2Brocade Adapters Administrator’s Guide
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HCM software
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HCM software
The Host Connectivity Manager (HCM) is a management software application for configuring,
monitoring, and troubleshooting Brocade HBAs, converged network adapters (CNAs) and FC
mezzanine cards in a storage area network (SAN) environment.
The management software has two components:
•The agent, which runs on the host.
•The management console, which is the graphical user interface client used to manage the
adapter.
The information in this guide is intended for OEMs, field service personnel, and customers who are
installing Brocade hardware and HCM software. HCM can be installed in standalone and HP
servers. For instructions about how to install the HCM software, refer to the Brocade Adapters
Installation and Reference Manual.
You can manage the software on the host or remotely from another host. The communication
between the management console and the agent is managed using JSON-RPC over HTTPS.
NOTE
All HCM, utility, SMI-S Provider, boot software, and driver installation packages, as well as the Driver
Update Disk (DUD), are described in the Brocade Adapters Installation and Reference Manual.
HCM features
Common HBA management software features include the following:
•Discovery using the agent software running on the servers attached to the SAN, which enables
you to contact the devices in your SAN.
•Configuration management , which enables you to configure local and remote systems. With
HCM you can configure the following items:
-Brocade 4 Gbps and 8 Gbps HBAs
-HBA ports (including logical ports, base ports, remote ports, and virtual ports) associ ated
with the local host
•Diagnostics, which enables you to test the adapters and the devices to which they are
connected:
-Link status of each adapter and its attached devices
-Loopback test, which is external to the adapter, to eval uate the ports (t ransmit and receive
transceivers) and the error rate on the adapter
-Read/write buffer test , which tests the link between the adapter and its devices
-FC protocol tests, including echo, ping, and traceroute
•Monitoring, which provides statistics for the SAN components.
•Security, which enables you to specify a CHAP secret and configure authentication parameters.
•Event notifications, which provide asynchronous notification of various conditions and
problems through a user-defined event filter.