Search <book_title>...

Veritas NetBackup™ SAN Client and Fibre Transport Guide

Last Published: 2020-09-14

Product(s): NetBackup (8.3.0.1)

How to identify the HBA ports

If the computer on which you mark ports contains multiple HBAs, it may be difficult to determine how the World Wide Names (WWNs) relate to the HBAs. The NetBackup nbhba command that marks the HBA ports requires the port WWN. The port WWN also may be known as the World Wide Port Name (WWPN).

To avoid problems, you can install all of the QLogic HBAs in a NetBackup media server that has no other Fibre Channel HBAs installed. You can mark all HBA ports and then install the HBAs in the appropriate NetBackup media servers.

Warning:

A QLogic HBA may exist as a chipset on a motherboard. To avoid problems, you should determine if the computer contains built-in QLogic ports.

If you cannot mark ports in a computer that has only the QLogic HBAs that you want to mark, the following may help:

The HBA may identify the port WWNs on the card. Examine the HBA for the WWNs.
The Fibre Channel switch may display WWNs for attached and operational HBA ports.
The SAN utility software may provide the capability to list the WWNs of the HBA ports.
On Solaris 10, you can list WWNs for native drivers by using the fcinfo hba-port command.
The NetBackup nbhba command -l option lets you compare the port WWN addresses easily. (The computer must be in nbhba mode.) For the QLA-234x series, the port WWNs on the same card differ in the second byte and the sixth byte. The following example shows two, two-port HBAs. Lines 1 and 2 are one HBA; lines 3 and 4 are the other HBA.
```
/usr/openv/netbackup/bin/admincmd/nbhba -l
1 2312 21:00:00:E0:8B:83:9D:A1 "QLA2342 " 0 0 101
2 2312 21:01:00:E0:8B:A3:9D:A1 "QLA2342 " 1 0 101
3 2312 21:00:00:E0:8B:8F:28:7B "QLA2342 " 0 0 101
4 2312 21:01:00:E0:8B:AF:28:7B "QLA2342 " 1 0 101
```
This output also shows that the ports are in initiator mode. The second rightmost column shows 0, and the rightmost column does not begin with 8.
If the HBA contains LEDs on the metal mounting bracket, the color changes to green after you mark a port (yellow is initiator mode). (The computer must be in nbhba mode.) You can see if you marked the ports in the correct card. If you did not, you can return those ports to initiator mode and then mark other ports until you mark the correct ones.