Brocade FC Switch data collector

07/02/2025 Contributors

Data Infrastructure Insights uses the Brocade FC Switch (SSH) data source to discover inventory for Brocade or rebranded switch devices running Factored Operating System (FOS) firmware 4.2 and later. Devices in both FC switch and Access Gateway modes are supported.

Terminology

Data Infrastructure Insights acquires the following inventory information from the Brocade FC Switch data collector. For each asset type acquired by Data Infrastructure Insights, the most common terminology used for this asset is shown. When viewing or troubleshooting this data collector, keep the following terminology in mind:

Vendor/Model Term	Data Infrastructure Insights Term
Switch	Switch
Port	Port
Virtual Fabric, Physical Fabric	Fabric
Zone	Zone
Logical Switch	Logical Switch
Virtual Volume	Volume
LSAN Zone	IVR Zone

Vendor/Model Term

Data Infrastructure Insights Term

Switch

Port

Virtual Fabric, Physical Fabric

Fabric

Zone

Logical Switch

Virtual Volume

Volume

LSAN Zone

IVR Zone

Note: These are common terminology mappings only and might not represent every case for this data collector.

Requirements

The Data Infrastructure Insights Acquisition Unit (AU) will initiate connections to TCP Port 22 on Brocade switches to collect inventory data. The AU will also initiate connections to UDP port 161 for collection of performance data.
There must be IP connectivity to all switches in the fabric. If you select the Discover all switches in the fabric check box, Data Infrastructure Insights identifies all the switches in the fabric; however, it needs IP connectivity to these additional switches to discover them.
The same account is needed globally across all switches in the fabric. You can use PuTTY (open source terminal emulator) to confirm access.
Ports 161 and 162 must be open to all switches in the fabric for SNMP performance polling.
SNMP read-only Community String

Configuration

Field	Description
Switch IP	IP address or fully-qualified domain name of the EFC Server
User Name	User name for the switch
Password	Password for the switch
SNMP	SNMP version
SNMP Community String	SNMP read-only community string used to access the switch
SNMP User Name	SNMP user name
SNMP Password	SNMP password

Field

Description

Switch IP

IP address or fully-qualified domain name of the EFC Server

User Name

User name for the switch

Password

Password for the switch

SNMP

SNMP version

SNMP Community String

SNMP read-only community string used to access the switch

SNMP User Name

SNMP user name

SNMP Password

SNMP password

Advanced configuration

Field	Description
Fabric name	Fabric name to be reported by the data collector. Leave blank to report the fabric name as WWN.
Inventory Poll Interval (min)	Interval between inventory polls. The default is 15.
Excluded Devices	Comma-separated list of device IDs to exclude from polling
Admin Domains Active	Select if using Admin Domains
Retrieve MPR Data	Select to acquire routing data from your multiprotocol router.
Enable Trapping	Select to enable acquisition upon receiving an SNMP trap from the device. If you select enable trapping, you must also activate SNMP.
Minimum Time Between Traps (sec)	Minimum time between acquisition attempts triggered by traps. The default is 10.
Discover all switches in the fabric	Select to discover all switches in the fabric
Choose Favoring HBA vs. Zone Aliases	Choose whether to favor HBA or zone aliases
Performance Poll Interval (sec)	Interval between performance polls. The default is 300.
SNMP Auth Protocol	SNMP authentication protocol (SNMP v3 only)
SNMP Privacy Password	SNMP privacy password (SNMP v3 only)
SNMP Retries	Number of SNMP retry attempts

Field

Description

Fabric name

Fabric name to be reported by the data collector. Leave blank to report the fabric name as WWN.

Inventory Poll Interval (min)

Interval between inventory polls. The default is 15.

Excluded Devices

Comma-separated list of device IDs to exclude from polling

Admin Domains Active

Select if using Admin Domains

Retrieve MPR Data

Select to acquire routing data from your multiprotocol router.

Enable Trapping

Select to enable acquisition upon receiving an SNMP trap from the device. If you select enable trapping, you must also activate SNMP.

Minimum Time Between Traps (sec)

Minimum time between acquisition attempts triggered by traps. The default is 10.

Discover all switches in the fabric

Select to discover all switches in the fabric

Choose Favoring HBA vs. Zone Aliases

Choose whether to favor HBA or zone aliases

Performance Poll Interval (sec)

Interval between performance polls. The default is 300.

SNMP Auth Protocol

SNMP authentication protocol (SNMP v3 only)

SNMP Privacy Password

SNMP privacy password (SNMP v3 only)

SNMP Retries

Number of SNMP retry attempts

Troubleshooting

Some things to try if you encounter problems with this data collector:

Inventory

Problem:	Try this:
The inventory acquisition of the Brocade datasource fails with the error: <date> <time> ERROR [com.onaro.sanscreen.acquisition.framework.datasource.BaseDataSource] Error 2 out of 2: <datasource name> [Internal error] - Unable to generate the model for device <IP>. Error detecting prompt ([Device name <name>]: Unable to generate the model for device <IP>. Error detecting prompt)	The issue may be caused when the Brocade switch takes too long to return with a prompt, exceeding the default timeout of 5 seconds. In the data collector's Advanced Configuration settings in Data Infrastructure Insights, try increasing the SSH Banner Wait Timeout (sec) to a higher value.
Error: “Data Infrastructure Insights received Invalid Chassis Role”	Check that the user configured in this data source has been granted the chassis role permission.
Error: "Mismatched Chassis IP Address"	DII does NOT support Network Address Translation or Port Address Translation between the Acquisition Unit and devices as a general rule. DII may be detecting that the hostname/IP address in the collector configuration does NOT match any of the addresses the device believes it has.
Receive a message that more than 1 node is logged into the Access Gateway port	Check that the NPV device is operating correctly and that all connected WWNs are expected. Do not directly acquire the NPV device. Instead, acquisition of the core fabric switch will collect the NPV device data.
Error: ….Max remote sessions for login…	FOS has different limits for the number of supported concurrent SSH sessions per user role. DII's SSH session to this device is being rejected at login for violating those limits. This can be a sign that you have duplicative collectors discovering the same asset, which should be avoided

Problem:

Try this:

The inventory acquisition of the Brocade datasource fails with the error:

<date> <time> ERROR [com.onaro.sanscreen.acquisition.framework.datasource.BaseDataSource] Error 2 out of 2: <datasource name> [Internal error] - Unable to generate the model for device <IP>. Error detecting prompt ([Device name <name>]: Unable to generate the model for device <IP>. Error detecting prompt)

The issue may be caused when the Brocade switch takes too long to return with a prompt, exceeding the default timeout of 5 seconds.
In the data collector's Advanced Configuration settings in Data Infrastructure Insights, try increasing the SSH Banner Wait Timeout (sec) to a higher value.

Error: “Data Infrastructure Insights received Invalid Chassis Role”

Check that the user configured in this data source has been granted the chassis role permission.

Error: "Mismatched Chassis IP Address"

DII does NOT support Network Address Translation or Port Address Translation between the Acquisition Unit and devices as a general rule. DII may be detecting that the hostname/IP address in the collector configuration does NOT match any of the addresses the device believes it has.

Receive a message that more than 1 node is logged into the Access Gateway port

Check that the NPV device is operating correctly and that all connected WWNs are expected. Do not directly acquire the NPV device. Instead, acquisition of the core fabric switch will collect the NPV device data.

Error: ….Max remote sessions for login…

FOS has different limits for the number of supported concurrent SSH sessions per user role. DII's SSH session to this device is being rejected at login for violating those limits. This can be a sign that you have duplicative collectors discovering the same asset, which should be avoided

Performance

Problem:	Try this:
Performance collection fails with "Timed out during sending SNMP request".	Depending on query variables and switch configuration, some queries may exceed the default timeout. Learn More.
Performance collection fails with …Row duplicates found in SNMP table…	DII has detected bad SNMP responses. You are likely running FOS 8.2.3e. Upgrade to 8.2.3e2 or higher.
Performance collections fails with …Unknown user name…	You have configured your DII collector with a "SNMP User Name" value which is not slotted into one of the SNMPv3 user slots. Simply creating a user on Brocade FOS does NOT necessarily enable it as a SNMPv3 user - you must place it in one of the v3 user slots.
Performance collections fails with …Unsupported Security Level…	You have configured your DII collector to use SNMPv3, but with encryption (aka privacy) and/or authorization settings which are not enabled on the device in question.
Performance collection fails with …Empty Privacy Password is only allowed for Privacy Protocol NONE	You have configured your DII collector to use SNMPv3, with an encryption aka privacy protocol (AES, etc), but you have an empty "SNMP Privacy Password" value, so DII cannot negotiate encrypted SNMPv3 data flows with this device
Performance collection fails with …..VF:nn, error: No access…	You have configured your DII collector to use SNMPv3 on a device with multiple Virtual Fabrics enabled, but the SNMPv3 user does NOT have rights for VF NN. DII does not support partial discovery of a physical asset - you should always grant DII access to all 128 possible VFs proactively as DII will always attempt to retrieve performance data for any extant VF on a given physical device

Problem:

Try this:

Performance collection fails with "Timed out during sending SNMP request".

Depending on query variables and switch configuration, some queries may exceed the default timeout. Learn More.

Performance collection fails with …Row duplicates found in SNMP table…

DII has detected bad SNMP responses. You are likely running FOS 8.2.3e. Upgrade to 8.2.3e2 or higher.

Performance collections fails with …Unknown user name…

You have configured your DII collector with a "SNMP User Name" value which is not slotted into one of the SNMPv3 user slots. Simply creating a user on Brocade FOS does NOT necessarily enable it as a SNMPv3 user - you must place it in one of the v3 user slots.

Performance collections fails with …Unsupported Security Level…

You have configured your DII collector to use SNMPv3, but with encryption (aka privacy) and/or authorization settings which are not enabled on the device in question.

Performance collection fails with …Empty Privacy Password is only allowed for Privacy Protocol NONE

You have configured your DII collector to use SNMPv3, with an encryption aka privacy protocol (AES, etc), but you have an empty "SNMP Privacy Password" value, so DII cannot negotiate encrypted SNMPv3 data flows with this device

Performance collection fails with …..VF:nn, error: No access…

You have configured your DII collector to use SNMPv3 on a device with multiple Virtual Fabrics enabled, but the SNMPv3 user does NOT have rights for VF NN. DII does not support partial discovery of a physical asset - you should always grant DII access to all 128 possible VFs proactively as DII will always attempt to retrieve performance data for any extant VF on a given physical device

Additional information may be found from the Support page or in the Data Collector Support Matrix.