Most Common Problem Areas; Questions For Common Symptoms - Brocade Communications Systems A7533A - Brocade 4Gb SAN Switch Base Troubleshooting Manual

1

Most common problem areas

Most common problem areas
Table 1
use to resolve them.
TABLE 1
Problem area
Fabric
Storage Devices
Hosts
Storage Management
Applications

Questions for common symptoms

You first need to determine what the problem is. Some symptoms are obvious, such as the switch
rebooted without any user intervention, or more obscure, such as your storage is having
intermittent connectivity to a particular host. Whatever the symptom is, you will need to gather
information from the devices that are directly involved in the symptom.
Table 2
connectivity problem has lots of variables to look into, such as the type of connection between the
two devices, how the connection is behaving, and the port type involved.
2
identifies the most common problem areas that arise within SANs and identifies tools to
Common troubleshooting problems and tools
Investigate
•
Missing devices
•
Marginal links (unstable connections)
•
Incorrect zoning configurations
•
Incorrect switch configurations
•
Physical issues between switch and
devices
•
Incorrect storage software
configurations
•
Downlevel HBA firmware
•
Incorrect device driver installation
•
Incorrect device driver configuration
•
Incorrect installation and
configuration of the storage devices
that the software references.
For example, if using a
volume-management application,
check for:
•
Incorrect volume installation
•
Incorrect volume configuration
lists common symptoms and possible areas to check. You may notice that an intermittent
Tools
•
Switch LEDs
•
Switch commands (for example,
switchShow or nsAllShow) for
diagnostics
•
Web or GUI-based monitoring and
management software tools
•
Device LEDs
•
Storage diagnostic tools
•
Switch commands (for example,
switchShow or nsAllShow) for
diagnostics
•
Host operating system diagnostic
tools
•
Device driver diagnostic tools
•
Switch commands (for example,
switchShow or nsAllShow) for
diagnostics
Also, make sure you use the latest HBA
firmware recommended by the switch
supplier or on the HBA supplier's web site
•
Application-specific tools and
resources
Fabric OS Troubleshooting and Diagnostics Guide
53-1001187-01