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What threshold value should be set for credit zero in Brocade switches?

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fabric-interconnect-and-management-switches
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brocade
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Applies to

  • Brocade Switches

Answer

  • Buffer credit zero counter increments are indications of credit latency. 
  • This indicates the number of times the port was unable to transmit frames because the transmit BB (buffer-to-buffer) credit was zero due to the delay in receiving R_RDY and not able to transmit the frames.
  • This counter incrementing is not necessarily a cause for concern but when you have a high number relative to the total number of frames transmitted (stat_ftx) then it can indicate degraded performance, such as congestion or a device affected by latency.
  • MAPS monitors the monitors the total latency over multiple window sizes with a different threshold for each time window. This allows MAPS to apply and monitor various levels of severity of latency at same time and at the VC level.
  • The monitoring window sizes and their corresponding thresholds are as follows:

70% of CRED_ZERO counter increment in 1 second.
50% of CRED_ZERO counter increment in 5 seconds.
30% of CRED_ZERO counter increment in 10 seconds.

  • The threshold values given above are default values and customizable using the FPI profiles.
  • However, it is  recommended to fix the issue with the device or devices causing this latency, and not change any buffer credit values instead.

Additional Information

  • When a violation occurs, the latency is reported as IO_PERF_IMPACT in the RASLog message; the message includes both the bandwidth loss amount and the corresponding time window. The message specifies the actual increment of the counter as a percentage.
    • The following example displays a typical RASLog entry with VC information for this condition. In this example, the bandwidth loss is 85% and the time window is 1 second.

2021/03/01-13:00:00, [MAPS-2070], 2692, SLOT 2 | FID 77, WARNING, Core_Switch, slot9 port19, E-Port 9/19, Condition=ALL_PORTS(DEV_LATENCY_IMPACT==IO_PERF_IMPACT), Current Value:[DEV_LATENCY_IMPACT, IO_PERF_IMPACT, (53.1% of 5 secs in VC: 9) ], RuleName=defALL_PORTS_IO_PERF_IMPACT, Dashboard Category=Fabric Performance
Impact.
 

  • The above MAPS message is not actually related to any buffer credit value, it's to do with with the tim_txcrd_z port stat counter, which indicates number of times that the port was unable to transmit frames because the transmit BB (buffer-to-buffer) credit was zero.
  • To understand 'tim_txcrd_z' events in porterrshow of Brocade switch please refer.
 
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