HP StorageWorks 2/64, StorageWorks Fabric OS 5.x Switch Manual

HP StorageWorks

Fabric OS 5.x master glossary

Par t number: AA −RW7NA−TE

irst edition: September 2005

F

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Fabric OS 5.x master glossary

Glossary

This glossary defines terms used in the HP StorageWorks Fabric OS 5.x documentation set or related to
the Fabric OS 5.x product. It is not a comprehensive glossary of computer terms.

8b/10b encoding An encoding scheme that c onverts each 8-bit byte into 10 bits. Used to balance

ABTS Abort Basic Link Service. Also called Abort Sequence

ACC Accept link service reply. The normal reply to an Extended Link Service request

access fairness A process by which contending nodes are guaranteed access to an arbitrated

active copper A Fibre Channel connection that allows copper cabling up to 33 meters (36

address identifier A24-bitor8-bitvalueusedtoidentifythesourceordestinationofaframe.

AL_PA Arbitrated-loop physical address. A unique 8-bit value assigned during loop

AL_TIME Arbitrated-loop timeout value. Twice the amount of time it would take for a

ones and zeroes in high-speed transports.

(such as FLOGI), indicating that the request has been completed.

loop.

yards) between devices.

See also D_ID and S_ID.

initialization to a port in an arbitrated loop.

transmission word to propagate around a worst-case loop. The default value is
15 milliseconds.

alias A logical grouping of elements in a fabric. An alias is a collection of port

numbers and connected devices, used to simplify the entry of port numbers and
WWNs when creating zones.

alias address
identifier

alias AL_PA An AL_PA value recognized by an L_Port in addition to the AL_PA assigned to

alias object A name assigned to one device or group of devices to allow an intuitive name

alias ser ver A fabric software facility that supports multicast group management.

ANSI American National Standards Institute. A private, nonprofitorganizationthat

ARB Arbitrative primitive signal. Applies only to an arbitrated-loop topology.

arbitrated loop A shared 100-Mbps Fibre Channel transport structured as a loop. Can support

An address identifier recognized by a port in addition to its standard identifier.
An alias address identifier can be shared by multiple ports.

See also alias.

the port.

See also AL_PA.

structure for a zone object.

See also zone object.

administers and coordinates voluntary standards in the United States. ANSI
has a number of working committees. The X3T11 committee is principally
responsible for Fibre Channel interface standards.

Transmitted as the fill word by an L_Port to indicate that the port is arbitrating
access to the loop.

up to 126 devices and one fabric attachment.

See also topology.

Fabric OS 5.x master glossary

3

arbitration A method of gaining orderly access to a shared-loop topology.

area number In Fabric OS 4.0 and later, ports on a switch are assigned a logical area

number. These area numbers can be viewed by entering the switchShow
command. They are used to define the operative port for many Fabric OS
commands; for example, area numbers can be used to define the ports within
an alias or zone.

ARP Address Resolution Protocol. A TCP/IP function for associating an IP address

with a link-level address.

ARR Asynchronous response router. A term that refers to Management Server

GS_Subtype Code E4, which appears in portLogDump command output.

ASD Alias server daemon. Used for managing multicast groups by supporting the

create, add, remove, and destroy functions.

ASIC Application-specific integrated circuit. A chip designed for a particular

application, as contrasted with integrated circuits that control general functions,
such as RAM in a PC.

ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode. A transport used for transmitting data over

LANs or WANs that transmit fixed-length units of data. Provides any-to-any
connectivity and allows nodes to transmit s imultaneously.

authentication The process of verifying that an entity in a fabric (such as a switch) is what it

claims to be.

See a lso digital certificate and switch-to-switch authentication.

autocommit A feature of the firmwareDownload command. Enabled by default,

autocommit commits new firmware to both par titions of a control processor.

autoreboot Refers to the -b option of thefirmwareDownload command. Enabled by

default.

AW_TOV Arbitration wait tim eout value. The minimum time an arbitrating L_Port waits

for a response before beginning loop initialization.

backbone fabric An optional capability that enables scalable m eta-SANs by allowing the

networking of multiple Fibre Channel (FC) routers, which connect to the
backbonefabricviaEB_Portinterfaces.

backup FCS Relates to the Secure Fabric OS feature. The backup fabric configuration server

switch serves as a backup in case the primary F CS switch fails.

See also FCS and primary FCS.

BB_Credit Buffer-to-buffer credit. The number of frames that can be transmitted to a directly

connected recipient or within an arbitrated loop. Determined by the number
of receive buffers available.

See also buffer-to-buffer flow control and EE_Credit.

BB fabric A backbone fabric that connects MP Routers. The MP Routers communicate over

the backbone fabric using FCRP (Fibre Channel Router Protocol).

beacon An activity in which all the port LEDs on a switch are set to flash from one side

of the switch to the other, to enable identification of an individual switch in a
largefabric. AswitchcanbesettobeaconbyaCLIcommandorthroughHP
Advanced Web Tools.

beginning running
disparity

The disparity at the transmitter or receiver when the special character associated
with an ordered set is encoded or decoded.

See also disparity and running disparity.

4

Glossary

BER Bit error rate. The rate at which bits are expected to be received in error.

Expressed as the ratio of error bits to total bits transmitted.

See also error.

BISR Built-in self-repair.

BIST Built-in self-test.

bit synchroniza­tion

blind-mate con­nector

The condition in which a receiver is delivering retimed serial data at the
required bit error rate.

A two-way connector used in some HP StorageWorks switches to provide a
connection between the motherboard and the power supply.

block As it applies to Fibre Channel technology, upper-level application data that

is transferred in a single sequence.

boot code Software that initializes the system environment during the early phase of the

boot-up process. For example, boot code might determine the amount of
available memory and how to access it.

boot flash Flash (temporary) memory that stores the boot code.

bport Back-end p

ort of the ASIC.

broadcast The transmission of data from a single source to all devices in the fabric,

regardless of zoning.

See also multicast and unicast.

buffer-to-buffer
flow control

Management of the frame transmission rate in either a point-to-point topology or
in an arbitrated loop.

See also BB_Credit.

bypass circuitry Circuits that automatically remove a device from the data path when valid

signals are dropped.

CA Certificate authority. A trusted organization that issues digital certificates.

See also digital certificate.

CAM Content-addressable memory. A memory chip in which each bit position can be

compared. In regular dynamic RAM (DRAM) and static RAM (SRAM) chips,
the contents are addressed by bit location and then transferred to the CPU for
comparison. In CAM chips, the content is compared in each bit cell, allowing
for very fast table lookups. Since the entire chip is compared, the data content
can often be stored randomly without regard to an addressing scheme, which
would otherwise be required. CAM chips are c onsiderably smaller in storage
capacity than regular memory chips. Also called associative storage.

CAN Campus area network. A network comprising a limited area but not just one

building.

See also LAN, MAN,andWAN.

cascade Two or more interconnected Fibre Channel switches. HP StorageWorks 1 GB

and greater switches can be c ascaded up to 239 switches, with a recommended
maximum of seven interswitch links (no path longer than eight switches).

See also fabric and ISL.

CDR Clock and data recovery circuitry.

CE Conformité Européenne (European Conformity). A conformity m arking for

products that satisfy the essential requirements and safety regulations for the
European Economic Area. It is a mandatory safety marking for the European
market.

CFG See configuration.

Fabric OS 5.x master glossary

5

CFN Change fabric name. An ELS field that appears in portLogDump command

output.

CHAP Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol. Allows remote servers and

clients to securely exchange authentication credentials. Both the server and
client are configured with the same shared secret.

chassis The metal frame in which the switch and switch components are mounted.

CIM Common Information Model. A management structure enabling disparate

resources to be managed by a common application. CIM is implementation
independent, allowing different management applications to collect the required
data from a variety of sources. CIM is divided into a Core Model and Common
Models. The Core Model addresses high-level concepts (such as systems and
devices), as well as fundamental relationships (such as dependencies). The
Common Models describe specific problem domains such as computer system,
network, user or device management. The Common Models are subclasses of
the Core Model and may also be subclasses of each other.

CIMOM Common Information Model Object Manager. A model for describing

management information from the Distributed Mana gement Task Force (DMTF) .

See also CIM.

circuit An established communication path between two ports. Consists of two virtual

circuits capable of transmitting in opposite directions.

Class 1 service The class of frame-switching service for a dedicated connection between

two communicating por ts. Also called connection-oriented service. Includes
acknowledgement of frame delivery or nondelivery.

Class 2 service A connectionless class of frame-switching service that includes acknowledgement

of frame delivery or nondelivery.

Class 3 service A connectionless class of frame-switching service that does not include

acknowledgement of frame delivery or nondelivery. Can be used to provide
a multicast connection between the frame originator and recipients, with
acknowledgement of frame delivery or nondelivery.

Class 4 service A connection-oriented service that allows fractional parts of the bandwidth

to be used in a virtual circuit.

Class 6 service A connection-oriented multicast service geared toward

video b roadcasts

between a central server and clients.

Class F service The class of frame-switching ser vice for a direct connection between two

switches, allowing communication of control traffic between the E_Ports. Includes
acknowledgement of data delivery or nondelivery.

class of service Aspecified set of delivery characteristics and attributes for frame delivery.

CLI Command line interface. An interface that depends entirely on the use of

commands, such as through telnet or SNMP, and does not involve a GUI.

client An entity that, using its com mon transport (CT), makes requests of a server.

CLS Close primitive signal. Used only in an arbitrated loop. Sent by an L_Port that is

currently communicating in the loop, to close communication with a nother L_Port.

CM Central memory. Physical memory that is internal to the computer. Also called

main memory.

CMA Central memory architecture. An architecture centralizing memory usage in

switches.

CMBISR Central memory built-in self-repair.

6

Glossary

CMT Central memory test.

comma A unique pattern (either 1100000 or 0011111) used in 8b

/10b encoding to

specify character alignment within a data stream.

See also K28.5.

community
(SNMP)

A relationship between a group of SNMP managers and an SNMP agent, in
which authentication, access control, and proxy characteristics are defined.

See also SNMP.

compact flash Flash (temporary) memory that is used in a manner similar to hard disk storage.

It is connected to a bridging component that connects to the PCI bus of the
processor. Not visible within the processor’s memory space.

configuration (1) The number, type, and arrangement of components that make up a system

or network.
(2) The set of parameters that guide switch operation. May include general
system parameters, IP ad dress information, domain ID, and other information.
Modifiable by any login with administrative privileges. Use the configShow
command to view the current configuration of a switch.
(3) In HP Zoning, a zoning element that contains a set of zones. The
configuration is the highest-level zoning element and is used to enable or
disableasetofzonesonthefabric.

See also zone configuration.

congestion A condition that occurs when the offered load for a data communication path

exceeds its capacity. For example, a congested link is one on which multiple
devices are contending for bandwidth.

connection initia­tor

connection recip­ient

A port that has originated a Class 1 dedicated connection and received a
response from the recipient.

A port that has received a Class 1 dedicated connection request and transmitted
a response to the originator.

core PID Core switch port identifier.ThecorePIDmustbesetforFabricOS3.1and

earlier switches included in a fabric of Fabric OS 4.1 switches. This parameter
is located in the configure command of Fabric OS 3.1 and earlier firmware.
All Fabric OS 4.1 switches and later use the core PID format by default; this
parameter is not present in the configure command for these switches.

See also PID.

COS See Class of service.

CP Control processor .

CPLD Complex PLD. Also called Enhanced PLD (EPLD, Super PAL, a nd Mega PAL.

See also PLD.

CRC Cyclic redundancy check. A check for transmission errors that is included

in every data frame.

credit As it applies to Fibre Channel technology, the number of receive buffers

available to transmit frames between ports.

See also BB_Credit, EE_Credit.

CSCN Common services connection framework.

cut-through A switching technique that allows the route for a frame to be selected as soon

as the destination add ress is received.

See also route.

DAS Direct attached storage.

Fabric OS 5.x master glossary

7

datagram A Class 3 Fibre Channel service that allows data to be sent quickly to devices

attached to the fabric, without receipt confirmation.

data word A type of transmission word that occurs within frames. The frame header, data

field, and CRC all consist of data words.

See also frame, ordered set,andtransmission word.

DCC Direct cable connection. A type of c onnection that does not require network

interface cards (NICs), making it relatively inexpensive and simple; however, it
provides a limited connection between two PCs, and the data transfer rate is
slower than with a true LAN.

DCE Data Communications Equipment. Usually refers to a modem.

dedicated simplex A connection method that permits a single N_Port to simultaneously initiate a

session with one N_Port as an initiator and have a separate Class 1 connection
to another N_Port as a recipient.

defined zone con-
figuration

The complete set of all zone objects defined in the fabric. Can include multiple
zone configurations.

See also effective zone configuration, enabled zone configuration,andzone

configuration.

deskew Related to the HP Trunking feature. The time difference between traffictraveling

over each ISL other than the shortest ISL in the group and traffictravelingover
that shortest ISL. The deskew number corresponds to nanoseconds divided by

10. The firmware automatically sets the minimum deskew value of the shortest
ISL to 15.

DH-CHAP Diffie-Hellman Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol. An

implementation of CHAP using Diffie-Hellman encryption.

See also CHAP.

DHCP Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. Provides a way to automate and manage

the network con figuration of desktop computers and other n etwork devices
that use the TCP/IP protocol.

DHCPD Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol daemon.

D_ID Destination identifier. A 3-byte field in the frame header, used to indicate the

address identifier of the N_Port to which the frame is headed.

digital certificate An electronic document issued by a CA (certificate authority) to an entity,

containing the public key and identity of the entity. Entities in a secure fabric
are authenticated based on these certificates.

See also authentication, CA,andpublic key.

director The HP StorageWorks Core Switch 2/64, SAN Director 2/128, or 4/256

SAN Director.

disparity The proportion of ones and zeroes in an encoded character. Neutral disparity

means an equal number of each, Positive disparity means a majority of ones,
and Negative disparity means a majority of zeroes.

DLS Dynamic load-sharing. Dynamic distribution of traffic over available paths.

Allows for recomputing of routes when an Fx_Port or E_Port changes status.

DMTF Distributed Management Task Force. An organization that promotes the

development of management standards for enterprise a nd Internet environments.
Its purpose is to allows the exchange of m anagement information in order to
develop multi-vendor interoperability.

8

Glossary

domain controller An embedd ed port that communicates with and gets updates from the

embedded p orts on other switches. The well-known address is fffcdd,where

dd = domain number).
See well-known address.

domain I D A unique identifier for each switch in a fabric. It is used in routing frames.

Usually assigned by the principal switch but can be assigned manually. The
domain ID for an HP StorageWorks switch can be any integer from 1 through

239.

DTE Data terminal equipment. A sing le piece of equipment or an interconnected

subsystem of multiple pieces of equipment that perform all the required functions
necessary to permit users to communicate. It usually refers to a terminal.

DWDM Dense wave division multiplexing. A set of technologies that allows up to 80

separate channels of data to be carried over a single fibre optical cable using
different wavelengths for each channel.

See WDM.

ECCN Export classification control number. A government classification of encryption

schemes. For example, SSH is in the high-encryption category (number 5x02),
and therefore, has certain restrictions regarding transfer of encrypted data.

edge fabric A Fibre Channel fabric connected to an M P Router via an EX_Port (where hosts

and storage are a ttached in a meta-SAN).

edge switch (1) A network switch used to convert LAN frames (Ethernet, and so forth) to

asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) cells and vice versa. It is typically a device
with one ATM port and multiple LAN ports.
(2) A Fibre Channel switch used to provide user ports for servers and storage.

E_D_TOV Error-detect timeout value. The minimum time a target waits for a sequence to

complete before initiating recovery. Can also be defined as the maximum time
allowed for a round-trip transmission before an error is declared.

See also R_A_TOV,andRR_TOV.

EE_Credit End-to-end credit. The number of receive buffers allocated by a recipient port

to an originating port. Used by the Class 1 and 2 services to manage frame
exchange a cross the fabric, between source a nd destination.

See also BB_Credit,andend-to-end flow control.

effectivezonecon­figuration

Asubsetofthedefined zone configuration, containing only the zone
configuration object that is currently enabled. Only one configuration can be
enabled at a time, but since multiple configurations can be defined in the
database, a new configuration can be easily enabled.

See also defined zone configuration,andzone configuration.

EIA rack A storage rack that meets the standards set by the Electronics Industry

Association (EIA).

ELP Exchange link parameters. Used as a fabric login to exchange service

parameters with another E_Port; it also helps to establish a multi-functional por t’s
operational mode.

ELS Extended link service. ELSs are sent to the destination N_Port to perform a

requested function or service. A Fibre Channel standard, which is also called
Fibre Channel Physical (FC_PH) ELS.

EM Environmental monitor. A device that monitors FRUs and reports failures.

embedded port A domain controller that communicates with and gets updates from the

embedded p orts on other switches. The well-known address is fffcdd,where
dd = domain number.

Fabric OS 5.x master glossary

9

EMI Electromagnetic interference. Any electromagnetic disturbance that interrupts,

obstructs, or otherwise degrades or limits the effective performance of
electronics/electrical equipment.

Emulex A brand of host bus adapter (HBA).

enabled zone con ­figuration

The currently enabled configuration of zones. Only one configuration can be
enabled at a time, but since multiple configurations can be defined in the
database, a new config uration can be easily enabled.

See also defined zone configuration and zone configuration.

end-to-end flow
control

Aprocessthatgovernsflow of Class 1 and 2 frames between N_Ports.

See also EE_Credit.

entry fabric The basic HP software license that allows one E_Port per switch.

EOF Endofframe.Agroupoforderedse

ts used to mark the end of a frame.

E_Port Expansion port. A type of switch port that can be connected to an E_Port on

anotherswitchtocreateanISL.

See also ISL and isolated E_Port.

EPPID Dynamic identifier for the chassis in which a port ca rd resides. The identifier is

written to the card each time the card is inserted into a chassis.

error As it applies to the Fibre Channel industry, a missing or corrupted frame,

timeout, loss of synchronization, or loss of signal (link error).

See also loop failure.

ESCON Enterprise Systems CONnection. An IBM S/390 fiber-optic channel that

transfers 17 M bps over distances up to 60 km depending on connection type.
ESCON allows peripheral devices to be located across large campuses and
metropolitan areas.

See FICON

Ethernet The most widely used LAN access method, d efined by the Institute of Electrical

and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) as the 802.3 standard.

EVMd Event management database. D elivers FDMI-related events.

exchange The highest-level Fibre Channel mechanism used for communication between

N_Ports. Composed of one or more related sequences, it can work in either
one or both directions.

EX_Port A type of E_Port that connects an MP Router to an e dg e fabric. EX_Ports limit

thescopeoffabricservicesscopebutprovidedeviceconnectivityusingFC-NAT.

exported device A device that has been mapped between fabrics. A host or storage port in one

edge fabric can be exported to any other fabric by using LSAN zoning.

fabric A collection of Fibre Channel switches and devices, such as hosts and storage.

Also called switched fabric.
See also cascade, SAN,andtopology.

fabric application
platform

A device that enables fabric-based storage applications such as mirroring, data
migration, snapshots, and virtual tape. The HP StorageWorks Fabric Application
Platform can run in a central location, process data at wire speed, and reside
in existing data paths.

Fabric Manager Optionally licensed HP StorageWorks software. Fabric Manager is a GUI

that allows for fabric-wide administration and management. Switches can be
treated as groups, and actions such as firmware downloads can be performed
simultaneously.

10

Glossary