IBM Support

H196488: DS3500/DS3950/DS5000 systems not working with Brocade on 8 Gbps host ports

Troubleshooting


Problem

RETAIN tip: H196488

Symptom

When attaching System Storage DS5000 series storage subsystems, System Storage DS3500 series storage subsystems, or System Storage DS3950 storage subsystems via 8 Gigabit (Gb) Fibre Channel (FC) host ports to Brocade 8 Gb FC switches running at 8 Gigabits per second (Gbps) host port speeds, the host connection will not establish at 8 Gbps.

The following Brocade FC switches, running firmware 6.2.0e or above, are affected:

2498-B40      Brocade 5100
2498-B80      Brocade 5300
2499-192      Brocade DCX-4S
2499-384      Brocade DCX

Affected configurations

The system may be any of the following IBM servers:

  • DS5020 Disk Controller (1814-20A), any model
  • DS5100 Storage Controller, type 1818, any model
  • DS5300 Storage Controller, type 1818, any model
  • IBM System Storage DS3512, type 1746, any model
  • IBM System Storage DS3524, type 1746, any model
  • IBM System Storage DS3950 Express, type 1814, any model

This tip is not software specific.

This tip is not option specific.

The 6.2.0e firmware for the Brocade FC switches is affected.

Workaround

The following workaround should be used on the Brocade switch to establish 8 Gb host port connections.

For Brocade firmware versions 6.2.x, use this setting for the workaround.

To enable IDLE on ports, execute the following command on the switch console

portcfgfillword x 0

Where x is the port number.

Once ports are set to IDLE on Brocade switches, the connection with the storage subsystem will be established at 8 Gbps.

In newer version of FOS 6.3 and later, there are 4 possible modes available to make SAN work on 8GBPS.

  • 0/-idle-idle - IDLE in Link Init, IDLE as fill word (default)
  • 1/-arbff-arbff - ARBFF in Link Init, ARBFF as fill word
  • 2/-idle-arbff - IDLE in Link Init, ARBFF as fill word (SW)
  • 3/-aa-then-ia - If ARBFF/ARBFF failed, then do IDLE/ARBFF

Please select parameter 3.

portcfgfillword x 3

Where x is the port number

Additional information

Brocade switches that support 8 Gbps host port speeds have a connection issue with DS5000, DS3500, and DS3950 series storage subsystems. If one of the Brocade switches that supports 8 Gbps is shipped with 6.2.0e firmware and above, then the fillword setting is ARB instead of IDLE.

In order to work at 8 Gbps host port speeds, the following command should be executed on the affected switches:

portcfgfillword x 0

Where x is the port number.

To check the status of the ports, use the following command:

portcfgshow

0- Fillword set to IDLE (This is how it should be set.)
1- Fillword set to ARB

To check the status of the ports in newer version of FOS 6.3.1 and later, use the following command:

portcfgshow

You are expecting result similar to:

Fill Word 3 3 3 3  3 3 3 3  3 3 3

[{"Business Unit":{"code":"BU054","label":"Systems w\/TPS"},"Product":{"code":"HW2F2","label":"Disk systems->DS5300"},"Component":"--","Platform":[{"code":"PF025","label":"Platform Independent"}],"Version":"Version Independent","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"","label":""}},{"Business Unit":{"code":"BU054","label":"Systems w\/TPS"},"Product":{"code":"HW2H2","label":"Disk systems->DS5020"},"Component":"","Platform":[{"code":"PF025","label":"Platform Independent"}],"Version":"Version Independent","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"","label":""}},{"Business Unit":{"code":"BU054","label":"Systems w\/TPS"},"Product":{"code":"HW2E2","label":"Disk systems->DS5100"},"Component":" ","Platform":[{"code":"","label":""}],"Version":"","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"","label":""}},{"Business Unit":{"code":"BU054","label":"Systems w\/TPS"},"Product":{"code":"HW28S","label":"Disk systems->DS3500 (DS3512, DS3524)"},"Component":" ","Platform":[{"code":"","label":""}],"Version":"","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"","label":""}}]

Document Information

Modified date:
28 November 2019

UID

ssg1S1004712

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