SW_ILS 0x78 ...... What is it?

[bfeeny]

Can someone explain what uses SW_ILS command code 0x78?  I see this when analyzing PAA dumps of trunk links and I wasn't sure what the purpose of this is.

Thanks,

Brian

[Gary Ross]

Brian,

This was a tough question.     I found sw_ils with a 0x80 status but it took me awhile to find exactly what a 0x78 status was.  Here is what I found and where I found it.

A SW_ILS 0x78 status is a RNID (Request Node Identification Data) payload

The document that discusses this is found here:   ftp://ftp.t11.org/t11/member/fc/fs/99-422v0.pdf

Look on page 3 of this 9 page document from T11.

Hope this helps.

Gary

[bfeeny]

Gary,

Thanks, I see Cisco MDS switches exchanging 0x80 and I wonder if its the same in that document.  I believe that a certain range of SW_ILS's can be vendor specific and some vendors use them for different purposes.  For example, Brocade uses 0x71 for IE_SGROUP "Inter Exchange Group wise commands".  Do you think this document explains what the MDS is using 0x80 for?  Thanks.

[Gary Ross]

Brian,

I don't think that document discusses the 0x80 status (Link Keep Alives) but this document does.

http://www.t11.org/ftp/t11/pub/fc/bb-5/09-056v5.pdf

Look on page 27 (PDF page 42) section 4.5 "FC-BB-5 SW_ILS codes".

Hope this helps.

Gary