Brief product description
BVQ for SAN is part of the BVQ network layer and integrates the processing of Brocade SAN and CISCO SAN measurement data into BVQ enterprise monitoring. BVQ for SAN can be connected to all members of the Storage, Compute and SAN layers of BVQ to provide a true end-to-end view across the infrastructure.
More information about the BVQ base product can be found here:
BVQ Base Product and BVQ Spec Sheet
Content
Supported SAN products
BVQ for SAN supports Brocade SAN and Cisco SAN products
Details here:
Supported SAN Systems All SAN systems and software versions supported by the Brocade Network Advisor version listed in the following table are supported. Please refer to Network Advisor Release Notes available on https://my.brocade.com for a list of supported Switch Hardware & Software. Refer to the BNA install instructions. Recommendations: If using a standard BNA installation, please deactivate change tracking for all fabrics Tested Releases: BNA version BVQ support ≤ 14.4.1 not supported 14.4.2 supported '* BNA is reaching End of support by 02/08/2022. Use Brocade (REST API) instead. Known Limitations: Note Tested Releases: FOS version BVQ support ≤ 8.2.1a not supported 8.2.1b, c, ... supported Known Limitations: Attention Please do not use Brocade (BNA) and Brocade (REST) scanners in parallel! Although scanning the same switches via BNA and REST is possible, BVQ does not support such configuration! Prior to configuring Brocade switches via REST API, please stop all scanner instances using the BNA! Performance and topology data for Cisco MDS switches is collected through the Cisco Data Center Network Manager (DCNM) using SMI-S. Tested Releases: DCNM version BVQ support 11.1(1) supported Windows A bug in DCNM 11.3.(1) prevents SMI-S access. A temporary fix for this issue is available from Cisco and can either be obtained from Cisco directly or contact bvq@sva.de. Windows Windows WindowsBrocade (BNA)
BVQ version 5.5.2 or higher* 14.4.3 supported 5.5.2 or higher* SAN Routing Toleration support only. SAN Director blade Limited support. Currently the blade slot number is unknown. Brocade (REST API)
BVQ version Note 6.2 or higher 8.2.2x supported 6.2.3 or higher 8.2.3x supported 2021H1 or higher 8.2.3a and 8.2.3a1 are not supported. See Troubleshooting 9.0.0x supported 2021H1 or higher 9.0.1x supported 2021H1 or higher SAN Routing Toleration support only. Cisco
OS BVQ version Note Windows 6.1 or higher 11.2(1) Windows supported 6.1 or higher 11.3.(1)
Linuxnot supported
For Windows, the final fix is included in 11.5.(1).11.4.(1)
Linuxnot supported 11.5.(1)
Linuxsupported 6.2 or higher DCNM 11.5(1) for Linux still requires the Fix mentioned in 11.3(1) 11.5(4) supported 2022.H1 or higher
BVQ for SAN licensing
The BVQ for SAN is licensed by capacity. We offer license packs of 25 Ports. Please contact your SVA sales representative for pricing information.
Details here: License information
BVQ for SAN data gathering
BVQ collects data from the SAN environment for visualization and analyzing purposes. The collected information consists of capacity, topology, performance and event data. BVQ scan the SAN environment by reading the already available performance data from an SMI-S interface. The connection between BVQ & SAN is secured via HTTPS, so no data is sent without encryption. The collected data is stored in the authentication protected BVQ database.
Typical scan intervals for BVQ for SAN are 1 min.
More base information about BVQ for SAN
We have a lot of valuable information in our BVQ Release Notes.
You will find more interesting detail information here.
- Support for Brocade switches via REST API
- SAN Module Enhancement: Access Gateway & NPIV
- SAN Zoning
- New System Favorites for SAN & VMware
- New SAN Module
- SAN System Favorites (v5.5.3)
BVQ for SAN use cases
Typical use cases
- Show the entire SAN in a clear topology view
- Monitor all E-Ports and F-Ports to find buffer credits wait problems
- Monitor all E-Ports and F-Ports to find overloads of a few ports or trunks
- Support SAN bottleneck analysis
- Get alerted on best practice or setup violations
- Show the topology and linking between zones, aliases, members and nodes, node ports or switch ports
- Check SAN zoning for correctness
- Expose unzoned SAN node ports, hanging zones or hanging aliases
- Support with cleaning up SAN zoning.
- Use SAN performance and capacity data in systems such as Splunk, Elastic, Icinga or CheckMK
- Feed SAN data and alerts into a ticket system or system management system to automate or control operations
- Create SAN reports for management
End-to-end infrastructure use case
Show the end to end connectivity from SAN to Spectrum Virtualize storage and the reverse direction for the following devices: SVC Hosts, SVC Nodes, SVC Controllers
Check if Spectrum Virtualize storage Hosts, Nodes or Controllers have balanced workload across all used SAN Switch ports
Check if Spectrum Virtualize storage Hosts, Nodes or Controllers are attached to dual fabric
General BVQ Use cases
This high level of transparency improves the quality of the services while at the same time reducing costs. In very short time, BVQ provides a high level of information from which the administrator can derive measures for achieving higher operational safety .The factual knowledge gained with BVQ allows cost-optimized and verifiable planning and decisions on the further expansions.
The typical tasks that are performed with BVQ are:
- Automated System analysis with the BVQ Systems Health map
The only thing you have to do here is to activate the alerts of the BVQ Systems Health map.- Be alerted early if a problem occurs
- Identify the problem and plan a response using the included solution description
- Use the results from the Systems Health map to carry out a more in-depth system analysis with monitoring or the Expert GUI or request an analysis from SVA.
- Connect the results from the Systems Health map with a ticket system so that the problems are automatically and promptly passed on to the right people.
- Contact SVA for special alerts and tests or connections to external systems.
- Monitoring using the web monitoring tool
Use the dashboards supplied with the BVQ version, which you can easily adapt or expand.
- Use the delivered dashboards to carry out monitoring at different levels.
- Create new dashboards to enable special monitoring tasks.
- Set up dashboards for application or system managers, so that ongoing monitoring tasks can be carried out directly by those responsible.
- Contact SVA for special dashboards to be created.
- Reporting using the web reporting tool
Every platform comes with reports which can be run automatically or scheduled. New report types can be created with the BVQ Template Editor.- Reading out the results of automatically generated reports via a simple web address
- Generation of new reports based on existing reporting templates
- Create own new reporting templates to create new report types
- Setup schedulers to create automated reporting and seining results directly to system or application managers
- Contact SVA for assistance in creating a specific report template.
- Performing analysis
The BVQ Expert Analysis GUI comes with many analysis favorites which act like recipes to lead to very good results- Carry out planning analyzes based on measured facts and developments
- Conduct risk analyzes to identify problems early and avoid them
- With problem analysis through, you can quickly find the reasons for bottlenecks or misconduct.
- Be curious to understand the interrelationships between the systems and the systems themselves better and better to become an even more valuable administrator.
- Our system engineers at SVA will be happy to help you carry out analyzes.
- Connecting ITSM environments to BVQ to access live measured data
We already prepared base tables for every object type in BVQ which gives a quick start to retrieve the right data for your external applications like ITSM- Replace the existing interface types with a general BVQ interface in order to get from the many different languages for each individual system to a query language. This will significantly reduce the number of scripts and programming required.
- In many cases, replace complex calculations with many accesses with results access from BVQ. This reduces the complexity in the scripts and the susceptibility to errors.
- Integrate high-quality results from BVQ such as alerts or events directly into the systems.
- Connect BVQ with Splunk, Kibana, ServiceNow, Matrix42, Icinga, ...,
- Feel free to contact SVA for any type of ITSM connection or for ITSM project support.
Tools and definitions included in the scope of delivery
BVQ comes with many tools and pre-defined definitions so you can get started right after the installation. These tools include analysis favorites, monitoring dashboards, reports and prepared alert templates, and probes for the Systems Health map.
Systems Health map support and alerting templates for SAN
System Alerts for the BVQ systems health map
In total, more than 250 alerts are available for the Systems Health map today. These alerts are fully defined and can still be adjusted using parameters in the predefined alert section of the BVQ server
The Systems Health map for this platform includes alerts from the following areas:
- System limits
- Status
- Performance
- Transmission
- Configuration
Predefined alerts
Alerting templates to create detailed alerts
More detailed alerting can be set up via alerting templates or using the free definition of alerts.
The alerting templates are very easy to use and are filled out using dialogue system. With these templates you can tailor alerts in many ways to the current environment.
For more special and complex alerts use the advanced editor in the custom rules area of the BVQ Server. The SVA Service Team can support you with creating complex alerts.
Monitoring for SAN
Monitoring dashboards are always updated and extended.
Starting with the Entry Edition, you can design your own dashboards or adapt the existing dashboards.
- Available dashboards
SAN - Fabric overview for Brocade
This dashboard displays central metrics and information for SAN Fabrics. It provides a basic overview of the selected SAN Fabric in terms of throughput, topology counters, performance metrics & error counters.
SAN - Fabric overview for Cisco
This dashboard displays central metrics and information for SAN Fabrics. It provides a basic overview of the selected SAN Fabric in terms of throughput, topology counters, performance metrics & error counters.
Reporting for SAN
Reports are always updated and extended.
Starting with the Entry Edition, you can design your own reports or adapt the existing reports.
- Available reports
Brocade SAN overview report
Brocade SAN summary report that includes the number of fabrics and switches, as well as the number of ports and their speeds. It also shows the important information for a limited set of switch and port parameters, as well as the physical and logical error statistics.
Brocade SAN performance overview
Brocade SAN performance overview report by frame rate (Rx+Tx) over fabric, switches and switch ports.