Fabric OS Administrator's Guide v7.0.0 (53-1002148-02, June 2011)

400 Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide
53-1002148-02
Frame monitoring
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Frame monitoring
Frame monitoring counts the number of times a frame with a particular pattern is transmitted by a
port and generates alerts when thresholds are crossed. Frame monitoring is achieved by defining a
filter, or frame type, for a particular purpose. The frame type can be a standard type (for example, a
SCSI read command filter that counts the number of SCSI read commands that have been
transmitted by the port) or a user-defined frame type customized for your particular use. For a
complete list of the standard, pre-defined frame types, see the fmMonitor command description in
the Fabric OS Command Reference.
NOTE
The Advanced Performance Monitoring license is required to use the fmMonitor command. The
monitoring functionality, however, also requires the Fabric Watch license. When you configure
actions and alerts through the fmMonitor command, Fabric Watch uses these values and generates
alerts based on the configuration. If you do not have a Fabric Watch license, these values are
ignored. See the Fabric Watch Administrator’s Guide for more information about using Fabric Watch.
The maximum number of frame monitors and offsets per port depends on the platform. Table 70
shows the maximum number of frame monitors, in any combination of standard and user-defined
frame types, and the maximum number of offsets per port.
The actual number of frame monitors that can be configured on a port depends on the complexity
of the frame types. For trunked ports, the frame monitor is configured on the trunk master.
Virtual Fabrics considerations: Frame monitors are not supported on logical ISLs (LISLs), but are
supported on ISLs and extended ISLs (XISLs).
Creating frame types to be monitored
In addition to the standard frame types, you can create custom frame types to gather statistics that
fit your needs. To define a custom frame type, you must specify a series of offsets, bitmasks, and
values. For all transmitted frames, the switch performs these tasks:
• Locates the byte found in the frame at the specified offset.
• Applies the bitmask to the byte found in the frame.
• Compares the new value with the given value.
• Increments the filter counter if a match is found.
TABLE 70 Maximum number of frame monitors and offsets per port
Platform Max number of frame monitors per port Max number of offsets per port
Brocade 300, 5300, 5410, 5424, 5450,
5460, 5470, 5480, and 7800
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1
1. For switches in Access Gateway mode, the maximum number of offsets per port is 7.
Brocade 5000, 5100, 6510, 8000, VA-40FC,
DCX, DCX-4S, DCX 8510, and Brocade
Encryption Switch
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2
2. For switches in Access Gateway mode, the maximum number of offsets per port is 15.