MSA 1000fc & Brocade 300

[MSAlexander]

Hi!

We have a little outdated MSA 1000 with embedded two MSA SAN Switch 2/8, two newly purchased Brocade 300 switches and Server with ACU. We've connected these items in a way shown below:

MSA1000 with embedded two MSA SAN Switches each connected to corresponding Brocade Switches, Server with ACU also connected to the Brocade switches. We've managed to build a fabric. But using this configuration we can't manage msa 1000 with ACU coz  ACU can't discover msa1000 controller through fabric.

May be we must use other software? Or we've made a mistake in connection scheme?

Thank you!

[Johan Guldmyr]

Hi!

You're saying you can't manage the ACU, from where? From a server in the new B300 or the old MSA 2/8?

I suppose you have two fabrics?
Zoning?
Can any servers see the disks?

[MSAlexander]

Well, sorry for my English. Try to explain once again:

Server with installed ACU connected to the B300; MSA 2/8 connected to the B300 too.

| Server with ACU | -------> | B300 | <------- (MSA 2/8  + MSA Controller & Disks)

ACU can't find MSA controller, so I can't manage and see any disks.

We are using default zoning on B300 - every port can access each other. So MSA 2/8 inherits this zoning.

You are right. We have two fabrics. We are trying to build fault-tolerant connection scheme.

[hvhari]

In this case, both switches has to be put to same fabric, so that your server can see the MSA through the new switch.

If you are planning for redundancy with the new switches, then server & MSA  needs to have connection to both switches independently and those switches can be in different fabric.

Supportshow from the switches can tell, whats the actual status of fabric now.

[Johan Guldmyr]

I hope the B300 and MSA 2/8 in the MSAlexander's post are in the same fabric. If not, then they need to be.

Switchshow or fabricshow would be good to have a peak at.

'defzone --show' tells you which default zoning is running on the switches. But if that's different the switches won't merge into a fabric anyway.

[MSAlexander]

Friends, that is our full connection scheme:

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||HBA1 | <--------->| B300_1| <------------> |MSA 2/8 _1, Controller_1||||||||||||||||||||||

| Server with ACU  ||||||||||||||||||                                                          ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| && Disks   |

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||HBA2 |< --------->| B300_2|<-------------> |MSA 2/8 _ 2, Controller_2|||||||||||||||||||||

B300_1 & B300_2 assign to Domain 1

MSA 2/8_1 & MSA 2/8_2 assign to Domain 2

As a result B300_1 & MSA 2/8 _1 merged into a fabric, and B300_2 & MSA 2/8_2 also merged into another fabric. I've checked it using 'fabricshow' command.

Using command 'switchshow' I verified that all four switches have the same effective zoning scheme (default).

And I still can't manage MSA controllers using ACU.

Well, if | had configured all correctly, ACU would have discovered MSA?

[Johan Guldmyr]

Domain 1 and 2?

Each switch should have a unique domain id.

I guess it's a translation error though as they wouldn't have merged without this.

If everything was configured correctly then yes, you should be able to discover the MSA through ACU.

Can any server see anything from the MSA1000?

[MSAlexander]

I guess that every switch should have a unique domain id inside standalone fabric.

But we have two independent fabrics, so we could use the same domain id inside different fabric... am I right?

As a rule we use telnet in order to manage switches, but just recently we've tried web tools. Through web tools we've revealed that one of the MSA 2/8 switches participate in the fabric and at the same time it is designated as segmented switch....

What may cause such a problem?

Thanks!

[Johan Guldmyr]

Ah, there we go.

Would you be able to post the 'fabricshow' the way it is now in that fabric?

It would be interesting to see how it looks now and after we fix the segmentation problem.

Lots of things can cause fabric segmentation.

FOS firmware, TOV, zoning, default zoning, speed on link, etc.

You should see the reason for it by hitting 'switchshow' in both switches in that fabric.

You'll see the (first) reason on the E_port ISL.

Sometimes everything is correct but you need to portdisable; portenable on the ISL.

And yes, they can have the same DID if they are in different fabrics.

Usually though people set a DID and call the switch the same.

Like SW101 for Switch with domain id 101.

And for the switch in the other fabric - 201. Makes it a little easier sometimes.

[MSAlexander]

fabricshow

Brocade_1:admin> fabricshow

Switch ID     Worldwide Name     Enet IP Addr         FC IP Addr    Name

1: fffc01      10:00:00:.............:36    192.168.200.1     0.0.0.0        >"Brocade_1"

2: fffc02      10:00:00:.............:a6    192.168.200.21   0.0.0.0          "switch1"

The fabric has 2 switches

switchshow

switch1: admin> switchshow

switchName: switch1

switchType: 18.2

switchState: Online

switchMode: Native

switchRole: Subordinate

switchDomain: 2

switchId: fffc02

switchWwn: 10:...............:a6

switchBeacon: OFF

Zoning: ON(cfg)

port 0: cu N1 Online        Loopback->0

port 1: id N2 Online         E-port 10:...........................:36 "Brocade_1" (upstream)

port 2: id N2 No_Light

.

.

Brocade_1: admin> switchshow

switchName: Brocade_1

switchType: 71.2

switchState: Online

switchMode: Native

switchRole: Principal

switchDomain: 1

switchId: fffc01

switchWwn: 10:...............:36

Zoning: ON(cfg)

switchBeacon: OFF

Index Port Address Media Speed State           Proto

------------------------------------------------------------------------

   0       0   011700      id        N2     Online        FC F-Port 10:.........   ///(server with ACU)

   1       1   011500      id        N8    No_Light    FC

   2       2   011300      id        N8    No_Light    FC

   3       3   011100      id        N8     No_Light   FC

.

.

.

   6       6   011200      id        N2     Online        FC E-Port 10:.........:a6 "switch1" (downstream)

.

.

.

At the first glance it looks normal, i suppose...

I also disabled and enabled ISL ports on both switches (port 1 on switch1 and port 6 on Brocade_1)... And still switch1 (if i connect through web tools) in the fabric and in the segmented group too.

Brocade 300 Firmware ver. 6.3.1a

MSA SAN Switch 2/8 Firmware ver. v3.2.1c

What is TOV, please?

[Johan Guldmyr]

"Zoning: ON(cfg) " doesn't this mean that zoning is enabled? Have you tried zoning?

On switch1 - is the MSA1000 logged in there too? Port 0 is just a loopback so it needs to be in another port.

If your TOV (time out values) were different between the switches, the fabric would not merge.

You can see what you have by hitting: configshow --pattern "fabric.ops"

As far as these commands go, you should not have a segmented fabric.

Old stuff in browser history?
Firmware bug? Aren't there newer ones of your switches out?

[MSAlexander]

Yes. Zoning is enable. When we configured brocade 300... we selected default zoning ... as fa as i remember it means that each port is accessible to any other port in the switch.

Excuse me, but what did you ask in this question "On switch1 - is the MSA1000 logged in there too"... what do you mean saying "logged"?

Port 0 is loopback...what does it mean? and why does it need to be another port?

Old stuff in browser history .... I also had such an idea, so I checked and found out that it was not.

As to the firmware... for MSA 2/8 it has the recommended version...

When I updated Firmware for MSA 2/8 I had some problem... only second attempt was successful ... May be it causes my problems and I should reinstall Firmware once again, but it is ridiculous... 

[Johan Guldmyr]

Hello,

As for port 0 - maybe I'm mistaken and in the back-end between the MSA1000 san-switch and the actual controller there is loopback, it just looks odd that it says 'loopback' and not loop, or FC-AL or FL_port if it were a loop.

Have you restarted the MSA switches? Reseated them?
Do you have the console cable to the MSA? Maybe it's possible to get some info out of the CLI on the front of the MSA that relates to this. (show tech_support) is the only command in that CLI that I know.

Is there nothing logged in (as in, an F_Port or FL_Port on the MSA1000 SAN-switch) on any of the other ports?

If you hit 'nsshow' on the MSA1000 SAN-switch you should see the local devices (so the MSA1000 itself). If you hit 'nscamshow' on the Brocade 300 you should see the MSA1000.

From the Fabric OS Guide:

If the current zone configuration has been disabled by cfgDisable, the fabric is in non-zoning
mode, in which all devices see each other. When default zoning is enabled with "No Access" mode, "No
Effective configuration: (No Access)" is displayed.

Why is it that yours says that Zoning is ON(cfg) when you say you have default zoning with all devices see eachother?

Might be worth doing a re-install of the firmware. Or go down one step and then up again. Did you have the same problem on both? From which firmware did you upgrade from?

[Uwe Zessin]

I don't think the old MSA 2/8 SAN switch understands "default access all zoning".

It is running a pretty old and different (VXworks-based) version of Fabric OS.

[Johan Guldmyr]

Or they might be implemented differently.
In FOS 4.0 they moved to MontaVista Linux according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brocade_Communications_Systems.

Also turns out you may need a license for some zoning commands (zoneadd, zonecreate, zoneremove and more) on the 2/8 switch.
Reference guide for FOS 3.x and 4.x (p 900):

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00679918/c00679918.pdf

If you do not have this license - how would it work then if not with 'default access all zoning'?

[MSAlexander]

Hello, Johan!

First of all, I appreciate your help very much. Thanks for your answers!

It's magic but today when I logged in using web tools we hadn't segmented switches... But we still couldn't discover MSA controller. But it's a good sign and we are going in the right way)))

As for port 0 in MSA 2/8_1. I don't know why it is in loopback mode... I guess It was configured in this way many years ago... and I don't know reasons.  But when I hit 'switchshow' on another MSA 2/8, concerning port 0 I've got following:

port 0:cu AN No_Sync  ' and it blinks amber, while port 0 in MSA 2/8_1 in loopback state is green.

We rebooted, fastbooted switches many times...we also power circled MSA1000 several times. But we have never reseated them.

No. No any other equipment logged in on any other ports on MSA1000... only link between MSA 2/8 (port 0) and Brocade 300 (port 6).

'nsshow' on the MSA1000:

switch1: admin> nsshow

There is no entry in the Local Name Server

nscamshow on Brocade 300

Brocade_1:admin>nscamshow

nscam show for remote switches:

Switch entry for 2

   state rev owner cap_available

   know v320 0xfffc01 1

   Device list: count 0

       No entry is found!

But when I hit nscamshow on MSA1000 I saw devices connected to Brocade 300 except MSA1000 itself.

Excuse me. I wasn't accurate when I was speaking about zoning... In fact we have zoning scheme not exactly default... We applied that was suggested by the wizard and there it is (8 ports on Brocade):

      HBA                            H      H      H       H

      Storage                     S       S      S       S

       port number           0,4    1,5     2,6     3,7

Each HBA see each Storage. So we have 16 zones such as: zone_0_4 (1,0;1,4), zone_0_5 (1,0;1,5)......zone_3_7 (1,3;1,7)

This zoning scheme (cfg)  was inherited by MSA1000 when it merged into fabric with Brocade.

Our MSA 2/8 is connected to port 6 (Storage port) and our Server with ACU is connected to port 0 (HBA port).

We experienced problem with segmentation only in web tools and only on one MSA 2/8. Another MSA seems to work properly, but we still can't discover the MSA1000.

Right now, I don't remember from what firmware I upgraded... I'll try to find out.

Thank you once again.

[Johan Guldmyr]

Hi, heh, ok those kind of zoning setups tend to confuse me.

I've helped people with this kind of setup before and we did get it working, I just don't remember the specifics :)

But do note: even if your switches inherited the zoning, you'd still have to zone in the new ports on the new switch with the old ports on the old switch. 

As far as I can tell from the switchshow output, the MSA1000 controllers does not log on to the MSA1000-switches.

The nsshow and nscamshow confirms this as they don't see the MSA1000 controllers. This is the reason why your servers cannot discover the MSA1000-controller in ACU. 

Try to find the serial/RJ-45z cable to the front of the MSA1000-controller.

More info here: http://www.markwilson.co.uk/blog/2006/07/configuring-hp-msa1000-using-serial.htm

I'd give a reseat of the MSA1000-switches a shot, maybe that helps.

Anything about this in the front OCP of the MSA1000 controllers?

[MSAlexander]

Hi, Johan!

I was unavailable for some time...:)

Look. I disconnected MSA 2/8 from Brocade and attached it to the Server directly. And still I haven't seen MSA1000....

Next. I hit cfgDisable to disable zoning and once again I haven't seen MSA1000. So you were right....the MSA1000 controllers does not log on to the MSA1000-switches. 

In the front OCP of the MSA1000 controllers nothing wrong.

One interesting thing... After I've connected MSA1000 to Server directly and hit switchshow

the state of port 0: automatically changed from port 0: cu N1 Online        Loopback->0 to normal state with WWN instead of Loopback. 

I'm going to reseat MSA 2/8 switches and connect to the front of MSA controllers...

Thanks)

[MSAlexander · Accepted solution]

Hi, Johan!

I checked the controllers and didn't find that there was something wrong with them. So they seemed to cooperate with switches.

But At least I've solve my problem with your great help.

What I've done:

1. Disconnected SAN 2/8 switches from Brocade 300 Switches

2. Reset SAN 2/8 Switches to fabric default

3. Connected SAN 2/8 switches to Brocade 300 switches once again ( configured domain numbers and so on... but what's important ... SAN 2/8 switches inherited zoning scheme from master brocade switches)

4. Disable zoning

5. Started ACU and discovered the MSA 1000

6. Enjoyed))

Thanks a lot!

[Johan Guldmyr]

Great stuff! Excellent that you got back and wrote here how to get it working. I'm sure this will be helpful for somebody else in the future.