McDATA Corporate PresentationPurpose of the Analysis
Understand the Brocade SAN Health tool and the reports generated by this tool
Evaluate if a tool based on EFCM could be competitive
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Free data capture and reporting tool downloaded from Brocade website
Works on both Brocade and McDATA SAN
No performance data gathered from McDATA SAN
Non-disruptive to data traffic
Max 68 switch in one report
Capture maximum of 48 hours of performance data
Takes about 15 min for a user to configure the tool to capture data for a small fabric (depends on size of SAN, etc.)
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from Brocade website
enters the IP addresses for discovery
User emails .BSH file to Brocade or
Uploads file to a web server
Brocade reporting engine generates the
reports, uploads them to a web server,
and notifies the user
report from the web server
“We rely on weekly SAN Health reports from Brocade to track our SAN configuration and usage…
SAN Health is indispensable in reporting to my management on the state of the storage network, and it helps us anticipate SAN-related issues before they become problems."
--Baptist Memorial
SAN Health Reports - Excel
Consist of a cover sheet, table of contents, introduction, summary, topology diagram, recommendations, then report contents
Organized by SAN summary, fabric details, then switch details
Performance graph by switch
Color coded data for alerts
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SAN Health Reports - Visio
Custom Properties window similar to the EFCM Properties dialogs (for devices and links, not ports or fabrics)
Multi-line identifiers similar to the flyovers
Color-coded links for link types and performance
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EFCM Based Response?
EFCM is a comprehensive management tool for element management, configuration, and continuous monitoring
SAN Health is a reporting tool to make a snap shot of a network for further analysis
Compare how a user accomplishes the same task using the different tools and data availability in the reports
Not a comparison of EFCM and SAN Health
Differentiations focused on a particular task
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Support Cisco and QLogic Runs on more platforms Real-time monitoring Infinite performance capturing Centralized nickname store Immediate report generation Unique data: Congestion, Security, and Historical Performance
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Using Brocade SAN Health report data as a measure found
~65% available in EFCM user interface or reports
22% in Database Export
~35% not available in EFCM
Use EFCM database export as a measure
33% available in SAN Health report
67% not available in SAN Health report
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Marginal status of switch, power supplies, fans, temperature sensors, etc.
Fan out ratio, long distance mode, ISL bandwidth utilization
Zone database usage, un-zoned ports/nicknames
I/O parameters (data field size, error detect time, etc.)
Alert policy thresholds
Historical performance data
LUN related data: LUN, LUN binding, LUN masking, host LUNs
Host and storage data, host to HBA mapping
WWN zoning and fabric address zoning information
mSAN and SAN router data
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SAN Health
Visio topology diagram and properties
Connectivity map and Connectivity XML export, product tree and topology
Port usage by disk, tape, host, ISL, and free
Fabric Ports report
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Not All Data Created Equal
Previous portion of the analysis identified and counted data missing from SAN Health and EFCM components
However the value for our customers of each type of report content is expected to vary greatly
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Previous Analysis Efforts
Similar effort led by CTO office joined by Software Development, Marketing, Solutions Consulting, and Professional Services
SANplicity (Marketing)
Phases estimate (Software Dev)
Analyzed data availability
Collecting data from database export, EFCM server, and devices
Building our own centralized reporting engine
SANplicity and Backup/Restore Utilities
Possible solutions:
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Equivalent is not enough, we need to be better
Comprehensive reports make SAN managers look smart to their management and generates loyalty to McDATA
Easy to use
Shorten the initial efforts for an engagement
Collect an inventory of customer data (shared goal with marketing)
Be powerful, provide more useful data than Brocade
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Provide more data by enhancing export capability (email/database)
Support the discovery of legacy EFCM/SANav installations
Provide a optimized version of client with discovery and export only
Deployment
Deliver to user with an optimized client for free
Deliver to user with a trial license key (fully loaded client)
Reporting
Generate reports from a 3rd party reporting tool using predefined templates
Automate comprehensive report generation
Modify the topology XML export to allow Visio to open the files
Check against best practice policies and alert violations
By McDATA or by customer
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export SAN file
Import SAN file then
export it to database
McDATA Tasks User Tasks
Support Cisco and QLogic Runs on more platforms Real-time monitoring Infinite performance capturing Centralized nickname store Immediate report generation Unique data: Congestion, Security, and Historical Performance