Fabric with two Nexus-5548 and a brocade switch does not get fabric updates

[steverding]

We have a fabric containing two Nexus 5548 and a Brocade 5000 switch in interop mode 2. When i make changes to the zoning, the first nexus (the fabric principal) and the brocade switch see the zone changes. The second Nexus switch does not see it. There are no error messages but  the change just can't be seen.  What can i do to find out, what goes wrong ?

[niranjandas]

Hi,

Interop mode operation was deprecated long way ago. Not sure which firmware version you are using.

First thing to make sure, run the "show fcs ie vsan XXX" in both the cisco switches. Look at the results, if they tell you exact  same result, that means fabric is seen by both the switches. If you activate zone here it must propagate to all switches.

Again, there is another catch. When you say, 2nd Nexus switch does not see the zone which zone you are looking at ? Active zoneset or just zoneset ? There are reasons, some time zones don't propagate. But active zoneset should always propagate.

Thanks,

[steverding]

Ouch, deprecated is not the word i wanted to read

We are using 5.1(3)N1(1a) on nexus-rz1-a

and 6.0(2)N1(2) on nexus-rz2-a.

The fabric can be seen :

nexus-rz2-a# show fcs ie vsan 10

IE List for VSAN: 10

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

IE-WWN                   IE     Mgmt-Id  Mgmt-Addr (Switch-name)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

10:00:00:05:1e:90:57:27  S(Rem) 0xfffc01 10.88.133.110 (bc-san1)

20:0a:00:2a:6a:72:ba:01  S(Loc) 0xfffc1c 10.88.133.105 (nexus-rz2-a)

20:0a:54:7f:ee:7f:dc:01  S(Adj) 0xfffc0b 10.88.133.100 (nexus-rz1-a)

[Total 3 IEs in Fabric]

nexus-rz1-a# show fcs ie vsan 10

IE List for VSAN: 10

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

IE-WWN                   IE     Mgmt-Id  Mgmt-Addr (Switch-name)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

10:00:00:05:1e:90:57:27  S(Adj) 0xfffc01 10.88.133.110 (bc-san1)

20:0a:00:2a:6a:72:ba:01  S(Adj) 0xfffc1c 10.88.133.105 (nexus-rz2-a)

20:0a:54:7f:ee:7f:dc:01  S(Loc) 0xfffc0b 10.88.133.100 (nexus-rz1-a)

[Total 3 IEs in Fabric]

I try to distribute the zoneset this way:

zoneset distribute vsan 10

Zoneset distribution initiated. check zone status

nexus-rz1-a# show zone status

VSAN: 10 default-zone: deny distribute: full Interop: 2

    mode: basic merge-control: allow

    session: none

    hard-zoning: enabled broadcast: disabled

Default zone:

    qos: none broadcast: disabled ronly: unsupported

Full Zoning Database :

    DB size: 6291 bytes

    Zonesets:1  Zones:62 Aliases: 44

Active Zoning Database :

    DB size: 10243 bytes

    Name: FABRIC1  Zonesets:1  Zones:60

Status: Zoneset distribution completed at 08:06:00 UTC Dec  3 2013

nexus-rz2-a# show zone status

VSAN: 1 default-zone: deny distribute: active only Interop: default

    mode: basic merge-control: allow

    session: none

    hard-zoning: enabled broadcast: disabled

Default zone:

    qos: none broadcast: disabled ronly: unsupported

Full Zoning Database :

    DB size: 4 bytes

    Zonesets:0  Zones:0 Aliases: 0

Active Zoning Database :

    Database Not Available

Status:

VSAN: 10 default-zone: deny distribute: full Interop: 2

    mode: basic merge-control: allow

    session: none

    hard-zoning: enabled broadcast: disabled

Default zone:

    qos: none broadcast: disabled ronly: unsupported

Full Zoning Database :

    DB size: 6291 bytes

    Zonesets:1  Zones:62 Aliases: 44

Active Zoning Database :

    DB size: 10243 bytes

    Name: FABRIC1  Zonesets:1  Zones:60

Status: Activation completed at 13:03:42 UTC Dec  2 2013

[niranjandas]

Everything looking good here. Specially show zone status shows:

VSAN: 10 default-zone: deny distribute: full Interop: 2

This means, full zoneset is distributed throughout the fabric. There is no reason, why it wont go to one switch. Can you please show the active zoneset from both the cisco switches in VSAN 10 ?

show zoneset active vsan 10

[niranjandas · Accepted solution]

Also from the info provided above, it is clear that both the cisco switches has same zone databases :

rz1-a:

Full Zoning Database :

    DB size: 6291 bytes

    Zonesets:1  Zones:62 Aliases: 44

Active Zoning Database :

    DB size: 10243 bytes

    Name: FABRIC1  Zonesets:1  Zones:60

Status: Zoneset distribution completed at 08:06:00 UTC Dec  3 2013

rz2-a:

Full Zoning Database :

    DB size: 6291 bytes

    Zonesets:1  Zones:62 Aliases: 44

Active Zoning Database :

    DB size: 10243 bytes

    Name: FABRIC1  Zonesets:1  Zones:60

Status: Activation completed at 13:03:42 UTC Dec  2 2013

They both have same active zoneset and same zone DB size. So where is the problem ?

[steverding]

Opps, clicked wrong. This was not the right answer
Here comes the problem. I made a change on nexus-rz1-a

nexus-rz1-a(config)# show zone status vsan 10

VSAN: 10 default-zone: deny distribute: full Interop: 2

    mode: basic merge-control: allow

    session: none

    hard-zoning: enabled broadcast: disabled

Default zone:

    qos: none broadcast: disabled ronly: unsupported

Full Zoning Database :

    DB size: 6309 bytes

    Zonesets:1  Zones:63 Aliases: 44

Active Zoning Database :

    DB size: 10302 bytes

    Name: FABRIC1  Zonesets:1  Zones:61

Status: Zoneset distribution completed at 08:33:14 UTC Dec  3 2013

nexus-rz2-a# show zone status

VSAN: 10 default-zone: deny distribute: full Interop: 2

    mode: basic merge-control: allow

    session: none

    hard-zoning: enabled broadcast: disabled

Default zone:

    qos: none broadcast: disabled ronly: unsupported

Full Zoning Database :

    DB size: 6291 bytes

    Zonesets:1  Zones:62 Aliases: 44

Active Zoning Database :

    DB size: 10243 bytes

    Name: FABRIC1  Zonesets:1  Zones:60

Status: Activation completed at 13:03:42 UTC Dec  2 2013

As you can see, the nexus-rz2-a switch does not have the change and has not been activated today.

[steverding]

And here comes the active zoneset now (only the beginning because it is quite long and all the rest is identical) :

nexus-rz1-a:

zoneset name FABRIC1 vsan 10

  zone name test vsan 10

  * fcid 0x011500 [pwwn 50:0a:09:82:8d:31:2e:19]

    pwwn 50:0a:09:81:8d:31:2e:19

  zone name hv_msdn2_na_mc vsan 10

  * fcid 0x011500 [pwwn 50:0a:09:82:8d:31:2e:19]

    pwwn 50:0a:09:81:8d:31:2e:19

  * fcid 0x011600 [pwwn 50:0a:09:82:9d:31:2e:19]

    pwwn 50:0a:09:81:9d:31:2e:19

  * fcid 0x1c0180 [pwwn 10:00:00:90:fa:16:e1:ef]

  * fcid 0x1c0160 [pwwn 10:00:00:90:fa:1b:fc:f3]

    pwwn 10:00:00:90:fa:16:e1:f1

nexus-rz2-a:

zoneset name FABRIC1 vsan 10

  zone name hv_msdn2_na_mc vsan 10

  * fcid 0x011500 [pwwn 50:0a:09:82:8d:31:2e:19]

    pwwn 50:0a:09:81:8d:31:2e:19

  * fcid 0x011600 [pwwn 50:0a:09:82:9d:31:2e:19]

    pwwn 50:0a:09:81:9d:31:2e:19

  * fcid 0x1c0180 [pwwn 10:00:00:90:fa:16:e1:ef]

  * fcid 0x1c0160 [pwwn 10:00:00:90:fa:1b:fc:f3]

    pwwn 10:00:00:90:fa:16:e1:f1

As you can see, the new zone "test" is missing on the 2nd switch.