Fiber Channel Port Status Test

Instantly detect changes in the port state, isolate ports that are operating at abnormal speeds, and be immediately notified of errors/problem conditions experienced by the ports with the help of the Port Status test mapped to this layer.

Target of the test : A Fibre Channel SAN Switch

Agent deploying the test : An external agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each port on the SAN switch being monitored.

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter	Description
Test Period	How often should the test be executed.
Host	The IP address of the host for which this test is to be configured.
Port	The port at which the host listens. By default, this will be NULL.
SNMPPort	The port at which the monitored target exposes its SNMP MIB; The default value is 161.
SNMPVersion	By default, the eG agent supports SNMP version 1. Accordingly, the default selection in the SNMPversion list is v1. However, if a different SNMP framework is in use in your environment, say SNMP v2 or v3, then select the corresponding option from this list.
SNMPCommunity	The SNMP community name that the test uses to communicate with the firewall. This parameter is specific to SNMP v1 and v2 only. Therefore, if the SNMPVersion chosen is v3, then this parameter will not appear.
UserName	This parameter appears only when v3 is selected as the SNMPVersion. SNMP version 3 (SNMPv3) is an extensible SNMP Framework which supplements the SNMPv2 Framework, by additionally supporting message security, access control, and remote SNMP configuration capabilities. To extract performance statistics from the MIB using the highly secure SNMP v3 protocol, the eG agent has to be configured with the required access privileges – in other words, the eG agent should connect to the MIB using the credentials of a user with access permissions to be MIB. Therefore, specify the name of such a user against this parameter.
Context	This parameter appears only when v3 is selected as the SNMPVersion. An SNMP context is a collection of management information accessible by an SNMP entity. An item of management information may exist in more than one context and an SNMP entity potentially has access to many contexts. A context is identified by the SNMPEngineID value of the entity hosting the management information (also called a contextEngineID) and a context name that identifies the specific context (also called a contextName). If the Username provided is associated with a context name, then the eG agent will be able to poll the MIB and collect metrics only if it is configured with the context name as well. In such cases therefore, specify the context name of the Username in the Context text box. By default, this parameter is set to none.
AuthPass	Specify the password that corresponds to the above-mentioned UserName. This parameter once again appears only if the SNMPversion selected is v3.
Confirm Password	Confirm the AuthPass by retyping it here.
AuthType	This parameter too appears only if v3 is selected as the SNMPversion. From the AuthType list box, choose the authentication algorithm using which SNMP v3 converts the specified username and password into a 32-bit format to ensure security of SNMP transactions. You can choose between the following options: MD5 - Message Digest Algorithm SHA - Secure Hash Algorithm SHA224 - Secure Hash Algorithm 224 bit SHA256 - Secure Hash Algorithm 256 bit SHA384 - Secure Hash Algorithm 384 bit SHA512 - Secure Hash Algorithm 512 bit
EncryptFlag	This flag appears only when v3 is selected as the SNMPVersion. By default, the eG agent does not encrypt SNMP requests. Accordingly, the this flag is set to No by default. To ensure that SNMP requests sent by the eG agent are encrypted, select the Yes option.
EncryptType	If the EncryptFlag is set to Yes, then you will have to mention the encryption type by selecting an option from the EncryptType list. SNMP v3 supports the following encryption types: DES - Data Encryption Standard 3DES - Triple Data Encryption Standard AES - Advanced Encryption Standard AES128 - Advanced Encryption Standard 128 bit AES192 - Advanced Encryption Standard 192 bit AES256 - Advanced Encryption Standard 256 bit
EncryptPassword	Specify the encryption password here.
Confirm Password	Confirm the encryption password by retyping it here.
Timeout	Specify the duration (in seconds) within which the SNMP query executed by this test should time out in this text box. The default is 10 seconds.
Data Over TCP	By default, in an IT environment, all data transmission occurs over UDP. Some environments however, may be specifically configured to offload a fraction of the data traffic – for instance, certain types of data traffic or traffic pertaining to specific components – to other protocols like TCP, so as to prevent UDP overloads. In such environments, you can instruct the eG agent to conduct the SNMP data traffic related to the monitored target over TCP (and not UDP). For this, set this flag to Yes. By default, this flag is set to No.
EngineId	This parameter appears only when v3 is selected as the SNMPVersion. Sometimes, the test may not report metrics when AES192 or AES256 is chosen as the Encryption type. To ensure that the test report metrics consistently, administrators need to set this flag to Yes. By default, this parameter is set to No.

Measurements made by the test

Measurement

Description

Measurement Unit

Interpretation

Operational state of port

Indicates the current operational state of this port.

The table below summarizes the State values that this measure can report and their corresponding numeric equivalents:

State	Value
Offline	0
Unknown	2
Bypassed	4
Diagnostics	5
Online	100

Note:

By default, this measure reports the above-mentioned States while indicating the operational state of a port. However, in the graph of this measure, states will be represented using their corresponding numeric equivalents only.

Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure to determine the exact state of the port.

Current health of port

Indicates the current health of this port.

The table below summarizes the State values that this measure can report and their corresponding numeric equivalents:

State	Value
Warning	1
Failure	2
Unknown	3
Unused	4
Non participating	6
Initializing	7
Bypass	8
Ols	9
Ready	100

Note:

By default, this measure reports the above-mentioned States while indicating the operational health of a port. However, in the graph of this measure, states will be represented using their corresponding numeric equivalents only.

Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure to determine the exact status of the port.

Moreover, if the detailed diagnosis of the Operational state measure reveals that a port is currently not in the online state, then the Current health of that port will be unknown.

Control status of port

Indicates the control status of this port.

The table below summarizes the State values that this measure can report and their corresponding numeric equivalents:

State	Value
Offline	0
Unknown	1
Invalid	2
Reset	3
Bypass	4
Unbypass	5
ResetCounters	8
Online	100

Note:

By default, this measure reports the above-mentioned States while indicating the control status of a port. However, in the graph of this measure, control states will be represented using their corresponding numeric equivalents only.

Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure to determine the exact control status of the port.

Hardware status of port

Indicates the current status of the switch hardware.

The table below summarizes the State values that this measure can report and their corresponding numeric equivalents:

State	Value
TxFault	1
LinkDown	2
Failed	3
Unknown	4
Bypass	5
Loopback	6
NoMedia	7
Active	100
Ready	100

Note:

By default, this measure reports the above-mentioned States while indicating the hardware status of a port. However, in the graph of this measure, hardware states will be represented using their corresponding numeric equivalents only.

Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure to determine the exact hardware status of the port.

Port speed

Indicates the speed of the port.

KB/Sec

A sudden/consistent deterioriation in speed could indicate a problem requiring further investigation.

Number of errors

Indicates the number of errors that have occurred on this port.

Number

Ideally, the value of this measure should be 0. A non-zero value indicates the existence of one/more problems with the port. A very high value is indicative of a problem-prone port.

Buffer full events

Indicates the number of times when all input buffers of this port were full.

Number

Link failures

Indicates the number of link failures experienced by this port.

Number

Ideally, the value of this measure should be 0.

Invalid frames received

Indicates the number of invalid frames that were transmitted by this port.

Number

Ideally, the value of this measure should be 0. A high value could indicate a bad physical link.

Invalid words transmitted

Indicates the number of invalid words that were transmitted by this port.

Number

Ideally, the value of this measure should be 0. A high value could indicate a bad physical link.

Signal loss count

Indicates the number of times a signal loss was detected at this port.

Number

Synchronization loss count

Indicates the number of times a synchronization loss was detected at his port.

Number

Ideally, the value of this measure should be 0. If the value of this measure is high, then, you might want to take a look at the value reported by the Invalid words transmitted measure to check whether the physical link is really bad and if that caused the loss of synchronization.