We use an application (used to be called AppIQ but has many names) that gets data via SMI-S for the SAN switches and it does not get all that much information coming out of SAN-OS. The release notes are full of caveats about SAN-OS. The vendor blames Cisco for this stating that the SMI-S api it lacking for information. VSAN zoning in particular is not all that good as far as reporting.

Mind you the Brocade SMI-S might provide more information but it is flakey more often than not in Director class switches. The application hangs on the Brocades all the time.

I would prefer to use SNMP as it has been around for ages and is relatively rock solid.

Stephen

Thank You Stephen.I am actually trying to write an application which can collect configuration information from switches supported by different vendors in the SAN. I assumed SMIS would be the best approach. Do you feel SNMP is a better option. Is there any information in the web I can use for reference?

SMI-S is probably (in theory) a better approach when you want to actually manage the switches such as zoning, etc. SMI-S was designed to "not really care" what switch or storage vendor it is.

I wont use AppIQ to do anything as I don't really trust it and to be honest, it is much quicker to do it on the switch itself.

Some of the issues with Cisco include:

The Cisco SMI-S provider does not always handle DomainID:PortNumber format properly when creating zones or reporting on zone content. Existing zones on Cisco switches with DomainID:PortNumber members may not be displayed correctly.

As far as collecting metrics, SNMP is much easier to use. I don't see MRTG offering to use SMI-S.

I just suppose its up to what you want to do. The industry push is towards SMI-S but so far, it has not lived up to my expectations.

HTH!!

Stephen.

Thank you. yes, I did happen to see the link, but the problem is I dont have the "cimserver" command listed in the CLI, when I try to enable the cimserver using the "config" command. I wonder if Fabricware OS providesSMIS support.

What Sanos version are you running?

The problem of not finding the cimserver support is with the switch running FabricWare OS, this is the version

Cisco MDS 9000 FabricWare

Software

system: 2.1(2)