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DS8000 Concurrent Code Loads may expose a Brocade switch defect causing the switch to reboot continuously

Flashes (Alerts)


Abstract

A DS8000 (DS8100/DS8300/DS8700/DS8800/DS8870) Concurrent Code Load (CCL) may change the data sent in a vendor specific field in a Fabric Login (FLOGI) that a Brocade switch uses to enable vendor specific features. Interpretation of this field as Brocade specific data may result in switch reboots, and a loss of access to DS8000 data.

Content

Customers with Brocade switches running FOS 7.0 levels up through 7.1.1 or 7.2.0 are exposed to a problem that causes reboot of the switch if a specific pattern of bits is received in the Vendor Version Level (VVL) field in a Fibre Channel Fabric Login frame. This frame is sent by devices upon link initialization. Link initialization is performed as DS8000 host adapter code loads are performed. It is possible after a DS8000 code load, that non-zero data is present in the VVL field of the fabric login. Although setting of non-zero data is allowed by any device for device specific reasons, Brocade misinterprets the data as Brocade data and if the data satisfies a specific pattern of data, the Brocade switch will reboot.

Once hit, the same data is used for subsequent link initialization and reboots may continue.

This exposure is currently understood to be rare, since the specific pattern of data has only been seen twice at clients, once on a DS8700, and once on a DS8800, and both on FICON configurations, but other configurations are expected to be exposed to this rare issue.


Mitigation

Before performing DS8000 CCL upgrades on DS8000s attached to Brocade switches, customers should upgrade prior any attached Brocade switches running FOS 7.0 to levels that contain the fix for this issue.

Fix available in

Main Branch and Maintenance Releases or higher

    • 7.1.1a, 7.1.2, 7.2.0a & 7.2.1
CVRs available for v7.0.0c and v7.1.0c (See your switch vendor to evaluate and provide these)
    • v7.0.0c_cvr_brcd_381210_32, and v7.1.0c_cvr_brcd_445814_02
IBM Open systems support
    • v7.1.1b, 7.1.1c
    • intent to support 7.2.0d (to be released any day now) and 7.2.1a (to be released in March).
IBM FICON
    • 7.2.0d
Other than that IBM FICON users would have to go to one of the CVRs on a branch they are currently on for the fix, either  
    • v7.1.0c_cvr_brcd_445814_04, which would be the latest branch on 7.1.0, or
    • v7.0.0c_cvr_brcd_381210_33 which would be the latest branch on 7.0.0.

Resolution
Apply recommended FOS levels on Brocade switches.

The DS8000 firmware mitigation to eliminate this exposure is now available in the bundles identified below:

DS8870: R7.2 SP3 - Bundle 87.21.30.0 released on 2014-06-27

DS8800: R6.3 SP7 - Bundle 86.31.110.0 released on 2014-03-31

DS8700: R6.3 SP7 - Bundle 76.31.92.0 released on 2014-03-31

DS8100/DS8300: R4.3 SP18 - Bundle 64.36.99.0 released on 2014-06-27

Code loads to these to be specified firmware bundles will be safe for any supported Brocade switch FOS level.

Change History: 2014-04-15 Original Copy Published

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Document Information

Modified date:
25 September 2022

UID

ssg1S1004578

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