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Cornelis Technical Documentation

5.2.8. DeviceGroup Parameters

Device groups are defined within the DeviceGroups section. This section contains zero or more DeviceGroup sections.

The layout is as follows:

<DeviceGroups>
    <DeviceGroup>
      <!-- device group parameters -->
    </DeviceGroup>
</DeviceGroups>

Note

A working example configuration for DeviceGroup is provided in the default opafm.xml configuration file.

Each DeviceGroup section can have one or more devices (nodes and ports). Devices are matched against PathRecord and Multicast SA queries so that the returned SLID/DLID, PKey, SL, and so on are appropriate for the vFabric that contains the device(s).

Devices in a DeviceGroup but not found in the fabric are ignored.

When security is enabled for a vFabric, further measures will be taken, using PKeys, to secure the vFabric and ensure devices in other vFabrics cannot talk to devices in the given vFabric. Such security includes hardware enforced per-packet PKey checking and enforcement.

Note

To effectively use the DeviceGroups section, the administrator must carefully list the required devices in each DeviceGroup section. Commands, such as opasaquery and opareport, can help generate the list.

Note

Portions of opareport XML output, such as opareport -o brnodes -x, can be cut and pasted into the appropriate DeviceGroup sections.

There is a limit on the number of Secure VirtualFabrics a given device's port can be in. That limit is dependent on the PKey capabilities of the hardware.

The CN5000 Omni-Path support 1024 PKeys per port. Since the Fabric Manager can support up to 1000 vFabrics, a port's PKey table may be truncated if attempting to join more vFabrics than the hardware can support.

In a typical customer configuration, Switch Port 0 only needs to be part of the admin or default vFabric, for example, PKey 0xffff.

When using VirtualFabrics that are not secured, the Fabric Manager may consolidate multiple VirtualFabrics to a single PKey so that a configuration is valid that contains more vFabrics than the PKey capability.

The following table lists the parameters and their descriptions for the DeviceGroup subsection under the DeviceGroups section.

Table 9. DeviceGroup Parameters

Parameter

Description

Name

Name for the DeviceGroup.

Every DeviceGroup must have a unique Name. The name must be unique among all DeviceGroup names within an FM instance. When defined at the Common level, the name must be unique within all instances.

The name is limited to 64 characters and is case sensitive.

SystemImageGUID

Include all of the ports and nodes within the given system as identified by its 64-bit System Image GUID.

NodeGUID

Selects all of the ports in the node (a Fabric Interface or switch is a single node) as identified by its 64-bit node GUID.

PortGUID

Selects the given port as identified by its 64-bit port GUID.

NodeDesc

Selects all nodes matching the given name.

Limited wildcard support allows a single NodeDesc to match multiple nodes. * represents zero or more of alphabetic, numeric, and "-" ",""=" "." "_" 'characters. ? represents zero or one alphabetic, numeric, or "-" "," "=" "." "_" character. [##-##] represents numbers within a specified range.

While easier to configure, the use of this mechanism is less secure than the specification using GUIDs. It’s very easy for a system's node description to be changed.

You can also specify a port range to include on a matching node description. You can use the following syntax to specify a port range :[##-##] (i.e.: switch:[2-4] would match node name "switch", ports 2, 3, and 4).

NodeType

Selects all ports on all nodes of the specified node type. The following types may be specified:

  • FI - All Fabric Interfaces

  • SW - All Switches

The listed types are case insensitive.

By having multiple NodeType parameters, multiple node types can be combined as required in the same DeviceGroup section.

Select

Special selection cases.

The following selection cases can be used as an easy catch-all:

  • All - All Devices

  • Self - This FM instance's port

  • SWE0 - Every Switch Port 0 with Enhanced Port 0 in Capability Mask.

  • AllMgmtAllowed - Selects every SuperNIC port connected to a switch port that is configured to support a management node.

The listed selection cases are case insensitive.

By having multiple Select parameters, multiple selections can be combined as required in the same DeviceGroup section.

IncludeGroup

This will include all the devices in the given DeviceGroup.

Loops (including the parent DeviceGroup) are not allowed.

It is valid to have more than one specification match the same device; in which case, the device is only included in the DeviceGroup once.

There is a nesting limit of 32.



Note

The SystemImageGUID, NodeGUID, PortGUID, and NodeDesc for devices presently in the fabric can be identified by using opareport or opareport -o comps. If required opareport -x or opareport -o comps -x provides an XML output from which individual NodeGUID, PortGUID,SystemImageGUID, or NodeDesc lines can be cut/pasted into the required DeviceGroup sections.