Zoning - WWN discovery?

[Jim_McKinney]

Given an active SAN environment that utilizes Brocade switches and is currently configured without any zoning enabled, is it possible, using only the SAN switch’s CLI, to determine the WWNs of all of the adaptors that are attached to the fabric? How so? If not, what might be the simplest way to determine all of the existing WWNs (is an inventory at each node called for here)? The end game here is to remotely (if possible) determine the WWNs of all of the existing SAN consumers and establish zoning on the currently homogenous SAN prior to the introduction of any other computing environments. tia

[IBaltay]

Hi,
maybe this could help you:
http://www.brocadekorea.com/download/resource/53_0000213_01.pdf

CLI commands used to manage zones, zones aliases, and zone configurations:

aliadd Add a member to a zone alias
aliCreate Create a zone alias
aliDelete Delete a zone alias
aliRemove Remove a member from a zone alias
aliShow Show zone alias definition
cfgCreate Create a zone configuration
cfgAdd Add a zone to a configuration
cfgDelete Delete a zone configuration
cfgRemove Remove a zone from a configuration
cfgShow Show a zone configuration
zoneAdd Add a member to a zone
ZoneCreate Create a zone
zoneDelete Delete a zone
ZoneRemove Remove a member from a zone
zoneShow Show a zone configuration
cfgClear Clear all zone configuration
cfgDisable Disable a zone configuration
cfgEnable Enable a zone configuration
cfgSave Save a zone configuration to flash
cfgShow Show zone configuration definition

[Jim_McKinney]

Thanks for that pointer - I had not previously seen that document - very nice.

But, zoning concepts are not at issue here - nor the methodolgy for creating/enabling zones. The desire is to discover the WWNs of ALL of the residents of the existing SAN so that none are missed as zoning is implemented. And, as this may be done long distance and without the aid of the SANswitch GUI, it would be desirable to compile an inventory of WWNs using only the SANswitch CLI (if this is even possible).

[IBaltay]

and also this: commnand nsshow:
http://community.brocade.com/home/message/6031;jsessionid=CA40C216C4A4CBED83478DE528DF5836

http://books.google.sk/books?id=tNbHp7uGP2IC&pg=PA303&lpg=PA303&dq=nsshow+output&source=bl&ots=_bEZIDfzkW&sig=3HLxG_1rq_7myWTxfGATlNC43LU&hl=sk&ei=LwLrSvSZOZSsmAPEjK2aDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CBQQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=nsshow%20output&f=false

[Jim_McKinney]

Thank you again - looking at the "nsshow" (Print local Name Server information information) command got me to looking at the "nscamshow" (Print local Name Server Cache information) and maybe between those two commands I'll have what I need. I have to spend some time looking at the output to see what I've got and if it's complete for what I need.

[Uwe Zessin]

The "nsshow" (and the "nsaliasshow", depending on your zoning model [*]) are very useful, because they give detailled information about the node.

For a simple list you can usually use the "switchshow" command, but that might miss some nodes with L_Ports or when NPIV is used.


[*] I prefer WWN-based zoning and nice names, then "nsaliasshow" is even more powerfull:
SW1:admin> nsAliasShow
{
Type Pid COS PortName NodeName TTL(sec)
N 020200; 2,3;10:00:00:00:c9:xx:yy:zz;20:00:00:00:c9:xx:yy:aa; na
FC4s: FCP
PortSymb: [49] "UNIX (emx0) KGPSA-CA S/W Rev 2.14: F/W Rev 3.91a1"
Fabric Port Name: 20:02:00:05:1e:aa:bb:cc
Aliases: ALPHA1_PGA0
...
> cfgshow
...
alias: ALPHA1_PGA0
. . . 10:00:00:00:c9:xx:yy:zz

(this is from a configuration made in 2004, so don't bother about the driver/ firmware revisions ;-)

[Jim_McKinney]

fwiw, it seems that the nsshow command does not report on E-Ports (switch-to-switch) whereas switchshow does include them.

[Uwe Zessin · Accepted solution]

Right. E_Ports are no SCSI targets/initiators and don't need to be found by them. And normally you don't include E_ports into normal zones - historically you could not do 'traffic engineering' by zoning E_Ports.

[Jim_McKinney]

That makes sense - thanks for the explanation.

[Jim_McKinney]

The output of the combination of the following two commands will produce a listing of all WWNs of active devices that inhabit a SAN.

> nsshow
> nscamshow

"nsshow" reports on those devices that are directly connected to the local SAN switch and "nscamshow" reports on all remote devices that are remote and accessible through some other switch.