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Showing posts from October, 2020

Long Distance Fibre Channel Link Tuning

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In this video  I talk about some of the variables involved in long distance link tuning of fibre-channel distance links.  In this blog post I'll detail some of the tools that are available.  I will also provide an example of estimating the number of buffer credits you will need.  Note that this tuning is only for fibre-channel links.  This does not apply to FCIP tunnels or circuits.   One critical piece of information that you will need to calculate buffer credits is the frame size.  Smaller frames means more of them can fit in the link, so you would need more buffer credits.  Of the variables that go into the formula, this is the only unknown.  Everything else is either known or is a constant.  Brocade has the 'portbuffershow' command that can tell you the average frame size for a link.  You would look at the Framesize columns for  TX and RX in the portbuffershow output to get the frame size.  The portbuffershow output is organized by logical switch and then by port.     O

Using the IBM Storage Insights Pro Grouping Features

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  I recently posted  this post  on how you can help IBM Storage Support help you by ensuring you are utilizing the full monitoring features available on your storage systems and switches.    You should also have at least the free version of IBM Storage Insights installed.   If you have Storage Insights Pro or Storage Insights for Spectrum control, there are some additional steps that you should take that will benefit both you and the IBM Support team resolve your problems as quickly as possible.  IBM Storage Insights Pro and Storage Insights for Spectrum Control come with some powerful features for grouping and  organizing storage resources.  These features are found under the Groups menu.   You can organize your storage resources into Applications, Departments and General Groups.    There is a hierarchy to the organization of resources.   Departments can contain sub-departments, Applications or General Groups.  Applications can contain hosts or other applications.  General Groups can