Monitoring Fibre Channel Interface Load Balancing
You can use operational mode commands to monitor load balancing when the switch is in FCoE-FC gateway mode:
Monitoring the Interface Load-Balancing State
Purpose
Monitor the number of sessions, whether load balancing is enabled or disabled, and the load-balancing weight for each native Fibre Channel (FC) interface.
 | Note: A session is a FLOGI or FDISC login to the FC SAN fabric. Session does not refer to end-to-end storage sessions. |
Action
To monitor the load-balancing state of the native FC interfaces in the CLI, enter the following CLI command:
user@switch> show fibre-channel proxy np-port
For example:
user@switch> show fibre-channel proxy np-portFabric: sanfab1, Fabric-id: 10 NP-Port State Sessions LB state LB weight fc-0/0/0.0 online 5 ON 4 fc-0/0/1.0 online 5 ON 4 fc-0/0/2.0 online 10 ON 8 Fabric: fc_fab2, Fabric-id: 200 NP-Port State Sessions LB state LB weight fc-0/0/44.0 isolated 0 OFF 0 Fabric: fc_fab3, Fabric-id: 300 NP-Port State Sessions LB state LB weight fc-0/0/46.0 online 1 ON 8
Meaning
Table 1 summarizes key output fields for the FC interface load-balancing state.
Table 1: Summary of Key FC Interface Load-Balancing Output Fields
Field | Values |
|---|---|
Fabric | Name of the fabric. |
Fabric-id | Fabric ID number. |
NP-Port | NP_Port interface connected to the FCoE forwarder (FCF) or the FC switch. |
State | FCID state of the NP_Port interface:
|
Sessions | Number of active sessions on the NP_Port interface. |
LB State | Load-balancing state:
|
LB Weight | Load-balancing weight, which reflects the port speed:
|
The gateway determines the least-loaded interface using the
following weighted round-robin (WRR) algorithm: (number-of-sessions
* max-weight) / weight, where max-weight is an internal constant. If the load on the FC interfaces is equal,
the session is assigned to the interface with the highest link speed
(the greatest weight).
Monitoring the Fabric Load-Balancing Algorithm
Purpose
Monitor the type of load-balancing algorithm (simple or ENode-based) used on the native FC interfaces.
Action
To monitor the load-balancing algorithm used on the native FC interfaces in the CLI, enter the following CLI command:
user@switch> show fibre-channel proxy fabric-state
For example:
user@switch> show fibre-channel proxy fabric-stateFabric: sanfab1, Fabric-id: 10 Proxy load balance algorithm: Simple, Fabric WWN verification: Yes Fabric: fc_fab2, Fabric-id: 200 Proxy load balance algorithm: ENode based, Fabric WWN verification: Yes Fabric: fc_fab3, Fabric-id: 300 Proxy load balance algorithm: Simple, Fabric WWN verification: Yes
Meaning
You can configure each local FC fabric on an FCoE-FC gateway to use either of two types of load-balancing algorithms, simple or ENode-based. All of the native FC interfaces (NP_Ports) in a particular gateway FC fabric use the same load-balancing algorithm (the load-balancing algorithm is applied on a per-fabric basis):
- Simple—Load balancing is based on the weighted utilization (load) of the NP_Ports connected to an FC fabric. Each new FLOGI or FDISC is assigned to the least-loaded link.
- ENode based—Load balancing is based on the ENode FLOGI. When an ENode logs in to the fabric, all subsequent FDISC sessions (VN_Port sessions) associated with that ENode are placed on the same link as the ENode FLOGI session, regardless of the link load. New ENode FLOGIs are placed on the least-loaded link.
The Proxy load balance algorithm field shows the type of load-balancing method the fabric uses.
