Can Inter Switch Link (ISL) ports be displayed for monitoring?

Products

• CA Spectrum

Issue/Introduction

After successfully discovering a Fiber Channel Switch Dell Connectrix DS-6630B, under Interfaces tab, only the ports assigned to the Default Logical Switch are displayed.

Is it possible to model also the Inter Switch Link (ISL) ports? The ISL ports are assigned to other Logical Switches different than the default.

 

Environment

Release : 21.2

Component : Spectrum Discovery

Cause

What the FOS Administration Guide mention is that after enabling Virtual Fabrics, and create the logical switches, all the ports are assigned to the default logical switch unless they be assigned to any other.  

Modeling the device in DX NetOps Spectrum using SNMP v1, will allow you to see the ports that are assigned to the Default Logical Switch only.

As the ISL ports are assigned to a Logical Switch, other than the Default, you won't be able to model it in Spectrum using SNMPv1, as explained in the next FOS Administration Guide note:

 It is important to set the context name in the SNMPv3 profile to specify the Virtual Fabric that will be monitored. The format for the context name is: VF:xxxx

 For instance if the Virtual Fabric that needs to be monitored is the VF 10, the context name should be: VF:10

 More details can be found in Brocade Fabric OS MIB Reference Manual - Support for Virtual Fabrics

Resolution

As per the Brocade Fabric OS Administration Guide 9.1.x, when SNMP monitoring is Virtual Fabric (VF) specific, you must create a user with permission for the corresponding VF and add the created user into the SNMP database as an SNMPv3 user. All these settings need to be done in the device.

After the SNMPv3 user is successfully added, you can use the same user name in the management applications (DX NetOps Spectrum) for SNMP queries to the corresponding logical switch.

The same applies if the Fabric OS is 8.2 (Brocade Fabric OS 8.2.1 Administrator Guide)