The Management Server; Benefits - HP StorageWorks MSA 2/8 - SAN Switch User Manual

The SAN Management Application

The Management Server

This chapter provides information on working with the Management Server (MS)
platform database.
The Fabric Operating System (Fabric OS) includes a Distributed Management
Server. The Management Server allows a Storage Area Network (SAN)
management application to retrieve information and administer the fabric and
interconnected elements, such as switches, servers, and storage devices. The MS
is located at the Fibre Channel well-known address, FFFFFAh.
The implementation of the Management Server (MS) provides two management
services:
The services provided by the MS assist in the auto-discovery of switch-based
fabrics and their associated topology. A client of the MS can determine basic
information regarding the switches that comprise the fabric and use this
information to construct topology relationships. In addition, the basic
configuration services provided by the management server allow certain attributes
associated with switches to be obtained and in some cases, modified. For example,
logical names identifying switches may be registered with the Management
Server.

Benefits

The MS allows for the discovery of the physical and logical topology that
comprises a Fibre Channel SAN. The MS provides serveral advantages for
managing a Fibre Channel fabric:
Because the MS is accessed via its well-known address, an application can access
the entire fabric management information with minimal knowledge of the existing
configuration. The fabric topology view exposes the internal configuration of a
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Fabric Configuration Service - Provides basic configuration management for
topology information (referred to as Topology Discovery). This service can be
in the switch or an Nx_Port connected to the fabric.
Unzoned Name Server access - Provides a management view of the Name
Server information for all devices in a fabric, regardless of the active zone set.
It is accessed by an external Fibre Channel node at the well-known address
xFFFFFA.
It is replicated on every SilkWorm switch within a fabric (for Fabric OS v2.3
and later).
It provides an unzoned view of the overall fabric configuration.
Fabric OS Procedures Version 3.1.x/4.1.x User Guide