch Specifies the name of switch.
Feature Specifies the feature on the switch.
Last Action Specifies the last action performed on the switch.
Result Specifies the action performed is success or unsuccessful.
Lock Owner Switch Specifies whether the switch is locked or not.
Lock Owner User Specifies the user role name if the switch is locked.
Merge Status

Specifies the merge status of the switch.

To view CFS information from the SAN Controller Web UI, perform the following steps:

Procedure

Step 1

To commit the CFS configuration, choose the Switch radio button, click Commit.

The CFS configuration for this switch is committed.

Step 2

To abort the CFS configuration, choose the Switch radio button, click Abort.

The CFS configuration for this switch is aborted.

Step 3

To clear the lock on the CFS configuration, choose the Switch radio button, click Clear lock.

If the CFS is locked by another user, or if the previous operation failed, ensure that the CFS session is unlocked.

Performing Backup actions

The following table describes the columns that appears on Backup tab.

Fields

Descriptions
Switch Specifies the name of switch.
Backup Date Specifies the backup date.
Backup Tag Specifies the backup name.
Backup Type Specifies the backup type, whether it is a golden backup.
Configuration Files Specifies the configuration files details.

The following table describes the fields and descriptions that appears on Action tab.

Actions

Descriptions

Backup now

  • Choose Backup now.

    The Create new backup window appears.

  • Enter name in Backup tag field. If required choose check box Mark backup as golden.

    For more information on golden backup, refer to Golden Backup.

  • Click OK.

Copy to bootflash

Choose Copy to bootflash. A confirmation window appears, click OK.

For more information on bootflash, check Copy Bootflash.

Compare

Choose required switch names to compare configuration of switches, choose Compare.

You can select only two switches at an instance.

Compare Config window appears, displaying the difference between the two configuration files.

The Source and Target configuration files content is displayed in two columns

The differences in the configuration file are show in the table, with legends.

  • Red: Deleted configuration details.

  • Green: New added configuration.

  • Blue: Modified configuration details.

Export

Click Export.

The files are downloaded in your local system. You can use the third-party file transfer tools to transfer these files to an external server.

Edit tag

Click Edit tag to change the backup tag name.

Mark as golden

 To mark existing backup as golden backup, choose Mark as golden, a confirmation window appears, click Confirm.

Remove as golden

 To remove existing backup from golden backup, choose Remove as golden, a confirmation window appears, click Confirm.

Delete

To delete existing backups, choose Delete a confirmation window appears, click Confirm.

Note

 

  • If you have marked backup as golden backup. make sure that the golden backup is removed, else error appears you can't delete existing backup.

  • You can delete one backup at a time.

Name Server

Name Server stores name entries for all hosts in the FCNS database. The name server permits an Nx port to register attributes during a PLOGI (to the name server) to obtain attributes of other hosts. These attributes are deregistered when the Nx port logs out either explicitly or implicitly. In a multiswitch fabric configuration, the name server instances running on each switch shares information in a distributed database. One instance of the name server process runs on each switch.

Double click on the Fabric to view the Fabric Overview screen. Beginning with Release 12.1.2e, the Name Server tab displays name server entries for the selected Fabric. Note that this data is pulled from the Switches discovery, and therefore, the duplicate entries are removed.

The Name Server tab displays the following fields.

Field

Description

VSAN ID

Specifies the VSAN ID for the selected Fabric.

FC ID

Specifies the associated interface FCID.

Switch

Specifies the name of the switch.

Click on the switch name to view the switch summary information. Double click on the switch name to launch the Switch Overview screen.

Port

Specifies the interface port.

Device Alias

Displays the alias retrieved from the switch.

A device aliases is a user-friendly name for a port WWN. Device alias name can be specified when configuring features.

Type

The options are N and NL.

Port Name

Specifies the name of the port.

Node Name

Specifies the name of the node.

FC4Type:Feature

Specifies the FC Type that the port is using. This includes which protocol or state the port is in, that is, scsi-fcp, nvme, npv and whether it is an initiator or target. The following are the sample values:

  • scsi-fcp:target

  • scsi-fcp,nvme:init,init

  • scsi-fcp:both

  • nvme:target,disc

Configuration Monitor

From Release 12.1.2e, NDFC SAN Controller allows you to monitor the changes in configuration as compared to the baseline configuration.

After fabric discovery, configuration monitor saves the baseline configuration for all the switches in the fabric. The following parameters are monitored:

  • NTP_TimeZone

  • NTP_TimeServer

  • AAA Config

  • SYSLOG

  • SNMP Host

  • ACL

  • Users

The monitoring job is executed once a day, everyday, to check for differences in baseline configuration and current configuration. Configuration Drift displays Yes when there is a difference between baseline and current configuration and an alarm is raised. You can view the Alarms raised on Cisco NDFC Web UI > Event Analytics > Alarms > Alarms Raised.

The Configuration Monitor tab displays the following fields.

Field

Description

Switch Name

Displays the switches discovered in the fabric. You can click on the switch name to view the summary information in a slide-in pane.

IP Address

Specifies the IP address of the switch.

Baseline Configuration Time

Specifies the time at which the baseline configuration was generated.

Baseline Configuration

Click View to view the baseline configuration for the specific switch. Click Close to return to the initial view.

Configuration Drift

Specifies if there is a difference in the current configuration, as compared to the baseline configuration.

N/A specifies that NDFC failed to collect the switch baseline configuration due to SSH or reachability issue.

No specifies that there is not configuration difference.

Yes specifies that there is configuration drift as compared to the baseline configuration.

Click Yes to view the configuration difference. On the Configuration Differences screen, Baseline and Current configurations are displayed side-by-side in two columns. The newly configuration Is highlighted in green color, and the deleted configuration lines are highlighted in red color.

The following table describes the action items, in the Actions menu drop‐down list, that appear on Fabric Overview > Configuration Monitor tab.

For every event, an alarm is triggered and recorded on Event Analytics > Alarms > Alarms Raised page. If you Disable Fabric Monitoring, all the alarms are moved to Alarms Cleared.

Action Item

Description

Enable Fabric Monitoring

Allows you to enable fabric monitoring on all switches in the fabric.

Disable Fabric Monitoring

Allows you to disable monitoring the entire fabric. Note that if you disable fabric monitoring, the configuration drift data will not be captured and there will be no data to display on this tab.

Note

 

If you Disable Fabric Monitoring for the fabric, all the alarms are moved to Alarms Cleared tab.

Reset Baseline Configuration

Allows you to reset baseline configuration.

Select the switch and choose Reset Baseline Configuration to purge all the configurations into Baseline Configuration.

Viewing of Port Usage

You can view the following information on Port Usage tab.

  • Port Speed column displays the speed of the port.

  • Used Ports column displays the total ports with the mentioned port speed.

  • Available Ports column displays the available ports for the port speed.

  • Total Ports column displays the total ports with the mentioned speed.

  • Estimated Day Left column displays the estimated days left for the ports.

You can use Filter by attribute to view required information.

Click Refresh icon to refresh the table.

Used ports displays the total used ports for the selected switch.Total ports displays the total available ports for the selected switch.

Metrics

The Metric tab displays the infrastructure health and status. You can view CPU utilization, Memory utilization, Traffic, and Temperature details.

The following table describes the columns that appears on CPU and Memory tab.

Fields

Descriptions
Switch Name Specifies the name of switch.
IP Address Specifies the switch IP address.
Low Value (%) Specifies the lowest CPU utilization value on the switch.
Avg. Value (%) Specifies the average CPU utilization value on the switch.
High Value (%) Specifies the high CPU utilization value on the switch.
Range Preview Specifies the linear range preview.
Last Update Time

Specifies the last updated time on the switch.

Show last day

Click Show last day to view data for selected day, week, month, and year.

The following table describes the columns that appears on Traffic tab.

Fields

Descriptions
Switch Name Specifies the name of switch.
Avg. Rx Specifies the average Rx value.
Peak Rx Specifies the peak Rx value.
Avg. Tx Specifies the average Tx value.
Peak Tx Specifies the peak Tx value.
Avg. Rx+Tx Specifies the average of Rx and Tx value.
Avg. Errors Specifies the average error value.

Peak Errors

 Specifies the peak error value.
Avg. Discards Specifies the average discard value.

Peak Discards

 Specifies the peak discard value.

Last Update Time

 Specifies the last updated time.

Show last day

Click Show last day to view data for selected day, week, month, and year.

The following table describes the columns that appears on Temperature tab.

Fields

Descriptions
Switch Name Specifies the name of switch.
IP Address Specifies the switch IP address.
Temperature Module Specifies the module of temperature.
Low Value (C) Specifies the lowest temperature value.
Avg. Value (C) Specifies the average temperature value.
High Value (C) Specifies the high temperature value.

Show last day

Click Show last day to view data for selected day, week, month, and year.

Congestion Analysis

The Congestion Analysis enables you to view slow drain statistics at the switch level and the port level. You can monitor the slow drain issue within any duration. You can display the data in a chart format and export the data for analysis. You can also view the topology that provides a high-level view of txwait, drops, credit loss recovery, over utilization, and port monitor events.

The Congestion statistics are stored in the cache memory. Therefore, the statistics are lost when the server is restarted or a new diagnostic request is placed.

To enable SAN Congestion to collect statistics on ports, navigate to Server Settings > PM and check Slowdrain Collect on All Ports check box.


Note

The jobs run in the background, even after you log off.

Procedure

Step 1

Choose SAN > Fabrics.

Step 2

From the list of Fabrics, double click on the fabric to view Fabric Summary.

Click Congestion Analysis tab.

Step 3

Select a fabric from the Fabric drop-down list.

Step 4

From the Duration drop-down list, select Once or Daily for the scheduled job. Once includes intervals such as 10 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, and custom hours and runs the job immediately. Daily allows you to select a start time, and run the job for the selected interval. Use the radio button to select the desired interval to collect data.

Step 5

Click Start Analysis to begin polling.

The server collects the slow drain statistics based on the scope defined by you. The Time Remaining is displayed on the right-side of the page.

Step 6

Click Stop Analysis to stop polling.

The server maintains the counters in the cache, until a new diagnostic request is placed. You can stop the polling before the time is up.

Step 7

The Fabric, Status of polling, Start, End, and Duration columns for each fabric is displayed.

Step 8

Select a fabric and click Delete All or Stop to delete or stop a job respectively.

A detailed view of the fabric will appear when you click a fabric name and displays Congestion details for the fabric. See Congestion Visualization for more information.

Step 9

Click a switch name in the Switch Name column of the Device Interfaces table to display the switch's health.

Step 10

Click an interface name in the Interface column of the Device Interfaces table to display the slow drain value for the switch port in a chart format.

Use the Filter by attributes option to display the details based on the defined value for each column.

Select the Only Rows With Data option to filter and display the nonzero entries in the statistics.

Congestion Visualization

A topology of the selected fabric appears when you click a fabric name and displays Congestion details for the fabric. The topology window shows color-encoded nodes and links that correspond to various network elements. For each of the elements, you can hover over to fetch more information. The links and switches are color-coded. Enable performance collections and SNMP traps to view the Congestion information on the topology.

The following table lists the color description that is associated with the links and switches.

Table 11. Color Description

Color

Name

Description

Blue (light)

High Utilization

High utilization tx-datarate >= 80%

Green

Normal

No Congestion found

Red

Level 3

Credit loss recovery

Orange

Level 2

Drops

Yellow (dark)

Level 1.5

txwait >= 30%

Yellow (light)

Level 1

txwait < 30%

Gray (light)

No Data

No Data

A switch color represents the highest level Congestion that is found on any link to switch. The maximum value is 3 and the minimum value is 1. A switch has two colors if overutilized. The right half of the switch is colored in light blue to represent the overutilization. A number on the switch represents the number of F ports with Congestion. The color around the number represents the highest level Congestion that is found on F ports of the switch. Click the switch to see more Congestion details.

Two parallel lines are used to represent the Congestion on links. Links are bidirectional, hence each direction has a color to represent the highest level of Congestion. Hover over a link to view the switch and interface name of the source and destination. Click a link to view the Congestion data that is related to that link alone.


Note

The highest Congestion level a link can have is Level 3. Valid colors for a link are Green, Red, Orange, Yellow (dark), Yellow (light), and Gray (light).

DIRL

Dynamic Ingress Rate Limiting (DIRL) is used to automatically limit the rate of ingress commands and other traffic to reduce or eliminate the congestion that is occurring in the egress direction. DIRL does this by reducing the rate of IO solicitations such that the data generated by these IO solicitations matches the ability of the end device to process the data without causing any congestion. As the device's ability to handle the amount of solicited data changes, DIRL, will dynamically adjust seeking to supply it with the maximum amount of data possible without the end device causing congestion. After the end device recovers from congestion, DIRL will automatically stop limiting the traffic that is sent to the switch port.

In case of slow drain and over utilization, the assumption is that if the rate of IO solicitation requests is reduced then this will make a corresponding reduction in the amount of data solicited and being sent to the end device. Reducing the amount of data will resolve both the slow drain and over utilization cases.

DIRL is comprised of two functions and can perform equally well on congestion caused both slow drain and over utilization:

  • Port monitor: Detects slow drain and overutilization conditions and if the port guard action is set as DIRL, it notifies FPM. Port monitor port guard action DIRL can be configured on the following counters:

    • txwait: Use for detection of slow drain.

    • tx-datarate: Used for detection of overutilization.

    • tx-datarate-burst: Use for detection of overutilization.

  • FPM: DIRL actions are taken by FPM as notified by port monitor. On detecting a rising threshold from port monitor, FPM does rate reduction causing the rate of ingress traffic to be reduced. On detecting the value of a counter being below the falling threshold continuously for the DIRL recovery interval, FPM does rate recovery.

After the port monitor policy is configured with the DIRL portguard action and activated, all non- default F ports are monitored by default, and FPM is notified if congestion is detected on any of these ports. However, you can manually exclude certain interfaces from being monitored.

The following are the different transition states of DIRL:

  • Normal: The state in which a port is functioning normally and state before it enters DIRL Rate Reduction. After full recovery, the port returns to the Normal state.

  • DIRL Rate Reduction: The state in which an event rising threshold triggers the DIRL rate reduction process.

  • DIRL Rate Reduction Maximum: The state in which the DIRL rate reduction has reached its maximum value and more rising thresholds events are detected.

  • DIRL Status: The state in which an event below the rising threshold and above the falling threshold is detected. This state will transition to the DIRL Recovery state when an event below the falling threshold is detected for the configured recovery-interval.

  • DIRL Rate Recovery: The state in which the DIRL rate recovery happens on detecting an event below the falling threshold for the configured recovery-interval. This state will transition to the Normal state after the port recovers completely from DIRL.

    This state is a recurring state and there will be multiple rate recoveries before the ports are completely recovered from DIRL. This state will transition to the DIRL Stasis state when an event below the rising threshold and above the falling threshold is detected.

The following are the actions that are initiated by DIRL depending on the type of event detected on the port:


Note

The events are listed in reverse chronological order with the most current event at the top.

  • An event rising threshold is detected on the port and DIRL is initiated for the port. The port ingress traffic rate is reduced to 50% of its current rate.

  • In the next polling interval, the recovery-interval expires without detecting a rising threshold. The port ingress traffic is increased by 25% of its current capacity.

  • In the next polling interval, the recovery-interval expires without detecting a rising threshold. The port ingress traffic is increased by 25% of its current capacity..

  • In the next polling interval, the recovery-interval expires without detecting a rising threshold. The port ingress traffic is increased by 25% of its current capacity.

  • In the next polling interval, the recovery-interval expires without detecting a rising threshold. The port ingress traffic is increased by 25% of its current capacity.

  • In the next polling interval, an event rising threshold is detected on the port, and DIRL is initiated for the port. The port ingress traffic is reduced again to 50% of its current rate.

DIRL Congestion Management Visualization

Dynamic Ingress Rate Limiting (DIRL) analysis is an on-demand job executed on the selected Fabric. It displays the DIRL status and events on all the switches in the fabric. The following commands are executed on the switches and the output is collected as a snapshot.

  • show fpm ingress-rate-limit status

  • show fpm ingress-rate-limit events


Note

DIRL Visualization is supported on Cisco MDS Series switches with Release 9.2(1) and later.

To view the DIRL analysis on Cisco NDFC SAN Controller UI, perform the following:

  1. Choose SAN > Fabrics.

  2. From the list of Fabrics, double click on the fabric to view Fabric Summary.

    Click DIRL tab.

  3. Click Start DIRL data collection to begin collection.

    Click Cancel/Abort to stop the collection.

A status message appears to show that the collection is in progress. It also displays the time stamp at which the analysis began. After the Analysis is complete, information is populated in the table below. A status message appears to indicate that the collection is complete. It also displays the time stamp at which the analysis was completed.

An entry in the table below shows that following fields:

Field

Description

Switch

Specifies the switch on which the analysis is collected.

Click on the Switch to view a slide-in pane displaying the summary. Click on the launch icon to view Switch Overview.

Interface

Specifies the interface on which the analysis is collected.

  • Click the trend icon to view the chart for DIRL events on the interface. The graph provides information about Ingress, Egress, DIRL counter(s) values of the current DIRL with event timestamps for the selected DIRL interface.

    The graph also shows set of Falling/Rising threshold of each DIRL counter; the threshold is based on the active edge type Port Monitor policy at the time of the DIRL status collection.

  • Click on the interface name to view interface summary. Click VSAN value to view the related VSANs.

  • Click DIRL Events to view Rate Limit events. The table displays the events of this interface from the CLI command output show fpm ingress-rate-limit events .

Current rate limit (%)

Specifies the % indicating the current rate limit.

Previous action

Specifies the previous action performed to control the rate limit.

Last updated time

Displays the time stamp at which the event occurred.

Click DIRL Past Events to view the DIRL events for all the interfaces in this fabric, except the current DIRL interfaces. The table displays events from CLI command output show fpm ingree-rate-limit events .

Rate Limit Events

Double click on the Fabric to view the Fabric Overview. On the DIRL tab, after the DIRL status is collected on the switches, the data is displayed in the table below.

Click DIRL Events in the Interface column to view the rate limit events for that interface on the switch.

The following table provides information about the fields and table items that appear on this screen.

Field Description
Fabric Specifies the Fabric to which the switch belongs.
Switch Specifies the fabric for which the DIRL congestion is visualized.
Interface Specifies the interface on which the events are visualized.
Last collection at Specifies the date and time at which the DIRL status was collected.
Counter Specifies if the counter is for txwait or tx-datarate or tx-datarate-burst.
Event Specifies the event.
Counter Value % Specifies the value of the counter.
Action Specifies the action which triggered the event,
Operating port speed (Mbps) Specifies the speed of the operating port.
Input rate (Mbps) Specifies the input rate.
Output rate (Mbps) Specifies the output rate.
Current rate limit (%) Specifies the current rate limit.
Applied rate limit (%) Specifies the applied rate limit.
Time Specifies the time at event was triggered.