Port licensing on HPE BladeSystem C-Class enclosure Brocade SAN modules - 2

In our previous article about Port licensing on  HPE BladeSystem C-Class enclosure Brocade SAN modules, we saw releasing and reserving enclosure SAN module port licenses.

In this topic, we will show a scenario where we have to do few additional steps to make things working.


A C7000 enclosure SAN module(Brocade)has 24 connections, out of which 16 will be used for Bay licensing and remaining ports are used for up-link connectivity. Each logical port has mapping to these up-link ports which enables them to communicate to the outside world.

We came in to an issue during port licensing. After following the steps as mentioned in our previous article, we were able to activate(reserve) license on ports. But when we saw switchshow output,it was like below,

c7k-Enc-Switch01:admin> switchshow
switchName:     c7k-Enc-Switch01
switchType:     72.3
switchState:    Online
switchMode:     Access Gateway Mode
switchWwn:      10:00:00:05:1e:fb:bc:19
switchBeacon:   OFF
Index Port Address Media Speed       State   Proto
==================================================
   0   0   010000   --    4G       No_Module   FC  (POD License Not Assigned Yet) Disabled
   1   1   010100   cu    4G       No_Sync     FC  Disabled (No mapping for F-Port)
   2   2   010200   cu    4G       No_Sync     FC  Disabled (No mapping for F-Port)
   3   3   010300   cu    4G       Online      FC  F-Port  50:01:43:80:07:30:6a:20 0x3b1501
   4   4   010400   cu    4G       No_Sync     FC  Disabled (No mapping for F-Port)
   5   5   010500   cu    4G       No_Sync     FC  Disabled (Persistent)
   6   6   010600   cu    4G       No_Sync     FC  Disabled (No mapping for F-Port)
~
  17  17   011100   id    4G       Online      FC  N-Port  10:00:c4:f5:7c:67:bb:ec 0x3b1500
  18  18   011200   id    4G       Online      FC  N-Port  10:00:c4:f5:7c:67:bb:ec 0x3b1600
  19  19   011300   --    4G       No_Module   FC  (POD License Not Assigned Yet) Disabled
  20  20   011400   --    4G       No_Module   FC  (POD License Not Assigned Yet) Disabled
  21  21   011500   --    4G       No_Module   FC  (POD License Not Assigned Yet) Disabled
  22  22   011600   --    4G       No_Module   FC  (POD License Not Assigned Yet) Disabled
  23  23   011700   --    4G       No_Module   FC  (POD License Not Assigned Yet) Disabled
Output truncated

if you check the output closely, port 4 and 6 has a notification which says "Disabled (No mapping for F-Port"). This is basically due to non-mapping of ports to an up-link.

How can we make this Online?

As you all know, these enclosure are configured as Access Gateways, we have to map ports to respective up-links to make them work. To check the current mappings we will use ag(access gateway) command along with --mapshow option.

c7k-Enc-Switch01:admin> ag --mapshow
N_Port  Configured_F_Ports      Static_F_Ports  Current_F_Ports Failover Failback PG_ID PG_Name
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   0    None                    None            None             1       1         0    pg0
  17    3;5                     None            3                1       1         0    pg0
  18    13;14;16                None            None             1       1         0    pg0
  19    None                    None            None             1       1         0    pg0
  20    None                    None            None             1       1         0    pg0
  21    None                    None            None             1       1         0    pg0
  22    None                    None            None             1       1         0    pg0
  23    None                    None            None             1       1         0    pg0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is clear that, port 4 and 6 are not mapped to any up-links. To map the ports to its respective up-links we have to use ag command with --mapadd along with up-link port followed by bay number.

c7k-Enc-Switch01:admin> ag --mapadd 17 4
F_Port to N_Port mapping has been updated successfully

c7k-Enc-Switch01:admin> ag --mapadd 17 6
F_Port to N_Port mapping has been updated successfully

we have used up-link port 17 here. F port to N port mapping is completed now.

Now, let's see the switchshow output.

c7k-Enc-Switch01:admin> switfhshow
rbash: switfhshow: command not found
c7k-Enc-Switch01:admin> switchshow
switchName:     c7k-Enc-Switch01
switchType:     72.3
switchState:    Online
switchMode:     Access Gateway Mode
switchWwn:      10:00:00:05:1e:fb:bc:19
switchBeacon:   OFF
Index Port Address Media Speed       State   Proto
==================================================
   0   0   010000   --    4G       No_Module   FC  (POD License Not Assigned Yet) Disabled
   1   1   010100   cu    4G       Online      FC  F-Port  50:01:43:80:05:6a:ac:4c 0x3b1502
   2   2   010200   cu    4G       Online      FC  F-Port  50:01:43:80:07:30:47:e0 0x3b1503
   3   3   010300   cu    4G       Online      FC  F-Port  50:01:43:80:07:30:6a:20 0x3b1501
   4   4   010400   cu    4G       Online      FC  F-Port  50:01:43:80:04:c0:c1:6c 0x3b1504
   5   5   010500   cu    4G       No_Sync     FC  Disabled (Persistent)
   6   6   010600   cu    4G       Online      FC  F-Port  50:01:43:80:31:82:4c:cc 0x3b1505
~
  19  19   011300   --    4G       No_Module   FC  (POD License Not Assigned Yet) Disabled
  20  20   011400   --    4G       No_Module   FC  (POD License Not Assigned Yet) Disabled
  21  21   011500   --    4G       No_Module   FC  (POD License Not Assigned Yet) Disabled
  22  22   011600   --    4G       No_Module   FC  (POD License Not Assigned Yet) Disabled
  23  23   011700   --    4G       No_Module   FC  (POD License Not Assigned Yet) Disabled

Wow!, now port 4 and 6 are online and server WWN is also registered. You can also change the failover/Failback option for these ports in case of any up-link failure.

If time permits we will come-up with those topics in future.