Storage Management Strategies for the CIO
Hello,
I need guidance/help in configuring a Brocade 2400/2800 switch to connect point-to-point for disk and loop access for tape libraries on the same switch. I do not see my tape drives when point-to-point is configured.
Thanks.
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Where are you doing the "point-to-point" configuration? Brocade switches have "auto sensing" ports. They start out as Gports (Global Ports) and change to accommodate the connection type. There should be no configuration needed. Plugging in an Emulex HBA configured with the topology parameter set to fabric will cause the switch to autoconfigure the port to an "Fport" (Fabric Port). This will register the HBAs WWN (World Wide Name) in the switches name server data and allow communication to any other "Fport" device. In order to see your loop- based tape devices, you need to have the "QuickLoop" license enabled on the switch. QuickLoop allows FC-AL (Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop) devices to participate in the fabric. Fabric devices can see the loop devices through the switch because the switch does FC-SW to FC-AL address translation when the license is enabled.
You can tell if your devices are logging in correctly by connecting to the switch over the network and doing a "switchshow" command. This command will list all connected devices on all the ports. You'll notice fabric device will show their WWN on the connected "F" port and loop devices will show up as an "FL" port. See the example below showing ports 0 and 3 sensing loop devices, and ports 5 and 9 sensing a connection to another switch (the E-Ports). There are no F-port fabric devices in the example.switch:admin> switchShow switchName: open146 switchType: 3.1 switchState: Online switchRole: Principal switchDomain: 1 switchId: fffc41 switchWwn: 10:00:00:60:69:00:04:64 port 0: sw Online FL-Port 1 private, 1 phantom port 1: -- No_Module G-Port port 2: sw No_Light G-Port port 3: sw Online FL-Port 1 private, 1 phantom port 4: -- No_Module port 5: sw Online E-Port 10:00:00:60:69:00:00:12 "sw1" (upstream) port 6: sw No_Light port 7: sw No_Light port 8: sw No_Light port 9: sw Online E-Port 10:00:00:60:69:00:01:b4 "sw3" (downstream) port 10: sw No_Light port 11: sw No_Light port 12: sw No_Light port 13: sw No_Light port 14: sw No_Light port 15: sw No_Light
Hope this helps you.
Chris
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This was first published in April 2002
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