When a fibre channel disk and fiber channel HBA ports join the fabric, they send a FLOGI frame (Fibric Login). The fabric (MDS switch) then assigns an FCID to each fibre channel disk and each fibre channel HBA port. These FLOGI mappings of pWWWN/nWWN to FCID are stored in the FLOGI database.
In order to configure device alias database, I need to know pWWWNs of the HBAs and JBOD drives.
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Total number of flogi = 1.
3rd, 4th and 5th bytes represent OUI (if you look up the OUI value 00:e0:8b on http://www.coffer.com, you could confirm that the HBA is made by Qlogic).
Think of each drive as an individual NL_Port on the Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop. MDS port connected to HBA must run on
.
The device-aliases have global significance, therefore, we could configure device-alias on one MDS, and later on (when we enable links between MDSes) the device-alias database will be distributed to other MDSes automatically using CFS CW_ILS frame.
mds9124# conf t
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
mds9124(config)#
device-alias mode enhanced
mds9124(config)#
show device-alias status
Fabric Distribution: Enabled
Database:- Device Aliases 0 Mode: Basic
Checksum: 0xf6bd6b3389b87233d462029172c8612
Locked By:- User "CLI/SNMPv3:admin" SWWN 20:00:54:7f:ee:e8:25:80
Pending Database:- Device Aliases 0 Mode: Enhanced
The device-alias configuration is locked. In order to do it active, we should commit the change to CFS:
mds9124(config)# device-alias commit
mds9124(config)# show device-alias status
Fabric Distribution: Enabled
Database:- Device Aliases 0 Mode: Enhanced
Checksum: 0xb713791d47fd2d205e1a5fa01ea9c447
To change mode to basic:
mds9124(config)# no device-alias mode enhanced
mds9124(config)# device-alias commit
To configure device alias for the Initiator:
mds9124(config)# show device-alias database
There are no entries in the database
mds9124(config)# device-alias database
mds9124(config-device-alias-db)# show flogi database
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INTERFACE VSAN FCID PORT NAME NODE NAME
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fc1/3 1 0xc90000 21:00:00:e0:8b:0a:fc:6d 20:00:00:e0:8b:0a:fc:6d
Total number of flogi = 1.
mds9124(config-device-alias-db)# device-alias name Initiator pwwn 21:00:00:e0:8b:0a:fc:6d
mds9124(config-device-alias-db)# exit
mds9124(config)# show device-alias database
There are no entries in the database
mds9124(config)# device-alias commit
mds9124(config)# show device-alias database
device-alias name Initiator pwwn 21:00:00:e0:8b:0a:fc:6d
Total number of entries = 1
mds9124(config)#
Because my link between mds9124 and mds9506 is up, without any further configuration, we got:
mds9506# show device-alias database
device-alias name Initiator pwwn 21:00:00:e0:8b:0a:fc:6d
Total number of entries = 1
Fcaliases are not supported by CFS distribution, therefore you have to configure them on every MDS manually. Fcaliases have logical scope (VSAN-based), support multiple members, you can use identifiers other than pWWN:
mds9124(config)# fcalias name TestFcalias vsan 1
mds9124(config-fcalias)# member ?
device-alias Add device-alias member to fcalias
domain-id Add member based on domain-id,port-number
fcid Add FCID member to fcalias
fwwn Add Fabric Port WWN to fcalias
interface Add member based on interface
ip-address Add IP address member to fcalias
pwwn Add Port WWN to fcalias
symbolic-nodename Add Symbolic Node Name to fcalias
mds9124(config-fcalias)# member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:99:9b:48:e0 ?
<CR>
both Enter device-type as both
initiator Enter device-type as initiator
lun Add PortWWN-LUN member to fcalias
target Enter device-type as target
mds9124(config-fcalias)# member pwwn 50:0a:09:82:99:9b:48:e0
mds9124(config-fcalias)# show fcalias vsan 1
fcalias name TestFcalias vsan 1
pwwn 50:0a:09:82:99:9b:48:e0 [Initiator]
Since fcalias does not support CFS, we do not have this information on the second MDS:
mds9506# show fcalias vsan 1
Alias not present
We can import fcalias into device-alias database:
mds9124(config)# device-alias import fcalias vsan 1
mds9124(config)# device-alias commit
Now we do see this information on seconds MDS:
mds9506# show device-alias database
device-alias name Initiator pwwn 21:00:00:e0:8b:0a:fc:6d
device-alias name TestFcalias pwwn 50:0a:09:82:99:9b:48:e0
Total number of entries = 2