Fabric Internal Resources

Internal resources are the components that exist in a fabric. Components that you can view include blades, Trunks, ports, switches, and zone sets.

Internal Resources

Use the Fabrics details page to view information about the following internal resources for fabrics that are monitored by IBM Storage Insights.

Trunks

Trunks include the following types of link:

Inter-switch link (ISL): A link between two ports on different switches. The link is typically between two expansion ports (E_ports). Both of the switches operate in native mode.
N_Port Virtualization (NPV) link: A single physical link between a switch that is in native mode and an NPV switch. An NPV switch is a Cisco switch that is in NPV mode or a Brocade switch that is in Access Gateway mode. The port on the switch that is in native mode is a fabric port (F_port). The port on the switch that is in NPV mode or Brocade Access Gateway mode is a proxy node port (NP_port).
Expansion port (E_port) channel (also known as an ISL trunk): A logical aggregation of ISLs.
Fabric port (F_port) channel (also known as an F_port trunk): A logical aggregation of NPV links.
Port channel: A logical aggregation of links. If the port channel has no links, it is not possible to determine whether the port channel is an E_port channel or an F_port channel. In this case, the connection is referred to as a port channel.
Inter-chassis link (ICL) trunk: A logical aggregation of ICLs between the core routing blades of two Brocade director switches. The core blades have special ICL E_ports that are used only for links to core blades on other director switches.

To view information about ISLs, click Trunks. The number in parentheses shows the number of ISLs that are associated with the fabric. For example, Trunks (2) indicates that there are two inter-switch links available on a fabric.

The following information is available for ISLs, NPV links, ISL trunks, F_port trunks, and ICL trunks:

Status

The status values help you to decide whether you need to investigate or resolve issues with inter-switch links.

The following statuses might be displayed for the ISL, NPV link, ISL trunk, F_port trunk, or ICL trunk:

Acknowledged: Shows whether a user marked the status of an ISL as acknowledged. If the status of the ISL was reviewed, and the status is either resolved or can be ignored, the status is acknowledged. To acknowledge the status of an ISL, right-click the ISL in the list and select Acknowledge Status.
Error: The ISLs and NPV links have an error status because one or both of the ports have an error status.; ISL trunks, F_port trunks, and ICL trunks have an error status if half or more than half of the links in the trunk or channel have ports that have an error status.
Normal: ISLs and NPV links have a normal status if both of the ports have a normal status.; ISL trunks, F_port trunks, and ICL trunks have a normal status if half or more than half of the ports on the link have a normal status, all of the ports are configured correctly, and none of the links has an error status.
Unknown: The status of the ISL cannot be determined.
Unreachable: ISLs and NPV links have an unreachable status if both of the ports have an unreachable status.; ISL trunks, F_port trunks, and ICL trunks have an unreachable status if half or more than half of the ports on the link have an unreachable status, all of the ports are configured correctly, and none of the links has an error status.
Warning: ISLs and NPV links have a warning status if one or both of the ports have a warning status.; ISL trunks, F_port trunks, and ICL trunks have a warning status if less than half of the links have a port that has an error status. ISL trunks also have a warning status if half or more than half of the links have ports that have a warning status.

The following information is available for E_port channels and F_port channels:

Status

The status values help you to decide whether you need to investigate or resolve issues with port channels.

The following statuses might be displayed for a port channel:

Error: One or both of the ports have an error status. If the port channel has no member ports, you get a no ports error.
Normal: Both of the ports have a normal status.
Port not in port channel: A port on a switch has a link to a port on another switch, but that switch is not configured to be in the port channel.
Port with no link: A port on one of the two switches in the port channel has no link.
Unknown: The status of the port channel cannot be determined.
Warning: One or both of the ports have a warning status.

Ports

Switch ports can be expansion ports (E_ports), fabric ports (F_ports), or fabric loop ports (FL_ports). To view information about the ports on the switches in your storage area network (SAN) fabric, click Ports. The number in parentheses shows the number of ports on the switches in the fabric. For example, Ports (6) indicates that there are six ports in the fabric. The following information is available for each port that is associated with the fabric.

Blade Slot

If the port is on a blade, this column displays the physical slot on the switch to which the blade is attached. If the port is on a switch, then this column has no value.

Domain, Port

The domain ID of a switch, followed by the port index of a switch. In switches that have blades, the port index can differ from the port number.

FC Port ID

A 24-bit ID that uniquely identifies a fabric endpoint, such as an F port for a storage system or an N port for a host.

Connected Resource

If the port is actively connected to another port, this column displays the name of the resource that is communicating with that port. The resource can be a switch, a host, or a storage system. This field can also display a port alias or a host connection name, if that information is available. For Cisco switch ports, the zone alias is displayed, if available. Cisco device aliases are not supported. When the switch port has connections that use N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV), the number of connections is displayed if IBM Storage Insights does not differentiate between physically connected ports and logically connected ports. If a port has one connected resource with multiple names, either alias names or host names, the properties notebook for that port displays the Connected Resource Names tab. This tab shows the name and WWPN of each alias or host name. If a port has more than one connected resource, the ports table shows the number of connected resources for that port. Click the number to see a table that lists the names and WWPNs of the connected resources for that port. The following values might also be shown:

Blank: This column is blank if the port is disabled or does not have an active connection. A port can be enabled but offline if no resources have an active connection to it.
Unavailable: The value Unavailable is shown if a resource is attached to the port but IBM Storage Insights is not monitoring that resource. For example, if only the WWPN of the connected resource is known, the value Unavailable is shown.

Connected Port

The Port Name of the remote port that is physically connected to the switch port. Both ports must be online to be connected. Click the name to view the properties notebook Connectivity tab for the port. When the switch port has connections that use NPIV, the number of connections is displayed if IBM Storage Insights does not differentiate between physically connected ports and logically connected ports. If the physically connected port unregisters from the switch port, the fields on the Connectivity tab show the value Unknown.

Connected WWPN

The WWPN of the remote port that is connected to the port. When the switch port has connections that use NPIV, the number of connections is displayed if IBM Storage Insights does not differentiate between physically connected ports and logically connected ports.

Port Number

The ID of a port, starting with the domain ID of the associated switch.

State

The state of a port, such as Unavailable, Disabled, Online, and Enabled but offline. A port that is online means that the port is communicating with an attached resource. A port that is enabled but offline means that the port is enabled, but no resources are attached to it. It might not always be possible to determine the state of a port. For example, it is only possible to determine the state of ports on Brocade switches, and it sometimes not possible to determine the state of those ports. If it is not possible to determine the state of a port, the state of the port is Unavailable.

Port Type

The type of a port, such as E Port, F Port, or G Port. If this information is unknown, the column does not contain a value.

Speed (Gbps)

The current negotiated speed of a port.

Status

The status of a Fibre Channel port. Statuses include Normal, Warning, Error, and Unknown. Use the status to determine the condition of a port, and if any actions must be taken. For example, if a port has an Error status, take immediate action to correct the problem.

Switch

The logical name of the switch that the port is on, or the name that was defined when the switch was added for monitoring. If neither name is available, IBM Storage Insights uses the WWN of a switch.

WWPN

The World Wide Port Name (WWPN) of a port. A WWPN is the unique 64-bit identifier for a port in a Fibre Channel fabric.

Switches

To view information about the switches in the fabric, click Switches. The number in parentheses shows the number of switches in the fabric. For example, Switches (6). The following information is available for each switch that is associated with the fabric.

Acknowledged

The issue was resolved or the user decided that the issue did not need to be investigated.

Chassis

The name of the chassis where the switch is available. The name of the chassis was defined in an element manager or when the chassis was added to IBM Storage Insights.

Condition

The overall condition of the switch is determined by the most critical status of any one of the switch's internal resources.

Connected Ports

The number of ports that are connected to servers, switches, storage systems, or unmanaged resources.

Tip: Click the link in the Ports column to find out more about the connected ports.

Custom tag 1, 2, and 3

The user-defined text that you can add to provide more information about the switch. You can include this additional information or use the custom tags to filter the information that you want to share with your colleagues in reports.

Data Collection

The aggregated status for the collection of capacity, configuration, status, and performance metadata. Two separate jobs are run to collect the metadata:

A probe is run once every 24 hours to collect capacity, configuration, and status metadata.
A performance monitor is run every 5 minutes to collect performance metadata.

Because separate jobs are run to collect the metadata, both collection jobs must be successful to get a Running status. If an issue occurs during metadata collection, the following statuses might also be displayed:

Degraded

Not all metadata for the device was collected. This status is displayed when metadata collection is interrupted and only partial metadata is available.

Failed

Metadata was not collected for the device. This status might be displayed for a number of conditions, such as a service interruption, a network outage, or a device that is unavailable. If the failure was caused by an interruption or a global problem with the service, IBM® is investigating the issue and you'll be notified when the data collection service is resumed.

Not Connected

Asset and configuration metadata or performance metadata, or both can't be collected. If the data collection service isn't resumed, try these self-help options:

Check that your switch is online and that your network is up and running.
Check that your firewall is configured to allow outbound access over HTTPS port 443 to your instance of IBM Storage Insights Pro.
Check that the server where the data collector was installed is online.
Restart the data collector.
Refresh your browser.

Not Monitored

When you add a chassis, its hosted switches are automatically discovered and added for monitoring. Any other switches that are connected to the switches on the monitored chassis are also discovered.

If chassis that host the other, connected switches use the same connection credentials as the chassis that you added, the chassis and their switches are also added for monitoring.
If chassis that host the other, connected switches don't use the same credentials, the chassis and their switches are added to IBM Storage Insights but are not monitored.

Task expired

This status might be displayed for a number of conditions or temporary problems within the service.

Help with statuses:

For more information about these statuses and how you can troubleshoot them, see Monitoring the status of data collection.
Subscribers are notified by email when issues with collecting data are detected. If an issue with collecting data persists and you can't resolve the issue, you can get help by submitting a post in the IBM Storage Community. For other support options, see Looking for help.

Domain ID

The domain ID of a switch. The ID is an 8-bit identifier with a range of 0-255.

Fabric

The name of the fabric where a switch is a member. The name of the fabric was defined in an element manager or when the fabric was added to for monitoring. If a name is not defined, the WWN of the fabric is used.

Firmware

The firmware version of the microcode on the chassis where a switch is defined.

IP Address

The IP address of the switch which can be in IPv4 or IPv6 format.

Last Successful Monitor

The last time that the performance information was refreshed.

Last Successful Probe

The most recent date and time when data was collected about a switch.

Links

The number of inter-switch links (ISLs) on the switch. An ISL is a single link between two ports on two different switches. An ISL is a member of a trunk that consists of all ISLs between two switches.

Location

The location of the switch, which can be defined when you add the switch for monitoring.

Mode

Mode is a configuration setting that is defined on the chassis. Mode can be either native or NPV.

Model

Manufacturer provides the model name of chassis.

Name

The logical name of the switch or the name that was defined by the user after the switch was added for monitoring. If the name isn't available, the worldwide name (WWN) of the switch is shown.

Performance Monitor Status

The status of the most recent run of a performance monitor. Use this value to quickly identify a performance monitor that failed or generated warning messages during processing. The following statuses might be displayed:

Starting: The performance monitor is starting.
Running: The performance monitor is running.
Running with problems: The performance monitor is running, but encountered warning conditions during processing. Check the log to view the warning messages.
Stopping: The performance monitor is stopping.
Completed: The performance monitor completed data collection.
Completed with warnings: The performance monitor completed, but encountered warning conditions during processing. Check the log to view the warning messages.
Failed: The performance monitor encountered error conditions during processing and is no longer running. Check the log of a performance monitor to view its error messages.
Canceled: The performance monitor was stopped and is no longer collecting performance data.
Not running: The performance monitor is not running.
Disabled: The performance monitor never ran. To start a probe, complete these steps:
1. From the Resources menu, click Switches and select Chassis tab.
2. Select and right-click the chassis that host the switch.
3. Click Configure Data Collection and provide the IP address and credentials for the chassis that host the switches.
4. Click Connect.

Ports

The number of ports on the switch.

Tip: Click the link to find out more about the ports, the resources it connects to, and its' links.

Principal Switch of Fabric

The name of the principal switch of the fabric when the switch was last probed. The fabric can change its principal switch dynamically when conditions require it.

Probe Status

The probe is run to collect asset and configuration information about your switch. If one of the following values is displayed, you might need to investigate or take remedial action:

Failed: The asset and configuration information was not collected.
Warning: Warning conditions were encountered when asset and configuration information was collected.
Never probed: The asset and configuration information was not collected because the resource or device is offline. The asset and configuration information was not collected because the resource or device is offline.

Serial number

A number or alphanumeric identifier that is given by manufacturer to each chassis.

System UUID

A unique identifier that assigns to the switches when it is added to IBM Storage Insights.

Vendor

The name of the vendor or manufacturer of the switch.

WWN

The worldwide name (WWN) of the switch, which is a 64-bit unsigned name identifier that is unique.

Zone Sets

To view information about the zone sets on the fabric, click Zone Sets. The number in parentheses shows the number of zone sets on the fabric. For example, Zone Sets (4). The following information is available for each zone set on the fabric.

Note: For Cisco fabrics, IBM Storage Insights displays only the active zone set.

Active: If this zone set property is Yes, then the zone set is active.
Description: The user-defined description of the zone set.
Zones: The number of zones in the zone set.
Note: The number of zones visible to IBM Storage Insights includes zones that have not been added to the active zone set list. In this case, the number of zones reported may differ from the number of zones on the active zone set list maintained by the fabric. In this case, check for zones that have been created on switches but not yet committed to the active zone set list.
Zone Set Name: The user-defined name of the zone set. The name must be unique within the fabric.