try to see what other vendors of fiber-channel sniffers are doing - e.g. finisar.
i think that the fact that a fiber-channel protocol analyzer cannot be found that runs on linux, implies there's good chance that this is not possible to do with commonly available hardware. you might have the option, thought, to combine their product with your product - but this all depends on whether you're trying to do something for in-house use, or for selling to others. --guy On Wed, 2006-09-13 at 17:29 +0300, Ophir Munk wrote: > One more thing to clarify: being a transparent sniffer means that my > device has 2 HBAs so it can "cut" a FC line in the middle and > transparently connect the 2 cut sides (i.e. serving as a bridge). > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ophir Munk > Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 5:06 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: RE: FC device driver for sniffing > > Thanks Oleg for your reply. > I would like to sniff as much as possible (including encrypted FC3 > layers). > I am aware of your statement that all HBAs attempt handling FC1-FC4 at > firmware level but I hope that I can still find an HBA which will allow > my CPU handle those layers by itself. > I would have settled for sniffing layer FC4 and above (which is feasible > in all FC HBA) but then I have another problem: I need my FC port > (interface) to be transparent to the peer FC port, to be able to connect > to any FC peer Port whatever it is: N_Port, F_Port, FL_Port, etc... > I could do so if I worked at FC1 layer, letting higher layers passing > through transparently, but if my HBA operates at FC4 layer, then I can > only be an N_Port and being connected to limited peer types. I would not > be a transparent sniffer anymore... > > Can anyone think of something? > > -----Original Message----- > > > I am looking for a Fiber Channel HBA (under Linux of course) that > > will operate in sniffing mode and will enable the inspection of all > > FC traffic at all layers: FC1-FC4. Common device drivers > > (e.g. Emulex and QLogic) handle most FC layers at firmware level > > while I need to send those packets to the kernel instead (for > > sniffing purposes). > > Can you explain what you are trying to sniff? All FC traffic through > an arbitrated loop that passes through your HBA? Even if it is > encrypted (in FC-3)? > > I cannot give you a statement regarding all HBAs, but I think that it > is one of the FC design goals that all the transmission protocols are > implemented in HW to offload them from the CPU. This probably means > FC-{1,2,3} at least. If this is correct then you _may_ be out of luck. > ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
