The fine art of Fibre Channel troubleshooting

This vendor-written tech primer has been edited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, however readers should note it will likely favor the submitter's approach.

Art as things are a science

Troubleshooting Fibre Channel networks can be as much an art as things are a science, however there are some basic best practices you can follow to reduce the guessing and speed resolution. Here are 10 tips to help you get to the bottom of pesky problems:

7. Time correlation is critical to determine cause and effect. When you are looking at long time windows, you often can't tell which event preceded another, and that's when you get finger-pointing from one vendor to another. Try to find the finest granularity in your historical reporting. A one-minute interval is often not too granular.