Tag Archives: VW3

Revision 670 – BNA Client Migrated

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In this revision, minor changes were done to move the BNA client code outside of the non-public source base and into the public source base at BNAPURLConenction.java. This allows for external audit of the code and may improve trust and reduce concern. Also, if I’m doing something very wrong, others may notice.

The project retains all the test cases involving this and other parsers, so functionality is verified retained, there should be very little change in behavior.

The BNA backend-database client was added 21 months ago (Revision 345 – How to Read Nicknames from a BNA Server) and was improved 3 months later (Revision 450 – bnapsql Improvements).

Revision 666 – vw4tools.jar, vw4tool.bat, more parameters, and DeviceAliasParser

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This revision was a rollup of a few updates, as follows:

vw4tools.jar and vw4tool.bat allow a basic windows user to locate and run their JRE against the vw4tools.jar file to non-interactively execute a function. This is very similar to the way vict.bat works, except that vw4tools.jar is rolled into vict.jar so both are available in the same package. vw4tool.bat does the right thing.

In order to allow more command line parameters, the convenience BAT files have swapped %# to %* for parameters. If you never ran into this, it’s no problem 🙂

DeviceAliasParser now ignores newlines; this was done in the FibreChannel-Parsers project externally, but testcases were corrected to confirm the behavior.

Revision 665 – Handle Brocade Hanging F-ports

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The underlying fibrechannel-parsers project added the ability to properly handle H{xxx} markup, which seems to be Brocade marking out Hanging fabric members (disappeared, never rejoined). In vitools, a testcase confirms functionality absorbed into vict.jar “-N” behavior.

In short, the ability to ignore hard-zoning was improved to get the WWPN from a hanging member as well.

Revision 659 – Added a JAASTOOL.BAT helper file

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On Dom’s request, I added a JAASTOOL.BAT file similar to VICT.BAT, VIFT.BAT, VIUPLOAD.BAT, etc to get over the nuisance of finding the install path and using it to run the JAR file.

Sure, people slag Java as though it’s as bad as PHP, but it really does run everywhere: Unix, Linux, Windows. Same code. The hard part is looking for the java.exe. If the problem is simply “find the file ‘java.exe’ on your computer”, and you cannot find a file on your PC, perhaps you should be ashamed! In cases where we are simply really, really tired/jet-lagged, this script iterates the most common known locations, and when upon finding the JAVA.EXE, uses it to execute the JAASTOOL.JAR file with the options given on the command line.

Yeah, it’s still a command line. I’m not so good at GUIs.

Revision 638 – Suggested Nicknames for Pure Storage WWN Patterns

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Expanded the option “-w” from Suggested Nicknames for Known WWN Patterns to vict.jar such that vict.jar -w 52:4a:93:7d:74:f1:14:00 offers “Pure-d74f114-CT0.FC0” or “Pure-d74f114:0:0” in brief, giving (weak) nicknames to Pure Storage Flash-based storage targets.

Note that since WWN patterns are moved to the external WWNDesc project, this is merely test code to ensure that the parallel work in the external project is functioning as required today and henceforth.

This nickname pattern is based on what I’ve seen deployed, and has no clear direction or description from Pure Storage. Pure is actually shipping QLogic HBAs as storage target FA ports, like many other vendors, however they have the decency and class to re-brand the OUI as their own OUI, making them easier to identify. THANKS, Pure! You make our lives a bit easier by taking that extra step.

Revision 586 – UnAssigned Switches

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Switch discovery doesn’t always discover hints to a fabric’s name, and lacking burrowing into the switch in a wholly instrusive and needs-root-access manner, some switches get tossed into “VirtualFabric”. Removing and re-adding switches, I found a user having to re-specify these repeatedly, and forgetting whether it was done.

When I forget things, I get worried. What if someone else does?

…so I added a check in PHC for ProbeSW in Virtual Fabric to catch where the user has not yet named a fabric.

Revision 558 – phc-Nicknames.csv Offers Generated Nickname Suggestions

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In revision 558, I added a logic to PHC that exercises the “-w” from Revision 555: VMax Nickname Suggestion back to Suggested Nicknames framework so that for missing nicknames, a phc-Nicknames.csv file attempts ot provide suggested nicknames for the WWNs of missing nicknames that it understands.

In short, PHC now provides suggestions for missing nicknames, making it possible to have nicknames for hosts the customer may not even be aware are visible by the VW Platform.