It is pretty straight forward puppan. I'll give you the basics, and if you want more detail you would probably be better off checking in the Brocade Customer Forums.
SAN Health has a component that you download and install to scan your SAN and collect data on all the switches. You have to manually provide connection details for the switches, and you provide some higher level details on the fabrics as well. Basically SAN Health then connects to every switch (using SSH or Telnet) and gathers data directly from the switch. Once it gathers all the data it puts it into a compressed file that you upload to Brocade. Their servers will analyze the data and prepare a package for you which you will be notified when it is available for download.
The finished product includes three files: * A VISIO diagram of your SAN * A spreadsheet analyzing your SAN and providing many details on the configuration * A file for loading into SAN Health Pro (another free download from Brocade) which allows you to dig into the details of your configuration in a different format. If you have paid for a change tracking license you can load two files into SAN Health Pro and it will highlight changes to your environment between the scans.
Does that answer your question, or were you looking for some additional detail on one specific area?
And for the record, I highly suggest you take advantage of SAN Health. It's hard to get the same level of quality report in one place from some other expensive reporting products, let alone a free offering from a vendor. I have been using this to document our various SAN fabrics for a few years now and it is great for both point in time documentation and highlighting potential problems in your SAN.
does this only apply to Brocade switches or can I also let it runst against other brands ? I'd be very interested in using it against Cisco and McData switches. Do you know whether or not the performance measuring you can use on Brocade fabrics also works on Cisco ?
It does run against Brocade, McData (which are really Brocade now anyway), and Cisco switches. I believe the performance stats are only available from the Brocades, but I don't have any Ciscos to try it against. It definately doesn't gather performance data from McData.
I'd say your best bet would be to download it and try it. It's free. The only thing you may have to check in to is your company's security policy. Because we have a special contract with Brocade which covers confidentiality I was able to use this tool. The concern is over the fact that you are sending the data (encrypted and compressed) to Brocade's servers for processing. Some Security offices would likely have a problem with that, but I was convinced that for our purposes it represents a secure environment.
Not great news, but not overly surprising. If they can't even get that from the M series switches I guess it makes sense that they don't put too much effort into gathering from Cisco.
Would you be kind enough to also advie whether the device mapping (device WWPN vs port number) will also be included in the report? or is there a tool, script could produce the device mapping ?
Thanks in advance & looking forward to hear from you
Yes, part of the report is a complete list of what is logged in where in each fabric. It also does some "interpretation" to help identify what is logged in where. It will use things like aliases, port names, and zoning info to try to help you identify what each WWN is.
For a free tool, it is definately worth checking out what it will and won't do for your specific environment.
Allen Ward
2.1K Posts
0
June 22nd, 2009 08:00
SAN Health has a component that you download and install to scan your SAN and collect data on all the switches. You have to manually provide connection details for the switches, and you provide some higher level details on the fabrics as well. Basically SAN Health then connects to every switch (using SSH or Telnet) and gathers data directly from the switch. Once it gathers all the data it puts it into a compressed file that you upload to Brocade. Their servers will analyze the data and prepare a package for you which you will be notified when it is available for download.
The finished product includes three files:
* A VISIO diagram of your SAN
* A spreadsheet analyzing your SAN and providing many details on the configuration
* A file for loading into SAN Health Pro (another free download from Brocade) which allows you to dig into the details of your configuration in a different format. If you have paid for a change tracking license you can load two files into SAN Health Pro and it will highlight changes to your environment between the scans.
Does that answer your question, or were you looking for some additional detail on one specific area?
puppan
36 Posts
0
June 22nd, 2009 09:00
thank you very much, i really appreciate it. i got the clear picture now.
Thanks
puppan
Allen Ward
2.1K Posts
0
June 22nd, 2009 10:00
And for the record, I highly suggest you take advantage of SAN Health. It's hard to get the same level of quality report in one place from some other expensive reporting products, let alone a free offering from a vendor. I have been using this to document our various SAN fabrics for a few years now and it is great for both point in time documentation and highlighting potential problems in your SAN.
RRR
2 Intern
2 Intern
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5.7K Posts
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June 23rd, 2009 04:00
does this only apply to Brocade switches or can I also let it runst against other brands ? I'd be very interested in using it against Cisco and McData switches. Do you know whether or not the performance measuring you can use on Brocade fabrics also works on Cisco ?
Allen Ward
2.1K Posts
0
June 23rd, 2009 06:00
It does run against Brocade, McData (which are really Brocade now anyway), and Cisco switches. I believe the performance stats are only available from the Brocades, but I don't have any Ciscos to try it against. It definately doesn't gather performance data from McData.
I'd say your best bet would be to download it and try it. It's free. The only thing you may have to check in to is your company's security policy. Because we have a special contract with Brocade which covers confidentiality I was able to use this tool. The concern is over the fact that you are sending the data (encrypted and compressed) to Brocade's servers for processing. Some Security offices would likely have a problem with that, but I was convinced that for our purposes it represents a secure environment.
RRR
2 Intern
2 Intern
•
5.7K Posts
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June 23rd, 2009 07:00
RRR
2 Intern
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June 25th, 2009 02:00
Allen Ward
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June 25th, 2009 09:00
RRR
2 Intern
2 Intern
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June 26th, 2009 02:00
h1pan1
18 Posts
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September 12th, 2009 04:00
Would you be kind enough to also advie whether the device mapping (device WWPN vs port number) will also be included in the report? or is there a tool, script could produce the device mapping ?
Thanks in advance & looking forward to hear from you
Henry
Allen Ward
2.1K Posts
0
September 14th, 2009 10:00
Yes, part of the report is a complete list of what is logged in where in each fabric. It also does some "interpretation" to help identify what is logged in where. It will use things like aliases, port names, and zoning info to try to help you identify what each WWN is.
For a free tool, it is definately worth checking out what it will and won't do for your specific environment.