Fabric Watch Monitoring in a DRM Environment - Application Notes

Fabric Watch Overview
10 Application Notes – Fabric Watch Monitoring in a DRM Environment
SNMP Trap
A large SAN may already have SNMP monitoring software in place to monitor system hardware and
software. Fabric Watch simplifies the integration of a StorageWorks SAN switch into the monitoring
process by providing a convenient SNMP front-end configurator. An SNMP trap forwards the
following information to an SNMP management station:
• Name of the element involved in the event
• Class, area, and index of the threshold
• Type of event generated
• Value of the element that exceeded the threshold
• New state of the element
Switch Event Log Entry
The switch event internal error log maintains a record of the event and holds up to a maximum of 64
entries. You can configure Fabric Watch to forward event log entries to the system log facility. The
alarm information is stored and does not actively alert a SAN manager to the event.
Port Log Locking
The port log is locked to freeze and retain detailed information about an event. Although the event
information is stored, the SAN manager is not actively alerted to the event.
Remote Asynchronous Notification
Remote Asynchronous Notification (RAN) sends alarm messages to the remote agent proxy server.
The RAN alert is available only if the optional Fabric Access license has been purchased and enabled
on the switch firmware.
E-mail Alert
Beginning with Version 3, Fabric Watch can work with an SMTP server to send event notifications via
e-mail. The e-mail alert sends information about the event to a specified e-mail address. Configuration
is done through the Web Tools GUI or with the fwMailCfg Telnet command.
NOTE: Whenever the switch is fastbooted or rebooted, the e-mail alert is disabled. The e-mail alert
must then be reset after the switch is fastbooted or rebooted.
Complementary Products for Fabric Watch
Fabric Watch can be activated, configured, and monitored using Telnet commands. However, using
products that provide a GUI interface greatly simplifies these Fabric Watch tasks. Fabric Manager and
Web Tools provide a GUI interface for the fabric and switches. A management station, like Compaq
Insight Manager
TM
software or SANworks Network View by Compaq, allows SNMP traps to be easily
collected and displayed.
Fabric Manager
Fabric Manager runs on a Microsoft Windows NT/2000 workstation to provide a graphical user
interface for obtaining high-level information about the switches in the fabric. Fabric Manager can be
used to monitor multiple fabrics through a single Ethernet connection. When more detailed
information within a fabric is needed, Fabric Manager can access Fabric Watch through a Web Tools
interface.