HP Surestore 64 - Director Switch Planning Manual page 96

– Unresponsive switch
Each director in a fabric periodically verifies operation of all attached directors. An
ISL E_Port segments if the attached director does not respond to a verification
request.
– ELP retransmission failure timeout
A director that exhibits a hardware failure or connectivity problem cannot transmit
or receive Class F frames. The director did not receive a response to multiple
exchange link protocol (ELP) frames, did not receive a fabric login (FLOGI) frame,
and cannot join an operational fabric.
•
Fabric services and state change notifications
In a multiswitch fabric, director-provided services such as name service, RSCNs, and
zoning are provided on a fabric-wide basis. For example, if a fabric-attached device
queries a director name server to locate all devices that support a specified protocol,
the reply includes all fabric devices that support the protocol that are in the same zone
as the requesting device, not just devices attached to the director.
RSCNs are transmitted to all registered device N_Ports attached to the fabric if either
of the following occur:
– A fabric-wide event occurs, such as a director logging in to the fabric, a director
logging out of the fabric, or a reconfiguration because of a director or ISL failure.
– A zoning configuration changes.
•
Zoning configurations for joined fabrics
In a multiswitch fabric, zoning is configured on a fabric-wide basis, and any change to
the active zone set is applied to all directors. To ensure zoning is consistent across a
fabric, the following rules are enforced when two director fabrics (zoned or unzoned)
join through an ISL.
– Fabric A unzoned and Fabric B unzoned
The fabrics join successfully, and the resulting fabric remains unzoned.
82 Multiswitch Fabric Support