Brocade Communications Systems A7990A - StorageWorks SAN Director 4/16 Blade... User manual

Publication Number: 53-1000040-03
Publication Date: 9/29/2006
Glossary
Supporting Fabric OS v5.2.0

Copyright © 2006, Brocade Communications Systems, Incorporated.
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Document History
The following table lists all versions of the Brocade Glossary.
Document Title Publication
Number Summary of Changes Publication Date
Brocade Glossary v3.1 / 4.1 53-0000369-01 New document. April 2003
Brocade Glossary v4.1.2 53-0000369-02 Added FICON® terms. October 2003
Brocade Glossary v5.1.0 53-1000040-01 Added Fibre Channel Routing
Services and FCIP definitions. November 2005
Brocade Glossary v5.1.0 53-1000040-02 Minor updates. April 2006
Brocade Glossary v5.2.0 53-1000040-03 Updated for Fabric OS v5.2.0,
including IPSec and FCIP. September 2006

Brocade Glossary 1
Publication Number: 53-1000040-03
Glossary
A
ACC Accept link service reply. The normal reply to an Extended Link Service request (such as FLOGI),
indicating that the request has been completed.
ACL (Access Control List)
active copper A Fibre Channel connection that allows copper cabling up to 33 meters (36 yards) between devices.
AD0 A special administrative domain. When an AD-capable switch is first added to a fabric, all relevant
resources of the fabric (switches, ports, devices) become its members automatically. These resources
are put in an implicit list as defined later. When members are added to AD0 explicitly they become part
of the explicit list as fixed members. See also administrative domain, automatic member, explicit list,
fixed member and implicit list.
AD255 An administrative domain that allows users to get an unfiltered view of the fabric and manage ADs. See
also physical fabric.
The difference between the legacy physical fabric context and the physical fabric context as seen from
an AD-capable switch is as follows:
•Does not allow modifications to the zone database
•Displays hierarchical zone database: AD/zone, and so on
•Allows AD administration
address
identifier A 24-bit or 8-bit value used to identify the source or destination of a frame. See also D_ID, and S_ID.
administrative
domain (Admin Domain or AD) Part of Brocade’s virtual fabric strategy, a filtered administrative view of the fabric. The logical view presented in an Admin Domain filters attributes of switch ports and end devices
based on AD membership without hiding the following resources—fabric, chassis, switches, and slots.
Administrative domains allow device resources in a fabric to be grouped together into logical groups
and provide the ability to manage them separately.
Advanced
zoning In EZSwitchSetup, a zoning option that allows you to customize zoning (appropriate for advanced SAN administrators who have the experience to perform manual zoning). See also Custom zoning and
Typical zoning.
AD zone
database The zone database owned by each Admin Domain. Once Fabric OS v5.2.0 is installed, the root zone database will be owned by AD0. Each AD will have its own zone database (with both defined and
effective zone sets and all related zone objects (zones, zone aliases, zone members). See also AD0 and
root zone database.

2Brocade Glossary
Publication Number: 53-1000040-03
Glossary
AL_PA Arbitrated-loop physical address. A unique 8-bit value assigned during loop initialization to a port in an
arbitrated loop.
AL_TIME Arbitrated-loop timeout value. Twice the amount of time it would take for a transmission word to
propagate around a worst-case loop. The default value is 15 milliseconds (ms).
alias A logical grouping of elements in a fabric. An alias is a collection of port numbers and WWNs, used to
simplify the entry of port numbers and WWNs when creating zones.
alias address
identifier An address identifier recognized by a port in addition to its standard identifier. An alias address identifier can be shared by multiple ports. See also alias.
alias AL_PA An AL_PA value recognized by an L_Port in addition to the AL_PA assigned to the port. See also
AL_PA.
alias object A name assigned to a device or group of devices to enable easy configuration of multiple devices in the
zone database. See also zone object.
alias server A fabric software facility that supports multicast group management.
ARB Arbitrative primitive signal. Applies only to an arbitrated-loop topology. Transmitted as the fill word by
an L_Port to indicate that the port is arbitrating access to the loop.
arbitrated loop A shared 100-Mbit/sec Fibre Channel transport structured as a loop. Can support up to 126 devices and
one fabric attachment. See also topology.
arbitration A method of gaining orderly access to a shared-loop topology.
area number A logical numeric identifier for a physical port. In Brocade Fabric OS v4.0 and above, ports on a switch
are assigned a logical port area number. Port area numbers can be viewed by entering the switchShow
command. They are used to define the operative port for many Fabric OS commands: for example, area
numbers can be used to define the ports within an alias or zone.
ARR Asynchronous response router. Refers to Management Server GS_Subtype Code E4, which appears in
portLogDump command output.
ASIC Application-specific integrated circuit.
ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode. A protocol for transmitting data over LANs or WANs that transmits
fixed-length units of data. Provides any-to-any connectivity and allows SAN devices to transmit
simultaneously.
audit event Fabric OS events that are logged. When managing SANs, you may wish to filter, or audit, certain
classes of events to ensure that you can view and generate a “paper trail” for what is happening on a
switch.
authentication The process of verifying through a password that an entity in a fabric, such as a switch, should or should
not have access to the fabric. See also digital certificate and switch-to-switch authentication.

Brocade Glossary 3
Publication Number: 53-1000040-03
Glossary
autocommit A feature of the firmwareDownload command. Enabled by default, autocommit commits new
firmware to both the primary and secondary partitions of a CP. With autocommit disabled, the firmware
is written only to the primary partition of a CP, enabling you to restore the previous firmware from the
secondary partition.
autoleveling A process run on switch modules (blades in a Brocade director) that is triggered when the active CP
detects that the blade contains a different version of the firmware, regardless of which version is older.
Autoleveling downloads the firmware to the blade, swaps partitions, reboots the blade, and copies the
new firmware from the primary partition to the secondary partition.
automatic
member In administrative domains, all switches, ports, and devices that have not been explicitly declared in any AD (including AD0); a member of in the implicit list. See also AD0, fixed member, and implicit list.
AW_TOV Arbitration wait timeout value. The minimum time an arbitrating L_Port waits for a response before
beginning loop initialization.
B
backbone
fabric A backbone fabric can consist of a single- or multiple- Fibre Channel Routing Services capable switches that connect to each other directly or indirectly through other switches using E_Ports or
VE_Ports. Two edge fabrics can communicate across a backbone fabric and share resources such as
storage or servers, they are kept from merging into a single fabric. Edge fabrics can also share devices
with backbone fabric with FR4-18i and vice-versa. See also Fibre Channel Routing Services, translate
phantom domain, and phantom device.
backup FCS
switch Relates to the Brocade Secure Fabric OS feature. The backup fabric configuration server serves as a backup in case the primary FCS switch fails. See also FCS switch and primary FCS switch.
bandwidth The total transmission capacity of a cable, link, or system. Usually measured in bits/sec (bits per
second). Can also refer to the range of transmission frequencies available to a link or system.
Basic User
mode In Web Tools, a switch configuration that is set from the EZSwitchSetup CD. If Basic User mode is enabled, then entering the switch IP address in a browser window launches Web Tools EZ instead of
Web Tools. Basic User mode is supported only on SilkWorm 200E and 3250 switches.
BB See backbone fabric.
BB fabric A backbone fabric that connects FC Routers. The FC Routers communicate over the backbone fabric
using FCRP (Fibre Channel Router Protocol).
BB_Credit Buffer-to-buffer credit. The number of frames that can be transmitted to a directly connected recipient
or within an arbitrated loop. Determined by the number of receive buffers available. See also buffer-to-
buffer flow control and EE_Credit.
beacon A tool in which all of the port LEDs on a switch are set to flash from one side of the switch to the other,
to enable identification of an individual switch in a large fabric. A switch can be set to beacon by a
Fabric OS command or through Web Tools.

4Brocade Glossary
Publication Number: 53-1000040-03
Glossary
BER Bit error rate. The rate at which bits are expected to be received in error. Expressed as the ratio of error
bits to total bits transmitted. See also error.
BISR Built-in self-repair.
BIST Built-in self-test.
bit
synchroniza-
tion
The condition in which a receiver is delivering retimed serial data at the required bit error rate.
blind-mate
connector A two-way connector used in some Brocade SilkWorm switches to provide a connection between the motherboard and the power supply.
block In Fibre Channel technology, upper-level application data that is transferred in a single sequence.
Bloom A Brocade 2-Gbit/sec switch and director ASIC.
boot code Software that initialized the system environment during the early phase of the boot-up process. For
example, boot code might determine the amount of available memory and how to access it.
boot flash Flash (temporary) memory that stores the boot code and boot.
bport Back-end port of the ASIC.
broadcast The transmission of data from a single source to all devices in the fabric, regardless of zoning. See also
multicast and unicast.
buffer-to-
buffer flow
control
Management of the frame transmission rate in either a point-to-point topology or in an arbitrated loop.
See also BB_Credit.
bypass
circuitry Circuits that automatically remove a device from the data path when valid signals are dropped.
C
CAM Content-addressable memory.
CAN Campus area network. A network comprising a limited area but not just one building. See also LAN,
MAN, and WAN.
canvas In Web Tools, a saved configuration of performance monitor graphs.
cascade Two or more interconnected Fibre Channel switches. Brocade SilkWorm 2000 and later switches can be
cascaded up to 239 switches, with a recommended maximum of 7 interswitch links (no path longer than
8 switches). See also fabric and ISL.
certificate
authority A third party organization that provides secure public and private keys. To ease maintenance and allow secure out-of-band communication between switches, consider using one certificate authority (CA) to
sign all management certificates for a fabric.

Brocade Glossary 5
Publication Number: 53-1000040-03
Glossary
CHAP Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol. Allows remote servers and clients to securely exchange
authentication credentials. Both the server and client are configured with the same shared secret.
chassis On a SilkWorm director, the metal frame in which the switch and switch components are mounted.
chassisConfig
Mode Chassis configuration mode. On a SilkWorm director, the chassisConfig mode determines the blade types enabled for use in the chassis. See the chassisConfig command in the Fabric OS Command
Reference for more information.
CIM Common Information Model. A management structure enabling disparate resources to be managed by a
common application.
circuit An established communication path between two ports. Consists of two virtual circuits capable of
transmitting in opposite directions.
Class 1 service The class of frame-switching service for a dedicated connection between two communicating ports
(also called “connection-oriented service”). Includes acknowledgement of frame delivery or
nondelivery.
Class 2 service A connectionless class of frame-switching service that includes acknowledgement of frame delivery or
nondelivery.
Class 3 service A connectionless class of frame-switching service that does not include acknowledgement of frame
delivery or nondelivery. Can be used to provide a multicast connection between the frame originator
and recipients, with acknowledgement of frame delivery or nondelivery.
Class 4 service A connection-oriented service that allows fractional parts of the bandwidth to be used in a virtual
circuit.
Class 6 service A connection-oriented multicast service geared toward video broadcasts between a central server and
clients.
Class F
service The class of frame-switching service for a direct connection between two switches, allowing communication of control traffic between the E_Ports. Includes acknowledgement of data delivery or
nondelivery.
class of
service A specified set of delivery characteristics and attributes for frame delivery.
CLI Command-line interface. An interface that depends entirely on the use of typed commands, such as
through a terminal connection, telnet, sectelnet, or SSH2; does not involve a GUI. See also GUI.
client An entity that makes requests of a server using its common transport (CT).
CLS Close primitive signal. Used only in an arbitrated loop. Sent by an L_Port that is currently
communicating in the loop, to close communication with another L_Port.
comma A unique pattern (either 1100000 or 0011111) used in 8b/10b encoding to specify character alignment
within a data stream. See also K28.5.
community
(SNMP) A relationship between a group of SNMP managers and an SNMP agent, in which authentication, access control, and proxy characteristics are defined. See also SNMP.

6Brocade Glossary
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Glossary
compact flash Volatile flash memory used in a manner similar to hard disk storage. It is connected to a bridging
component that connects to the PCI bus of the processor. Not visible in the processor's memory space.
Condor A Brocade 4-Gbit/sec switch and director ASIC.
controlled port A port that fulfils one of the following conditions: a) is a member of an Admin Domain, either explicitly
assigned or part of AD0, or b) if the switch to which the port belongs is a member of an Admin Domain.
configuration (1) A set of parameters that can be modified to define the operational characteristics of a switch.
(2) In Brocade Zoning, a zoning object that contains a set of zones; analogous to a zone set used by
other Fibre Channel switch vendors. See also zone configuration.
congestion The reduction of throughput below the requested amount either due to oversubscription within a fabric
of switches or within a group of interconnected ASICs inside a switch. A congested link is an ISL on
which multiple devices have collectively requested more throughput than the link supports at one time.
core PID The default PID mode for SilkWorm 200E, 3016, 3250, 3850, 3900, and 4100 switches and SilkWorm
directors, the recommended format for Brocade switches and fabrics. It uses the entire 8-bit address
space and directly uses the port number as the area_ID. It supports up to 256 ports per switch. See also
VC Encoded PID, native PID, and extended edge PID.
CP1 The first-generation director CP blade provided with the SilkWorm 12000. This CP supports 1- and 2-
Gbit/sec port speeds. It supports only the dual domain configuration in the chassis.
CP2 The second-generation director CP blade provided with the SilkWorm 24000. This CP supports 1- and
2-Gbit/sec port speeds. It supports both a dual domain and a single domain configuration in the chassis.
CP4 The third-generation director CP blade provided with the SilkWorm 48000. This CP supports 1-, 2-, and
4-Gbit/sec port speeds, as well as 16-, 32-, and 48-port 4-Gbit/sec blades. It also supports the FR4-18i
blade when set to chassisConfig mode 5.
CRC Cyclic redundancy check. A check for transmission errors, included in every data frame.
credit In Fibre Channel technology, the number of receive buffers available to transmit frames between ports.
See also BB_Credit and EE_Credit.
CSCN Common services connection framework.
Custom zoning In EZSwitchSetup, a zoning option that provides a device accessibility matrix for you to modify and
then automatically creates zones based on the matrix. See also Advanced zoning and Typical zoning.
D
D_ID Destination identifier. A 3-byte field in the frame header, used to indicate the address identifier of the
N_Port to which the frame is headed.
dark fiber A leased fiber optic cable running between sites characterized by not having a service provided on the
wire by the leasing company. All services are provided by the customer.
DAS Direct attached storage.