Solaris: Using Fibre Channel (FC) Loopback Plug or Private Loop Cable to Test FC HBA Port That Is In a Offline State (Doc ID 1610207.1)

Last updated on FEBRUARY 23, 2024

Applies to:

Goal

The quickest way to determine if the issue is with the fc hba card itself or something outside the server/fc hba is to use a fc loopback plug or cable (see "Qlogic 16/32Gb FC HBA cards" note below for exception).

Note: Make sure to correctly determine where the fc hba card and port to be tested are located.

<Document 1282491.1> Solaris: How to Identify Oracle[TM] Branded Fibre Channel (FC) HBA, CNA/FCoE and Universal 16GB HBA Cards and Their Slot Locations

First verify conf file is properly setup, see doc:

<Document 1608872.1> Solaris Fibre Channel (FC) Loopback Plugs and Private Loop Cables Will Not Work If "point-to-point only" Option Is Selected

Second check FC HBA port Light Tx and Rx Power Levels

<Document 2345039.1> How to check Fibre Channel (FC) HBA port Light Tx and Rx Power Levels

FC HBA Port being offline can be caused by many things.

- Issue on FC Switch side (sfp/port)
- Bad cable
- Bad patch panel, splices
- Bad SFP
- Bad HBA
- Human error (unplugging cables, reconnecting to wrong port)

Then if needed proceed with procedure in Solution section below.

The following steps require someone physically on-site by the server/FC switch/storage. Per Oracle standard contract customer must have personnel onsite by equipment to perform basic isolation and troubleshooting and work with Oracle remote support. Basic isolation and troubleshooting will decrease time to resolve issue by determining if issue is on Oracle Server/FC HBA side or outside the Oracle Server/FC HBA perhaps in the cabling, FC Switches and/or FC Storage (ie. NON-Oracle issue). Then appropriate Oracle or NON-Oracle support vendor can be engaged more quickly to address issue. Unless there are special provisions in your contract a Oracle Tech will not be dispatched to your site to perform basic isolation and troubleshooting.

If Oracle support is engaged provide info per doc

Fibre Channel (FC) Server-Based Connectivity Issues - Basic information and data needed by Oracle support (Doc ID 1449557.1)

What if anything has been attempted to resolve this issue? by who? when?

If using loopback to test per doc
Solaris: Using Fibre Channel (FC) Loopback Plug or Private Loop Cable to Test FC HBA Port That Is In a Offline State (Doc ID 1610207.1)
- which test were done? date and time? screen activity captured?

What is date and time troubleshooting/testing was done?

Record HBA LED patterns - How to interpret Oracle Fibre Channel (FC) HBA port LED patterns (Doc ID 1399644.1)

Solution

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