Connecting A3591B FC card to SAN

[Fedon Kadifeli]

Is it possible to connect an old D-class system having an old A3591B FC card to an (A7985A HP SW 4/16) SAN Switch?

When I connect this port to the switch, the switch shows this port as an "Online" "L-Port" but on the server side I see the following:

# fcmsutil /dev/fcms0

Local N_Port_ID is = 0x000001
N_Port Node World Wide Name = 0x10000060B03EA687
N_Port Port World Wide Name = 0x10000060B03EA687
Topology = UNKNOWN
Speed = 1062500000 (bps)
HPA of card = 0xFBF4C000
EIM of card = 0xFFFA2008
Driver state = DEAD
Number of EDB's in use = 0
Number of OIB's in use = 1
Number of Active Outbound Exchanges = 1
Number of Active Login Sessions = 0

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

I used to run a couple of D class boxes with fiber cards. There was only one certified card and this was not it.

http://partsurfer.hp.com
http://docs.hp.com

See the server in docs to find a supported card. If its supported it will work. If not, it probably will not.

SEP

[Torsten.]

AFAIR this card does not support a fabric login - only A6684A does.
(this came from my memory only ;-))

[Fedon Kadifeli]

I do not have much know-how on SANs.

As far as I see, an F-port works OK; but an L-port (like the one we are talking about) does not work? What is an L-port? What happens when I connect an L-port to a switch? If there is no possibility of using an L-port in an SAN environment, why does the switch make the port "Online" and shows it as an "L-port"?

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

You can damage the card and the system by not doing your homework. Stop playing around until you know this card is supported.

SEP

[Torsten.]

A3591B HSC Fibre Channel Adapter
The A3591B is an HSC Fibre Channel host bus adapter in an EISA form factor, and it is installed in one of the
HSC slots in the system. It allows fiber connections to devices at distances up to 500M from the host. The
adapter also allows connection to FL-DA (Fibre Loop Direct Attach) supported devices.

from
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00373977/c00373977.pdf

Only works with FL-DA devices.

[Rita C Workman · Accepted solution]

F port is also referred to as switch-fabric port
L port I've always referred to as arbritrated-loop port.

Sometimes with arbitrated loop you, depending on switch and vendor, may require special port licensing. I have SAN attached tape libraries and left them set as L ports. The big SAN Directors won't read L ports, so I had to set up a small departmental switch to run off the Directors, and then obtain A/L (EMC calls it QuickLoop) licensing and connect them on a port there.

Don't know your SAN though....so can't confirm if this is your issue.

Rita