EMC SAN Question...
 

We have a few CX400s and EMC Fibre Switches at a datacenter. My boss is in
charge of the SAN configuration and he really does a poor job of it. I'm
looking to give him some help, but he doesn't really let anyone else touch
the SAN except himself (which is hilarious, believe me).

What I want to know is: what operating system does the SAN/Fibre Switches
run? I glanced over his shoulder and watched it boot once and it looked
like Linux. Is it Linux or is it some proprietary OS?

I'm hoping it's Linux as it would open the door to a ton of possibilities.

Thanks guys.


Michael

Michael,
It depends on which EMC switch. They are OEM'd from either Brocade or
McData.
If you'll post the EMC model #, I'll send you back which switch is
underneath ( and tell my secret decoding cipher) - actually, you
could do it yourself.
if the model number has a B in it, it's a brocade. ex: DS-16B
if the model number has a(n) m in it, it's a mcdata. DS-24M

Regardless of the model, neither of them run linux.

good luck.
Flogi.




"Michael" wrote in message ...
We have a few CX400s and EMC Fibre Switches at a datacenter. My boss is in
charge of the SAN configuration and he really does a poor job of it. I'm
looking to give him some help, but he doesn't really let anyone else touch
the SAN except himself (which is hilarious, believe me).

What I want to know is: what operating system does the SAN/Fibre Switches
run? I glanced over his shoulder and watched it boot once and it looked
like Linux. Is it Linux or is it some proprietary OS?

I'm hoping it's Linux as it would open the door to a ton of possibilities.

Thanks guys.


Michael

Hello Michael,

No it's not Linux *spit* ;-) More likely a derivative of a RTOS like
vxWorks or something (I did know what was used once, but my brain only
holds so much information and old stuff drops out over time :-)

Your boss might just be restricting access to stop "accidents", if
you've any critical systems/applications on your SAN then I wouldn't
go playing with it ... see if you can get a test rig to mess about on,
or bug your boss for training (point out that it's always a good idea
to have a couple of staff members skilled up in case of emergencies).

May I ask what it is you think you're boss is doing poorly ?

Regards

Mark



"Michael" wrote in message ...
We have a few CX400s and EMC Fibre Switches at a datacenter. My boss is in
charge of the SAN configuration and he really does a poor job of it. I'm
looking to give him some help, but he doesn't really let anyone else touch
the SAN except himself (which is hilarious, believe me).

What I want to know is: what operating system does the SAN/Fibre Switches
run? I glanced over his shoulder and watched it boot once and it looked
like Linux. Is it Linux or is it some proprietary OS?

I'm hoping it's Linux as it would open the door to a ton of possibilities.

Thanks guys.


Michael

"Mark Smith" wrote in message
om...
Hello Michael,

No it's not Linux *spit* ;-) More likely a derivative of a RTOS like
vxWorks or something (I did know what was used once, but my brain only
holds so much information and old stuff drops out over time :-)

Darn.... If it were some sort of *nix derivative, then you could do all
sorts of umm....creative stuff with it. ;-)

Your boss might just be restricting access to stop "accidents", if
you've any critical systems/applications on your SAN then I wouldn't
go playing with it ... see if you can get a test rig to mess about on,
or bug your boss for training (point out that it's always a good idea
to have a couple of staff members skilled up in case of emergencies).

Eh, the boss *is* the accident. ;-)

May I ask what it is you think you're boss is doing poorly ?

Well, it's stuff like this...each server on the SAN has two fibre cards (one
to each fibre switch: primary and secondary). We had to do a firmware
upgrade and he managed to take the entire service down, even though we were
doing one switch at a time. We also swapped out the secondary switch once
and he somehow messed up the zoning such that all the database drives were
dropped (once again, bringing down the service). The guy types with his
thumbs so I had to go in and redo the zoning all myself (since I type oh, I
don't know...8 million times faster than he does).

The thing is....I'm quite certain that the constant problems we have aren't
typical of most SAN users and it just seemed to me that there had to be a
better option to configure the SAN without having to use this stupid, slow
Java GUI. So yeah, I was hoping it'd be a Linux derivative so I could do
something like this:

1) Prepare for a switch swap/upgrade/whatever by recreating the
configuration files beforehand
2) Mount the new switch with the new config files
3) Schedule to work, then swap the cables into the new switch ports

The downtime of the primary or secondary side would only be the time it took
to swap the ports and re-establish the paths. Of course, these things don't
run a *nix OS so I guess it doesn't work that way....or can it?


Michael

[snip]

Your boss might just be restricting access to stop "accidents", if
you've any critical systems/applications on your SAN then I wouldn't
go playing with it ... see if you can get a test rig to mess about on,
or bug your boss for training (point out that it's always a good idea
to have a couple of staff members skilled up in case of emergencies).

Eh, the boss *is* the accident. ;-)



Your problems are much greater than the SAN going up and down.

Sooner or later a boss like this is going to put you in a very precarious
spot and you're not going to be able to get out of it -- regardless of your
technical skill. Never underestimate the treachery of office politics. I
wouldn't spend one nanosecond in a position where I had to consider ways to
circumvent my boss. Nothing good can come of that sort of environment.

I saw quoted somewhere that "there are seldom good technical solutions to
behavioral problems." True.

--T




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"Michael" wrote in
:

"Mark Smith" wrote in message
om...
Hello Michael,

No it's not Linux *spit* ;-) More likely a derivative of a RTOS like
vxWorks or something (I did know what was used once, but my brain
only holds so much information and old stuff drops out over time :-)

Wrong. FabricOS 1.x, 2.x and 3.x are based on vxworks, but the 4.x series
(for the silkworm 12k and 3900's) is a realtime linux. It works really
well, too.

Darn.... If it were some sort of *nix derivative, then you could do
all sorts of umm....creative stuff with it. ;-)

No. Although there is a root account that gives you a real shell, it is not
available to regular users and if you change anything with it, you forfeit
the right to support.

Don't get any funny ideas :)


--
/Jesper Monsted
BCFP

"Jesper Monsted" wrote in message
.163...
"Michael" wrote in
:

"Mark Smith" wrote in message
om...
Hello Michael,

No it's not Linux *spit* ;-) More likely a derivative of a RTOS like
vxWorks or something (I did know what was used once, but my brain
only holds so much information and old stuff drops out over time :-)

Wrong. FabricOS 1.x, 2.x and 3.x are based on vxworks, but the 4.x series
(for the silkworm 12k and 3900's) is a realtime linux. It works really
well, too.

Thanks, Jesper. I'm glad I wasn't just seeing things.

Darn.... If it were some sort of *nix derivative, then you could do
all sorts of umm....creative stuff with it. ;-)

No. Although there is a root account that gives you a real shell, it is
not
available to regular users and if you change anything with it, you forfeit
the right to support.

Don't get any funny ideas :)

Hmm....that's unfortunate. The Java GUI and web interface that's used to
maintain the SAN leaves a lot to be desired. I had dreams of performing
batch updates etc. via command line scripts, but it looks like those dreams
have been nipped early. ;-)


Michael

"Jesper Monsted" wrote in message

Wrong. FabricOS 1.x, 2.x and 3.x are based on vxworks, but the 4.x series
(for the silkworm 12k and 3900's) is a realtime linux. It works really
well, too.


Wow! I never knew that :-) Wonder if it was a technical or financial
reason to switch ?
I'll have to have another look at the Brocades ... chances are slim at the
mo as it's all McData where I am.

Darn.... If it were some sort of *nix derivative, then you could do
all sorts of umm....creative stuff with it. ;-)

No. Although there is a root account that gives you a real shell, it is
not
available to regular users and if you change anything with it, you forfeit
the right to support.

Don't get any funny ideas :)


So no getting Quake to run then ? :-)

Mark

"Michael" wrote in message ...

No. Although there is a root account that gives you a real shell, it is
not
available to regular users and if you change anything with it, you forfeit
the right to support.

Don't get any funny ideas :)

Hmm....that's unfortunate. The Java GUI and web interface that's used to
maintain the SAN leaves a lot to be desired. I had dreams of performing
batch updates etc. via command line scripts, but it looks like those dreams
have been nipped early. ;-)

Actually Michael, Brocade does have an excellent CLI, and they also
have a Perl API. You may have to purchase the API Toolkit (you should
talk to your EMC rep about this). Either of these methods would allow
you to write your own scripts without invalidating Brocade's support.

- Sean

Nicolas CHEVE wrote in message ...
Le 20 Oct 2003 07:08:33 -0700
(Sean Cummins) a crit:

Actually Michael, Brocade does have an excellent CLI, and they also
have a Perl API. You may have to purchase the API Toolkit (you should
talk to your EMC rep about this). Either of these methods would allow
you to write your own scripts without invalidating Brocade's support.

- Sean


Sean,

You talk about a perl API for brocade switch.
Could you give me more informations about this ?
Do you have an URL about this ?

THY
Nicolas

Nicolas,

Certainly. You can find some info at
http://www.brocade.com/products/api_scripting.jsp but there does not
appear to be any way to download the API from Brocade's public site.
There is a "Buy Now" button at the bottom of the page that directs you
to a course enrollment page, which states that you will be given
access to the API if you attend the course.

I obtained the API toolkit for free by attending one of Brocade's many
free seminars, so you may be able to get it there as well. I believe
you can also download it if you work for a partner company (and have a
partner login), and you MAY be able to get it if you have a support
contract (not sure about that one).

I would bet that if you just asked your Brocade (or EMC, or whoever
your primary vendor is) sales rep they'd probably give it to you as
well.

- Sean