Fabric PortsTraffic Test

This test is used to provide the port traffic statistics for the ports available in the Fabric switch.

Target of the test : A Brocade 48000 switch

Agent deploying the test : An external agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for the Brocade 48000 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 switch for which this test is to be configured.

Port

The port on which the switch is listening.

SNMPPort

The port at which the monitored target exposes its SNMP MIB;

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.

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.

Only Online Ports

By default, this flag is set to No . This implies that the test, by default, reports the count of online and offline ports. If you want the test to report the count of online ports alone (and not offline ports), set this flag to Yes. In this case, the test will report only the count of online ports and not offline ports.

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.
Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

Data transmitted

Indicates the total count of the number of Fibre Channel data that the port has transmitted in KB/sec.

KB/Sec

 

Data received

Indicates the total count of the number of Fibre Channel data that the port has received in KB/sec.

KB/Sec

 

Error count

Indicates the total number of count of the number of CRC errors detected for frames received.

Number

 

Short data received

Indicates the total number of count of the number of truncated frames that the port has received.

Number

 

Long data received

Indicates the total number of count of the number of received frames that are too long.

Number

 

EOF data received

Indicates the total number of count of the number of received frames that are too long.

Number

 

C3 discards received

Indicates the total number of count of the number of Class 3 frames that the port has discarded.

Number

 

Transmitted frames

Indicates the rate at which the frames were transmitted by the port.

Frames/sec

 

Received frames

Indicates the rate at which the frames were received by the port.

Frames/sec

 

Encoding error inside frames received

Indicates the number of inside frames received with encoding errors by the port.

Number

The value of this measure refers to errors detected in the encoded data within frames that are received by the switch. When these encoding errors occur, it means that the data received does not match the expected encoding pattern, indicating potential issues such as noise, distortion, or jitter on the FC (Fibre Channel) link.

Encoding error outside frames received

Indicates the number of outside frames received with encoding errors by the port.

Number

The value of this measure refers to errors detected in the encoded data outside the boundaries of frames. When these encoding errors occur outside frames, it means that the data received does not match the expected encoding pattern outside the frame boundaries.

Timed out multicast frames

Indicates the number of transmitted/received multicast frames that were timed out.

Number

This measure refers to frames that are part of multicast transmissions but are discarded because they did not reach their destination within the expected time frame. This timeout can occur due to network congestion or hardware issues.

Invalid order sets received

Indicates the number of invalid order sets that were received.

Number

This measure refers to errors detected when the switch receives ordered sets that do not conform to the expected protocol. Ordered sets are special control characters used in Fibre Channel communication for tasks such as link initialization, frame delimiters, and error detection.

Is there GBIC/SFP problem?

Indicates whether/not the GBIC/SFP has a problem.

 

GBIC (Gigabit Interface Converter) and SFP (Small Form-factor Pluggable) are transceiver modules used to connect the switch to fiber optic cables for data transmission in a Fibre Channel (FC)/Storage Area Network (SAN). The value of this measure indicates if there is a problem in GBIC or SFP.

The values reported by this measure and its numeric equivalent are mentioned in the table below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Yes 1
No 0

Note:

By default, this measure reports the above-mentioned Measure Values while indicating if there is a GBIC/SFP problem or not. However, in the graph of this measure, states will be represented using the corresponding numeric equivalents only - i.e., 0 or 1.

Is there cable problem?

Indicates whether there is a cable problem or not.

 

The values reported by this measure and its numeric equivalent are mentioned in the table below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Yes 1
No 0

Note:

By default, this measure reports the above-mentioned Measure Values while indicating if there is a cable problem or not. However, in the graph of this measure, states will be represented using the corresponding numeric equivalents only - i.e., 0 or 1.