Cisco MDS 9000 Family Troubleshooting Guide, Release 2.x
Troubleshooting Fabric Manager Problems
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Table Of Contents

Troubleshooting Fabric Manager Problems

Tips for Troubleshooting Fabric Manager Problems

Symptom: The Map Shows Two Switches Where Only One Switch Exists

Symptom: Red Line Through the Switch

Symptom: Dotted Orange Line Through the Switch

Tips for Using Fabric Manager

Setting the Map Layout So It Stays After Restarting the Fabric Manager

Fabric Manager Upgrade Without Losing Map Settings

Restrictions When Using Fabric Manager Across FCIP

Running Cisco Fabric Manager with Network Multiple Interfaces

Specifying an Interface for Fabric Manager Server

Specifying an Interface for Performance Manager

Specifying an Interface for Fabric Manager Client or Device Manager

Configuring a Proxy Server

Clearing Topology Maps

Using Fabric Manager in a Mixed Software Environment


Troubleshooting Fabric Manager Problems

This chapter contains some common issues you may experience while using Cisco Fabric Manager, and provides solutions.

This chapter contains the following sections:

•Tips for Troubleshooting Fabric Manager Problems

•Tips for Using Fabric Manager

Tips for Troubleshooting Fabric Manager Problems

This section covers the following topics:

•Symptom: The Map Shows Two Switches Where Only One Switch Exists

•Symptom: Red Line Through the Switch

•Symptom: Dotted Orange Line Through the Switch

Note Do not use one-time passwords with Fabric Manager or Device Manager.

Symptom: The Map Shows Two Switches Where Only One Switch Exists

If two switches show on your map, but you only have one switch, it may be that you have two switches in a non-contiguous VSAN with the same domain ID. The Fabric Manager uses the VSAN ID and domain ID to look up a switch, and this can cause the fabric discovery to assign links incorrectly between these errant switches.

The workaround is to verify that all switches use unique domain IDs within the same VSAN in a physically connected fabric. (The fabric configuration checker will do this task.)

Symptom: Red Line Through the Switch

If a red line shows through your switch, this means the Fabric Manger sees something wrong with the switch. Check the Switch->Inventory report. A module, fan, or power supply has failed or is offline and plugged in.

Symptom: Dotted Orange Line Through the Switch

If a dotted orange line shows through your switch, this indicates a minor status warning for that switch. Usually it means an issue with one of the modules. The tooltip should display exactly what is wrong. Hold the mouse over the switch to see the tooltip.

Tips for Using Fabric Manager

This section covers the following topics:

•Setting the Map Layout So It Stays After Restarting the Fabric Manager

•Fabric Manager Upgrade Without Losing Map Settings

•Restrictions When Using Fabric Manager Across FCIP

•Running Cisco Fabric Manager with Network Multiple Interfaces

•Configuring a Proxy Server

•Clearing Topology Maps

•Using Fabric Manager in a Mixed Software Environment

Setting the Map Layout So It Stays After Restarting the Fabric Manager

If you have configured the map layout and would like to "freeze" the map so that the objects stay as they are even after you stop Fabric Manager and restart it again, do the following:

Step 1 Right-click on a blank space in the map. You see a pop-up menu.

Step 2 Select Layout -> Fix All Nodes from the menu.

Fabric Manager Upgrade Without Losing Map Settings

When you upgrade from one version of Fabric Manager to another, there is a way to prevent the loss of map settings (enclosure names, placement on the map, etc.)

The $HOME/.cisco_mds9000/db directory contains all the discovered fabrics (*.dat) and maps (*.map). These are upgradable between releases 1.1 and 1.2. If you need to clear the fabric cache, you should first export the enclosures to a file to avoid losing them. Everything else aside from enclosures and map coordinates are stored on the switch. The preferences, last opened, and site_ouis.txt format does not change from release to release.

Restrictions When Using Fabric Manager Across FCIP

Fabric Manager will work without any restrictions across an FCIP tunnel as long as the tunnel is up. However, Fabric Manager cannot automatically discover a Cisco SN5428 mgmt 0 IP address in the fabric. For that switch, it will display a red slash through an FCIP device because of a timeout error. It will still see all targets, initiators, and ISLs attached to a Cisco SN5428 (or any other switch) as long as they appear in the name server or FSPF.

To work around this, you can manually enter the IP address in the Switches table, and click Apply. If the community string is correct, the red slash will go away. Even if the community string is incorrect, double-clicking on the Cisco SN5428 will launch the web tool.

Running Cisco Fabric Manager with Network Multiple Interfaces

If your PC has multiple network interfaces (NICs), the four Cisco Fabric Manager applications detect these interfaces automatically (ignoring loopback interfaces). Fabric Manager client and Device Manager detect all interfaces on your PC each time you launch them, and allow you to select one. Fabric Manager Server and Performance Manager detect on initial install, and allows you to select one. You are not prompted again to choose an interface with these two applications.

There may be circumstances where you will want to change the interface you are using. For example:

•If you add an interface after you have installed Fabric Manager Server and/or Performance Manager

•If you decide to use a different interface than the one you initially selected

•If for any reason one of the Cisco Fabric Manager applications did not detect multiple interfaces

See the following sections, depending on which application you want to recognize the interface.

•Specifying an Interface for Fabric Manager Server

•Specifying an Interface for Fabric Manager Client or Device Manager

•Specifying an Interface for Performance Manager

Specifying an Interface for Fabric Manager Server

To specify an interface for Fabric Manager Server, perform the following steps:

Step 1 Go to the .cisco_mds9000 folder.

Step 2 Edit the server.properties file with a text editor.

Step 3 Scroll until you find the line snmp.localaddress.

Step 4 If the line is commented, remove the comment character.

Step 5 Set this value to the IP address or interface name of the NIC you want to use.

Step 6 Save the file.

Step 7 Stop and restart Fabric Manager Server.

Specifying an Interface for Performance Manager

To specify an interface for Performance Manager, perform the following steps:

Step 1 Go to the .cisco_mds9000 folder.

Step 2 Edit the PMCollector.conf file with a text editor.

Step 3 Scroll until you find the line wrapper.java.additional.2=-Dmds.nmsAddress=.

Step 4 If the line is commented, remove the comment character.

Step 5 Set this value to the IP address or interface name of the NIC you want to use.

Step 6 Save the file.

Step 7 Stop and restart Performance Server.

Specifying an Interface for Fabric Manager Client or Device Manager

To specify an interface for the Fabric Manager Client or Device Manager, perform the following steps:

Step 1 Go to the .cisco_mds9000/bin folder.

Step 2 Edit the DeviceManager.bat file or the FabricManager.bat file.

Step 3 Scroll to the line that begins with set JVMARGS=.

Step 4 Add the parameter -Dmds.nmsaddress=ADDRESS, where ADDRESS is the IP address or interface name of the NIC you want to use.

Step 5 Save the file and relaunch Fabric Manager Client or Device Manager.

Configuring a Proxy Server

If your network uses a proxy server for HTTP requests, make sure the Java Web Start Application Manager is properly configured with the IP address of your proxy server.

To configure a proxy server in the Java Web Start Application Manager, follow these steps:

Step 1 Double-click the Java Web Start application manager icon on your Windows desktop, or choose Program Files > Java Web Start.

Step 2 Select File > Preferences from the Java WebStart Application Manager.

Step 3 Click the Manual radio button and enter the IP address of the proxy server in the HTTP Proxy field.

Step 4 Enter the HTTP port number used by your proxy service in the HTTP Port field.

Step 5 Click OK.

Clearing Topology Maps

If you have a switch that you have removed from the fabric, there will be a red X through the switch's icon. You can clear this information from the Fabric Manager client, or from the Fabric Manager server (which will clear the information for all clients) without having to reboot the switch.

To clear information from topology maps, follow these steps:

Step 1 In the Map pane, click on the Refresh Map icon.

This clears the information from the client.

Step 2 From the Server menu, click Purge.

This clears the information from the server.

Note Any devices not currently accessible (may be offline) will be purged.

Using Fabric Manager in a Mixed Software Environment

You can use Fabric Manager version 2.x to manage a mixed fabric of Cisco MDS 9000 Family switches. Certain 2.x feature tabs will be disabled for any switches running a software version that does not support those features.