SMI-S fabric probe

The following information shows you how to diagnose problems with the SMI-S probes of fabrics.

IBM Spectrum Control supports the SMI-S agent (also called the CIM agent or CIMOM) for the fabric. The SMI-S agent collects basic fabric, switch, and port information that is used for performance monitoring. For Brocade fabrics, full topology information and zoning information is also collected during the fabric probe.

For a list of switches and directors that are supported by IBM Spectrum Control, see the IBM Spectrum Control interoperability matrix for switches. Search for the appropriate version of switch and director.

Common usability problems

SMI-S fabric usability issues include the following items:
Switch Vendor and Model are blank or unknown
Some switch vendors do not provide a distinguishable vendor name or model name through some of the fabric agents.
Switch performance monitoring job fails immediately
Check to see that a probe of the related fabric completed.
The Switch port, Index, Slot, or Enabled State option is blank for the Brocade switch
Check to see that an SMI-S agent is configured for this fabric, and check to see that a fabric probe completed.
CIMOM discovery failed
Check to see that the switch SMI-S agents are at the supported levels.
Network Advisor SMI Agent
For information about the Network Advisor SMI agent, see the following documents:
  • Brocade Network Advisor User Manual that supports your version of Network Advisor.
  • Brocade SMI Agent User's Guide for the version of the SMI Agent you are using.
  • Brocade Network Advisor (BNA) Integrated SMI Agent for any problems that are encountered with this type of SMI Agent.

Things to note

When you have a problem with the SMI-S fabric probe, check these items:

  • The following information is collected only through the SMI-S agent:
    • Brocade blades
    • Brocade Switch FCPort EnabledState and Index
  • When a discovery is performed, IBM Spectrum Control finds fabrics and switches through the switch SMI-S agents. IBM Spectrum Control finds basic information for switches that are not registered with the SMI-S agent, if they are in a fabric with a switch that is registered with the agent. IBM Spectrum Control also finds and persists fabrics and the fabric-to-switch relationships.
  • When a fabric is probed, the following actions occur:
    • SMI-S agent discovery is rerun.
    • When a backend fabric agent assignment is made, IBM Spectrum Control checks to see which SMI-S agents are available. The agents are sorted and the top agent in the list is run. The other agents in the list are run only if the fabric probe fails with the previous agent.
  • Switch blade port index values

    The switch blade port index values might be incorrect for Brocade switches where one of the following scenarios apply:

    • When a port swap operation is performed.
    • When the Extended Edge PID mode has been enabled on the director. For more information about the Extended Edge PID mode, see the Brocade document Fabric OS Administrator's Guide.