HP StorageWorks 8/80 HP StorageWorks Fabric OS 6.2 administrator guide (5697-0 - Page 295

13 Configuring the Distributed Management Server Distributed Management Server overview The Fabric OS Distributed Management Server (MS) allows a SAN management application to retrieve information and administer interconnected switches, servers, and storage devices. The management server assists in the autodiscovery of switch-based fabrics and their associated topologies. A client of the management server can find basic information about the switches in the fabric and use this information to construct topology relationships. The management server also allows you to obtain certain switch attributes and, in some cases, modify them. For example, logical names identifying switches can be registered with the management server. The management server provides several advantages for managing a Fibre Channel fabric: • It is accessed by an external Fibre Channel node at the well-known address FFFFFAh, so an application can access information about the entire fabric management with minimal knowledge of the existing configuration. • It is replicated on every HP StorageWorks switch within a fabric. • It provides an unzoned view of the overall fabric configuration. This fabric topology view exposes the internal configuration of a fabric for management purposes; it contains interconnect information about switches and devices connected to the fabric. Under normal circumstances, a device (typically an FCP initiator) queries the name server for storage devices within its member zones. Because this limited view is not always sufficient, the management server provides the application with a list of the entire name server database. Platform services The management server is located at the Fibre Channel address FFFFFAh. By default, all management services except platform services are enabled; the MS platform service and topology discovery are disabled. Use the msplMgmtActivate and msplMgmtDeactivate commands to activate and deactivate the platform services throughout the fabric. The msplMgmtActivate command attempts to activate the MS platform service for each switch in the fabric. The change takes effect immediately and is committed to the configuration database of each affected switch. MS activation is persistent across power cycles and reboots. Before issuing the msplMgmtActivate command, run the msCapabilityShow command to verify that all switches in the fabric support the MS platform service; otherwise, the command will fail. When FCS policy is enabled, the msplMgmtActivate command can be entered only from the primary FCS switch. The execution of the msplMgmtActivate command is subject to Admin Domain restrictions that may be in place. See the Fabric OS Command Reference manual and see Chapter 1, "Performing basic configuration tasks" on page 29 and Appendix A, "Configuring the PID format" on page 523 for details. NOTE: The commands msplMgmtActivate and msplMgmtDeactivate are allowed only in AD0 and AD255. Platform services in a Virtual Fabric Each Logical Switch has a separate Platform Database. All platform registrations done to a Logical Switch are valid only in that particular Logical Switch's Virtual Fabric. Activating the platform service by entering the msplMgmtActivate command will activate platform services on all Logical Switches in a Virtual Fabric. Similarly, entering the msplMgmtDeactivate command will deactivate the platform service on all Logical Switches in a Virtual Fabric. The msPlatShow command displays all platforms registered in a Virtual Fabric. Fabric OS 6.2 administrator guide 293