ADX, AnyIO, Brocade, Brocade Assurance, the B-wing symbol, DCX, Fabric OS, ICX, MLX, MyBrocade, OpenScript, VCS, VDX, and
Vyatta are registered trademarks, and HyperEdge, The Effortless Network, and The On-Demand Data Center are trademarks of
Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., in the United States and/or in other countries. Other brands, products, or service names
mentioned may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Notice: This document is for informational purposes only and does not set forth any warranty, expressed or implied, concerning
any equipment, equipment feature, or service offered or to be offered by Brocade. Brocade reserves the right to make changes to
this document at any time, without notice, and assumes no responsibility for its use. This informational document describes
features that may not be currently available. Contact a Brocade sales office for information on feature and product availability.
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respect to any loss, cost, liability, or damages arising from the information contained in this book or the computer programs that
accompany it.
The product described by this document may contain “open source” software covered by the GNU General Public License or other
open source license agreements. To find out which open source software is included in Brocade products, view the licensing
terms applicable to the open source software, and obtain a copy of the programming source code, please visit
http://www.brocade.com/support/oscd.
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In those instances in which procedures or parts of procedures documented here apply to some
switches but not to others, this guide identifies exactly which switches are supported and which are
not.
Although many different software and hardware configurations are tested and supported by
Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. for Fabric OS v7.2.0, documenting all possible
configurations and scenarios is beyond the scope of this document.
The following hardware platforms are supported by this release of Fabric OS:
This section describes text formatting conventions and important notice formats used in this
document.
Text formatting
The narrative-text formatting conventions that are used are as follows:
bold textIdentifies command names
Identifies the names of user-manipulated GUI elements
Identifies keywords and operands
Identifies text to enter at the GUI or CLI
italic textProvides emphasis
Identifies variables
Identifies paths and Internet addresses
Identifies document titles
code textIdentifies CLI output
Identifies command syntax examples
For readability, command names in the narrative portions of this guide are presented in mixed
lettercase: for example, switchShow. In actual examples, command lettercase is often all
lowercase. Otherwise, this manual specifically notes those cases in which a command is
case-sensitive.
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Command syntax conventions
NOTE
ATTENTION
CAUTION
DANGER
Command syntax in this manual follows these conventions:
commandCommands are in bold.
--option, optionCommand options are in bold.
-argument, argArguments.
[ ]Optional element.
variableVariables are in italics.
...Repeat the previous element, for example “member[;member...]”
valueFixed values following arguments are in plain font. For example, --show WWN
|Boolean. Elements are exclusive. Example: --show
-mode egress | ingress
Notes, cautions, and warnings
The following notices and statements are used in this manual. They are listed below in order of
increasing severity of potential hazards.
A Note provides a tip, guidance, or advice, emphasizes important information, or provides a
reference to related information.
An Attention statement indicates potential damage to hardware or data.
A Caution statement alerts you to situations that can be potentially hazardous to you or cause
damage to hardware, firmware, software, or data.
A Danger statement indicates conditions or situations that can be potentially lethal or extremely
hazardous to you. Safety labels are also attached directly to products to warn of these conditions
or situations.
Key terms
For definitions specific to Brocade and Fibre Channel, see the Brocade Glossary.
For definitions of SAN-specific terms, visit the Storage Networking Industry Association online
dictionary at:
http://www.snia.org/education/dictionary
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Brocade Flow Vision terminology
The following terms are used in this document.
TermDescription
Defined flow User-created flow; it can be active or inactive.
Local flowFlow defined on the switch on which the flow command is being run.
Root flow Instance of a static flow used to create learned flows.
Static flowFlow created when learning is not used.
Sub-flow System auto-created flow based on a root flow. There can be more than one sub-flow.
Remote flowFlow defined on a different switch from the one on which you are viewing it.
Local switchSwitch on which the flow command is being run.
Remote switch Switch other than the switch on which the flow command is being run.
Notice to the reader
This document may contain references to the trademarks of the following corporations. These
trademarks are the properties of their respective companies and corporations.
These references are made for informational purposes only.
CorporationReferenced Trademarks and Products
Microsoft CorporationWindows, Windows NT, Internet Explorer
Mozilla CorporationMozilla, Firefox
Netscape Communications CorporationNetscape
Red Hat, Inc.Red Hat, Red Hat Network, Maximum RPM, Linux Undercover
Oracle, Inc.Sun, Solaris, Oracle, Java
Additional information
This section lists additional Brocade and industry-specific documentation that you might find
helpful.
Brocade resources
To get up-to-the-minute information, go to http://my.brocade.com and register at no cost for a user
ID and password.
xFlow Vision Administrator’s Guide
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White papers, online demonstrations, and data sheets are available through the Brocade website
For additional Brocade documentation, visit the Brocade Info Center and click the Resource Library
location:
http://www.brocade.com
Release notes are available on the My Brocade website and are also bundled with the Fabric OS
firmware.
Other industry resources
For additional resource information, visit the Technical Committee T11 website. This website
provides interface standards for high-performance and mass storage applications for Fibre
Channel, storage management, and other applications:
http://www.t11.org
For information about the Fibre Channel industry, visit the Fibre Channel Industry Association
website:
http://www.fibrechannel.org
Getting technical help
Contact your switch support supplier for hardware, firmware, and software support, including
product repairs and part ordering. To expedite your call, have the following information available:
1. General Information
-Switch model
-Switch operating system version
-Error numbers and messages received
-supportSave command output
-Detailed description of the problem, including the switch or fabric behavior immediately
following the problem, and specific questions
-Description of any troubleshooting steps already performed and the results
-Serial console and Telnet session logs
-syslog message logs
2. Switch serial number
The switch serial number and corresponding bar code are provided on the serial number label,
as illustrated below.
Encryption Switch—On the switch ID pull-out tab located inside the chassis on the port side on
the left
• Brocade 5410, 5424, 5430, 5431, 5450, 5460, 5470, 5480—Serial number label attached to
the module
• Brocade 6510—On the pull-out tab on the front of the switch
• Brocade DCX and DCX 8510-8—On the bottom right on the port side of the chassis
• Brocade DCX-4S and DCX 8510-4—On the bottom right on the port side of the chassis, directly
above the cable management comb
3. World Wide Name (WWN)
Use the wwn command to display the switch WWN.
If you cannot use the wwn command because the switch is inoperable, you can get the WWN
from the same place as the serial number, except for the Brocade DCX Backbone family.
For the Brocade DCX Backbone family, access the numbers on the WWN cards by removing the
Brocade logo plate at the top of the nonport side of the chassis.
For the Brocade 5424 embedded switch, provide the license ID. Use the licenseIdShow
command to display the WWN.
Document feedback
Quality is our first concern at Brocade and we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy and
completeness of this document. However, if you find an error or an omission, or you think that a
topic needs further development, we want to hear from you. Forward your feedback to:
documentation@brocade.com
Provide the title and version number of the document and as much detail as possible about your
comment, including the topic heading and page number and your suggestions for improvement.
Flow Vision is a Fibre-Channel SAN network diagnostic tool supported on all platforms supported by
Fabric OS 7.2 and later, that provides you with a comprehensive vision of fabric traffic flows and
with the ability to non-disruptively create and capture copies of traffic flows for later analysis.
Flow Vision also provides a test flow generation capability that you can use to pre-test a SAN
infrastructure for robustness. This test flow generation capability is also useful for testing the
internal connections on a switch before deploying the switch into a production environment.
You cannot run Flow Vision and Advanced Performance Monitor (APM), or Port Mirroring at the
same time on a chassis (across logical switches).
1
Flow Vision features
Flow Vision has three features: Flow Monitor, Flow Generator, and Flow Mirror. The following
sections describe each feature and provides a sample use case link.
Flow Monitor
Flow Monitor provides flow monitoring and the gathering of frame statistics for fabric application
flows, including the ability to learn (discover) flows automatically. See “Flow Monitor” on page 9 for
a complete description and sample use cases.
Flow Generator
Flow Generator simulates and generates test-load traffic in specific flows; this allows you to
validate hardware components, connectivity, and verify performance. See “Flow Generator” on
page 31 for a complete description and sample use cases.
Flow Mirror
Flow Mirror provides the ability to non-disruptively create copies of application flow frames that can
be captured for deeper analysis. See “Flow Mirror” on page 45 for a complete description and
sample use cases.
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1
Flows
Flows
A flow is a set of Fibre Channel (FC) frames or packets that share similar traits, such as an ingress
port or egress port identifier or any other data that can be used to differentiate one set of related
frames or packets from a different set. These parameters are specified as part of the flow
command, and include:
• Port parameters: (also called the Point of Interest, or where the data you want to examine is
from) This consists of an ingress port (ingrport) or an egress port (egrport). Only one can be
specified when defining a flow.
• Frame parameters: These are the following parameters: Source Device Identification (SID or
WWN), Destination Device Identification (DID or WWN), LUN, or frame type. At least one frame
parameter must be present to define a flow. Refer to Tab le 3 on page 4 for details on frame types.
• Direction: A direction is implicitly defined from an ingress port to an egress port, or a source
device (srcdev) to a destination device (dstdev). For example, srcdev=x, dstdev=y indicates
traffic flowing from x to y. The -bidir option causes the flow definition to be monitored in both
directions. This makes the following true:
-Entering srcdev=x dstdev=y specifies that only traffic flowing from x to y is the desired flow.
-Entering srcdev=x dstdev=y -bidir specifies that traffic travelling from x to y and traffic
travelling from y to x are both desired flows.
Figure 1 illustrates how the frame and port parameters apply to a flow.
FIGURE 1Frame and port parameters
Flow definitions
To define a flow and configure Flow Vision to monitor that flow, you must provide a unique flow
name and specify the flow parameters. These parameters identify the sets of related frames and
can either be explicitly defined or Flow Vision can learn them through observation.
Flow definitions are stored on the switch on which the flow is created, and are not distributed
across the fabric. This means that each switch knows only its own flows and does not know what
flows exist on other switches.
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Flows
NOTE
1
When creating or viewing a flow, you can specify any combination of the three features in the flow
command. For example:
1.16Gbps-capable platforms include the Brocade FC8-32E and FC8-48E blades.
If you are using at least one advanced parameter (lun, -frametype, or -bidir), then feature-specific
rules apply. Refer to the individual Flow Vision features for specific details.
Neither ranges nor lists are supported for any parameter.
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1
Flows
Flow frametype parameters
Frame monitoring can be done for a variety of frames using predefined -frametype parameters.
Tab le 3 list these parameters and the frames counted for each.
On 8 Gbps-capable Fibre Channel platforms, possible frame monitoring flow classifiers include
egrport, dstdev, and lun. On 16 Gbps-capable Fibre Channel platforms, including the Brocade
FC8-32E and FC8-48E blades, possible frame monitoring flow classifiers include ingrport, egrport,
dstdev, srcdev, and lun.
TABLE 3Supported frametype parameters
Frametype parameterFrames counted
abts Abort Sequence
baacc All frames accepted
barjt All frames rejected
scsi All SCSI frames (including both command and data frames)
scsiread Only SCSI read command frames
scsiwrite Only SCSI write command frames
scsirw Both SCSI read and write command frames
scsi2reserve Only SCSI 2 reserve command frames
scsi3reserve Only SCSI 3 reserve command frames
scsi2release Only SCSI 2 release command frames
scsi3release Only SCSI 3 release command frames
scsi2reserverelease Only SCSI 2 reserve-release command frames
scsigoodstatus Only SCSI status frames with status marked as good (all 0s (zeros) in status byte)
scsicheckstatus Only SCSI status frames with check status
scsiinquiry Only SCSI inquiry frames
scsiresvconflict Only SCSI status frames with reservation conflict set
scsixferrdy Only SCSI FCP XFER_RDY (transfer ready) frames
1
Only SCSI command status frames
(Check Condition, Busy, Reservation Conflict, Task Full Set)
1.This parameter is valid only for Flow Mirror. It implicitly assumes -bidir and looks for both SCSI command and
status frames.
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Flows
1
Numbers of flows supported
Flow Vision supports a maximum of 512 flows on chassis-based platforms and a maximum of
128 flows on fixed-port platforms. However, there is a combined limit from all features of 64 flows
(including static flows, root flows, and sub-flows, whether active or inactive) for any one port. In
addition, there are individual limits for each Flow Vision feature; Ta ble 4 lists these limits.
A verification is done for each flow when it is created or activated to ensure that there is no
identical flow active. Refer to the limitations section of each feature for additional feature-specific
restrictions.
TABLE 4Feature-specific flow count restrictions in Flow Vision
FeatureLimit to number of flows
Flow MonitorUp to 64 active flows per port, including static flows, root flows, and sub-flows.
Flow GeneratorUp to 4 active flows per port, including static flows, root flows, and sub-flows.
Flow MirrorOne active flow per port.
Flow learning
Flow Vision can create a learned flow by using an asterisk (*) for the source device, the destination
device, or both devices. This allows you to discover what flows are active on a port without having to
identify all the devices. Each Flow Vision feature uses learning as follows:
• Flow Monitor can learn all the source device and destination device pairs passing through the
ingress or egress port defined in a flow. Learning is not supported for Flow Monitor flows
defined using the lun, -frametype, or -bidir parameters. Refer to “Learning in Flow Monitor
flows” on page 12 for additional information.
• Flow Generator can generate traffic to or from every source or destination device that shares
the zone with the ingress or egress port defined in a flow. Refer to “Learning in Flow Generator
flows” on page 34 for additional information.
• Flow Mirror can capture all the source device and destination device pairs passing through the
ingress or egress port defined in a flow. Learning is supported for Flow Mirror flows defined
using the lun, -frametype, or -bidir parameters. Refer to “Learning in Flow Mirror flows” on
page 51 for additional information.
Flow Vision uses an asterisk (*) to indicate a learned flow. When you enter an asterisk as part of
the command, you must enclose it in double quotes (“*”).
Learning source device (srcdev) or destination device (dstdev) values is only supported on
16 Gbps-capable Fibre Channel ports.
Viewing flows
To display all Flow Vision flows, enter flow --show. To display all flows for a specific feature, enter
flow --show -feature featurename. To display the definition for a specific flow, enter flow --show flowname -feature featurename. When you run flow --show with a flow name, then only the flow
definition for the specified flow is displayed. If the feature is also specified, feature-specific data is
displayed for the specified flow name. For root and static flows, this command shows the
Source ID-Destination ID pairs and the cumulative frame count on the ingress or egress port
specified in the flow definition.
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Flow Vision references
NOTE
1
The following example displays all the existing flows on the switch.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Denotes feature is currently activated for the flow
Refer to the “viewing” section of each individual feature to see feature-specific output.
Flow Vision references
The following sections provide additional information about Flow Vision.
Roles and access in Flow Vision
Flow Vision can be accessed by users with the following roles: Admin, Switch Admin, or
Fabric Admin.
Flow Vision integration with MAPS
Statistics generated using Flow Vision can be monitored with the Monitoring and Alerting Policy
Suite (MAPS) threshold service. Refer to the MAPS section of each individual feature in this manual
for information on how that feature interacts with MAPS, and the Monitoring and Alerting Policy Suite Administrator’s Guide for more details on MAPS in general.
Flow Vision licensing
To run Flow Vision, you need either the Fabric Vision (FV) license or both the Fabric Watch (FW) and
the Advanced Performance Monitor (APM) licenses. If you have both of these licenses, you do not
need a separate Flow Vision license. Refer to the Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide for more specific
information on licenses.
Flow Vision configuration setup
The Flow Vision configuration can be saved through the configdownload command and uploaded
through the configupload command. The configdefault command deletes all flows and simulation
ports (SIM-Ports) from the switch.
When a switch goes offline or comes online, Flow Vision reads the configuration files and then
deletes flows, creates flows, and activates flows. After a switch goes offline, any flows that were
active at the time it went offline will be reactivated when it comes back online and new traffic will
be generated as soon as the source and destination devices defined in the flow are online.
Statistical data for flows is not saved in the configuration database.
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Flow Vision references
NOTE
1
Firmware upgrading and downgrading and Flow Vision
There are no restrictions on upgrading the firmware of a switch that has Flow Vision installed.
Downgrading the firmware on a switch with Flow Vision installed will fail if any Flow Vision-related
configurations are present on the switch being downgraded. All Flow Vision-related flows or
simulation ports must be deleted prior to performing a downgrade to any version of Fabric OS prior
to version 7.2.0; if they are not, the downgrade will be blocked and a warning message displayed.
High Availability and Flow Vision
If a standby Command Processor (CP) with a down rev code comes online and any flows (active or
non-active) are configured, the HA will be out of sync. If a standby Command Processor (CP) with a
down rev code comes online and no flows (active or non-active) are configured, HA will be in sync
but flow creation will fail.
High Availability (HA) preserves only the Flow Vision configuration settings through an HA failover,
HA reboot, or a power cycle and reboot. It does not save feature-related data (for example,
statistics).
Refer to the individual feature’s HA section for information on how that feature is treated under HA:
• “Flow Monitor and High Availability” on page 29
• “Flow Generator and High Availability” on page 43
• “Flow Mirror and High Availability” on page 55
While disabling a SIM-Port that is receiving traffic may produce class 3 discards for the simulated
traffic, this will have no effect on other traffic flows.
Flow Monitor provides you with the following abilities:
• Comprehensive visibility into application flows in the fabric, including the ability to learn
(discover) flows automatically.
• Monitoring of application flows (for example: a flow within a fabric from a Host to a Target/LUN)
at a given port.
• Capture of statistics for specified flows, providing insights into application performance. These
statistics include: transmitted and received frame counts, transmitted and received frame
throughput rates, SCSI Read and SCSI Write frame counts, the number of SCSI Reads and
Writes per second (IOPS), as well as others.
• When N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) is used on the host, users can monitor VM (Virtual
Machine) to LUN level performance as well.
• Monitoring of various frame types at a switch port to provide deeper insights into storage I/O
access pattern at a LUN, reservation conflicts, and I/O errors. For example: SCSI Aborts,
SCSI Read, SCSI Write, SCSI Reserve, all rejected frames, and many others. See Table 3 on
page 4 for a list and description of the frame types that can be monitored.
• Integration with the Monitoring and Alerting Policy Suite (MAPS) service to enable
threshold-based monitoring and alerting for flows.
2
A sample use case would be to monitor throughput statistics for inbound traffic between a source
device and a destination device. “Monitoring LUN level statistics” on page 13 provides an example
of the command and the results for this use case.
The existing Advanced Performance Monitor provides the following monitors: End-to-End,
Frame-based, ISL, and Top Talker. Flow Monitor expands on these options by allowing you to
monitor any hardware-supported flow parameters and define your own flows using combinations of
ingress and egress ports, source and destination devices, LUNs, and frame types as parameters to
create a flow definition for a specific use case.
For information on replicating standard Advanced Performance Monitor functionality using
Flow Monitor, refer to “End-to-end monitor”, “Frame monitor”, and “Ingress or egress Top Talker
monitor” on page 15.
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Flow Monitor management
ATTENTION
2
Flow Monitor management
The following sections describe how to manage the Flow Monitor feature.
Creating Flow Monitor flows
To create a Flow Monitor flow, enter the flow --create flowname -feature monitor parameters
command using the parameters in Table 5. Figure 1 on page 2 illustrates how the frame and port
parameters apply to a flow.
Tab le 5 shows the supported Flow Monitor flow parameter combinations.
TABLE 5Flow Monitor flow parameter combinations
Parameters Field names Description
Port ingrpor t
egrport
Framesrcdev
dstdev
lun
frametype
Optional keyword parameters
-bidir Adding this keyword makes the application monitor traffic in both directions.
-noactivate Adding this keyword creates the flow without activating it.
-noconfigAdding this keyword creates the flow without saving the flow to the configuration.
• One field only must be specified
• Values must be explicit
• Can be an F-Port, E-Port, or EX-Port on a local switch
• At least one field must be specified
• Values for srcdev and dstdev can be explicit or “*” (“*” indicates learned flows)
• Values for lun and frametype must be explicit
Parameter usage exceptions
The following restrictions apply to parameter usage in Flow Monitor flow definitions:
• The -lun and -bidir parameters cannot be used together in a flow definition.
• Flow Monitor does not support learning flows using the -frametype, -lun, or -bidir parameters.
The following example creates a Flow Monitor flow named “Flow1” that monitors all traffic flowing
from device 010403 to device 020504 ingressing through port 10 on the switch on which this
command was run.
When you create a flow, it is automatically activated unless you use the -noactivate keyword as part
of the flow --create command. Refer to “Creating an inactive flow in Flow Monitor” on page 11 for
an example of this option.
Flow creation is not allowed if Advanced Performance Monitor or Port Mirroring is enabled. Similarly,
APM and Port Mirroring-related operations will not be allowed if any flow (active or defined) is
present on the switch.
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Flow Monitor management
Creating an inactive flow in Flow Monitor
To create an inactive Flow Monitor flow, enter the flow --create command with the -noactivate
Refer to “Activating Flow Monitor flows” on page 11 for information on activating a Flow Monitor
flow. The following example creates an inactive Flow Monitor flow named “sflow8” from
device 020a00 to device 01c000 ingressing through port 10.
Flow Vision automatically deactivates all Flow Monitor flows if any of the following occur:
• Slot is powered off for the ingress or egress ports defined in the flow.
• Slot is powered off for the source or destination devices defined in the flow.
• The ingress or egress port type changes to anything other than an F_Port or SIM-Port for a
learned flow (“*”). The flow will not automatically reactivate if the port type is changed back.
You must manually reactivate this flow.
• The ingress or egress port type changes to anything other than an F_Port or SIM-Port for a flow
that has a lun or frametype value specified. The flow will not automatically reactivate if the port
type is changed back. You must manually reactivate this flow.
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Flow Monitor management
2
Viewing Flow Monitor flows
To display Flow Monitor flows, enter flow --show flowname -feature monitor. The displayed
information includes:
• Frame Statistics: Frame count and rate for the flow-defined frame type
• Throughput Statistics: Word count and throughput (bytes per second)
• I/O Statistics: I/O count, IO per second and I/O data transferred on a read/write basis
• Learn Statistics: All learned (“*”) flows on a given F_Port and the throughput and frame
statistics for each learned flow on 16 Gbps-capable Fibre Channel platforms
For illustrations of flow --show command output, refer to “Flow Monitor examples” on page 13.
Repeating Flow Monitor output
To specify the number of times the output should be repeated, enter the flow --show flowname
-feature monitor command with the -count num parameter. The num value can range from 1
through 10. The default value is 1.
flow --create flowname -feature monitor flow_parameters -count num
Sorting Flow Monitor output
To sort the data output for a flow, enter the flow --show flowname -feature monitor command with
the -sortby column_num parameter. The column_num value is the number of the output column on
which the data is to be sorted.
In Flow Monitor, frames can be sorted whether or not sub-flows are present. The -sortby parameter
can only be applied when there is only one feature specified in the flow --show flowname command.
Learning in Flow Monitor flows
To apply learning to a Flow Monitor flow, use an asterisk inside quotation marks (“*”) to specify the
parameter to be learned. The following example creates a Flow Monitor learning flow named
“IngressTT” ingressing through port 30. Refer to “Monitoring flows using the learning functionality”
on page 14 to view how the data captured using this flow is displayed.
Only 16 Gbps-capable Fibre Channel platforms have the capability to learn flows on a specified
port, and learning is possible on F_Ports only. Only one active flow per ASIC can be a learning flow.
Deleting Flow Monitor flows
To delete a flow, enter flow --delete flowname. The following example deletes a Flow Monitor flow
named “Flow1”.
switch:admin> flow --delete Flow1
You do not need to include -feature monitor, as you can only delete the entire flow; you cannot
delete an individual feature from a flow. Deleting a flow automatically clears all the flow statistics
for that flow. Deleting a flow removes all instances of that flow; you cannot delete an individual
feature from a flow. Deleting an active flow automatically deactivates the flow before it is deleted.
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Resetting Flow Monitor flow statistics
To clear the statistics for a Flow Monitor flow, enter flow --reset flowname -feature monitor. The
following example clears the statistics for the Flow Monitor flow named “Flow1”.
switch:admin> flow --reset Flow1 -feature monitor
Flow Monitor examples
The following examples display how to use the Flow Monitor feature.
• Monitoring LUN level statistics
• Viewing summary flow data for a specific device pair
• Monitoring flows using the learning functionality
• End-to-end monitor
• Frame monitor
• Ingress or egress Top Talker monitor
• Monitoring Fibre Channel routed fabrics
Flow Monitor examples
2
Monitoring LUN level statistics
A common use of flow monitors is to monitor traffic flowing from a particular ingress port to a
specified LUN. The following example creates a flow named “lunFlow1” which monitors traffic
ingressing on port 5 between device 010502 and device 030700 that uses lun 4, and then
displays the results of that flow. Figure 2 provides an illustration of what is happening in the
example.
|I/O Count|I/O Per Sec.(IOPS) | I/O bytes Transferred |I/O bytes Per Sec. |
| Reads / Writes/ Total | Reads / Writes/ Total | Reads / Writes/ Total | Reads / Writes/ Total |
Viewing summary flow data for a specific device pair
The following example creates a Flow Monitor flow gathering statistics for frames ingressing
through port 30 between device 010000 and device 010100, and then displays the results.
The point of interest in this example is port 30; it can be either an E, EX, or F_Port.
|I/O Count|I/O Per Sec.(IOPS) | I/O bytes Transferred |I/O bytes Per Sec. |
| Reads / Writes/ Total | Reads / Writes/ Total | Reads / Writes/ Total | Reads / Writes/ Total |
The following example illustrates using the learning functionality for flow monitoring. The defined
flow will monitor for frames ingressing on port 30 between all devices.
The Flow Vision interface provides a single interface for flow management that unifies legacy use
cases such as end-to-end (EE) monitors, frame monitors, and so on. The following examples show
how to implement the equivalent functionality using Flow Monitor.
2
End-to-end monitor
You can use the -bidir keyword to create the equivalent to an end-to-end monitor. The following
example creates a bidirectional Flow Monitor flow between device 02d8c0 and device 023a00
egressing port 4/10 of the switch on which the command is running.
|I/O Count|I/O Per Sec.(IOPS) | I/O bytes Transferred |I/O bytes Per Sec. |
| Reads / Writes/ Total | Reads / Writes/ Total | Reads / Writes/ Total | Reads / Writes/ Total |
You can use the -frametype parameter to create the equivalent to using the fmmonitor command.
The following example creates a Flow Monitor flow that counts SCSI Read-Write (scsirw) frames
egressing port 2 of the switch on which the command is running.
switch:admin> flow --create scsirw -fe mon -egrport 2 -frametype scsirw
Monitor feature(s) have been activated.
switch:admin> flow --show
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\
+ Denotes feature is currently activated for the flow
You can use the learn flow (“*”) parameter to create the equivalent to a Top Talker monitor. A Top
Talker monitor is used to identify high volume flows passing a port. This monitor is only supported
on F_Ports. The following example creates both an ingress and an egress Top Talker monitor. The
first command creates a Flow Monitor learning flow named “ingresstt” for all frames between any
devices ingressing through port 41 of the switch on which the command is running. The second
command creates a Flow Monitor learning flow named “egresstt” for all frames between any
devices egressing through port 30 of the switch on which the command is running.
switch:admin> flow --create ingresstt -feature monitor -ingrport 41 -srcdev "*" -dstdev "*"
Monitor feature(s) have been activated.
switch:admin> flow --create egresstt -feature monitor -egrport 30-srcdev "*" -dstdev "*"
Monitor feature(s) have been activated.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\
+ Denotes feature is currently activated for the flow
Note: Statistics are provided for the aggregate traffic generated to the specified SIM-port. No traffic is
actually transmitted out on the SIM-port.
=========================================================================================================
Configuring Flow Monitor for a trunk group
Flow Monitor supports monitoring trunk ports subject to the following conditions:
• You must create the same flow on all trunk member ports.
• If you create a flow on a slave port without using the -noactivate keyword, this flow is
automatically activated when the slave port becomes the master port.
• After a switch initialization or a recovery (cold or warm), existing flows are re-created on both
master and slave ports, but only those flows associated with the master port are activated.
To configure Flow Monitor on a trunk group, use the following steps:
1. Identify your trunk group members using the switchshow command.
2. Create individual flow monitors for each member of the trunk group.
To view the Flow Monitor statistical data for the entire trunk group, enter flow --show flowname
-feature monitor. The accumulated Flow Monitor statistical data for the entire trunk group is stored
on the master port. If the master port changes, the data is transferred to the new master port. To
view this data, you must run flow --show on a flow that is defined using the master port.
Flow statistics are not displayed for slave trunk ports.
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NOTE
You cannot create a learned flow in a trunk group.
The following example displays the trunked ports and then creates four flows, one for each member
of the trunk group identified by the switchshow command.
switch:admin> switchshow
24 24 021800 id N16 Online FC E-Port 10:00:00:05:33:e5:3c:d4 "Odin" (downstream)(Trunk master)
25 25 021900 id N16 Online FC E-Port (Trunk port, master is Port 24 )
26 26 021a00 id N16 Online FC E-Port (Trunk port, master is Port 24 )
27 27 021b00 id N16 Online FC E-Port (Trunk port, master is Port 24 )
switch:admin> flow -create f1 -feature monitor -egrport 24 -srcdev 022b00 -dstdev 033a00
switch:admin> flow -create f2 -feature monitor -egrport 25 -srcdev 022b00 -dstdev 033a00
switch:admin> flow -create f3 -feature monitor -egrport 26 -srcdev 022b00 -dstdev 033a00
switch:admin> flow -create f4 -feature monitor -egrport 27 -srcdev 022b00 -dstdev 033a00
Monitoring Fibre Channel routed fabrics
When creating flow monitors on EX_Ports, you can use either a WWN or a Fibre Channel ID (FCID) for the
source device (srcdev) and destination device (dstdev). Inter-Fabric Link (IFL) flows can be monitored
only on 16 Gbps-capable EX_Ports in a Fibre Channel router. IFL flows are not supported on E_Ports or
F_Ports.
2
Even though a flow definition is always created in the backbone fabric, the perspective of the flow
is from the edge fabric. In the following examples, the flow definitions are based on the Edge 1
Fabric’s perspective.
When monitoring an FC router fabric, you may find it simpler to use port WWNs rather than proxy
IDs in your flow definitions. This is because you do not need to locate and map the proxy IDs for the
actual source and destination devices.
Monitoring FC router fabrics using port WWNs
The following examples present the flow definitions using deviceidmode set to WWN mode.
flow --control -deviceidmode wwn
FIGURE 3An FC router fabric
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In Figure 3, the physical devices are A, B, and C, and have the port WWNs a, b, and c, respectively.
Figure 4 provides the port WWN values for the following examples.
FIGURE 4An FC router fabric annotated with port WWN values
Edge-to-edge through an ingress port
To monitor a flow from Device A to Device B ingressing through EX_Port1, the source device
(srcdev) is “Port WWN a”, the destination device (dstdev) is “Port WWN b”, and the ingress port
(ingrport) is EX_Port1 (Traffic is running from left to right).
The following example creates a flow that filters frames passing from one edge fabric to another
edge fabric using a specific ingress port on the backbone. The first command shows the available
ports and the available FC routers. The second command creates a Flow Monitor flow named
“e2e_src_dcx_wwn” between device 10:00:00:05:1e:e8:e2:00 and device
20:00:00:11:0d:e4:18:00 ingressing through port 219, and the last command displays the results
of the flow.
DCX_Backbone128:admin> switchshow |grep Port
Index Slot Port Address Media SpeedStateProto
To monitor a flow from Device B to Device A egressing through EX_Port1, the source device (srcdev)
is “Port WWN b”, the destination device (dstdev) is “Port WWN a”, and the egress port (egrport) is
EX_Port1 (Traffic is running from right to left).
The following example creates a flow that filters out frames passing from one edge fabric to
another edge fabric using a specific egress port on the backbone. The first command shows the
available ports and the available FC routers. The second command creates a Flow Monitor flow
named “e2e_dst_dcx” between device 20:00:00:11:0d:e4:18:00 and device
10:00:00:05:1e:e8:e2:00 egressing through port 219, and the last command displays the results
of the flow.
DCX_Backbone128:admin> switchshow |grep Port
Index Slot Port Address Media SpeedStateProto
3735012500idN16OnlineFC EX-Port 10:00:00:05:33:ef:f1:1c
To monitor a flow from Device C to Device A egressing through EX_Port1, the source device (srcdev)
is “Port WWN c”, the destination device (dstdev) is “Port WWN a”, and the egress port (egrport) is
EX_Port1 (Traffic is running from right to left).
The following example creates a flow that filters out frames passing from the backbone fabric to an
edge fabric using a specific egress port. The first command shows the available ports and the
available FC routers. The second command creates a Flow Monitor flow named “b2e_dst_dcx”
between device 20:02:00:11:0d:51:00:00 and device 10:00:00:05:1e:e8:e2:00 egressing through
port 219, and the last command displays the results of the flow.
DCX_Backbone128:admin> switchshow |grep Port
Index Slot Port Address Media SpeedStateProto
3735012500idN16OnlineFC EX-Port 10:00:00:05:33:ef:f1:1c
To monitor a flow from Device A to Device C ingressing through EX_Port1, the source device
(srcdev) is “Port WWN a”, the destination device (dstdev) is “Port WWN c”, and the ingress port
(ingrport) is EX_Port1 (Traffic is running from left to right).
The following example creates a flow that filters out frames passing from an edge fabric to the
backbone fabric using a specific ingress port. The first command shows the available ports and the
available FC routers. The second command creates a Flow Monitor flow named “e2b_src_dcx”
between device 10:00:00:05:1e:e8:e2:00 and device 20:02:00:11:0d:51:00:00 egressing through
port 219, and the last command displays the results of the flow.
DCX_Backbone128:admin> switchshow |grep Port
Index Slot Port Address Media SpeedStateProto
3735012500idN16OnlineFC EX-Port 10:00:00:05:33:ef:f1:1c "Wasp_edge2"
The following examples present flow definitions using deviceidmode set to PID mode.
flow --control -deviceidmode pid
FIGURE 5An FC router fabric
In Figure 5, the physical devices are A, B, and C. The proxy devices are Device A′, B′,
C″, representing the physical devices A, B, and C, respectively. Figure 6 provides the PID, FID, and
proxy PID values for the following examples.
C′, A″, B″, and
FIGURE 6An FC router fabric annotated with PID, FID, and proxy PID values
The proxy PID values for devices B″ and C″ were not generated for the following examples, they are
indicated by “xxxxxx” in Figure 6.
Edge-to-edge through an ingress port
To monitor a flow from Device A to Device B ingressing through EX_Port1, the source device
(srcdev) is Device A, the destination device (dstdev) is Device B
EX_Port1 (Traffic is running from left to right).
′, and the ingress port (ingrport) is
The following example creates a flow that filters frames passing from one edge fabric to another
edge fabric using a specific ingress port on the backbone. Notice that this is running in portwwn
mode rather than deviceid mode. The first two commands show the available ports and the
available FC routers. The third command creates a Flow Monitor flow named “e2e_src_dcx_wwn”
between device 220200 and device 01f001 ingressing through port 219, and the last command
displays the results of the flow.
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DCX_Backbone128:admin> switchshow |grep Port
Index Slot Port Address Media SpeedStateProto
To monitor a flow from Device B to Device A egressing through EX_Port1, the source device (srcdev)
is Device B
(Traffic is running from right to left).
The following example creates a flow that filters out frames passing from one edge fabric to
another edge fabric using a specific egress port on the backbone. The first two commands show
the available ports and the available FC routers. The third command creates a Flow Monitor flow
named “e2e_dst_dcx” between device 01f001 and device 220200 egressing through port 219,
and the last command displays the results of the flow.
DCX_Backbone128:admin> switchshow |grep Port
Index Slot Port Address Media SpeedStateProto
3735012500idN16OnlineFC EX-Port 10:00:00:05:33:ef:f1:1c
To monitor a flow from Device C to Device A egressing through EX_Port1, the source device (srcdev)
is Device C
(Traffic is running from right to left).
The following example creates a flow that filters out frames passing from the backbone fabric to an
edge fabric using a specific egress port. The first two commands show the available ports and the
available FC routers. The third command creates a Flow Monitor flow named “b2e_dst_dcx”
between device 01f001 and device 220200 egressing through port 219, and the last command
displays the results of the flow.
DCX_Backbone128:admin> switchshow |grep Port
Index Slot Port Address Media SpeedStateProto
3735012500idN16OnlineFC EX-Port 10:00:00:05:33:ef:f1:1c
To monitor a flow from Device A to Device C ingressing through EX_Port1, the source device
(srcdev) is Device A, the destination device (dstdev) is Device C
EX_Port1 (Traffic is running from left to right).
The following example creates a flow that filters out frames passing from an edge fabric to the
backbone fabric using a specific ingress port. The first two commands show the available ports and
the available FC routers. The third command creates a Flow Monitor flow named “e2b_src_dcx”
between device 220200 and device 02f001 egressing through port 219, and the last command
displays the results of the flow.
DCX_Backbone128:admin> switchshow |grep Port
Index Slot Port Address Media SpeedStateProto
3735012500idN16OnlineFC EX-Port 10:00:00:05:33:ef:f1:1c
The following sections provide additional information about Flow Monitor.
Flow monitors and MAPS
Flow Monitor statistics can be viewed using the Monitoring and Alerting Policy Suite (MAPS) service.
This can help you identify critical administrative information such as traffic patterns, bottlenecks, and
slow drains. Refer to the Monitoring and Alerting Policy Suite Administrator’s Guide for more details.
Flow monitors on Access Gateways
Access Gateways support flow monitoring on ingress F_Ports only. The CLI and outputs are exactly
the same as for a switch.
Enabling WWN deviceIDMode is blocked on Access Gateways. This means that the
-deviceIdMode WWN operand is not permitted, so the device ID mode always remains “PID” on
Access Gateways.
Flow Monitor references
2
Flow Monitor and High Availability
When a High Availability (HA) failover, High Availability reboot, or a power cycle occurs, all flows are
deactivated, and statistics for all Flow Monitor flows are not retained. Flow Monitor will begin to
gather statistics again when the standby Control Processor becomes active. After the device is back
online, only the first 64 Flow Monitor sub-flows that can be learned are re-activated. Flow Monitor
always re-creates these sub-flows based on the order in which the switch learns the flows.
Refer to “High Availability and Flow Vision” on page 7 for more information.
Flow Monitor limitations
The following limitations apply to all Flow Monitor flows:
• 16 Gbps-capable Fibre Channel platforms, including the Brocade FC8-32E and FC8-48E
blades, can support a maximum of 2 flows defined using a combination of ingress port and
frame type parameters per ASIC chip.
• 16 Gbps-capable Fibre Channel platforms, including the Brocade FC8-32E and FC8-48E
blades, can support a maximum of 12 flows on each port that use both egress port and frame
type parameters.
• 8 Gbps-capable Fibre Channel platforms do not support monitoring flows using both ingress
port and frame type parameters.
• 8 Gbps-capable Fibre Channel platforms can support a maximum of 12 flows on each port that
use both egress port and frame type parameters, except for the Brocade 300, 5300, 5410,
5424, 5450, 5460, 5470, 5480, and 7800 platforms, which support a maximum of 8 flows
per port.
• 8 Gbps-capable Fibre Channel platforms and blades cannot show statistics for SIM-Ports.
• 8 Gbps-capable Fibre Channel platforms do not support learning.
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• Learning is supported on 16 Gbps F_Ports only.
• Only one learned flow is supported per ASIC.
• Flow Monitor can only monitor flows using EX_Ports on 16 Gbps-capable Fibre Channel
platforms.
• The frame type parameters scsiread, scsiwrite, and scsirdwr monitor only SCSI 6-, 10-, 12-, and
16-bit Read and Write values. Read Long and Write Long values are not monitored.
• Flow Monitor is not supported on ports with Encryption or Compression enabled.
• Inter-Fabric Link (IFL) flows can be monitored only on EX_Ports in a Fibre Channel router.
• Flow Monitor cannot monitor IFL flows on E_Ports or F_Ports.
• Flow Monitor cannot monitor flows that are using frame redirection for encryption.
• Flow Monitor cannot monitor traffic between logical switches using XISL ports.
• Flow Monitor flows cannot be converted to Fabric OS 7.1 flow performance monitors.
• The calculated Rx and Tx frame size values displayed in the output are accurate to a range
Flow Generator is a test traffic generator for pre-testing the SAN infrastructure (including internal
connections) for robustness before deploying it. Flow Generator provides you with the ability to:
• Configure a 16G FC-capable port as a simulated device that can transmit frames at full 16G
line rate.
• Emulate a 16G SAN without actually having any 16G hosts or targets or SAN-testers.
• Pre-test the entire SAN fabric at the full line rate, including optics and cables on ISLs as well as
internal connections within a switch.
3
Flow Generator achieves this using simulation mode (SIM) ports. SIM-Ports behave like standard
ports, but are used only for testing. By using SIM-Ports, Flow Generator traffic is terminated at the
destination port and does not leave the switch. Refer to “SIM-Port attributes and configuration” on
page 41 for more information on SIM-Ports.
Flow Generator can generate standard frames or create custom frames with sizes and patterns you
specify. A sample use case would be to create a traffic flow from a Source ID to a Destination ID to
validate routing and throughput. “Creating a flow from a specific Source ID to a specific
Destination ID” on page 38 provides an example of the command and the results for this use case.
You should not use Flow Generator in an active production environment, as the Flow Generator
traffic can saturate the links and will impact the production traffic sharing the same links.
Flow Generator setup
Flow Generator generates and receives traffic only from simulated ingress and egress ports
(SIM-Ports) which emulate device entries in the Name Server database, so that they are treated as
real devices and can be used to evaluate various switch and fabric operations such as QoS and
Traffic Isolation. For more information on working with SIM-Ports, refer to “SIM-Port attributes and
configuration” on page 41.
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Flow Generator flows are defined using a combination of the source device (srcdev), destination
device (dstdev), ingress port (ingrport), and egress port (egrport) parameters.All of these must be
SIM-Ports. The source device is the origination point of the test traffic. The destination device is the
destination of the test traffic; for Flow Generator flows it may be remote from the switch. The port
that transmits the simulation traffic must be a 16 Gbps-capable Fibre Channel port. The port that
receives the simulated traffic can be either an 8 Gbps- or a 16 Gbps-capable Fibre Channel port.
Figure 7 illustrates this concept.
FIGURE 7A Flow Generator flow structure
Flow Generator offers several flow control options that you can configure, including the ability to
specify both the frame size and the frame payload pattern. Header parameters and other control
parameters can also be added as part of the definition. The 0XID value for frames is random and
cannot be specified.
Flow Generator management
The following sections describe how to work with the Flow Generator flows.
Creating Flow Generator flows
To create a Flow Generator flow, enter the flow --create flowname -feature generator parameters
command using the parameters described in Table 6 .
Tab le 6 shows the supported Flow Generator flow parameter combinations.
-bidir Not supported directly. To emulate this function you must create two flows (one in each
-noactivate Adding this keyword creates the flow without activating it.
-noconfigAdding this keyword creates the flow without saving the flow to the configuration.
• One field only must be specified
• Values must be explicit
• Must be a SIM-Port local to the switch for a flow to generate traffic
• At least one field must be specified
• Values for srcdev and dstdev can be explicit or “*” (“*” indicates learned flows)
• Must be a SIM-Port PID for a flow to generate traffic
• The parameters “lun” and “frametype” are not supported
direction).
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Parameter usage exceptions
• If the srcdev and ingrport parameters are both defined, they must both be local to the switch
and refer to the same source.
• If the dstdev and egrport parameters are both defined for the flow, they must both be local to
the switch and represent the same destination.
The following example (illustrated in Figure 8) creates a Flow Generator flow named “Flow1” generates
traffic using the ingress SIM-Port 1/1 from device 040100 (Domain 4) to device 050200 (Domain 5).
FIGURE 8A Flow Generator flow between two switches
When you create a flow, it is automatically activated unless you use the -noactivate keyword for the
flow --create command. Refer to “Creating an inactive flow in Flow Generator” on page 33 for an
example.
Flow creation is not allowed if Advanced Performance Monitor or Port Mirroring is enabled. Similarly,
APM and Port Mirroring-related operations will not be allowed if any flow (active or defined) is
present on the switch.
-dstdev 050200
Creating an inactive flow in Flow Generator
To create an inactive Flow Generator flow, enter the flow --create command with the -noactivate
Refer to “Activating Flow Generator flows” on page 33 for information on activating a
Flow Generator flow. The following example creates an inactive Flow Generator flow named
“sflow8” from device 020a00 to device 01c000 ingressing through SIM-Port 10.
To activate an inactive Flow Generator flow, enter flow --activate flowname -feature generator.
Activating a flow does not automatically clear the flow statistics for that flow; the existing statistic
counters resume counting using the resumed flow data. If you are activating a learned flow, the
sub-flows will be refreshed based on the first four Source ID-Destination ID pairs in the zone
database that are registered in the Name Server.
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When a flow is activated, traffic is generated by the ingress port or source device for that flow and
any sub-flows associated with it as soon as all SIM-Ports and devices defined in the flow are online.
The following example activates the Flow Generator flow named “Flow1”.
A flow can be activated with SIM-Ports that are offline or which have not been created. If such a flow
is activated, an alert message noting that the activated flow is not enforced is displayed.
Automatic activation of a Flow Generator flow
Flow Generator automatically activates a generated flow under the following conditions:
• On flow creation unless the flow is being created using the -noactivate keyword.
• On slot power-on if the port parameter only is part of the slot being powered on if the flow was
• On a High Availability (HA) failover or HA reboot, if the flow was active when the HA event
active when the slot was powered off.
occurred.
Learning in Flow Generator flows
To apply learning to a Flow Generator flow, use an asterisk (*) inside of quotation marks to specify
the parameter to be learned. When Flow Generator activates learned flows, it queries the Name
Server database to identify source and destination devices that are zoned together. These pairings
are not automatically changed if either member of the pair changes zones. If either member of the
pair changes zones, you must deactivate the flow and then reactivate it to use the new zone values.
Flow Generator allocates the first four flows per source ID to zoned destination IDs. The rest of the
destination IDs are not tested. For learned flows, no zone enforcement is applied to either the
source or destination SIM-Ports.
If the source or destination port for a sub-flow goes offline, the root flow is deactivated and traffic
will be stopped on all sub-flows of that root flow.
In the following example, the only flows that will be activated are the ones where the destination
devices share a zone with the source device (204000) and use ingress port 4. To view the data
generated by this flow, refer to “Viewing the output of a learned Flow Generator flow” on page 35.
To display Flow Generator flows, enter flow --show flowname -feature generator. For root and static
flows, this command shows the Source ID-Destination ID pairs and the cumulative frame count on
the ingress or egress port specified in the flow definition.
Displaying the status of a single Flow Generator flow
The following example displays the status the Flow Generator flow named “f2”.
----------------------Number of frames generated from IngrPort : 595.41M
Note: More than 1 flow active on this port.
=================================================================================
3
Viewing the output of a learned Flow Generator flow
When you view the output of a learned flow, the Name line displays the flow name and flow features
with their respective states. The Definition line displays the port of interest and the device. In the
table under Flow Generator, each row is an individual sub-flow, and the column shows the individual
device IDs. The last line displays the number of frames (in units of 1000 (K), 1,000,000 (M), or
1,000,000,000 (G)) that have passed through that port measured from the time the port became
active. The following example shows the output of the Flow Generator flow named “fgflow12”:
switch:admin> flow --show fgflow12 -feature generator
Name : fgflow12 Features: gen(Active) noConfig: Off
Definition: IngrPort(4),DstDev(*)
Flow Generator (Activated):
----------------------| SrcDev| DstDev|
----------------------| 0x204000 | 0x040700 |
----------------------| 0x204000 | 0x040800 |
----------------------| 0x204000 | 0x050900 |
----------------------| 0x204000 | 0x051000 |
----------------------Number of frames generated from IngrPort : 82.21M
Repeating Flow Generator output
To specify the number of times the output should be repeated, enter the flow --show flowname
-feature generator command with the -count num parameter. The num value can range from 1
through 10. The default value is 1.
flow --create flowname -feature monitor flow_parameters -count num
Sorting Flow Generator output
To sort the data output for a flow, enter the flow --show flowname -feature generator command
with the -sortby column_num parameter. The column_num value is the number of the output
column on which the data is to be sorted.
When a flow is deactivated, traffic stops for that flow and any sub-flows associated with it. When a
flow is deactivated, the definition remains but Flow Generator does not populate it with traffic.
Automatic deactivation of a Flow Generator flow
Flow Vision automatically deactivates all Flow Generator flows and causes existing flow traffic to
stop if any of the following occurs:
flow monitoring feature in the flow definition (flow --create flowname -feature generator,
monitor).
stating such at the bottom of the output.
• Any of the SIM-Ports or devices defined in the flow go offline. For example, HA events on a
remote switch will automatically deactivate flows on the local switch. The source or destination
device can go offline due to user action, link level issues or due to switch actions (as part of
switch bring up).
• A SIM-port configuration is deleted while the port is online.
Refer to “Flow Generator and High Availability” on page 43 for additional details.
Deleting Flow Generator flows
To delete a Flow Generator flow, enter flow --delete flowname. You do not need to include
-feature generator, as you can only delete the entire flow; you cannot delete an individual feature
from a flow.
When you delete a Flow Generator flow, the following happens:
• The flow statistics for that flow remain.
• Associated sub-flows are removed.
• If the flow is active, the flow is automatically deactivated before it is deleted. Refer to
“Deactivating Flow Generator flows” on page 36 for more information.
• You are not asked to confirm the deletion.
The following example deletes the Flow Generator flow named “Flow1”.
switch:admin> flow --delete Flow1
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Resetting Flow Generator flow statistics
To manually clear the frame count statistics for a Flow Generator flow, enter flow --reset flowname
-feature generator. The following example clears the statistics for the Flow Generator flow named
“Flow1”.
Flow Generator allows you to specify the frame payload size and pattern to be used for the
Flow Generator flows by using the flow --control command.
Frame payload size
Flow Generator allows you to define the frame payload size in bytes. There are two ways to change
the frame payload size: changing the default payload size and changing the payload size for a
single flow. You can use flow --show -ctrlcfg to see the current payload size. If you include the flow
name in the command, it will show the current payload size for only that flow.
The frame payload size value must be either 0 (which produces frames of random size) or a
multiple of 4 in the range from 64 through 2048. (64, 120, 140, 320, 512 and so on). The default
payload size value is 2048.
Changing the default frame payload size
Assigning a frame payload size without defining a flow creates a default that applies to all flows
created afterward. The following example sets the payload size default for all new flows to 512 bytes.
Assigning a frame payload size explicitly to a flow affects only that flow and overrides the existing
payload size for that flow. Changing a flow’s payload size can only be done to an inactive flow. The
following example changes the payload size for the flow “F1” to 1024 bytes.
switch:admin> flow --control F1 -feature generator -size 1024
Frame payload pattern
Flow Generator allows you to define the pattern to be used as the frame payload. There are two ways
to change a frame payload pattern: changing the default payload pattern and changing the payload
pattern for a single flow. You can use flow --show -ctrlcfg to see the current payload pattern. If you
include the flow name in the command, it will show the current payload pattern for only that flow.
The frame payload pattern must be an alphanumeric ASCII string between 1 and 32 characters in
length. The default frame payload pattern value is 0, which produces a random pattern of
alphanumeric ASCII characters with a variable string length.
Changing the default frame payload pattern
Assigning a frame payload pattern without defining a flow creates a default that applies to all
subsequently-created flows. The following example sets the default payload pattern for all new
flows to “TestFlow”.
Assigning a frame payload pattern explicitly to a flow affects only that flow and overrides the
existing frame payload pattern for that flow. Changing a payload pattern can only be done to an
inactive flow. The following example sets the default payload pattern for the flow F2 to “a5a5a5”.
Addressing mode information
Port Addressing Mode: index
Device Addressing Mode: PID
Flow Generator Information
Size: 2048
Pattern: Random (Default)
Flow mirror Information
enable_wrap
Integrating Flow Generator with Flow Monitor
Flow Generator flows can be monitored using Flow Monitor. For example, you can use a
combination of Flow Generator flows and Flow Monitor flows to verify per-flow throughput at an
ingress or egress port. This can be useful when more than one Flow Generator flow shares the
same ingress or egress port. To do this, you must create a flow using both the Flow Generator and
Flow Monitor features that share the ingress or egress port. The following example illustrates this
integration.
When you run the portperfshow command, an asterisk (*) represents traffic running on either an
ingress port or an egress port from a Flow Generator flow. For the portperfshow command, the
Transmit Throughput value represents the egress port, and the Receive Throughput value
represents the ingress port.
portstatsclear
Entering portstatsclear for a port clears the Flow Generator frame count for all flows sharing this
port. This is equivalent to the flow --reset command. Refer to “Resetting Flow Generator flow
statistics” on page 37 for details.
portstatsshow
When you run the portstatsshow command, the Transmit Word Count value represents the egress
port, and the Receive Word Count value represents the ingress port. The frame size used for
portstatsshow is 2048 bytes, regardless of what value has been set for the flow.
slotstatsclear
Entering slotstatsclear for a slot clears the Flow Generator frame count for all flows sharing the
ports on that slot.
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switchshow
Entering switchshow generates output showing which ports are set as simulation mode ports
(SIM-Ports) and displays the WWN for each emulated device.
Prior to creating and activating flows, you must enter flow --control on the local switch to set the
source device (srcdev) and the destination device (dstdev) ports as SIM-Ports. This ensures that
test flows are not unintentionally transmitted to real devices. Flow Vision requires that the source
device and destination device ports be in simulation mode (SIM_Port mode) prior to activating the
test flows, and checks for this before activating the test flows. After the source device and
destination device ports are configured to be SIM-Ports, you can create and activate the flow.
The following restrictions will affect your use of SIM-Ports:
• Flow Generator supports up to four active flows per ingress SIM-Port and takes 52 credits per
SIM-Port from the ASIC.
• Zoning is bypassed on SIM-Ports. Traffic will reach its destination regardless of zoning
configuration.
• Zones are used to gather the Source ID-Destination ID pairs for learning flows, but that is all
that Flow Generator uses zones for.
SIM-Port criteria
Flow Generator SIM-Ports must meet the following criteria to be valid:
• SIM-Ports are supported on ASICs that support either 8 Gbps or 16 Gbps-capable
Fibre Channel ports. Source devices or ingress ports can only be on 16 Gbps-capable
Fibre Channel ports. Destination devices or egress ports can be on either 8 or
16 Gbps-capable Fibre Channel ports.
• SIM-Ports cannot be in the base switch or Access Gateway.
• SIM-Ports cannot be configured on a port that is online and connected to a real device.
If a port is connected to a real device, you can disable the port, configure the SIM-Port, and
then re-enable the port. The port will be a SIM-Port; the real device will not join the fabric.
• Existing SIM-Ports are added to Device Connection Control (DCC) policies when created with
wildcard (*) but not adhered to. These SIM port entries must be deleted if a new WWN is
connected.
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• SIM-Ports cannot be configured as any of the following port types; these restrictions also apply
at the time a SIM-Port is enabled:
-Any port running Encryption or Compression
-Any F_Port connected to a real device (unless the port is disabled)
-D_Port (Diagnostic Port)
-E_Port
-EX_Port
-F_Port trunked
-Fastwrite port
-FCoE port
-ICL port
-L_Port
-M_Port (Mirror Port)
-VE port
• The following features of a SIM-Port are persistent across a reboot:
-Each SIM-Port is assigned a PID and is displayed in a switchShow command.
-Each SIM-Port’s Port Worldwide Name by default is the switch PWWN, unless a
user-defined Virtual Port Worldwide Name is assigned to it.
-Each SIM-Port registers itself into the Name Server database.
• If a port is configured as a SIM Port:
-You cannot enable QoS.
-You cannot enable CSCTL_mode.
-You can set Ingress Rate Limit.
• If a port is configured with QoS on, you cannot configure it as a SIM-Port.
• If a port is configured with CSCTL_mode enabled, you cannot configure it as a SIM-Port.
• If a port has an Ingress Rate Limit set, you can configure it as a SIM-Port.
Sending traffic using a Fabric Assigned WWN
If you want to use a Fabric Assigned WWN (FA-WWN), you need to set the FA-WWN on the SIM-Port
using the Dynamic Fabric Provisioning command, fapwwn –assign. For details, refer to the “Dynamic
Fabric Provisioning” section of the Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide.
If the Fabric Assigned Worldwide Name (WWN) command is used to assign a user-defined
Port WWN to a SIM-Port, it is the person making the assignment’s responsibility to not assign a
Port WWN that duplicates one already in the fabric. If there is a duplicated WWN, both entries will
be removed from the Name Sever database, causing traffic to be disrupted.
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Flow Generator and MAPS
MAPS can be used to monitor SIM-Port traffic thresholds while Flow Generator flows are running.
Because MAPS treats SIM-Ports as F_Ports, MAPS can issue warnings on these ports if threshold
values are triggered. If you do not want to see MAPS warnings for SIM-Ports, disable MAPS
monitoring for those ports. Flow Generator traffic will also impact E_Ports; this may cause MAPS
warnings for E_Port throughput levels. Refer to the Monitoring and Alerting Policy Suite Administrator’s Guide for more information about working with MAPS.
Flow Generator and High Availability
On a High Availability (HA) failover, HA reboot, or a power cycle and reboot, both local and remote
flows are automatically deactivated. When SIM-Ports come back online from an HA failover or
HA reboot event, local flows are re-created and reactivated, and local traffic is restarted. Remote
flows are not reactivated. Inactive flows are re-created but not activated by an HA failover,
HA reboot, or a power cycle and reboot. For a power cycle and reboot, local flows are re-created but
not reactivated.
For the first four flows that can be learned for Flow Generator, HA failover, HA reboot, or a power cycle
and reboot may cause different sub-flows to be re-created, as the order depends on the zone
database.
Refer to “High Availability and Flow Vision” on page 7 for more information.
Flow Generator limitations and considerations
The following limitations apply specifically to Flow Generator.
• If used on a live production system, Flow Generator traffic will compete with any existing traffic.
Consequently, E_Ports and FCIP links can become congested when using Flow Generator,
leading to throughput degradation. FCIP links are more prone to congestion than E_Ports.
• Only four active Flow Generator flows are allowed per ingress port.
• Flow Generator flows can only be mirrored at the ingress port; they cannot be mirrored at the
egress port.
• Flow Generator is not supported on Access Gateways or for Fibre Channel routers.
• Frame redirection is not supported for SIM-Ports.
• Zoning is not enforced. Sources and Destinations can be in different zones.
• Flow Generator gathers source and destination pairs from the zoning database for learning
flows only at the time the flow is activated. Subsequent changes to this database will not be
registered until a flow is reactivated.
• Non-disruptively create copies of application flows that can be captured for deeper analysis.
• Conduct in-depth analysis of flows of interest, such as SCSI Reservation frames, ABTS frames,
flows going to a bottlenecked device, frames during link bring up, and others.
4
Select the type of frames you want to be mirrored.Flow Mirror provides the ability to select a traffic
pattern and mirror this traffic to the switch Control Processor Unit (CPU), thus enabling you to
perform debugging without disturbing existing connections. You can also use this feature as a way
to view traffic passing through a port.
Flow mirroring is enabled by creating a copy of the flow you want to examine. Flow Mirror flows can
be in an active state or an inactive state. If the mirror flow is “active’”, mirroring starts immediately;
if the flow is “inactive” the flow must be activated (by using the flow --activate command) for
mirroring to start. Mirrored flows can be unidirectional or bidirectional.
A sample use case would be to mirror the traffic flow from a slow-draining F_Port to see what is
causing this condition. “Using Flow Mirror to diagnose a slow-draining F_Port” on page 53 provides
an example of the command and the results for this use case.
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Figure 10 provides a diagram of a mirrored flow with the ingrPort mirroring the traffic flow to the
CPU. Flow Mirror can also mirror the egrPort, but only one port (ingrPort or egrPort) can be mirrored
per flow. To mirror from one port in both flow directions (left to right and right to left), you must use
the -bidir option.
FIGURE 10A flow being mirrored to the CPU
Flow Mirror management
The following sections describe how to work with Flow Mirror.
Creating Flow Mirror flows
To create a Flow Mirror flow, enter the flow --create flowname -feature mirror parameters
command using the parameters described in Tab le 7. Figure 1 on page 2 illustrates how the frame
and port parameters apply to a flow.
Tab le 7 shows the supported Flow Mirror flow parameter combinations.
-bidir Adding this keyword makes the application mirror traffic in both directions.
-noactivate Adding this keyword creates the flow without activating it.
-noconfigAdding this keyword creates the flow without saving the flow to the configuration.
• One field only must be specified
• Values must be explicit
• Can only be an F_Port local to the switch; for an ingress port, this may be a SIM-Port
• Only one field can be specified
• Values for srcdev and dstdev can be explicit or “*” (“*” indicates learned flows)
• Values for lun and frametype must be explicit
Parameter usage exceptions
The frametype and -bidir parameters cannot be specified together for a Flow Mirror flow.
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ATTENTION
The following example creates a Flow Mirror flow named “Flow1” that monitors all traffic flowing
from device 010403 to device 020504 ingressing through port 10 on the switch on which this
command was run.
When you create a flow, it is automatically activated unless you use the -noactivate keyword as part
of the flow --create command. Refer to “Creating an inactive flow in Flow Mirror” on page 47 for an
example.
Flow creation is not allowed if Advanced Performance Monitor or Port Mirroring is enabled. Similarly,
APM and Port Mirroring-related operations will not be allowed if any flow (active or defined) is
present on the switch.
4
Creating an inactive flow in Flow Mirror
To create an inactive Flow Mirror flow enter the flow --create command with the -noactivate
Refer to “Activating Flow Mirror flows” on page 47 for information on activating a Flow Mirror flow.
The following example creates an inactive Flow Mirror flow (sflow8) from device 020a00 to
device 01c000 ingressing through port 10.
Flow Mirror automatically activates a mirroring flow under the following conditions:
• On flow creation unless the flow is created using the -noactivate keyword.
• On slot power-on if the port parameter is part of the slot being powered on if the flow was
active when the slot was powered off.
• On a High Availability (HA) failover, HA reboot, or a power cycle, if the flow was active when the
HA event occurred.
Flow Mirror will not automatically re-activate a flow if the port types are other than
16 Gbps-platform F_Ports running at 8 Gbps or less.
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Viewing Flow Mirror flows
The following sections describe the different ways you can view Flow Mirror flows.
Summary information view of a Flow Mirror flow
To display the summary view of Flow Mirror flows, enter flow --show flowname -feature mirror.
In the summary information view, the first output line lists the flow name and the flow features; the
second line lists the source and destination devices and ports, and the flow’s directionality.
The following lines list for each frame the destination ID, the OXID (originator exchange identifier) of
the flow, the RXID (responder exchange identifier) of the flow, the start of frame and end of frame
values, the frame type, the LUN, the direction of the frame, and the time stamp of the frame. The
last data line displays the number of frames sent to the CPU, the number of received frames and
the number of transmitted frames. An asterisk (*) adjacent to a column name indicates that it is a
learned field. A learned field column is added to the output only if the flow definition does not
contain the field for this column.
The following example uses flow --show fmshow -feature mirror to display the summary information
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------No of Mirrored Frames : 528, No of RX Mirrored Frames : 528, No of TX Mirrored Frames : 0
In the verbose information view, the first output line lists the flow name and the flow features; the
second line lists the source and destination devices and ports. The following lines list for each
frame the time stamp of the frame, the direction of the frame, the start of frame and end of frame
values, the frame type, and the first 64 bytes (16 words) of the frame. The last data line displays
the number of frames sent to the switch Control Processor Unit (CPU), the number of received
frames and the number of transmitted frames. If any learned field is part of the flow definition,
then that field is not displayed in the show output (that is, there will be no column in the output
representing this field).
The following example displays all the information recorded for the Flow Mirror flow named
“fmshow”.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------No of Mirrored Frames : 530, No of RX Mirrored Frames : 530, No of TX Mirrored Frames : 0
To display all the information recorded for a Flow Mirror flow blocked out using a specific time
interval, enter the flow --show flowname -feature mirror command with the -t num parameter. The
num value is the number of seconds between samples.
flow --create flowname -feature mirror -t num
The num value can range from 7 through 10. The default value is 7. Using this parameter updates
the output on the console at the specified time interval until you press Ctr+C. In time interval
output, only frames that were mirrored in the time window (that is, between t and t+10) are
displayed. This parameter applies only to Flow Mirror flows.
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The following example shows the frame rates for the Flow Mirror flow named “fmshow” at
10-second intervals. In this output at the beginning of t (time), the frame rate is not displayed, but
at t+10, t+20, and so on, the frame rate is displayed. This rate is based on the difference between
the cumulative number of frames mirrored within the specified interval. Notice that the number of
frames mirrored during the previous interval is displayed, and the time stamp for each frame is for
the frame, not the time chunk.
In Flow Mirror, mirrored frames can be sorted whether or not sub-flows are present. The -sortby
parameter can only be applied when there is only one feature specified in the flow --show
flowname command.
Learning in Flow Mirror flows
Flow Mirror supports learning for both source and destination devices. To apply learning to a
Flow Mirror flow, use an asterisk inside quotation marks ("*") to specify the parameter to be
learned. For a learning flow, if the frame type is specified in the flow definition, the -frametype value
must be a fixed value for the flow to work. Refer to “Flow frametype parameters” on page 4 for a list
of valid -frametype values. The following example creates a Flow Mirror flow using the learning
capability to mirror traffic from any device ingressing through port 1/20.
Flow Vision automatically deactivates a Flow Mirror flow if any of the following changes to a port
defined as part of the flow occur:
• An ingress or egress port defined in the flow has the port type change to other than an F_Port.
You must manually reactivate the flow.
• A port speed changes to be greater than 8 Gbps. You must manually reactivate the flow.
• Slot power being powered off for ingress or egress ports. Reactivation occurs automatically
when the power is restored.
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Deleting Flow Mirror flows
To delete a Flow Mirror flow, enter flow --delete flowname. You do not need to include
-feature mirror, as you can only delete the entire flow; you cannot delete an individual feature from
a flow. Deleting a flow automatically clears all the flow statistics for that flow. Deleting an active
flow automatically deactivates the flow before it is deleted. The following example deletes the
Flow Mirror flow named “Flow1”.
switch:admin> flow --delete Flow1
Resetting Flow Mirror flow statistics
To clear all the mirrored frames and frame statistics for a Flow Mirror flow, enter
flow --reset flowname -feature mirror. The following example clears the statistics for a Flow Mirror
flow named “Flow1”.
switch:admin> flow --reset Flow1 -feature mirror
Customizing Flow Mirror flows
You can change how mirrored frames are retained in the Flow Mirror buffer when it is full.
To have the Flow Mirror buffer overwrite existing frames in the buffer on a first-in-first-out basis
when full (replacing the oldest frames with newer ones), enter the flow --control -feature mirror
command with the -enable_wrap keyword.
flow --control -feature monitor -enable_wrap
To have the Flow Mirror buffer discard any mirrored frames once the buffer is full, enter the
flow --control -feature mirror command with the -disable_wrap keyword.
flow --control -feature monitor -disable_wrap
These keywords affect only Flow Mirror flows, but they apply to all Flow Mirror flows, so you cannot
specify a flow name. By default, -enable_wrap is active.
All Flow M irror flows mu st be in active to use t his comm and. If any F low Mirro r flow is acti ve whe n you
run this command, the command will fail and an error message will be displayed in the CLI.
To see the current buffer setting, enter flow --show -ctrlcfg (highlighted in red for illustration).
switch:admin> flow --show -ctrlcfg
SimPort Information
-------|------|--------|-------------------------|--------------------|-----------------Slot | Port | PID|PWWN|SID Frame Count | DID Frame Count |
Addressing mode information
Port Addressing Mode : index
Device Addressing Mode: PID
Flow Generator Information
Size: 2048
Pattern: Random (Default)
Flow mirror Information
enable_wrap
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NOTE
4
Troubleshooting using Flow Mirror
The following use cases describe how to use Flow Mirror to troubleshoot typical fabric performance
problems.
Using Flow Mirror to diagnose SCSI reserve and SCSI release
performance
If there is excessive SCSI reserve and release activity in a virtualized environment, you can use
Flow Mirror to identify the affected LUNs.The following example creates a flow to mirror all the SCSI
release frames from multiple servers to LUNs on the target on port 1/20. You can then analyze the
mirrored frames to determine the impacted LUNs.
You can use Flow Mirror to mirror protocol error frames. The following example mirrors only ABTS
frames egressing through port 1/20 to identify the ABTS protocol condition. The Flow Mirror output
provides you with samples of the ABTS frames for detailed analysis.
This can also be set up to mirror frames based on the total ABTS count provided by Flow Monitor.
Using Flow Mirror to diagnose a slow-draining F_Port
The following example creates a flow to mirror traffic passing in both directions from device
0x010200 to F_Port 15 on device 0x040500, and then displays the output. The collected frame
data may help you diagnose the slow-draining device. Figure 11 provides a diagram of what is
happening in this example.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------No of Mirrored Frames : 530, No of RX Mirrored Frames : 530, No of TX Mirrored Frames : 0
The following sections provide additional information about Flow Mirror.
Flow Mirror and High Availability
On High Availability (HA) failover, HA reboot, or a power cycle, Flow Mirror will stop mirroring frames
until the system recovers; at which point it will resume mirroring. This could be as early as when the
hashow command indicates that both Control Processor Units (CPUs) are in sync but it could occur
after HA sync, in which case switchshow output would then indicate the correct switch port status.
All flow statistics are cleared and reset after a failover recovery. Refer to “High Availability and
Flow Vision” on page 7 for more information.
Flow Mirror limitations
The following limitations apply specifically to Flow Mirror:
• Only mirroring to the switch Control Processor Unit is supported in FOS v7.2.0.
• Flow Mirror is supported only on 16 Gbps-capable Fibre Channel platforms.
• Flow Mirror is supported only on F_Ports operating at 8 Gbps or lower speeds.
• Flow Mirror can only mirror Flow Generator flows at the ingress port.
• Only one active Flow Mirror flow is supported per chassis or fixed-port switch.
• If a flow monitor flow defined using -frametype is installed on a ingress port and a matching
flow mirror flow is installed on an egress port, then traffic egressing through the egress port is
not mirrored.
• Flow Mirror is not supported:
-On F_Port trunks
-On SIM-Ports specified as egress ports
-In Access Gateway mode
• Flow Mirror cannot mirror:
-Frames from a remote Control Unit Port (CUP) on the egress port
-Link Control Frames on the egress port
-Domain Controller addresses used as source ID on the egress port
• Only the first 256 frames (for fixed-port switches) or 1024 frames (for chassis-based systems)
are mirrored. If a greater number of frames that match the flow definition within a second are
identified, those later frames are discarded.
Flow Mirror references
4
For example, on a fixed-port switch, if 500 frames meet the flow definition in the first second of
the flow mirror operation, only the first 256 frames are mirrored. In the next second, frame
mirroring will begin with the five-hundred-and-first frame that matches the flow definition.
The intervening frames will not be mirrored, even though they match the flow definition.
Tab le 8 shows the maximum frame rate and mirroring capacity for each platform type.
TABLE 8Flow Mirror frame rates and frame capacity
Platform typeMaximum rate (frames per second) Maximum capacity (frames)
Fixed-port switch 256 1280
Chassis-based systems 2565120
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Index
A
Access Gateways, flow monitoring on, 29
activating