Connect two SAN switches.

[MAH_2]

Hi I want to conect 2 SAN switches together.
One is external SAN (8/8 ) and other one is Blade(C7000) SAN switch(4 Gb). Both are broacade switches.

EVA is connected on external SAN switch. I want to connect the Blade server to the storage. How I can do this.?

[Bhavnish Kamboj (BK)]

Connect a cable (ISL) b/w both SAN switches so that they can communicate and make sure you need fabric license on both switches.

Once you see both switches are joined, means E-port then you need to zone your Server with EVA controller ports.

After zoning, you will be able to see the WWN of the Server HBA in CV EVA Add host option.

For zoning related help you can download brocade command ref guide from HP site.

Hope the above info will help you

BK

[MAH_2]

How I will see the switches?

If I access the Web GUI of one of the switch, wher I can see the other switch, so that I can access the other switch device and do the zoning with this switch.

[Bhavnish Kamboj (BK)]

In GUI after login on left side it shows switches. If you see both switches there that means they are merged without any issue.

And also from CMD do "switchshow" or fabricshow"

In switchshow you will see other switch connected port as "E" port

And in fabric show it will show all the switches connected to each other.


For zoning you need to refer command ref guide. Will post link here soon.

[Bhavnish Kamboj (BK)]

use below guide for zone related help.

Not sure what FOS version you are running but zone commands remains same.

http://www.dectrader.com/docs/set4/c01146160.pdf

[Terri Harris]

The Brocade firmware will determine how much you can do with the free Brocade GUI, which is called WebTools.
Starting with Brocade fw 6.x, Brocade has begun moving features off of WebTools and making it only available with DCFM (Data Center Fabric Manager) which must be installed. There is a free DCFM (DCFM Pro) and DCFM Enterprise which is not free.
8GB Brocade switches run only 6.x firmware.
Suggestions:
1. Do zoning only on the switch designated as "Principal" from the switchshow output. The zoning info will be sent to any subordinate switches (attached switches).
2. Your WebTools will probably allow you to see what's logging in only from one switch at a time.

[Don Mallory]

There are a few things missing here.

First, you need to ensure that the version of firmware on both switches is interoperable. You can do this from the support matrices in SPOCK. (http://h20272.www2.hp.com/ )

You will need to look at the B-Series Connectivity Stream ( http://h20272.www2.hp.com/utility/document.aspx?docurl=Shared%20Documents/hw/switches/B-Series_FC_Switch_Connectivity_Stream_2010_12_06.pdf )

Do not connect your switches until you have done this and checked a few other things.

Next, you need to ensure the PID format is set to 1. To find this, do a "configshow" at the switch and look for the following text:

fabric.ops.mode.pidFormat:1


If you don't have this set to 1, the nPort addressing will be formatted differently and when you mix multiple switch domains, the domain will not be part of the nPort, which will cause problems for your naming services.

Next piece... domain ID. At the top of a switchshow, you will see ad Domain ID:

myswitch1:admin> switchshow
switchName: myswitch
switchType: 64.3
switchState: Online
switchMode: Native
switchRole: Principal
switchDomain: 1
switchId: fffc01
switchWwn: 10:00:00:15:1f:8e:40:62
zoning: ON (MYDOMAIN_A_20101116_1200)
switchBeacon: OFF
FC Router: OFF
FC Router BB Fabric ID: 1

If the switchDomain on both switches is "1", one must be changed to something else. You will need to switchdisable to change this (offline change)... I can't recall, but I believe it's done with "configure".

After all this... before you connect your switches, back up their configs, and create up a single zoning set on the principal switch (lowest domain ID, highest model). You can also for pricipality by using "fabricprincipal".

Next, disable all the secondary switch ports, connect your ISL and ensure that you have all of the zones across both switches. This will be pretty automatic. Be careful of enterring "Interoperability mode". This more or less means, that if you put a bunch of people in a room, and the only thing in common is that they speak 10 words of swahili, that they try to communicate in swahili, regardless of how little they will succeed.

switchshow, islshow, trunkshow, all helpful here. cfgshow for zoning.

Once all is well, start re-enabling your switch ports on the secondary switch, and you should be good. Check all connections, bring up any hosts you needed to have down, etc.

I know it seems to be a bit particular, but it's better to be controlled than let the switches try to do the thinking for you and ending up with a mess of zones and interoperability issues.

It's also worth mentioning that you can have multiple ISLs for redundancy and increased bandwidth between the switches. If you have a trunking license, this bandwidth will fully aggregate. If not, they will be more like Etherchannel.

Good luck,
Don