| Q1. |
What problems does the HP B-series SAN Network Advisor Software solve for data center environments? |
| A1. |
HP B-series SAN Network Advisor provides comprehensive management of data center fabrics?including configuration, monitoring, diagnostics, best-practices validation, and management of the B-series Directors, Switches, and Host Bus Adapters (HBAs).
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| Q2. |
What are the most important capabilities of HP B-series SAN Network Advisor Software? |
| A2. |
Some of the key capabilities include:
- Intelligent dashboard: Presents an at-a-glance summary of all discovered B-series devices, including inventory and event summary information
- User management: Allows flexible definitions of administrator roles and responsibilities with Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) for both SAN and IP management
- SAN configuration: Provides comprehensive support for Fibre Channel SANs with configuration, zoning, and visualization capabilities, including end-to-end HBA, storage, SAN fabric, and Layer 2 switch topology views
- SAN diagnostics: Helps meet service level agreements via proactive alerting and advanced SAN diagnostic capabilities, including SAN port diagnostics, bottleneck detection, and best-practices validation of SAN configurations
- FCoE/DCB management: Provides comprehensive Layer 2 configuration, with easy-to-use Data Center Bridging (DCB) interface administration, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) port and trunk configurations, FCoE login management, and QoS
- FCIP: Enables management of Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP) tunnels across WAN links, including support for managing multiple FCIP circuits, configuration of FCIP failover circuits, automated setting of compression parameters, configurable assignment of FCIP tunnel bandwidth to QoS classes, and support of multi-gigabit FCIP circuits
- Security management: Offers robust security administration by integrating with leading Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) solutions such as RADIUS, Active Directory, and TACACS+
- Configuration management: Utilizes an easy-to-use Device Configuration wizard to configure and manage dynamic groups of devices while allowing administrators to perform Power over Ethernet (PoE) management and Virtual LAN (VLAN) configuration, among other tasks
- Command Line Interface (CLI): Provides an interface to configure and deploy CLI-based templates across one or more IP devices
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| Q3. |
What enhancements have been made to management in HP B-series SAN Network Advisor Software? |
| A3. |
The latest version of HP B-series SAN Network Advisor Software provides a wide range of enhancements for SAN management, including:
- Policy Monitor: Enables proactive (on-demand or scheduled) checking of SAN fabric conformance to configuration best practices
- Bottleneck Detection: Detects bottlenecks on a per-switch and per-port basis, and includes a map that dynamically highlights any bottlenecks in connectivity
- Extensive port-level diagnostics: Includes electrical, optical, measured link distance, and link traffic tests
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| Q4. |
What options are available for sites running HP B-series Data Center Fabric Manager Software to migrate to HP B-series SAN Network Advisor Software? |
| A4. |
Direct migration from Data Center Fabric Manager (DCFM®) v10.4.x to SAN Network Advisor is fully supported. Following are the options for sites running earlier versions of DCFM:
- DCFM v10.1.x: First upgrade to DCFM 10.4.x and then to SAN Network Advisor v11.1
- DCFM v10.3.x: First upgrade to SAN Network Advisor 11.0.x and then to SAN Network Advisor v11.1
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| Q5. |
How is HP B-series SAN Network Advisor Software sold? |
| A5. |
HP B-series SAN Network Advisor Software is available with flexible package and licensing options for a wide range of network deployments and future network expansion. The no-charge SAN Network Advisor Professional offering is included with any B-series hardware purchase.
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| Q6. |
Are evaluation copies of HP B-series SAN Network Advisor Software available? |
| A6. |
Yes, HP provides fully functional evaluation versions that operate for 75 days after installation. The evaluation software can easily be transitioned to the fully licensed product with the purchase of a software license key.
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| Q7. |
What are the different HP B-series SAN Network Advisor Software options? |
| A7. |
HP B-series SAN Network Advisor Software will be available in three types of bundles:
- No-charge SAN Network Advisor Professional Software: Up to 1000 switch ports, one fabric, B-series Fabric OS only
- For-charge SAN Network Advisor Professional Plus Software: Up to 2560 switch ports and four fabrics
- For-charge SAN Network Advisor Enterprise Software: Up to 9000 switch ports and 24 fabrics. This bundle is required for B-series Director and FICON management
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