Cisco MDS SAN Switch Scan Requirements

AvailabilityGuard™ uses the following methods to collect configuration data regarding Cisco MDS fabric switches:  

1. Querying Cisco SAN switches directly.
2. Querying Cisco Data Center Network Manager (DCNM) - recommended.
   

Direct Cisco SAN Switch Scanning 

When using a direct switch scan, AvailabilityGuard™ opens an SSH session to the Cisco MDS switch and executes read-only Cisco MDS CLI show commands.

To scan a Cisco SAN switch, you should make the following preparations:

• Obtain the Switch Name or IP address - if not automatically discovered.
  
• Obtain a Switch user account with permission to run show commands.
  
• Verify that IP connectivity through SSH (default is port 22) is available between the AvailabilityGuard™ collector server and the Cisco MDS Switch.
  

Cisco Data Center Network Manager (DCNM)

When using Cisco Data Center Network Manager (DCNM), AvailabilityGuard collects configuration data from DCNM by running read-only Web Services soap queries.

To scan DCNM, you should make the following preparations:

• Obtain the DCNM server name or IP address.
  
• Obtain a DCNM user name and password.
  
• Verify that IP connectivity through SOAP (port 443) is available between the AvailabilityGuard application collector and the DCNM server.

Additional notes

• When scanning switches directly, AvailabilityGuard™ will automatically detect other Cisco switches in the same fabric. There's no need to manually define each Switch.
• It is possible to configure AvailabilityGuard™ to automatically add newly detected switches to the scan. For this reason, it is recommended to use a standard credential set for scanning Cisco SAN switches.