How to set Fiber Channel Card to Auto-Negotiate

[Scott Buffington]

I have a 1 port 4GB Fiber Channel Card that has apparently been hard set to 4GB. The card has three LED lights on it labeled as follows - 4Gb, 2Gb and 1Gb. The 4Gb light is on and colored amber.

The Fiber Channel Card is attached to an EVA 4000 and the HP StorageWorks SAN Switch is only a 2Gb switch. So I get amber lights and limited connectivity. I need to know how to set the Fiber Channel card on HP-UX to auto-negotiate, I cannot find how to do this anywhere.

The output from the fcmsutil /dev/fcd0 also confirms the Link Speed is 4Gb

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Olivier Masse]

I'm not sure that can be done, at least I never did it myself and fcmsutil doesn't mention any (official) option to set the speed. You can set the speed on the switch port though, I always leave it to auto-neg. On the B series, an amber light doesn't necessarily mean there is no connection. If you have green on the left and amber on the right, it means that the connection is at 4Gb while green - green is 2Gb.

[Duncan Edmonstone]

Scott,

FC cards in HP-UX boxes *always* auto-negotiate - there's no way to make them do anything else... are you *sure* your FC switch is 2Gb only?

Can you post the actual model numbers of your FC switch and FC card?

HTH

Duncan

[Scott Buffington]

Thank you so much for the reply. I was told by a SAN guy that the switch could not be 4GB because four years ago they were not at that speed. (I was steered to him for help.) I adopted all the equipment after two sysadmins quit and I had sysadmin experience on AIX in my background. This was the first server we tried using with the SAN that has a 4GB card.

I have access to everything on the HP EVA 4000 SAN except the switch. I was told the HP EVA 4000 SAN was setup by HP about 4 years ago. The switch is not network attached and I attempted to get into the switch with a serial cable hanging in the back of the rack. I cannot get a login prompt.

Here is the Fiber Channel Card model -
AB378B HP PCI-X 2.0 1port 4Gb Fibre Channel HBA
Unfortunately I cannot find a reference to the HP StorageWorks 4/16 SAN Switch in our service contract.

Would anyone have any suggestions for how I can get into the switch? Also, is it possible this model Fiber Channel card just does not work properly with my four year old SAN Switch? Thanks again guys.

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

Auto-negotiate is the default for these fiber cards. There is nothing to do.

SEP

[Duncan Edmonstone · Accepted solution]

Scott

if you really have a B-Series 4/16 SAN Switch then that *is* a 4Gb switch, whatever your predecessors said (the "4" in "4/16" stands for 4Gb).

The manual for the switch is here:

http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00498167/c00498167.pdf

IIRC you had to have a serial connection attached when the switch boots to get a login there - not something I expect you want to do.

Your best hope is that everything is still set to the defaults. If that's the case get a x-over cable and a laptop... give your laptop a 10.x IP address and try tro connect to the switch at IP 10.77.77.77.

Of course you'll then need the login details - try the username/password combination admin/password

HTH

Duncan

[Duncan Edmonstone]

Also looking at the quick specs for that switch, it was introduced in September 2005 - just shy of 4 years ago...

Time flies eh?

Duncan