Brocade Fabric Watch Administrator's Guide - Supporting Fabric OS v7.0.x (53-1002153-02, March 2012)

Fabric Watch Administrator’s Guide 7
53-1002153-02
Switch monitoring components
1
For complete information about port monitoring, including configuration examples, port setting
guidelines, and default settings, refer to “Port Monitoring” on page 55.
Port persistence
The data collected in port monitoring can vary a great deal over short time periods. Therefore, the
port can become a source of frequent event messages (the data can exceed the threshold range
and return to a value within the threshold range).
Fabric Watch uses port persistence for a port event that requires the transition of the port into a
marginal status. Fabric Watch does not record any event until the event persists for a length of time
equal to the port persistence time. If the port returns to normal boundaries before the port
persistence time elapses, Fabric Watch does not record any event.
To set the port persistence time, refer to “Setting the port persistence time” on page 67.
Port fencing
A port that is consistently unstable can harm the responsiveness and stability of the entire fabric
and diminish the ability of the management platform to control and monitor the switches within the
fabric. Port fencing is a Fabric Watch enhancement that takes the ports offline if the user-defined
thresholds are exceeded. Supported port types include physical ports, E_Ports, optical F_Ports
(FOP_Ports), copper F_Ports (FCU_Ports), and Virtual E_Ports (VE_Ports).
NOTE
Port fencing is not enabled by default. You must manually enable port fencing. Refer to “Port fencing
configuration” on page 69 for instructions.
When a port that has exceeded its user-defined thresholds is fenced by the software, the port is
placed into the disabled state and held offline. After a port is disabled, the user must manually
enable the port for frame traffic to resume on the port.