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Cisco MDS 9000 Family Fabric Manager Configuration Guide
OL-6965-03, Cisco MDS SAN-OS Release 2.x
Chapter 1 Installation and Configuration
Cisco MDS 9000 Switch Management
Storage Management Solutions Architecture
Management services required for the storage environment can be divided into five layers, with the
bottom layer being closest to the physical storage network equipment, and the top layer managing the
interface between applications and storage resources.
Of these five layers of storage network management, Cisco Fabric Manager provides tools for device
(element) management and fabric management. In general, the Device Manager is most useful for device
management (a single switch), while Fabric Manager is more efficient for performing fabric
management operations involving multiple switches.
Tools for upper-layer management tasks can be provided by Cisco or by third-party storage and network
management applications. The following summarizes the goals and function of each layer of storage
network management:
SNMPv1, v2c, and v3 Includes over 80 distinct Management
Information Bases (MIBs). Cisco MDS 9000
Family switches support SNMP version 1, 2, and
3 and RMON V1 and V2. RMON provides
advanced alarm and event management, including
setting thresholds and sending notifications based
on changes in device or network behavior.
By default, the Cisco Fabric Manager
communicates with Cisco MDS 9000 Family
switches using SNMPv3, which provides secure
authentication using encrypted user names and
passwords. SNMPv3 also provides the option to
encrypt all management traffic.
HTTP/HTTPS Includes HTTP and HTTPS for web browsers to
communicate with Fabric Manager Web Services
and for the distribution and installation of the
Cisco Fabric Manager software. It is not used for
communication between the Cisco Fabric
Manager server and Cisco MDS 9000 Family
switches.
XML/CIM over HTTP/HTTPS Includes CIM server support for designing storage
area network management applications to run on
Cisco SAN-OS.
ANSI T11 FC-GS-3 Provides Fibre Channel-Generic Services
(FC-GS-3) in the defining management servers in
the Fabric Configuration Server (FCS). Fabric
Manager uses the information provided by FCS on
top of the information contained in the Name
Server database and in the Fibre Channel Shortest
Path First (FSPF) topology database to build a
detailed topology view and collect information for
all the devices building the fabric.
Table 1-1 Supported Management Protocols (continued)
Management Protocol Purpose