BNA 14.4.1 upgrade to DELLEMC CMCNE 14.4.4

Posted on November 27, 2019 by workinghardinit

Introduction

What is a BNA 14.4.1 upgrade to DELLEMC CMCNE 14.4.4 you might ask? If you are managing a Fibre Channel fabric it is quite common to have Brocade switches running. In that case, I hope you have moved on from the Java web client to the free version of Broadcom Network Assistant (BNA). The free client was not the best end-user experience and gave us a lot of hassle just to keep running. See Manage Your Brocade Fibre Channel Switch with recent Java & browser versions.

BNA works better in a modern environment. It offers more functionality and provides for better and easier user experience. BNA itself is on the way out (EOL 2022) and will be replaced with SANNav as the Java runtime sage is reaching a point where just about the entire world has decided it is unsustainable as a future approach to management tools.

But that will take a while and we need a basic free tool to get the job done. Sure older versions still work but staying up to date is a good thing. On top of that, one of the most annoying things about BNA was the lack of support for Windows Server 2016/2019. Well BNA 14.4.4 solved that issue. So let’s upgrade! Well,l it turns out we need to do an upgrade from BNA 14.4.1 upgrade to DELLEMC CMCNE 14.4.4. Let me explain that.

Finding Brocade Network Analyzer 14.4.4

On the Brocade site, the downloads for BNA 14.4.4 are darn near impossible to find or you don’t have access to them. And if you google for that you’ll find a lot of people trying but failing to find it. It is also there that you will find the information that BNA will be replaced.

The good news is that as a DELL customer you can normally download the OEM branded version of this software. In the past, this used to be found at https://portal.broadcom.com/web/support/dell but that is no longer there. Today in the DELLEMC world, this is called Connectrix Manager – Converged Network Edition.

We are looking for version 14.4.4 and yes on the DELL website (you need to create an acount to login) you will find it at https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/product-support/product/connectrix-manager-converged-network-edition/drivers. You want 14.4.4 as it supports Windows Server 2016/2019 but also because it fixes some issues with 14.4.3.

BNA 14.4.2 upgrade to DELLEMC CMCNE 14.4.4 — Connectrix Manager – Converged Network Edition 14.4.4

So we download it and we start our upgrade process. 14.4.4 fixed an issue with 14.4.3 that causes issues with importing an existing config by the way. So use 14.4.4.

The install process in pictures

BNA 14.4.1 upgrade to DELLEMC CMCNE 14.4.4 — Click Next

Accept default install path or choose a custom one

The upgrade process in pictures

Click next to continue with the data migration process.

Change if needed, otherwise, go with the defaults

If your company policy allows it, you can opt into the improvement program.

Kick of the migration. Pay attention to the remark about the services window that must be closed. Also, note that the client might not start immediately as the service has to be up and running first.

Log in! Note you might want to wait a while to make sure the service has started.

Success! Now you can also upgrade your virtual machine from W2K12R2 to W2K19.

That’s it. You performed a BNA 14.4.1 upgrade to DELLEMC CMCNE 14.4.4

Upgrade to Windows Server 2019

Finally, we upgrade the virtual machine OS to Windows Server 2019. With 14.4.4 this is possible and we can get rid of the legacy OS we had to introduce or keep around just to run BNA. Good news all around.

Success, we have 14.4.4 running on our Windows Server 2019 management virtual machine.

Conclusion

You can become happy consultants or customers. By installing BNA 14.4.4 you keep your network fabric management software up to date. Last but not least, you can upgrade the OS version of the virtual machines running it to Windows Server 2019. This will keep us going for a couple of years in a modern, secure and capable environment until the successor is clear and available to all. I hope this helps some of you out.

Add HBAs to SC Series Servers with Add-DellScPhysicalServerHba

Posted on June 25, 2018 by workinghardinit

Introduction

Before I dump the script to add HBAs to SC Series Servers with Add-DellScPhysicalServerHba on you, first some context. I have been quite busy with multiple SAN migrations. A bunch of older DELLEMC SC Series (Compellent) to newer All Flash Arrays (see My first Dell SC7020(F) Array Solution) When I find the time I’ll share some more PowerShell snippets I use to make such efforts a bit easier. It’s quite addictive and it allows you migrate effectively and efficiently.

In the SC Series we create cluster objects in which we place server objects. That make life easier on the SAN end.

Those server objects are connected to the SAN via FC or iSCSI. For this we need to add the HBAs to the servers after we have set up the zoning correctly. That’s a whole different subject.

This is tedious work in the user interface, especially when there are many WWN entries visible that need to be assigned. Mistakes can happen. This is where automation comes in handy and a real time saver when you have many clusters/nodes and multiple SANs. So well show you how to grab the WWN info your need from the cluster nodes to add HBAs to SC Series Servers with Add-DellScPhysicalServerHba.

Below you see a script that loops through all the nodes of a cluster and gets the HBA WWNs we need. I than adds those WWNs to the SC Series server object. In another blog post I’ll share so snippets to gather the cluster info needed to create the cluster objects and server objects on the Compellent SC Series SAN. In this blog post we’ll assume the server have objects has been created.

We leverage the Dell Storage Manager – 2016 R3.20 Release (Public PowerShell SDK for Dell Storage API). I hope it helps.

Add HBAs to SC Series Servers with Add-DellScPhysicalServerHba

function Get-WinOSHBAInfo
#Basically add 3 nicely formated properties to the HBA info we get via WMI
#These are the NodeWWW, the PortWWN and the FabricName. The raw attributes
#from WMI are not readily consumable. WWNs are given with a ":" delimiter.
#This can easiliy be replaced or removed depending on the need. 
{ 
param ($ComputerName = "localhost")
 
# Get HBA Information
$Port = Get-WmiObject -ComputerName $ComputerName -Class MSFC_FibrePortHBAAttributes -Namespace "root\WMI"
$HBAs = Get-WmiObject -ComputerName $ComputerName -Class MSFC_FCAdapterHBAAttributes  -Namespace "root\WMI"
 
$HBAProperties = $HBAs | Get-Member -MemberType Property, AliasProperty | Select -ExpandProperty name | ? {$_ -notlike "__*"}
$HBAs = $HBAs | Select-Object $HBAProperties
$HBAs | % { $_.NodeWWN = ((($_.NodeWWN) | % {"{0:x2}" -f $_}) -join ":").ToUpper() }
 
ForEach ($HBA in $HBAs) {
 
    # Get Port WWN
    $PortWWN = (($Port |? { $_.instancename -eq $HBA.instancename }).attributes).PortWWN
    $PortWWN = (($PortWWN | % {"{0:x2}" -f $_}) -join ":").ToUpper()
    Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -InputObject $HBA -Name PortWWN -Value $PortWWN
    # Get Fabric WWN
    $FabricWWN = (($Port |? { $_.instancename -eq $HBA.instancename }).attributes).FabricName
    $FabricWWN = (($FabricWWN | % {"{0:x2}" -f $_}) -join ":").ToUpper()
    Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -InputObject $HBA -Name FabricWWN -Value $FabricWWN
 
    # Output
    $HBA
}
}
#Grab the cluster nane in a variable. Adapt thiscode to loop through all your clusters.
$ClusterName = "DEMOLABCLUSTER"
#Grab all cluster node 
$ClusterNodes = Get-Cluster -name $ClusterName | Get-ClusterNode

#Create array of custom object to store ClusterName, the cluster nodes and the HBAs
$ServerWWNArray = @()

ForEach ($ClusterNode in $ClusterNodes) {
    #We loop through the cluster nodes the cluster and for each one we grab the HBAs that are relevant.
    #My lab nodes have different types installed up and off, so I specify the manufacturer to get the relevant ones.
    #Adapt to your needs. You ca also use modeldescription to filter out FCoE vers FC HBAs etc.
    $AllHBAPorts = Get-WinOSHBAInfo -ComputerName $ClusterNode.Name | Where-Object {$_.Manufacturer -eq "Emulex Corporation"} 

    #The SC Series SAN PowerShell takes the WWNs without any delimiters, so we dump the ":" for this use case.
    $WWNs = $AllHBAPorts.PortWWN -replace ":", ""
    $NodeName = $ClusterNode.Name

    #Build a nice node object with the info and add it to the $ServerWWNArray 
    $ServerWWNObject = New-Object psobject -Property @{
        WWN         = $WWNs
        ServerName  = $NodeName 
        ClusterName = $ClusterName         
    }
    $ServerWWNArray += $ServerWWNObject
}

#Show our array
($ServerWWNArray).WWN

#just a demo to list what's in the array
ForEach ($ServerNode in $ServerWWNArray) {
    
    $Servernode.ServerName
    $Servernode.WWN
}

#Now add the HBA to the servers in the cluster.
#This is part of a bigger script that gathers all HBA/WWN infor for all clusters
#and creates the Compellent SC Series Cluster Object, the Servers, add the HBA's
#I'll post more snippets in futire blog post to show how to do that and give you
#some ideas for your own environment.

import-module "C:\SysAdmin\Tools\DellStoragePowerShellSDK\DellStorage.ApiCommandSet.dll"

#region SetUpDSMAccess Variable & credentials
Get-DellScController
$DsmHostName = "MyDSMHost.domain.local"
$DsmUserName = "MyUserName"
# Prompt for the password
$DsmPassword = Read-Host -AsSecureString -Prompt "Please enter the password for $DsmUserName"

# Create the connection
Connect-DellApiConnection -HostName $DsmHostName -User $DsmUserName -Password $DsmPassword -Save MyConnection 

#Assign variables
$ConnName = "MyConnection "
$ScName = "MySCName"

# Get the Storage Center
$StorageCenter = Get-DellStorageCenter -ConnectionName $ConnName -Name $ScName


ForEach ( $ClusterNodeWWNInfo in  $ServerWWNArray ) {
    # Get the server
    $Server = Get-DellScPhysicalServer -StorageCenter $StorageCenter -Name $ClusterNodeWWNInfo.ServerName
    $PortType = [DellStorage.Api.Enums.FrontEndTransportTypeEnum] "FibreChannel"
  
    ForEach ($WWN in $ClusterNodeWWNInfo.WWN)
    {
     # Add the array of WWNs for the cluster node and add them to the SC Compellent server
      Add-DellScPhysicalServerHba -ConnectionName $ConnName `
     -Instance $Server `
     -HbaPortType $PortType `
     -WwnOrIscsiName $WWN  -Confirm:$false
     }
}

Manage Your Brocade Fibre Channel Switch with recent Java & browser versions

Posted on June 6, 2017 by workinghardinit

Introduction

I was in the process of setting up a new jump server a management station server virtual machine on Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V. The guest was also Windows Server 2016 (desktop install). That station needed to be used to manage some aging Brocade fibre channel switches. With the default setting and links this will give you some headaches and some solution require you to keep older and insecure browser or java versions installed. We’ll show you how to get GUI access to your FC switches without needing to do that so you can manage your Brocade Fibre channel switch with recent Java & browser versions. Well not all of them, but it can be done with IE 11 and Firefox 52.0.1 (at the time of writing).

Another solution is to use the CLI naturally.

Manage Your Brocade Fibre Channel Switch with recent Java & browser versions

It’s OK to use the most recent Java version available. At the moment that I wrote this blog post that was Java 1.8.0.121. I can’t give guarantees other than that, but for now that does work.

Instead of navigating to http or https to just the IP address which will send you to https://x.x..x.x/switchexplorer you need to create a shortcut link to the following: https://10.30.2.2/switchexplorer_installed.html (or http://10.30.2.2/switchexplorer_installed.html if you have not enabled https on your switch).

Like this:

I normally change the icon to the shortcut to indicate it’s pointing to a network device. I actually created some ico files based on an image of brocades Fibre Channel switches that I use for this. I just place then under C:\Programdata\BrocadeFC for safe keeping together with a cop of the short cuts. On the management station, I add them to the desktop for easy access. Below is a screenshot of my Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016 (Desktop Experience) management station.

But we’re not there yet. You need to go to Java configuration and select the Security Tab. Make sure Enable Java Content in the browser is enabled. Leave the security at high but don’t forget to add the IP addresses of your Brocade switch to the Exception Site List.

You’ll need to add http or https or both depending on your situation. I think we can all agree we should go for https in this day and age.

In Firefox when you launch the shortcut you’ll get asked what app to use for opening this file.

Make sure you point it to javaws.exe (in C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre1.8.0_121\bin) if that’s not the case.

Also, check to “Do this automatically for files like this from now on” for faster access during normal operations.

In Internet Explorer allow the add-on “Java SE Runtime Environment 8 Update 121 from Oracle America Inc.” to run.

When it comes to Chrome, this doesn’t’ work anymore. See https://www.java.com/en/download/faq/chrome.xml

When the application is launched, depending on the age of the fibre channel switch and the version of the firmware you’ll be greeted by a more or less harsh security warning.

Check the “I accept the risk and want to run this application” or “Do not show this again for this app from the publisher above” depending on the case. This also allows for easy access the next time you launch the shortcut. The app will launch and you’ll be greeted by the login screen.

Juts log in and there’s nothing more to it. You can now manage your FC switches from Firefox again.

Hope this helps some of you out there that come across this issue.

Upgrade the firmware on a Brocade Fibre Channel Switch

Posted on December 15, 2015 by workinghardinit

NOTE: content available as pdf download here.

Upgrade the firmware on a Brocade Fibre Channel Switch

In order to maintain a secure, well-functioning fibre channel fabric over the years you’ll need to perform a firmware upgrade now and again. Brocade fibre channel switches are expensive but they do deliver a very solid experience. This experience is also obvious in the firmware upgrade process. We’ll walk through this as a guide on how to upgrade the firmware on a Brocade fibre channel switch environment.

Have a FTP/SFTP/SCP server in place

If you have some switches in your environment you’re probably already running a TFTP or FTP server for upgrading those. For TFTP I use the free but simple and good one provided by Solarwinds. They also offer a free SCP/SFTP solution. For FTP it depends either we have IIS with FTP (and FTPS) set up or we use FileZilla FTP Server which also offers SFTP and FTPS. In any case this is not a blog about these solutions. If you’re responsible for keeping network gear in tip top shape you should this little piece of infrastructure set up for both downloads and uploads of configurations (backup/restore), firmware and boot code. If you don’t have this, it’s about time you set one up sport! A virtual machine will do just fine and we back it up as well as we store our firmware and backups on that VM as well. For mobile scenarios I just keep TFTP & FilleZilla Server installed and ready to go on my laptop in a stopped state until I need ‘m.

Getting the correct Fabric OS firmware

It’s up to your SAN & switch vendors to inform you about support for firmware releases. Some OEMs will publish those on their own support sites some will coordinate with Brocade to deliver them as download for specific models sold and supported by them. Dell does this. To get it select your switch version on the dell support site and under downloads you’ll find a link.

That link takes you to the Brocade download page for DELL customers.

Make sure you download the correct firmware for your switch. Read the release notes and make sure you’re the hardware you use is supported. Do your homework, go through the Brocade Fabric OS (FOS) 7.x Compatibility Matrix. There is no reason to shoot yourself in the foot when this can be avoided. I always contact DELL Compellent CoPilot support to verify the version is support with the Compellent Storage Center firmware.

When you have downloaded the firmware for your operating system (I’m on Windows) unzip it and place the content of the resulting folder in your FTP root or desired folder. I tend to put the active firmware under the root and archive older one as they get replaced. So that root looks like this. You can copy it there over RDP or via a FTP client. If the FTP server is running your laptop, it’s just a local copy.

The upgrade process

A word on upgrading the firmware

I you move from a single major level/version to the next or upgrade within a single major level/version you can do non-disruptive upgrades with a High Availability (HA) reboot meaning that while the switch reloads it will not impact the data flow, the FC ports stay online. Everything keeps running, bar that you lose connectivity to the switch console for a short time.

Some non-disruptive upgrade examples:

V6.3.2e to V6.4.3g

V7.4.0a to v7.4.0b

V7.3.0c to v7.4.0b

Note that this way you can step from and old version to a new one step by step without ever needing downtime. I have always found this a really cool capability.

You can find Brocades recommendations on what the desired version of a major release is in https://www.brocade.com/content/dam/common/documents/content-types/target-path-selection-guide/brocade-fos-target-path.pdf

I tend to way a bit with the latest as the newer ones need some wrinkles taken care of as we can see now switch 7.4.1 which is susceptible to memory leaks.

Some disruptive upgrade examples (FC ports go down):

7.1.2b to 7.4.0a

6.4.3.h to 7.4.0b

Our upgrade here from 7.4.0a to 7.4.0b is non-disruptive as was the upgrade from to 7.3.0c to 7.4.0a. You can jump between version more than one version but it will require a reboot that takes the switch out of action. Not a huge issue if you have (and you should) to redundant fabrics but it can be avoided by moving between versions one at the time. IT takes longer but it’s totally non-disruptive which I consider a good thing in production. I reserve disruptive upgrades for green field scenarios or new switches that will be added to the fabric after I’m done upgrading.

Prior to the upgrade

There is no need to run a copy run or write memory on a brocade FC switch. It persists what you do and you have to save and activate your zoning configuration anyway when you configure those (cfgsave). All other changes are persisted automatically. So in that regards you should be all good to go.

Make a backup copy of your configuration as is. This gives you a way out if the shit hits the fan and you need to restore to a switch you had to reset or so. Don’t forget to do this for the switches in both fabrics, which normally you have in production!

You log on switch with your username and password over telnet or ssh (I use putty or kitty)

MySwitchName:admin> configupload

Hit ENTER

Select the protocol of the backup target server you are using

Protocol (scp, ftp, sftp, local) [ftp]: ftp

Hit ENTER

Server Name or IP Address [host]: 10.1.1.12

HIT ENTER

Enter the user, here I’m using anonymous

User Name [user]: anonymous

Hit ENTER

Give the backup file a clear and identifying name

Path/Filename [<home dir>/config.txt]: MySwitchNameConfig20151208.txt

Hit ENTER

Select all (default)

Section (all|chassis|switch [all]): all

configUpload complete: All selected config parameters are uploaded

That’s it. You can verify you have a readable backup file on your FTP server now.

The Upgrade

A production environment normally has 2 fabrics for redundancy. Each fabric exists out of 1 or more switches. It’s wise to start with one fabric and complete the upgrade there. Only after all is proven well there should you move on to the second fabric. To avoid any impact on production I tend plan these early or late in the day also avoiding any backup activity. Depending on your environment you could see some connectivity drops on any FC-IP links (remote SAN replication FC to IP ó IP to FC) but when you work one fabric at the time you can mitigate this during production hours via redundancy.

Log on to first brocade fabric switch with your username and password over telnet or ssh (I use putty or kitty). At the console prompt type

firmwaredownload

This is the command for the non-disruptive upgrade. If you need or want to do a disruptive one, you’ll need to use firmwaredownload –s.

Hit Enter

Enter the IP address of the FTP server (of the name if you have name resolution set up and working)

Server Name or IP address: 10.1.1.12

User name: I fill out anonymous as this gives me the best results. Leaving it blank doesn’t always work depending on your FTP server.

User Name: anonymous

Enter the path to the firmware, I placed the firmware folder in the root of the FTP server so that is

Path: /v7.4.0b

Hit enter

At the password prompt leave the password empty. Anonymous FTP doesn’t need one.

Password:

Hit enter, the upgrade process preparation starts. After the checks have passed you’ll be asked if you want to continue. We enter Y for yes and hit Enter. The firmware download starts and you’ll see lost of packages being downloaded. Just let it run.

This goes on for a while. At one point you’ll see the prom update happening.

When it’s done it starts removing unneeded files and when done it will inform you that the download is done and the HA rebooting starts. HA stands for high availability. Basically it fails over to the next CP (Control Processor, see http://www.brocade.com/content/html/en/software-upgrade-guide/FOS_740_UPGRADE/GUID-20EC78ED-FA91-4CA6-9044-E6700F4A5DA1.html) while the other one reboots and loads the new firmware. All this happens while data traffic keeps flowing through the switch. Pretty neat.

When you keep a continuous ping to the FC switch running during the HA reboot you’ll see a short drop in connectivity.

But do realize that since this is a HA reboot the data traffic is not interrupted at all. When you get connectivity back you SSH to switch and verify the reported version, which here is now 7.4.0b.

That’s it. Move on to the switch in the same fabric until you’re done. But stop there before you move on to your second fabric (failure domain). It pays to go slow with firmware upgrades in an existing environment.

This doesn’t just mean waiting a while before installing the very latest firmware to see whether any issues pop up in the forums. It also means you should upgrade one fabric at the time and evaluate the effects. If no problems arise, you can move on with the second fabric. By doing so you will always have a functional fabric even if you need to bring down the other one in order to resolve an issue.

On the other hand, don’t leave fabrics unattended for years. Even if you have no functional issues, bugs are getting fixed and perhaps more importantly security issues are addressed as well as browser and Java issues for GUI management. I do wish that the 6.4.x series of the firmware got an update in order for it to work well with Java 8.x.

Working Hard In IT

My view on IT from the trenches

Category Archives: Fibre Channel

BNA 14.4.1 upgrade to DELLEMC CMCNE 14.4.4

Introduction

Finding Brocade Network Analyzer 14.4.4

The install process in pictures

The upgrade process in pictures

Upgrade to Windows Server 2019

Conclusion

Add HBAs to SC Series Servers with Add-DellScPhysicalServerHba

Introduction

Add HBAs to SC Series Servers with Add-DellScPhysicalServerHba

Manage Your Brocade Fibre Channel Switch with recent Java & browser versions

Introduction

Manage Your Brocade Fibre Channel Switch with recent Java & browser versions

Upgrade the firmware on a Brocade Fibre Channel Switch

Upgrade the firmware on a Brocade Fibre Channel Switch

Have a FTP/SFTP/SCP server in place

Getting the correct Fabric OS firmware

The upgrade process

A word on upgrading the firmware

Prior to the upgrade

The Upgrade