HP StorageWorks Fabric OS 6.1.1 administrator guide (5697-0235, December 2009)

Fabric OS 6.1.x administrator guide 247
12
Configuring the Distributed Management Server
This chapter provides information on enabling and disabling the platform services, configuring and
controlling access to the Management Server database, and using the topology discovery feature.
Distributed Management Server overview
The Fabric OS Distributed Management Server allows a SAN management application to retrieve
information and administer interconnected switches, servers, and storage devices. The Management Server
assists in the autodiscovery of switch-based fabrics and their associated topologies.
A client of the Management Server can find basic information about the switches in the fabric and use this
information to construct topology relationships. The Management Server also allows you to obtain certain
switch attributes and, in some cases, modify them. For example, logical names identifying switches can be
registered with the Management Server.
The Management Server provides several advantages for managing a Fibre Channel fabric:
• It is accessed by an external Fibre Channel node at the well-known address FFFFFAh, so an application
can access information about the entire fabric management with minimal knowledge of the existing
configuration.
• It is replicated on every HP StorageWorks switch within a fabric.
• It provides an unzoned view of the overall fabric configuration. This fabric topology view exposes the
internal configuration of a fabric for management purposes; it contains interconnect information about
switches and devices connected to the fabric. Under normal circumstances, a device (typically an FCP
initiator) queries the name server for storage devices within its member zones. Because this limited view
is not always sufficient, the Management Server provides the application with a list of the entire name
server database.
Platform services
The management server is located at the Fibre Channel address FFFFFAh. By default, all management
services except platform services are enabled; the MS platform service and topology discovery are
disabled.
Use the msplMgmtActivate and msplMgmtDeactivate commands to activate and deactivate the
platform services throughout the fabric. The msplMgmtActivate command attempts to activate the MS
platform service for each switch in the fabric. The change takes effect immediately and is committed to the
configuration database of each affected switch. MS activation is persistent across power cycles and
reboots.
Before issuing the msplMgmtActivate command, run the msCapabilityShow command to verify that
all switches in the fabric support the MS platform service; otherwise, the command will fail.
When FCS policy is enabled, the msplMgmtActivate command can be issued only from the primary
FCS switch.
The execution of the msplMgmtActivate command is subject to Admin Domain restrictions that may be
in place. See the Fabric OS Command Reference manual for details.
NOTE: The commands msplMgmtActivate and msplMgmtDeactivate are allowed only in AD0
and AD255.