SAN Health

Tips and Tricks

Your Quick Guide to Optimizing
SAN Health Today!

Steve Wynne
Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Installing SAN Health................................................................................................ 1
Running SAN Health................................................................................................. 2
Running SAN Health - Step 1: Enter Site Details............................................................ 3
Running SAN Health - Step 2: Select Fabrics To Audit.................................................... 4
Running SAN Health - Step 2b: Audit Execution & Report Options.................................. 7
Optional Use of Custom Names, Extra Device Information,
and Creating Hyperlinks:....................................................................... 9
Custom Hyperlinks................................................................................................... 10
Running SAN Health - Step 2b: Audit Execution & Report Options (cont.)...................... 11
Scheduling SAN Health........................................................................................... 13
Running SAN Health - Step 3: Running The Audit........................................................ 15
Running SAN Health - Step 3: Running The Audit (Monitoring)..................................... 16
Running SAN Health - Step 3: Running The Audit (Stopping Sessions)........................... 17
Running SAN Health - Step 3: Running The Audit (Performance Capture)....................... 18
Running SAN Health - Step 3: Running The Audit (Completed Data File)........................ 19
Running SAN Health - Step 4: Report Creation (Review Captured Data)........................ 20
Running SAN Health - Step 5: Report Creation (Report Generation Queue).................... 21
Report Return - Processing & Return is Entirely Automated............................................ 22
Summary............................................................................................................... 23
Questions & Answers............................................................................................... 24

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 Installing SAN Health

Select a suitable workstation

Any Windows box that has TCP/IP connectivity
to the management port of the SAN switches.

CPU and memory requirements are dictated by the number

of switches that you wish to concurrently audit.

Less than 20 switches at once requires 128MB RAM and

a 500MHz CPU.

The memory requirement then grows exponentially to 68 switches at

once (max supported) which requires 2 GB of RAM on a 3GHz CPU.

Page 1
 Running SAN Health

Main Work Area

Program
Navigation

Activity Log

4 Steps to running SAN Health

1. Enter Site Details

2. Select Fabrics to audit
2b. Optionally set report and audit options
3. Run the audit
4. Generate the report

Page 2
 Running SAN Health
Step 1: Enter Site Details

Your Information

Optional Brocade
Contact Information

Optional Partner/
OEM Information

This information is used on the report title screen and to determine the
recipients of the resulting report.

Page 3
 Running SAN Health
Step 2: Select Fabrics To Audit

Fabrics and Switches

selected for audit

Tip: Right-click on the

tree view for additional
menu items

Switch & Fabric details

Audit whole fabrics at a time because partial fabrics result in

incomplete Visio diagrams.

Page 4
Running SAN Health
Step 2: Select Fabrics To Audit (cont.)

Issue a fabricShow command

and add any additional fabric
members found.

If fabrics are discovered,

do all members have the
same password?

Specify an IP address or use

DNS with switch names.

Scan an IP address Range.

For remote office SANs, select

a slower detection timeout
value on the Options Menu.

Page 5
 Running SAN Health
Step 2: Select Fabrics To Audit (cont.)

The connectivity test will log

in and attempt to determine
the switch name and WWN.

The Activity Log displays the

telnet session and any errors
encountered.

Test connectivity to the selected switches (not a mandatory step).

Page 6
 Running SAN Health
Step 2b: Audit Execution
and Report Options

Select Options

Directory that the resulting

data file is saved to (.BSH)

Automatically send the

resulting data file to an
email address. See the FAQ
for more information.

For slow WAN links or

Set the audit execution options. busy LANs change the
timeout value.

Mask the IP Address for

security-conscious sites.

Page 7
 Running SAN Health
Step 2b: Audit Execution
and Report Options (cont.)

Select Options

Brocade commands will be

sent to Brocade switches
and McDATA commands to
McDATA switches.

Don’t worry about platform-

dependant commands.
For example, issuing a
chassisShow command on a
non-chassis-based product
does not cause a problem.

Review the diagnostic commands that will be sent to the switches.

Page 8
 Optional Use of Custom
Names, Extra Device Information,
and Creating Hyperlinks

Select Options

CSV Columns Format:

1) Required - Port WWN
2) Required - Device Name
3) Optional - Additional Info
4) Optional - Hyperlink

Zone aliases or port names are used to map WWNs to device names.
For users that do not use zone aliases or McDATA port names, provide
a comma-separated-value file to map WWNs to device names.

Page 9
 Custom Hyperlinks

Example Hyperlinks
http://HQ-MAIL03/Manage.html
Telnet://HQ-DBSVR05
http://TLibrary02/Allocate.jsp
LUN_Allocate.cgi
FRAME_DF_Report.txt

If the hyperlink is to a file, the file must be in the same directory

as the Visio or Excel file.

Page 10
 Running SAN Health
Step 2b: Audit Execution
and Report Options (cont.)

Select Options

Select between the full

report, or a shorter
summary report. Select
to include a performance
graph, and/or an
explanatory appendix

Select the paper type to use

when printing out the report

Include an optional logo in

report page footer

Set Excel report options.

Page 11
 Running SAN Health
Step 2b: Audit Execution
and Report Options (cont.)

Select Options

Select whether Visio

diagrams are all on one
page, or each one is on its
own page, or create an
additional high-level diagram

Select the text that you wish

to use on the Visio icons

Tip: If you loaded a CSV file,

don’t forget to set the options
here to use it.

Set Visio diagram options.

Page 12
 Scheduling SAN Health

SAN Health Path and Execut-

able followed by the path
and name of the audit SET

SAN Health is a foreground

task and must run under the
logged on account

SAN Health can be scheduled to run unattended.

• Automated repeat audits
• Schedule audits to run after hours

Page 13
 Scheduling SAN Health

Ensure that you test your newly created task by right-clicking

on the task and choosing run.

If the task is set up correctly you will see SAN Health run in the
foreground.

If the audit successfully completes, the BSH and LOG files are
saved and SAN Health will exit.

If the audit fails, SAN Health remains open and

paused with an error message displayed.

Page 14
 Running SAN Health
Step 3: Running The Audit

A pre-flight check is con-

ducted. If any of the SAN
Health options are incomplete
or incorrectly formatted, a
corresponding error will be
displayed in the activity log.
The audit will not start until
the pre-flight check success-
fully completes.

Select “Start Audit”

Click on “Start Audit” to launch an individual telnet socket for

each switch targeted for audit.

Page 15
 Running SAN Health
Step 3: Running The Audit
(Monitoring)

Detailed view of an
individual switch session

High-level summary view

of all running sessions

Periodic status check on

the telnet sessions

The diagnostic commands are executed and the output is captured.

Page 16
 Running SAN Health
Step 3: Running The Audit
(Stopping Sessions)

Click on any switch in

the progress list to:

• Display that switch

session in the detailed
view window

• Stop that switch session

• Stop all switch sessions

and abort the running audit

You can control the telnet session activity at all times.

Page 17
 Running SAN Health
Step 3: Running The Audit
(Performance Capture)

The performance capture

duration may be set to values
from 1 minute up to 48 hours.

The sample rate is auto-

matically assigned based
on a logical value that will
deliver between 600 to 1000
samples for the given capture
period.

For example, 2 hours uses

a 10-second sample where
36 hours uses a 90-second
sample rate.

A telnet session will be held open while the diagnostic information

is captured and for the duration of the performance.

Page 18
 Running SAN Health
Step 3: Running The Audit
(Performance Capture)

If any telnet sessions time

out or fail to connect, review
the activity log for a detailed
explanation

If you wish to re-run the

audit, click Discard Data

This information is used on the report title screen and to determine the
recipients of the resulting report.

Page 19
 Running SAN Health
Step 4: Report Creation
(Review Captured Data)

The contents of the BSH data file are displayed for review.

Page 20
 Running SAN Health
Step 5: Report Creation
(Report Generation Queue)

Send to the report queue

as an email attachment

Or send to the queue via

the secure Web page

Submit the encrypted data file to the report generation queue.

Page 21
 Report Return
Processing and Return
is Entirely Automated

Reports are usually processed in 1 to 10 hours depending

on the fabric size.

Several hundred consistency checks are run. If any fail, the report is
faulted into a slower moving queue that requires one of the SAN Health
Admin team members to check it. This will imply an additional delay.

If you do not receive the report back after 48 hours, please

contact SHAdmin@brocade.com and specify the BSH file name
that you submitted.

Page 22
Summary

1. Enter Site Details

2. Select Fabrics to Audit

3. Set Report and

Audit Options

4. Run the Audit

Page 23
 Questions & Answers

The CD contains:

• The SAN Health Program

• Example Report and Visio
• Demonstration Video
• Frequently Asked Questions

SAN Health is free, quick, and easy!

Page 24