Fabric Issues; Contacting Customer Support; Using Host Diagnostic Tools - Cisco MDS 9000 Series Troubleshooting Manual

Chapter 1 Troubleshooting Overview
S e n d c o m m e n t s t o m d s f e e d b a c k - d o c @ c i s c o . c o m .
You can use the HBA configuration utilities or the host system logs to determine if the subsystem
PWWN or FCID is listed as a device. This can validate that FSPF is working correctly.

Fabric Issues

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Contacting Customer Support

If you are unable to solve a problem after using the troubleshooting suggestions in this guide, contact a
customer service representative for assistance and further instructions. Before you call, have the
following information ready to help your service provider assist you as quickly as possible:
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After you have collected this information, refer to

Using Host Diagnostic Tools

Most host systems provide utilities or other tools that you can use for troubleshooting the connection to
the allocated storage. For example, on a Windows system, you can use the Diskmon or Disk Management
tool to verify accessibility of the storage and to perform some basic monitoring and administrative tasks
on the visible volumes.
Alternatively, you can use Iometer, an I/O subsystem measurement and characterization tool, to generate
a simulated load and measure performance. Iometer is a public domain software utility for Windows,
originally written by Intel, that provides correlation functionality to assist with performance analysis.
Iometer measures the end-to-end performance of a SAN without cache hits. This can be an important
measurement because if write or read requests go to the cache on the controller (a cache hit) rather than
to the disk subsystems, performance metrics will be artificially high. You can obtain Iometer from
SourceForge.net at the following URL:
OL-5183-02, Cisco MDS SAN-OS Release 1.3
Are both the host bus adapter (HBA) and the subsystem port successfully registered with the fabric
name server?
Does the correct PWWN for the Server HBA and the storage subsystem port show up on the correct
port in the FLOGI database? In other words, is the device plugged into the correct port?
Does any single zone contain both devices? The zone members can be WWNs, FCIDs.
Is the zone correctly configured and part of the active configuration or zoneset within the same
VSAN?
Do the ISLs show any VSAN isolation?
Do the host and storage belong to the same VSAN?
Are any parameters, such as FSPF, Static Domain Assignment, VSAN or Zoning, mismatched in the
configuration of the different switches in the fabric?
Date you received the switch
Chassis serial number (located on a label on the right of the rear panel of the chassis)
Type of software and release number
Maintenance agreement or warranty information
Brief description of the problem
Brief explanation of the steps you have already taken to isolate and resolve the problem
Contacting Customer Support
Obtaining Technical Assistance
Cisco MDS 9000 Family Troubleshooting Guide
in the Preface.
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