Brocade Communications Systems Network Advisor 12.3.0, User Manual

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54 Brocade Network Advisor SAN User Manual
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SAN Seed switch
3
Seed switch requirements
The seed switch must be running Fabric OS 5.0 or later. For a complete list of all supported Fabric
OS hardware, refer to
“Supported hardware and software” on page xlv.
Seed switch failover
The Management application collects fabric-wide data (such as, fabric membership, connectivity,
name server information, zoning, and so on) using the seed switch. Therefore when a seed switch
becomes unreachable or there is no valid seed switch, the fabric becomes unmanageable.
When the seed switch cannot be reached for three consecutive fabric refresh cycles, the
Management application looks for another valid seed switch in the fabric, verifies that it can be
reached, and has valid credentials. If the seed switch meets this criteria, the Management
application automatically fails over to the recommended seed switch.
Note that it is possible that auto-failover may occur to a seed switch not running the latest firmware
version. In this instance, any functionality which has a direct dependency on the firmware version
of the seed switch is affected and restricted by the failover seed switch capabilities.
Changing the seed switch
When you change the seed switch for a fabric, the Management application performs the following
checks in the order they are listed:
•
Identifies all switches and removes those running unsupported firmware version.
•
Identifies which of the remaining switches are running the latest firmware versions.
•
Filters out those switches that are not reachable.
•
Identifies which switches are Virtual Fabric-enabled switches (Fabric OS only).
If there are Virtual Fabric-enabled switches, the Management application only uses these
switches as recommended seed switches. If there are no Virtual Fabric-enabled switches,
continue with the next check.
•
Identifies which switches are Virtual Fabric-capable devices (Fabric OS only).
If there are Virtual Fabric-capable switches, the Management application only uses these
switches as recommended seed switches. If there are no Virtual Fabric-capable switches, the
Management application uses the list from the second check.
To change the seed switch, complete the following steps.
1. Select Discovery > Fabrics.
The Discover Fabrics dialog box displays.
2. Select the fabric for which you want to change the seed switch from the Discovered Fabrics
table.
If a device joins or merges with a fabric and fabric tracking is active, you must accept changes
to the fabric before the new devices display in the Seed Switch dialog box. For more
information about fabric tracking, refer to
“Fabric tracking” on page 133.