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setting portcfgfillword to mode 3
Looks like Brocade is recommending setting 8Gb SAN ports to mode3 for the fillword setting. What I am trying to determine is there a way to set eitehr all ports or all ports on a blade to this or is it a port level command only. Having to go thru 6 blades with 64 ports on a DCX and set this individually is a decent effort; not to mention I have about 9 DCX chassis.
Best practice guideline for 8G FC platforms.
For Brocade 8G platforms running FOS v6.3.1 or higher, configuring the fill word to mode 3 typically enables
the port to use the right combination of Fibre Channel primitives to fully interoperate with the attached end
- device. Once set to mode 3, user intervention is no longer needed to configure the right primitives to enable
the link between the Brocade 8G switch port and the end device.
If a device is known to require mode 2 (IDLE/ARB) then configuring mode 2 on the 8G switch port will activate
the link sooner. If mode 3 is used in this environment, then the port will first attempt mode 1 then eventually
settle to mode 2 which will cause a delay in initializing the port.
If a device requires IDLE/IDLE combination for link initialization then one needs to set the needed port to mode
0 using portcfgfillword CLI.
ACIMIKE
5 Posts
0
August 29th, 2013 11:00
If you set to 3 everything will work after negotiating primitives.
On Thursday, August 29, 2013, Sridhar246
felipon1
96 Posts
1
May 22nd, 2012 01:00
Hi,
you only can execute portcfgfillword at port level. Bear in mind that this command resets the port if it's online.
If you have scripting knowledge, an option would be to create an script...
Rgds
RRR
2 Intern
2 Intern
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5.7K Posts
0
June 19th, 2012 02:00
Thank you. I haven't seen many configuration issues with Brocade up until now and with 8Gb suddenly this fillword is needed. Took me a long time to figure this out when I first encountered it.
SwitchSwen
38 Posts
2
November 23rd, 2012 02:00
tjmjcp
4 Posts
0
January 8th, 2013 14:00
Just offhand, if you are not at FOS 7.0 or above and you run the portcfgfillword command on a port that presents more than 1 WWN to the switch (such as NPIV or VMWARE) you can flood the name server with duplicate wwns and cause the controller to panic, resetting the entire switch. To avoid this, upgrade to FOS over 7.0, or disable the port, issue the command, wait 1 minute, enable the port. Very invasive, but less risky then resetting the entire switch.
felipon1
96 Posts
0
January 9th, 2013 02:00
Hi,
A little bit scary what you're saying @tjmjcp...! Do you have a Brocade Defect ID for that?
But, as you said, It is always a good recommendation to disable the port prior to make any change that would force a reset.
Kind regards,
Felipon
tjmjcp
4 Posts
0
January 9th, 2013 15:00
I have the defect as DEFECT000316106, but that may be the EMC defect number, not Brocade's.
Don't mean to scare anyone, but it did happen to me on a DCX, all slots and ports were reset. Luckily, it happened so fast that no i/o timed out, although error messages were recorded on some hosts, mainly z/OS, as we have a virtual FICON switch on the DCX. It is scary though to see all the reinitialize messages roll through.
WillSanders
1 Rookie
1 Rookie
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63 Posts
0
March 6th, 2013 07:00
Do we still need to set the fillword in 7.0.2a? I notice that doing a portcfgshow in 7.0.2a no longer gives a field for fillword.
Anonymous
5 Practitioner
5 Practitioner
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274.2K Posts
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May 20th, 2013 06:00
Hi, There is no need to change the fillword at 7.x code as it is automatic.
Allen Ward
2.1K Posts
0
July 17th, 2013 07:00
That can't be entirely true as we are running 7.0.0a on a number of 8510s and have been told by both Brocade and EMC that we need to make this change for 8G connections.
felipon1
96 Posts
0
July 18th, 2013 00:00
Hi there,
IFAIK, port blades based in Condor2 ASICs (FC8-xx) still need to have fillword manually set, no matter the FOS version.
Kind regards,
Felipon
Allen Ward
2.1K Posts
0
July 18th, 2013 11:00
That may be true felipon as we are running the 8G blades in the 8510s.
ACIMIKE
5 Posts
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August 26th, 2013 13:00
I am running 7.0.2 on some 5300Bs, and they require the fill word to be set.
I have only had problems with IBM P-series while working for a couple of different companies.
For those that don't have Director class switches (non-slot-based), here is a quick script:
for ((port=0;port<80;port++))
do echo $port;
portcfgfillword $port 3 passive;
done
This is for a 5300, just change the 80 to the max number of ports your switch has, but only for 8Gb switches.
Sridhar246
115 Posts
0
August 29th, 2013 09:00
Should I set portcfgfillword to 3 even if all my HBAs are 4 Gbps ones? VNX to switch connections are the only 8Gbps connections but things auto negotiate to 4 because of HBAs.
DCX-8510s with firmware 7.1.0a
WHeintel
13 Posts
0
February 7th, 2014 04:00
Has anybody figured yet what happened to portcfgfillword in the latest 7.x FOS's? Indeed the field for the param is gone and i have come across Folks that tried to set the param to 3 for 8gig ports anway and got "not supported" answers from the CLI.
I'd like to make sure which value is on my VNX-connected ports (brocades running 7.1.1a) b/c we have some ESXi connectivity Troubles losing Access to luns intermittedly. And i don't dare to just try to issue the command (which is still there) b/c if it's not @ 3, it's gonna be changed and it's disruptive to the port... i could go for the passive Option though.
edit: tried it with "passive". CLI stated "not supported".
So do we now have it automatically set to 3 on 8 gig-Logins and has it vanished from portcfgshow therefore?