Brocade Communications Systems DCX Backbone, Hardware Installation Manual

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• Integration with Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) managers
• Automatic control processor failover
• Nondisruptive "hot" software code loads and activation
• Easy configuration, save, and restore
• Hot-swappable World Wide Name (WWN) cards
The high-availability software architecture of the Brocade DCX provides a common framework for all applications that reside on the
system, allowing global and local states to be maintained through any component failure. High-availability elements consist of the High
Availability Manager, the heartbeat, the fault/health framework, the replicated database, initialization, and software upgrade.
The High Availability Manager controls access to the standby control processor, facilitates software upgrades, prevents extraneous
switchover activity, closes and flushes streams, provides flow control and message buffering, and supports a centralized active and
standby state.
Reliability
The Brocade DCX uses the following error detection and correction mechanisms to ensure reliability of data:
• Error Detection and Fault Isolation (EDFI) mechanism, which checks for encoder errors and fault isolation, such as cyclic
redundancy checking (CRC), parity checking, checksum, and illegal address checking.
• Power-on self-test (POST).
• Dual control processors that enable hot, nondisruptive fast firmware upgrades.
• One serial port and two Ethernet ports (on each control processor) for management and for service. Offline control processor
diagnostics and remote diagnostics simplify troubleshooting. The standby control processor monitors diagnostics to ensure it is
operational, should a failover be necessary.
• Bus monitoring and control of blades and other field-replaceable units (FRUs).
Serviceability
The Brocade DCX provides the following features to enhance and ensure serviceability:
• Modular design with hot-swappable components
• Flash memory that stores two firmware images per control processor
• USB port on control processor blades for all tasks that formerly required an FTP/SCP server, including software and firmware
upgrades
• Nonvolatile random-access memory (NVRAM), containing the OEM serial number, Brocade serial number, revision information,
and part number information
• Background health-check daemon
• Memory scrubber, self test, and bus ping to determine if a bus is not functioning
• RASlog messages
• SMI-S compliant
• Watchdog timers
• Status LEDs
• Predictive diagnostics analysis through Fabric Watch
Serviceability
Brocade DCX Backbone Hardware Installation Guide
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