Cisco Systems SFS 7012 manual InfiniBand General Services Managers and Agents

Chapter

An SMA also runs on every InfiniBand-capable server that is equipped with an HCA. As shown in Figure 1-3the Subnet Manager interacts with these SMAs to discover information about the nodes on the fabric.

Figure 1-3 InfiniBand Managers and Agents

Subnet Manager

Subnet

Management

Agent

SFS 7012

Subnet

Management

Agent

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Capable Server

Subnet

Management

Agent

InfiniBand

Capable Server

Subnet

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Agent

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The Subnet Manager utilizes the agent information to discover and manage connections from the SFS 7012 to the InfiniBand fabric. The Subnet Manager maintains a database tracking subnet topology information as a result of its interaction with the SMAs.

InfiniBand General Services Managers and Agents

The InfiniBand specification defines the InfiniBand General Services Managers and their associated agents. General Services Managers exchange messages with agents to manage and monitor the performance and the physical environment of devices on the network.

Once the InfiniBand network is up and running, the InfiniBand General Services Managers begin to interface with General Services Agents. The General Services Managers and Agents include:

•Subnet Administration (SA)

SA provides InfiniBand fabric nodes with an interface to the Subnet Manager. This interface is used by the nodes on the fabric to interact with the Master Subnet Manager and to discover information about the fabric. Every InfiniBand fabric subnet requires a SA.

•The Device Manager (DM) and Device Management Agent (DMA)

The DM and DMA discover and manage the association between hosts and devices behind the Target Channel Adapters.

•The Communications Manager (CM)

The CM establishes and manages communication channels between nodes.

•The Baseboard Manager (BM) and Baseboard Management Agent (BMA)

The BM and BMA exchange messages relating to items such as temperature monitoring and hardware control to manage hardware on the fabric.

•The Performance Manager (PM) and Performance Management Agent (PMA)

Cisco SFS 7012 InfiniBand Server Switch Hardware Users Guide

6 OL-8787-04