Overview
This page is the technical reference for VCF SAN Insight. Everything described here appears in VCF Operations once an adapter instance has been configured and a collection has completed. Two vendors are supported — Broadcom Brocade and Cisco MDS — and the object model is shared, so the same dashboards, alerts, custom groups and relationships serve every producer.
Dashboards
All dashboards are shipped inside the Management Pack, are placed in a dedicated folder named after the product, and are installed automatically with the adapter content.
SAN Inventory
The inventory dashboard is the starting point for the fabric: it lists every fabric and switch with its model, firmware version, CPU and memory usage and operational status, and shows the number of zones per fabric. Filtering and automatic refresh make it usable on a daily basis.
SAN Zones
The zones dashboard presents zone membership grouped by fabric: the zone name, the zone configuration it belongs to and the members inside it. With the member count metric and the resource list, an administrator can see how segmentation is laid out across the fabric without logging into each switch.
SAN Health
The health dashboard highlights faulty devices on a heatmap coloured by the health badge, together with the active alerts. It is the operator view used to spot a switch or a port that has started to degrade.
Custom groups
| Custom group | Description |
|---|---|
SAN World | Every object collected by the Management Pack: fabrics, switches, chassis and ports |
SAN Chassis | All chassis objects, grouped by vendor |
SAN Fabrics | All fabric objects |
SAN Switches | All switch objects |
Collected objects
The object model is vendor-neutral; no object kind carries a vendor name. The producer is distinguished only by the vendor property on each object.
Relationships
The topology is rebuilt on every collection cycle:
- the adapter instance is the root of the hierarchy
- a fabric parents the switches that are members of it
- a chassis parents the switches installed in it
- a switch parents its ports
- a port is related to the ESXi host that is logged in through it, and to the storage array that is visible on it, giving the full path
Switch → Port → Host/Switch → Port → Storage Array - a switch parents its VSANs and its zones
SAN Fabric
| Data name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
ID | Identifier | Unique identifier of the fabric |
Name | Property | Name of the fabric |
Zone → Zone configuration name | Property | Zone configuration the zone belongs to |
Zone → Member Count | Metric | Number of members in the zone |
Zone → Member → Name | Property | Name of a zone member |
SAN Switch
| Data name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
WWN | Identifier | World Wide Name of the switch, the object key |
WWN | Property | World Wide Name |
User Friendly Name | Property | Descriptive name of the switch |
Firmware version | Property | Fabric OS or NX-OS version |
Domain ID | Property | Domain identifier inside the fabric |
Switch Type | Property | Type or category of the switch |
Principal | Property | Whether this is the principal switch of the fabric |
Ethernet IPv4 | Property | IPv4 address of the management interface |
Ethernet IPv6 | Property | IPv6 address of the management interface |
Model | Property | Model of the switch |
Manufacturer | Property | Producer of the device |
Sequence number | Property | Manufacturer-assigned sequence number |
Type | Property | Type number of the device |
Manufacturer Plant | Property | Plant where the switch was built |
RND tag | Property | Manufacturer asset tag |
Fibre Channel ID | Property | Fibre Channel ID of the switch |
Fibre Channel ID Hex | Property | Fibre Channel ID in hexadecimal |
CPU usage | Metric | CPU utilisation, percent |
Memory usage | Metric | Memory utilisation, percent |
Flash usage | Metric | Flash utilisation, percent |
Enabled State | Metric | Administrative state of the switch |
Operational Status | Metric | Current operational status |
UpTime | Metric | Time since the last restart, seconds |
Fan → Unit number | Property | Unit number of the fan |
Fan → Operational state | Property | Current state of the fan |
Fan → Air flow direction | Property | Direction of the airflow |
Fan → Part number | Property | Part number of the fan |
Fan → Serial number | Property | Serial number of the fan |
Fan → Time alive | Metric | Total operational time, days |
Fan → Time awake | Metric | Total active time, days |
Fan → Power consumption | Metric | Power drawn by the fan, watts |
Fan → Speed | Metric | Fan speed, rpm |
Power Supply → Unit number | Property | Unit number of the power supply |
Power Supply → Air flow direction | Property | Direction of the airflow |
Power Supply → Power source | Property | Power source type |
Power Supply → Operational state | Property | Current state of the power supply |
Power Supply → Temperature sensor supported | Property | Whether the unit carries a temperature sensor |
Power Supply → Part number | Property | Part number of the power supply |
Power Supply → Serial number | Property | Serial number of the power supply |
Power Supply → Time alive | Metric | Total operational time, days |
Power Supply → Time awake | Metric | Total active time, days |
Power Supply → Power production | Metric | Power produced, watts |
Power Supply → Input voltage | Metric | Input voltage, volts |
Power Supply → Temperature | Metric | Temperature of the unit, degrees Celsius |
Power Supply → Power usage | Metric | Power consumed |
Sensor → Slot Number | Property | Slot of the sensor |
Sensor → Index | Property | Index of the sensor |
Sensor → State | Property | Current state |
Sensor → Category | Property | Category of the sensor |
Sensor → Temperature | Metric | Temperature, degrees Celsius |
SAN Port
| Data name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
Switch WWN | Identifier | World Wide Name of the parent switch |
Port Name | Identifier | Name of the port |
Name | Property | Name of the port |
WWN | Property | World Wide Name of the port |
Port Index | Property | Index of the port inside the switch |
Type | Property | Port type |
Authentication | Property | Authentication protocol negotiated on the link |
Is Enabled State | Property | Administrative state |
User Friendly Name | Property | Descriptive name of the port |
Vendor Name | Property | Producer of the optic |
Vendor OUI | Property | OUI of the optic vendor |
Vendor PN | Property | Part number of the optic |
Vendor Revision | Property | Revision of the optic |
Serial Number | Property | Serial number of the optic |
Data Code | Property | Manufacturing data code |
Media Form Factor | Property | Form factor of the transceiver |
Connector | Property | Connector type |
FC Speed | Property | Negotiated Fibre Channel speed |
Distance | Property | Supported distance of the optic |
Encoding | Property | Encoding of the transceiver |
Speed | Property | Current speed, Gbit/s |
Device Port WWN | Property | World Wide Name of the device on the other end |
Port Symbolic Name | Property | Symbolic name of the port |
Node Name | Property | World Wide Name of the node |
Node Symbolic Name | Property | Symbolic name of the node |
Class Of Service | Property | Class of service of the link |
FC4 Type | Property | FC-4 protocols supported |
FC4 Features | Property | FC-4 features |
Device Port Type | Property | Port type of the attached device |
Device Type | Property | Type of the attached device, from the name server |
Link Speed | Property | Link speed |
Voltage | Metric | Supply voltage of the optic, millivolts |
Current | Metric | Laser bias current, milliamps |
Wave Length [nm] | Metric | Wavelength of the optic |
Temperature | Metric | Temperature of the optic, degrees Celsius |
TX Power [dBm] | Metric | Transmit optical power |
RX Power [dBm] | Metric | Receive optical power |
Power On Time | Metric | Power-on hours of the transceiver |
Max Speed | Metric | Maximum supported speed, Gbit/s |
Operational Status | Metric | Current operational status of the port |
Inbound Octets | Metric | Received octets |
Outbound Octets | Metric | Transmitted octets |
Inbound Traffic | Metric | Inbound throughput, bytes per second |
Outbound Traffic | Metric | Outbound throughput, bytes per second |
SAN Chassis
| Data name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
WWN | Identifier | World Wide Name of the chassis |
User Friendly Name | Property | Descriptive name of the chassis |
Chassis WWN | Property | World Wide Name of the chassis |
License ID | Property | Installed licence identifier |
Serial Number | Property | Serial number of the chassis |
Manufacturer | Property | Producer of the chassis |
Part Number | Property | Part number of the chassis |
Supplier Serial Number | Property | Supplier serial number |
Supplier Revision Number | Property | Supplier revision |
Supplier Part Number | Property | Supplier part number |
Product Name | Property | Product name of the chassis |
Alerts
The Management Pack ships the following alert definitions. They apply to every supported vendor, because they are built on the shared object model.
Temperature alerts
- High Temperature — the element temperature is above the high threshold
- Low Temperature — the element temperature is below the low threshold
Electrical current alerts
- High Current — the electrical current is above the high threshold
- Low Current — the electrical current is below the low threshold
Electrical voltage alerts
- High Voltage — the electrical voltage is above the high threshold
- Low Voltage — the electrical voltage is below the low threshold
Signal strength alerts
- High RX — receive optical power is above the high threshold
- Low RX — receive optical power is below the low threshold
- High TX — transmit optical power is above the high threshold
- Low TX — transmit optical power is below the low threshold
Resource usage alerts
- High CPU Usage — CPU utilisation is above the high threshold
- High Flash Usage — flash utilisation is above the high threshold
- High Memory Usage — memory utilisation is above the high threshold
Events
The Management Pack raises VCF Operations events for the fabric events reported by the switch. The event levels collected are configurable per adapter instance: info, warning, immediately and critical.