VCF SAN Insight: Introduction
VCF SAN Insight is a VMware Aria Operations (VCF Operations) Management Pack that monitors Fibre Channel SAN fabric switches. It is built as one multi-vendor product: a single adapter kind and one shared object model, in which the producer is distinguished only by the vendor property and by the model of the device.
Two vendors are supported:
| Vendor | Product families | Management API |
|---|---|---|
| Broadcom | Brocade FC SAN switches running Fabric OS | Brocade REST API over HTTPS |
| Cisco | Cisco MDS 9000 series switches and directors | Cisco NX-API over HTTPS |
The object model is vendor-neutral: fabrics, switches, ports, chassis, zones and the hardware components beneath them map onto the same object kinds for both vendors, so the dashboards, alerts, custom groups and relationships are shared and the vendor is selected per adapter instance.
How does it work?
The adapter connects to each fabric switch over HTTPS, reads the inventory and the performance counters of the device, maps them onto the shared object model and rebuilds the relationship tree on every collection cycle. The collected objects, metrics and properties appear in VCF Operations next to the rest of the environment, so a Fibre Channel port can be followed from the switch it belongs to down to the storage array and up to the ESXi host that uses it.
Features
- Inventory and health of every fabric switch, chassis and field-replaceable component
- Port-level optics: temperature, voltage, current, transmit and receive power, speed
- Fabric topology: fabrics, switches, zones and zone members
- Relationships to the virtual infrastructure — a port is linked to the ESXi host it serves
- Historical metrics with built-in symptoms and alerts
- Dashboards, custom groups and scheduled reports
Supported vendors and models
| Vendor | Series | Verified with | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broadcom | Brocade FC SAN switches | Fabric OS 9.2 | available |
| Cisco | MDS 9000 series switches and directors | to be confirmed in the deployment card | available |
The exact model coverage for Cisco MDS is defined in the deployment card of the MDS support and confirmed against the API of the verified firmware.
Benefits
- Proactive issue detection — optical degradation, thermal excursion and power faults are surfaced before they take a link down
- Reduced downtime — continuous monitoring with automated alerts on switch and port health
- Comprehensive visibility — the whole fabric, from the chassis down to the SFP
- Optimised troubleshooting — the topology shows which host and which array sit behind a failing port