QLOGIC HBA re-logins

[Michael Gorin]

Hi

I work in an environment with more then 30 hosts, part of them with QLOGIC HBAs and other with EMULEX.
Whenever a RSCN frame is sent by the switch
the EMULEX HBAs scan the network and login only to ports which they are not already logged in.
But QLOGIC HBAs sends PLOGI (login) frame to all the ports it detects even if it is already logged in .
This causes our device (also QLOGIC firmware) many problems cause each re-login we receive
invokes a port logged out event and we need to terminate all commands from this host and to start over.
Is there any way to solve this problem ?

Thanks
Michael Gorin

[Vincent Fleming]

FLOGI is fabric login - PLOGI is for establishing a connection to a device, which could be the name server or another device such as a disk.

I think what the QLOGIC is doing is valid, even if it's annoying your other device. It sounds like it's rescanning everything again where the EMULEX is assuming that things it has scanned in the past have not changed.

You should check with QLOGIC to see if there is a way of changing this behavior.

You mention in your other posting that you are using a SAN Virtualization device... which one? Is it the HP SV3000 or something else? Have you asked for support of that product?

Perhaps there is a way of changing the Virtualization devices' behavior.

[Michael Gorin]

Hi

I work in StoreAge the the Virtualization device is ours.
Our device is both target and initiator.
Re-login causes port logged out event.

[Vincent Fleming]

Well, it sounds like your virtualization device needs a little work to support QLOGIC-like behavior.

Your device needs to ignore PLOGI events (and the associated logout events) when the host issuing the PLOGI has already done a PLOGI to a device. ie: you need to maintain a state table for each device and host so you know to ignore the logout/PLOGI events.

Good luck!

[Arief]

Hi
Your virtualization device is behaving correctly. A PLOGI from another port that is already logged in ends the prior login session by causing an implicit logout before establishing a new one.

Fibre Channel devices (both initiators and targets) should not send PLOGIs as an authentication response to RSCN. PLOGIs are very disruptive and there are gentler ways, such as ADISC, PDISC or querying the SNS. This is not a violation of the FC standards though, since a port may at any time implicitly logout another port. However, you may wish to negotiate this with qlogic.

Out of curiosity, may I know the model of the qlogic HBA, and the server and OS it is running on?