eG Monitoring
 

Measures reported by UCSFIConnsEthPTest

The Cisco UCS fabric interconnect includes the following key Ethernet port types:

  • Server Ports - Server ports handle data traffic between the fabric interconnect and the adapter cards on the servers. You can only configure server ports on the fixed port module. Expansion modules do not include server ports.

  • Uplink Ethernet Ports - Uplink Ethernet ports handle ethernet traffic between the UCS fabric interconnect and the next layer of the network. All network-bound Ethernet traffic is pinned to one of these ports. You can configure uplink Ethernet ports on either the fixed module or an expansion module.

  • Appliance Ports - The Appliance port is intended for connecting Ethernet-based storage arrays (such as those serving iSCSI or NFS services) directly to the Fabric Interconnect. By adding this Appliance port type, you can ensure that any port configured as an Appliance Port will not be selected to receive broadcast/multicast traffic from the Ethernet fabric, as well as providing the ability to configure VLAN support on the port independently of the other Uplink ports.
  • FCoE Storage Ports - The FCoE Storage Port type provides similar functionality as the Appliance Port type, while extending FCoE protocol support beyond the Fabric Interconnect. Note that this is not intended for an FCoE connection to another FCF (FCoE Forwarder). Only direct connection of FCoE storage devices (such as those produced by NetApp and EMC) are supported. When an Ethernet port is configured as an FCoE Storage Port, traffic is expected to arrive without a VLAN tag. The Ethernet headers will be stripped away and a VSAN tag will be added to the FC frame.

In addition, the fabric interconnect supports Monitoring Ethernet Ports, and Ethernet ports that have not yet been configured to perform any function and are hence still UnConfigured Ethernet Ports.

This test enables you to run frequent health checks on these ports so that, you can quickly identify non-operational, overloaded, or slow ports. Whenever ethernet traffic slows down, you can use this information to figure out which ethernet port is responsible for it. Moreover, in times of heavy traffic, this information will enable you to decide whether additional ports need to be configured using the expansion module for handling the load.

The measures made by this test are as follows:

Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation
AdminState Indicates the current administrative status of this uplink ethernet port in this fabric interconnect.   This measure reports either Enabled or Disbled as the adminiatrative status of the Fabric Interconnect Uplink Ethernet ports. The states and their corresponding numeric equivalents are shown in the table below:

Numeric Value State
1 Enabled
2 Disbled

Note:

By default, this measure reports the above-mentioned States while indicating the administrative status of a Fabric Interconnect Uplink Ethernet port. However, the graph of this measure will be represented using the numeric equivalents of the states i.e., 1 or 2.
OperState Indicates the overall status of this uplink ethernet port in this fabric interconnect.   The States reported by this measure and their corresponding numeric equivalents are described in the table below:

Numeric Value State
0 Indeterminate
1 Up
2 Admin-down
3 Link-down
4 Failed
5 No-license
6 Link-up
7 Hardware-failure
8 Software-failure
9 Error-disabled
10 Sfp-not-present

Note:

By default, this measure reports the above-mentioned States while indicating the overall status of an uplink ethernet port. However, the graph of this measure will be represented using the corresponding numeric equivalents of the statesi.e., 0 to 10.

The detailed diagnosis of this measure provides the Time, ID, Slot ID, Port Type, Role Type, Transport Type, Network Type, MAC and Mode attributes for the Ethernet Ports of the Fabric Interconnects.
OperSpeed Indicates the current operating speed of this uplink ethernet port in this fabric interconnect.   The values reported by this measure and their corresponding numeric equivalents are described in the table below:

Numeric Value State
0 Indeterminate
1 1Gbps
2 10Gbps

Note:

By default, this measure reports the above-mentioned States while indicating the operating speed of this uplink ethernet port in this fabric interconnect. However, the graph of this measure will be represented using the corresponding numeric equivalents i.e., 0 to 2.
BroadcastPktsRx Indicates the number of broadcast packets received by this uplink ethernet port during the last measurement period. Number In computer networking, broadcasting refers to transmitting a packet that will be received by every device on the network. Broadcasting can be performed as a high level operation in a program, for example broadcasting Message Passing Interface, or it may be a low level networking operation, for example broadcasting on Ethernet.

Comparing the value of these measures across all the uplink ethernet ports will point you to that port which is handling the maximum broadcast traffic.

BroadcastPktsTx Indicates the number of broadcast packets transmitted by this uplink ethernet port during the last measurement period. Number
JumboPktsRx Indicates the number of jumbo packets received by this uplink ethernet port during the last measurement period. Number In computer networking, jumbo frames are Ethernet frames with more than 1500 bytes of payload. Conventionally, jumbo frames can carry up to 9000 bytes of payload, but variations may exist.

In the event of a network slowdown, you can compare the value of these measures across all the uplink ethernet ports to quickly isolate the port that is overloaded with jumbo packets.
JumboPktsTx Indicates the number of jumbo packets transmitted by this uplink ethernet port during the last measurement period. Number
MulticastPktsRx Indicates the number of multicast packets received by this uplink ethernet port during the last measurement period. Number In computer networking, multicast is the delivery of a message or information to a group of destination computers simultaneously in a single transmission from the source creating copies automatically in other network elements, such as routers, only when the topology of the network requires it.

In the event of a network slowdown, you can compare the value of these measures across all the uplink ethernet ports to quickly isolate the port that is overloaded with multicast packets.
MulticastPktsTx Indicates the number of multicast packets sent by this uplink ethernet port during the last measurement period. Number
DataReceived Indicates the amount of data received by this uplink ethernet port during the last measurement period. MB Compare the value of these measures across all ethernet ports to determine which port is handling the maximum data traffic.
DataTransmitted Indicates the amount of data transmitted by this uplink ethernet port during the last measurement period. MB
TotalPktsRx Indicates the number of packets received by this uplink ethernet port during the last measurement period. Number Compare the value of these measures across all ethernet ports to determine which port is handling the maximum packet traffic.
TotalPktsTx Indicates the number of packets transmitted by this uplink ethernet port during the last measurement period. Number
UnicastPktsRx Indicates the number of unicast packets received by this uplink ethernet port during the last measurement period. Number Unicast is the term used to describe communication where a piece of information is sent from one point to another point. In this case there is just one sender, and one receiver.

Compare the value of these measures across all ethernet ports to determine which port is handling the maximum unicast packet traffic.
UnicastPktsTx Indicates the number of unicast packets transmitted by this uplink ethernet port during the last measurement period. Number