Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switch Fabric Manager Software Configuration Guide, NX-OS 4.0 (OL-16598-01, June 2008)

CHAPTER
Send comments to [e-mail]
3-1
Nexus 5000 Series Switch Fabric Manager Software Configuration Guide
OL-16598-01
3
Fabric Manager Server
Fabric Manager Server is a platform for advanced SAN monitoring, troubleshooting, and configuration
capabilities. The server capabilities are an integral part of the Cisco Fabric Manager application.
This chapter contains the following sections:
• Information About Fabric Manager Server, page 3-1
• Installing and Configuring Fabric Manager Server, page 3-2
• Managing a Fabric Manager Server Fabric, page 3-3
• Fabric Manager Server Properties File, page 3-4
• Modifying Fabric Manager Server, page 3-5
Information About Fabric Manager Server
Install Cisco Fabric Manager Server on a computer that you want to provide centralized management
services and performance monitoring. SNMP operations are used to efficiently collect fabric
information. The Cisco Fabric Manager software, including the server components, requires about 60
MB of hard disk space on your workstation. Cisco Fabric Manager Server runs on Windows 2000,
Windows 2003, Windows XP, Solaris 8.x or later, and Red Hat Linux.
Each computer configured as a Cisco Fabric Manager Server can monitor multiple Fibre Channel SAN
fabrics. Up to 16 clients (by default) can connect to a single Cisco Fabric Manager Server concurrently.
The Cisco Fabric Manager Clients can also connect directly to a Cisco switch in fabrics that are not
monitored by a Cisco Fabric Manager Server, which ensures that you can manage any of your Cisco
switch devices from a single console.
Cisco Fabric Manager Server has the following features:
• Multiple fabric management— Fabric Manager Server monitors multiple physical fabrics under the
same user interface. This facilitates managing redundant fabrics. A licensed Fabric Manager Server
maintains up-to-date discovery information on all configured fabrics so device status and
interconnections are immediately available when you open the Fabric Manager Client.
Note The unlicensed Cisco Fabric Manager can only monitor and configure one fabric at a time. You
must use the Open menu to switch to a new fabric, which causes the application to stop
monitoring the previous one and to rediscover the new fabric.
• Continuous health monitoring—Switch health is monitored continuously, so any events that
occurred since the last time you opened the Fabric Manager Client are captured.