Definitions of Managed Objects for the Fabric Element in Fibre Channel Standard
obsoleted by
- rfc-4044 — Fibre Channel Management MIB
Extracted elements (30)
A Fabric Element may present proxy management for another management entity by exposing it as one of its modules. This supports hierarchical or consolidated management without requiring a separate SNMP agent per managed entity.
Both module numbering within a Fabric Element and port numbering within a module are permitted to be non-contiguous (sparse). This allows module indices to match physical slot labels (e.g., cards 3, 5, 6, 7 in a 13-slot chassis) and permits modules and ports to come and go without triggering a management reset of sysUpTime.
fcFeModuleLastChange serves as the discontinuity indicator for all counter objects in the MIB. This avoids the need for a separate per-counter discontinuity timestamp and aligns with SNMPv2 conventions for counters that may reset when a module is replaced.
The module-to-port mapping is recommended but explicitly optional. A vendor may place all ports in a single module or use divisions that do not correspond to physical boundaries, accommodating diverse hardware architectures such as multi-card chassis where card slots are sparsely populated.
The fcFxPortConnectedNxPort object reports '000000'H (all zeros) when the FxPort is not currently engaged in a Class 1 or loop connection, providing a well-defined sentinel value for the unconnected state.
The MIB module is compliant to SMIv2. A translation to SMIv1 is possible but will lose Counter64 objects (none are defined in this MIB) and convert some machine-readable SMIv2 information to textual descriptions; the resulting translated MIB is semantically equivalent in all other respects.
fcFxPortID specifies the Fabric Address Identifier by which the FxPort is identified within the Fabric; the FxPort may assign this address to its attached NxPort(s) during Fabric Login.
Full compliance (fcFeMIBFullCompliance) additionally requires fcFeCapabilitiesGroup and makes each per-class accounting group (Class 1, 2, 3) mandatory for fabric elements that support the respective class of frames.
Minimum compliance (fcFeMIBMinimumCompliance) requires implementing the fcFeConfigGroup, fcFeStatusGroup, and fcFeErrorGroup. Write access is not required for any of the read-write objects under minimum compliance.
The value of fcFeModuleCapacity must remain constant from one management restart to the next. It indicates the maximum number of modules the Fabric Element may contain regardless of which modules are currently present.
The value of fcFeModuleFxPortCapacity must not change for a given module instance. If a module is removed and replaced with a module of different port count, fcFeModuleLastChange will reflect the change.
When a Fabric Element initializes, all FxPorts start with fcFxPortPhysAdminStatus in the offline(2) state. They are then changed to online(1) or testing(3) via explicit management action or configuration.
The Capability Group (fcFxPortCapTable) augments fcFxPortEntry and exposes the inherent (not configured) capabilities of each FxPort: FC-PH version range, BB_Credit min/max, receive data field size min/max, supported classes of service, intermix capability, stacked connect mode, sequential delivery flags, and hold time min/max.
The Error Group (fcFxPortErrorTable) augments fcFxPortEntry and provides twelve Counter32 objects corresponding to the Link Error Status Block: link failures, sync losses, signal losses, primitive sequence protocol errors, invalid TX words, invalid CRCs, delimiter errors, address ID errors, link reset ins/outs, and offline sequence ins/outs.
The Fabric Login Table (fcFxLoginTable) is indexed by {fcFeModuleIndex, fcFxPortIndex, fcFxPortNxLoginIndex} and records service parameters agreed during the most recent Fabric Login for each attached NxPort: FC-PH version agreed, NxPort BB_Credit, NxPort receive data field size, agreed CoS, intermix, stacked connect mode, sequential delivery, NxPort name, connected NxPort address, and BB_Credit model.
The FxPort Configuration Table (fcFxPortTable) is indexed by {fcFeModuleIndex, fcFxPortIndex} and holds configuration and service parameters per FxPort: FC-PH version range, BB_Credit, receive buffer size, R_A_TOV, E_D_TOV, supported classes of service, intermix, stacked connect mode, sequential delivery flags, and hold time.
The FxPort Physical Level Table (fcFxPortPhysTable) augments fcFxPortEntry and exposes admin and operational physical status (online/offline/testing/linkFailure), last-change timestamp, and the Receiver_Transmitter_Timeout value (fcFxPortPhysRttov) used to detect loss of synchronization.
The FxPort Status Table (fcFxPortStatusTable) augments fcFxPortEntry and provides the FxPort's fabric address identifier (fcFxPortID), currently available BB_Credit buffers (fcFxPortBbCreditAvailable), operational mode (fPort or flPort), and desired administrative mode.
The MIB is organized into five groups under fcFeMIBObjects: Configuration (fcFeConfig), Status (fcFeStatus), Error (fcFeError), Accounting (fcFeAccounting), and Capability (fcFeCapabilities). Each group contains scalar objects and/or tables covering distinct management aspects of a Fabric Element.
The Module Table (fcFeModuleTable) contains one entry per module in the Fabric Element, indexed by fcFeModuleIndex (1..fcFeModuleCapacity). Each entry provides module description, vendor OID, operational status, last-change timestamp, FxPort capacity, and module Name_Identifier.
Three per-class accounting tables (Class 1, 2, and 3) each augment fcFxPortEntry and track frames and octets in/out and discards per FxPort per service class. The Class 1 table additionally counts F_BSY and F_RJT frames, inbound and outbound connections, and cumulative connection time (fcFxPortC1ConnTime in milliseconds).
The FIBRE-CHANNEL-FE-MIB module is assigned OID { mib-2 75 } (fcFeMIB MODULE-IDENTITY). This is the authoritative registration for the Fabric Element MIB within the mib-2 subtree.
Implementers are recommended to use the SNMPv3 User-based Security Model (RFC 2574) and the View-based Access Control Model (RFC 2575) to restrict GET/SET access to legitimate principals. Customer/user configuration of the SNMP entity is required to enforce per-object access rights.
Several MIB objects have MAX-ACCESS read-write (including fcFeFabricName, fcFeElementName, fcFxPortAdminMode, fcFxPortPhysAdminStatus, fcFxPortPhysRttov, fcFxPortBbCreditModel), and unauthorized SET operations in a non-secure environment can negatively affect network operations. SNMPv1 alone provides no access control even on an otherwise secure network.
FxPort physical state is controlled by fcFxPortPhysAdminStatus (online/offline/testing) and reflected in fcFxPortPhysOperStatus (online/offline/testing/linkFailure). When admin status is set to online, oper status moves to online if ready to accept Fabric Login, or enters and remains in linkFailure(4) if a fault prevents it from going online.
Module operational state (fcFeModuleOperStatus) has four values: online(1) — functioning properly; offline(2) — not available; testing(3) — under test; faulty(4) — defective. Transitions are driven by hardware events or management action; fcFeModuleLastChange records the sysUpTime of the most recent transition.
FcAddressId is a Textual Convention representing a Fibre Channel 24-bit Address Identifier encoded as an OCTET STRING of exactly 3 bytes, unique within the address space of a Fabric.
FcCosCap is encoded as a BITS value with bits classF(0), class1(1), class2(2), class3(3), class4(4), class5(5), and class6(6) indicating supported classes of service. FcStackedConnMode is an INTEGER with values none(1), transparent(2), and lockedDown(3).
FcNameId is a Textual Convention representing a Fibre Channel Worldwide Name encoded as an OCTET STRING of exactly 8 bytes. It is used to identify fabrics, fabric elements, modules, and ports.
FcRxDataFieldSize is an Integer32 in the range 128..2112 representing the receive data field size in bytes for an NxPort or FxPort. FcBbCredit is an Integer32 in the range 0..32767 representing buffer-to-buffer credit (in buffers). FcFeNxPortIndex is an Integer32 in the range 1..126 reflecting the maximum NL_Port count on an FL_Port loop.