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35-3
Cisco MDS 9000 Family Fabric Manager Configuration Guide
OL-6965-03, Cisco MDS SAN-OS Release 2.x
Chapter 35 Troubleshooting Your Fabric
Analyzing Switch Device Health
Fibre Channel traffic can be analyzed on a per VSAN basis with the Cisco Traffic Analyzer. The Domain
Traffic Distribution graphs indicate how much traffic (bytes) were transmitted or received by a switch
for a particular VSAN. FC Traffic Matrix graphs show how much traffic is transmitted and received
between Fibre Channel sources and destinations. The total byte and frame counts for each VSAN are
also provided.
Statistics can be analyzed for individual host and storage ports. You can see the percentage of SCSI read
vs. write traffic, SCSI vs. other traffic, and percentage of transmitted vs. received bytes and frames. The
peak and average throughput values are available for data transmitted and received by each port.

Cisco Protocol Analyzer

The Cisco Protocol Analyzer for Fibre Channel enables you to view Fibre Channel traffic frames in
real-time or from a capture file. Fibre Channel and SCSI decoders enable you to view and analyze traffic
at the frame level. It matches response with request for complete decoding, which greatly simplifies
navigation. Response time between response and status are presented.
The Cisco Protocol Analyzer is VSAN aware, so VSANs can be used as criteria for capture and display
filters, and to colorize the display. VSAN #s can also be displayed in a column. Summary statistics are
available for protocol distribution percentages and total bytes/frames transferred between specific Fibre
Channel source/destination pairs. File capture and filtering controls are available. Captured files can be
analyzed by either the Cisco Protocol Analyzer or the Cisco Traffic Analyzer.
Numerous features have been included for ease-of-use. You can find frames that meet particular criteria
and mark them. Entries in the frame (packet) list can be colorized to highlight items of interest, and
columns can be added/removed as desired.
The protocol analysis functions are provided by ‘Ethereal’ open-source software, which was enhanced
by Cisco to decode Fibre Channel and SCSI protocols and support MDS enhanced inter-switch link (ISL)
headers for SPAN. Ethereal is available on the Cisco.com software download center, under the Cisco Port
Analyzer Adapter. Ethereal is also available on the Internet at http://www.ethereal.com. Ethereal runs
under Microsoft Windows, Solaris, and Linux operating systems.

Analyzing Switch Device Health

The Switch Health option lets you determine the status of the components of a specific switch.
To use the Switch Health option, follow these steps:
Step 1 Select Switch Health from the Fabric Manager Tools menu.
You see the Switch Health Analysis window.
Step 2 Click Start to identify any problems that may currently be affecting the selected switch.
You see any problems affecting the selected switches.
Step 3 Click Clear to remove the contents of the Switch Health Analysis window.
Step 4 Click Close to close the window.