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we use netapp san for most of out storage. There are some host out there who use local disk as well.What is most efficient way to find out which server is using SAN. Does SAN management tool offer any such functionality?

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Look at which server HBAs are logged into your switch fabric or look on the NetApp at which servers and LUNs are mapped.

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  • I agree. Your fabric switch will be the most useful piece of equipment in terms of telling you what's active, and what's sending what volume of traffic. Nov 20, 2009 at 18:15
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You could use your zoning (SAN Access-control Lists) to see which servers are PERMITTED to talk on the SAN to other devices, but that ignores the possibility of asking for storage that never gets accurately used. That's like looking at a map to see what roads exist, and which roads may be driven on, but doesn't show you which are actually driven on.

You could also watch the fibrechannel transactions to see what exchanges happen, and who is talking to whom (in the RX_ID and OX_ID of the fibrechannel). That's what solutions such as Virtual Instruments VirtualWisdom do: by examining every single exchange, walking a Finite State Machine for each, and summarizing what happened at 8G speed for a bunch of fibre links. It's not free, but it tends to be accurate when you're interested in latency and performance of storage targets under demand/load, and whether some servers are never, ever, actually using SAN.

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  • Digging up ancient questions and appearing to answer them whilst subtly promoting products you're affiliated with is classic spammer activity. You'll start collecting flags if you continue along this path.
    – user9517
    Apr 17, 2014 at 7:39
  • Understood; I'm new, and not sure of the boundary between "based on experience" and "spamming". I want to say "hey, look, this exists, here's a name you can google if you really want to" but I'm not a sales guy, I don't want to sell products, I just want to answer things. At the same time, an old question might deserve an answer, and I'm a very detailed guy (hence the difference between "zoned" and "actually used"), if I see an unanswered question, I'd like a searchable answer out there. I guess I'm learning thresholds, but I don't want to collect bad karma. Thanks for the guidance! Apr 17, 2014 at 7:53

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