What Are the Different Port States a Brocade Switch Can Report?

Question
What are the differences between the port states, reported when I execute the switchshow command (online, offline, no
light, not sync, etc...) ?

I noticed that sometimes a particular port index is set to disable and its state shows "no light" whereas other times its
state says "not sync". Why is this ?

Environment
• Brocade Fiber Channel Switches

Answer
In the switchshow of a Brocade's supportsave data you will see:

Index Slot Port Address Media Speed State Proto

============================================================
0 1 0 010000 id 8G Online FC E-Port
10:00:00:05:1e:66:d6:fe "DCX21" (Trunk master)
1 1 1 010100 id 8G Online FC E-Port (Trunk port,
master is Slot 1 Port 0 )
2 1 2 010200 id 8G Online FC E-Port (Trunk port,
master is Slot 1 Port 0 )
3 1 3 010300 id 8G Online FC E-Port (Trunk port,
master is Slot 1 Port 0 )
4 1 4 010400 id N8 Online FC F-Port
50:05:07:60:5e:80:04:01
5 1 5 010500 id N8 Online FC F-Port
50:05:07:68:01:40:fc:72
6 1 6 010600 id N8 Online FC F-Port

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 50:05:07:60:5e:84:53:01
7 1 7 010700 id N8 Online FC F-Port
50:00:09:74:08:2e:35:0c
8 1 8 010800 id N8 Online FC F-Port
10:00:00:05:1e:fd:06:c5
9 1 9 010900 id N8 Online FC F-Port
10:00:00:05:33:26:10:88
10 1 10 010a00 id N8 No_Light FC Disabled (Persistent)

etc.

In the portshow # of each port you will see:

portshow 0
portDisableReason: None
portCFlags: 0x1
portFlags: 0x10000903 PRESENT ACTIVE E_PORT T_PORT T_MASTER G_PORT
LOGICAL_ONLINE LOGIN
LocalSwcFlags: 0x0
portType: 17.0
portState: 1 Online
Protocol: FC
portPhys: 6 In_Sync portScn: 16 E_Port Trunk master port Flow
control mode 4
port generation number: 0
state transition count: 0

The state can be one of the below:

Online/In_Sync

• Normal operating port with a connected device / ISL to other switch. "Online" is the operating state, "In_Sync"
the physical state of the receiver/transmitter. (to see the in_sync you have to issue a portshow, as
a switchshow doesn't display it)
• If a port is showing in-sync, the device is not logged into a fabric. Questions to ask are have any changes
occurred since the last time it worked?
• One problem could be port speed hard set incorrectly. Will the drives log in if you pull/re-insert the SFP/cable?

Offline

• Not online, see portPhys for more detail

No_Module

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 • No module (SFP or other) present / no gbic / sfp inserted

No_Light

• Module not receiving light

• gbic/sfp inserted, maybe even cable connected, but receiving no light Disabled/Offline
• If you disable a port (via portdisable) its operating state goes to offline. Fabric OS doesn't check offline ports,
this means the physical port state is nt display as whatever it was
• If there was a device previously connected it displays as disabled/in_sync, if there was none it displays as
disabled/no_light (or no_module). This physical state is only updated when you enable the port again.

No_Card

• No interface card present

No_Sync

• Module receiving light but out of sync

In_Sync

• Module receiving light and in sync

Laser_Flt

• Module signaling a laser fault

Port_Flt

• Port marked faulty

Diag_Flt

• Port failed diagnostics

Lock_Ref

• Locking to the reference signal

Testing

• Running diagnostics

Online

• Port is up and running

portPhys: noCard(1), noGbic(2), laserFault(3), noLight(4), noSync(5), inSync(6), portFault(7),

diagFault(8), lockRef(9)

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 portState: unknown(0), online(1), offline(2), testing(3), faulty(4)

If the Proto is FC Disabled (Port Throttled) then this is due to:

At the beginning of the Fabric OS v7.1.0 code releases speed negotiation throttling has been implemented on Gen5
(16 Gbit/sec) switches.

This usually is observed when a host is transmitting un-modulated light when it was rebooted. This un-modulated
light will

trigger speed negotiation to start, and fail multiple times.

These failures will cause the port to be disabled for a two minute time period.

When the port becomes disabled, it will look similar to the following excerpt from a switchshow.

Index Slot Port Address Media Speed State Proto

============================================================
47 47 692f00 id N32 No_Sync FC Disabled (Port
Throttled)

In an environment where devices are booting over SAN, it is recommended/best practice to lock the speed of the
port

on the switch to prevent any excess time during the boot up stage. Additionally, in general making sure that the

topology of the device connecting to the switch are locked to point to point would assist in reducing the time

that it takes for a device to come online.

So setting the FC-speed on the attached Hardware and on the Switch-Port to a "Fixed Speed" can circumvented this.

Additional Notes

Internal Notes
For more information see:

http://www.brocade.com/content/html/en/administration-guide/fos-741-accessgateway/
GUID-5E8E92D7-1416-41C5-82E2-F54DF798F485.html

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