Fabric OS Troubleshooting and Diagnostics Guide v7.0.0 (53-1002150-02, June 2011)

Fabric OS Troubleshooting and Diagnostics Guide 89

53-1002150-02

Using the SpinFab and portTest commands

The spinFab command is an online diagnostics command to verify the ISL links between switches

at the maximum speed. It is done by setting up the routing functionality in the hardware such that

the test frames received by E_Port are retransmitted on the same E_Port. Several frames are then

sent to the port attached to each active E_Port specified. These frames are special frames which

never occur during normal traffic and the default action for such frames is to route them back to

the sender. These frames are circulated between switches until the test stops them.

CAUTION

During the spinFab testing, the switch remains in normal operation. However, some performance

degradation occurs due to the ISL links being saturated with the test frames. This test should be

run with caution on a live fabric.

Table 18 lists the supported ports for the specified version of Fabric OS when using the spinFab

command.

Debugging spinFab errors

Link errors and tx/rx errors are seen when the spinFab test fails.

TABLE 18 Port type support

Port type Supported in v6.3.0 Supported in v6.4.0

Loopback Yes Yes

E_Ports Yes Yes

Trunk Master ports Yes Yes

Ports beyond index 255 Yes Yes

Ports with swapped areas Yes Yes

Shared-area ports Yes Yes

Ports in logical switches Yes Yes

Ports in base switches Yes Yes

Trunk slave por ts No Yes

Long distance ports No Yes

F_Ports connected to Brocade HBAs No Yes

1. If you use the spinFab command to test F_Ports connected to Brocade HBAs it is

required that the firmware version on the HBA is v2.1.1 or later.

ICL ports No No

F_Ports connected to Access Gateway No No

EX_Ports No No

Ports in an Access Gateway switch No No