NCIE

Things to study:

ISCSI commands

dm-mp Linux supports dm_mp multipathing type.
HBAnywhere =  Emulex
SANsurfer=  Qlogic HBA
SnapDrive  = HTTP, HTTPS, RPC
Beneficial uses of VLANs: 1) To isolate iSCSI traffic from LAN/WAN traffic. 2) To isolate management traffic from other IP traffic.
zones should be single initiator
A direct connect topology allows for guaranteed maximum network performance for iSCSI.
iSCSI access lists: control which network interfaces on a storage system that aninitiator can access, and limit the number of network interfaces advertised to a host by the storage system.
Power on order: 1) Network Switches. 2) Disk Shelves. 3) Any Tape Backup Devices. 4) NetApp Controller Heads.
Disable ALUA on igroups connecting using the NetApp DSM.

Brocade Switches

Web Tools : Tool to manage Brocade Switches.

cfgshow : CLI command to display all defined zone information.
configshow : CLI command use to verify configuration.

fabricshow : CLI command to display which Brocade switches are connected into a fabric.

supportshow : CLI command to collect detailed diagnostic information from a Brocade FC switch.
switchshow : CLI command to view current nodes connected to the switch

Cisco Switches

Cisco Fabric Manager : Native GUI switch tool for managing Cisco MDS-Series switches and directors.

show zoneset : CLI command to view all defined zone configuration information.

show zoneset active : CLI command to display currently active zoneset.

show version : CLI command to collect information about the firmware version.

NetApp deduplication (ASIS) is enabled on the volume level.

NetApp Host Utilities Kits perform the following functions: 1) They provide properly set disk and HBA timeout values. 2) They identify and set path priorities for NetApp LUNs.

A LUN can be mapped to an ALUA-enabled igroup and a non-ALUA-enabled igroup.

On ESX 4.0 : Path Selection Policy (PSP) for an MSCS LUN should be set to: MRU (Most recently used).

http://cosonok.blogspot.com/2012/02/netapp-ns0-502-study-notes-part-34-san.html

NCIE-SAN

This post is going to be a mess.  Here's a whole amalgamation of data I found that I want to keep here on my blog:

1.U_Port (Universal) - Port on the switch when booting wait for something plugged into the port. 
2.G_Port (General Purpose Port) - Port on the switch that auto configures itself once the attached node logs in to the fabric. The node may be any N-Port such as an HBA (F_Port) or another switch (E_Port). 
3.FL_Port (Fabric Loop Port) - Disk array that supports Fabric (public) addressing and relies on arbitrated loop services. Many switches autoconfigure to FL-Port after the attached array has logged in. 
4.F-Port (Fabric Port) - Array controller or HBA that supports Fabric (Public) addressing. 
5.E_Port (Expansion Port) - Inter Switch Link (ISL) or switch to switch connection within a fabric. Older Qlogic and Sun switches refer to this as a T_Port. 1

Port	Full Name	Port Function
N-port	network port or node port	Node port used to connect a node to a Fibre Channel switch
F-port	fabric port	Switch port used to connect the Fibre Channel fabric to a node
L-port	loop port	Node port used to connect a node to a Fibre Channel loop
NL-port	network + loop port	Node port which connects to both loops and switches
FL-port	fabric + loop port	Switch port which connects to both loops and switches
E-port	extender port	Used to cascade Fibre Channel switches together
G-port	general port	General purpose port which can be configured to emulate other port types
EX_port	external port	Connection between a fibre channel router and a fibre channel switch; on the switch side, it looks like a normal E_port -- but on the router side, it is a EX_port
TE_port	trunking E-port	Povides standard E_port functions and allows for routing of multiple virtual SANs by modifying the standard Fibre Channel frame upon ingress/egress of the VSAN environment2

The definitions above are pretty unclear.  The N port is the port literally on the node (server, storage system, etc) and the F port is the one on the switch.  You typically connect from the N port to the F port.  E ports run from one switch to another.  You can create virtual ports for when you want multiple addresses per physical port.

It appears NPIV is just the method by which VN_Ports are created.

Quick hits:

1.2.1 NetApp storage system configuration details.

WWPN of NetApp FC Target Ports begin with 5 (target HBAs generally begin with 1 forEmulex, 2 for QLogic, and 5 for NetApp - e.g. 50:0a:09:81:83:e1:52:d9 ).

FC fabric topologies that NetApp supports: 1) A single FC switch. 2) Dual FC switches with no ISLs (Inter-Switch Links.) 3) Four FC switches with multiple ISLs between eachpair of switches. 4) Four FC switches with multiple ISLs between ALL switches.

iscsi security show : DOT CLI command to display current CHAP settings

Supported iSCSI configurations: Direct-attached, Network-attached (Single-network, Multi-network, VLANs)

iscsi session show -v : DOT CLI command to see if iSCSI digests are enabled.

Two benefits of soft zoning (device WWPN zoning) over hard zoning (domain ID plus port) for Cisco and Brocade FC switches: 1) A device can be connected to any port in the fabric without changing zoning. 2) It is fully interoperable between switch vendors.

Network types: page 39 http://www.filibeto.org/sun/lib/nonsun/brocade/53-0000231-05.pdf
cascade, mesh, core-edge.
also a great resource on trunking, etc

single image cfmode:
http://hd.kvsconsulting.us/netappdoc/733docs/html/ontap/bsag/GUID-31DC026F-2B78-425A-BA55-487782F9909A.html

Disable ALUA on igroups connecting using the NetApp DSM. 


1 http://my.opera.com/siyeclover/blog/show.dml/159596
2. http://searchvirtualstorage.techtarget.com/definition/Fibre-Channel-port-names
3. https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/anthonyv/entry/don_t_say_green_say_aqua1?lang=en