About Fabric Overview for SAN Operational Mode Setups, Release 12.1.3

 
Updated August 23, 2023
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New and Changed Information

The following table provides an overview of the significant changes up to this current release. The table does not provide an exhaustive list of all changes or of the new features up to this release.

Release Version Feature Description

NDFC release 12.1.3

Reorganized content

Content within this document was originally provided in the Cisco NDFC-Fabric Controller Configuration Guide or the Cisco NDFC-SAN Controller Configuration Guide. Beginning with release 12.1.3, this content is now provided solely in this document and is no longer provided in those documents.

Fabric Overview

The Actions drop-down list at the Fabric level allows you to configure backup, Refer to the section "Configuring Fabric Backup" in Backing Up and Restoring SAN Operational Mode Setups 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 the section "Tech Support" in Add Switches for SAN Operational Mode.

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 the section "Execute CLI" in Add Switches for SAN Operational Mode.

Viewing Module Inventory

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

  1. In Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller, choose SAN > Fabric.

  2. Double-click on the required fabric to open the Fabric Overview page and click on the Modules tab.

    The Modules tab displays 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.

    Field

    Description

    Name

    Displays the module name.

    Model

    Displays the model name.

    Serial Number

    Displays the serial number.

    Type column

    Displays the type of the module.

    Oper. Status

    Displays the operation status of the module.

    Slot

    Displays the slot number.

    HW Revision

    Displays the hardware version of the module.

    Software Revision

    Displays the software version of the module.

    Asset ID

    Displays the asset id of the module.

Viewing Interfaces

  1. In Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller, choose SAN > Fabric.

  2. Double-click on the required fabric to open the Fabric Overview page and click on the Interfaces tab. The Interfaces tab displays a list of all the interfaces in the selected fabric.

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

    Field

    Description

    Switch Name

    Specifies the name of the switch the interface belongs to.

    Interface Name

    Specifies the name of the interface.

    The Show 24hr chart icon to the left of the interface name opens the Interface Details and Performance Chart dialog box for the selected interface. It displays details about the interface and a performance chart that depicts the traffic details through the interface. This chart is available only for interfaces that are connected to another interface.

    Admin. Status

    Specifies the administration status of the interface.

    Oper. Status

    Specifies the operational status of the interface.

    Reason

    Specifies the reason for failure.

    Admin. Speed

    Specifies the configured speed of the interface in Gbs.

    Oper. Speed

    Specifies the current operational speed of the interface in Gbs.

    Mode

    Specifies the mode of the interface.

    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 description that you have added about the interface.

    Owner

    Specifies the name of the port owner.

    Port Group

    Specifies the port group number to which the interface belongs to.

  3. To perform no shutdown for an interface, check the check box for the required interface and choose Actions > No Shutdown. Click Confirm in the warning window that appears.

  4. To shutdown an interface, check the check box for the required interface and choose Actions > Shutdown. Click Confirm in the warning window that appears.

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

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

      You can select multiple interfaces while assigning the port owner, if required.

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

  6. To add description for an interface, do the following:

    1. Check the check box for the required interface and choose Actions > Description.

      note.svg

      You can add description for multiple interfaces, simultaneously.


    2. In the Set Port Description dialog box, enter the description and click Apply.

  7. To set up diagnostic for an interface, check 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. Go to SAN > Fabrics, then double-click on a fabric to view the Fabric Overview page. Click on the VSANs tab 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.svg

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.svg

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.


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

The VSAN Creation Wizard workflow includes these steps:

  • VSAN ID and name

  • Select Switches

  • Configure VSAN Attributes

  • Configure VSAN Domain

  • Configure Port Membership

Go to SAN > Fabrics, then double-click on a fabric to view the Fabric Overview page. Click on the VSANs tab to view VSAN information. Click Actions > Create VSAN. The Create New VSAN screen of the wizard is displayed.

note.svg

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.svg

The suspended VSANs are not managed.


  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.svg

      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.

  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.

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

    note.svg

    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.svg

        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.svg

        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.svg

        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.

  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.

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

    note.svg

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


    Click Next.

  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.svg

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

  1. Go to SAN > Fabrics, then double-click on a fabric to view the Fabric Overview page.

  2. Click on the VSANs tab to view VSAN information.

    The VSANS window is displayed.

  3. Select the VSAN that you want to delete and click Actions > Delete VSAN.

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

  4. Select all of the switches or select a specific switch to delete the VSAN from those switches, then click Delete VSAN.

    A confirmation window appears.

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

    note.svg

    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 SAN > Fabrics > Fabric Overview > VSANs are explained in the following sections:

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.

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.svg

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.

ISL 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.svg

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.

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.svg

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.

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.svg

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

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.svg

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:

  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.

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

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

    7. Click Save to exit the inline editor mode.

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

    note.svg

    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.


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

    note.svg

    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.svg

      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.

  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.svg

      Deleting the device alias may cause traffic interruption.


    2. Click Yes to delete the device alias.

  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:

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

    The CFS configuration for this switch is committed.

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

    The CFS configuration for this switch is aborted.

  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.

Event Analytics

Event Analytics includes the following topics:

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 the section "Golden Backup" in Backing Up and Restoring SAN Operational Mode Setups.

  • Click OK.

Copy to bootflash

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

For more information on bootflash, see the section "Copy Bootflash" in About Switch Overview for SAN Operational Mode Setups.

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.svg

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.svg

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 ©

Specifies the lowest temperature value.

Avg. Value ©

Specifies the average temperature value.

High Value ©

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 option 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.

note.svg

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

  • Starting with NDFC release 12.1.3:

    • For the Cisco MDS 9000 Series switches running on NX-OS version 9 and later, performance monitoring data is polled using NX-API for the fiber channel (FC) ports, and the NX-API feature is automatically enabled if it’s not already enabled. For Cisco MDS 9000 Series switches running on NX-OS version 8 and earlier, SNMP is used instead.

    • Slow drain job page is removed because the slow drain job is integrated into PM and it runs together with the PM collection for 24 hours by default.


  1. Choose SAN > Fabrics.

  2. From the list of fabrics, double-click on a fabric to view the Fabric Summary.

  3. Click the Congestion Analysis tab.

    The Congestion Analysis window shows the congestion data for the fabric directly for the last 24 hours. You can change the time scope to see the history data up to two weeks.

  4. Determine the type of information that you want to have displayed in the Device Interfaces table.

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

    • Select Show All Rows to show all entries in the table, regardless of their values.

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

  6. 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.

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.

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

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 bring in a sliding window, which shows the switch details. Double-click on the switch to view congestion data by filtering on the switch name.

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.svg

The highest Congestion level a link can have is Level 3. Valid colors for a link are Green, Red, Orange, Yellow, 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.svg

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.svg

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.

  3. Click DIRL tab.

  4. Click Start DIRL data collection to begin collection.

  5. 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 ingress-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.

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