SW-MIB

MIB Reference — IPNetwork Monitor · Updated September 09, 2026

All MIBsSW-MIB

Organization: Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.,

Last Updated: 2013-10-04

Category: Fibre Channel and SAN

Description: Manages Brocade Fibre Channel switch fabric, port state, zoning, and FC switch operations.

Start monitoring vendor-neutral, standards-based MIB, any SNMPv3-capable network device (SNMP engine identity/boot/clock status) with a free 30-day trial of IPNetwork Monitor. Import MIBs, browse SNMP OIDs, create custom SNMP monitors, configure alerts, and monitor any SNMP-enabled network device from a single console.

What Is SW-MIB?

SW-MIB is Brocade Communications' proprietary MIB for managing Fibre Channel switch fabrics used in storage area networks (SANs). It exposes data on switch and port state, ISL trunking, zoning, and fabric topology, alongside performance and traffic-analysis features. It is heavily used for monitoring hardware and software status of the switch: port operational/link state, trunk membership and master port assignment, and 'top talker' traffic monitoring for identifying heavy fabric consumers, in addition to general switch identity and firmware/configuration state. It typically works alongside or supplements the standard FIBRE-CHANNEL-FE-MIB and FC-MGMT-MIB rather than replacing them entirely, and SAN administrators frequently open SW-MIB in a MIB Browser to browse its trunk and zoning object tree before writing polling scripts. Deployment context is enterprise and data-center SAN fabrics built on Brocade (and OEM-rebadged) FC directors and switches.

IPNetwork Monitor allows you to monitor SNMP objects defined in SW-MIB. Use the built-in SNMP Monitoring Browser to explore available variables, view their current values and descriptions, and select the objects you want to monitor. You can then create SNMP monitors, configure thresholds, and receive alerts when monitored values change.

Supported Devices

  • Brocade Communications Fibre Channel switch/director, entire product line (including OEM-rebadged FC directors/switches)

Monitoring Examples

An admin would poll swTrunkTable/swTrunkEntry (indexed by swTrunkPortIndex) to confirm which ports belong to a given swTrunkGroupNumber and identify the swTrunkMaster port for that ISL trunk; a mismatch or missing master indicates a failed or degraded trunk. Enabling swTopTalkerMntMode and reading swTopTalkerMntTable with swTopTalkerMntNumEntries lets an operator see which fabric flows are consuming the most bandwidth, revealing congestion sources. swSwitchTrunkable indicates whether trunking is licensed/supported on the switch, useful for capacity planning.

What Can Be Monitored

  • ISL trunk membership and master port
  • trunk group assignment
  • top-talker traffic flows
  • trunking capability/license status
  • switch group index/topology
Imported Objects

From Brocade-REG-MIB

bcsiModulesOBJECT-IDENTITY
fcSwitchOBJECT-IDENTITY

From Brocade-TC

FcWwn
SwDomainIndex
SwNbIndex
SwPortIndex
SwSensorIndex
SwTrunkMaster

From FCMGMT-MIB

connUnitPortEntryOBJECT-TYPE
connUnitPortStatEntryOBJECT-TYPE

From SNMPv2-SMI

Counter32
Integer32
IpAddress
MODULE-IDENTITY
NOTIFICATION-TYPE
OBJECT-IDENTITY
OBJECT-TYPE

From SNMPv2-TC

DisplayString
TEXTUAL-CONVENTION
TruthValue

How to Use in IPNetwork Monitor

Example using swCpuUsage OID:

Select a Brocade Communications Fibre Channel switch or director as the target host to create a monitor — the SNMP service should be up and running on it. Click New Monitor, then check SNMP Custom on the Favorites tab, click Next, and confirm the host. On the next page, click Select... to open the built-in SNMP MIB Browser and type swCpuUsage into the Find box to locate it in the OID tree, then select it and click OK. It reports the switch's current CPU usage, as a percentage. On the monitor's Main parameters page you can set the target's SNMP port (default 161), credentials, polling interval, and other settings — see the SNMP Monitor help for details. On the State conditions and Alerting tabs, configure when the monitor should change state and trigger an alert; since this is an Integer32-type OID, Value bounds is the most useful condition here — trigger an alert if CPU usage exceeds 85%, a common warning threshold before sustained high load affects switching performance. Click Finish to create the monitor; you can adjust any parameter later.
OIDs

RFC description

Monitors Brocade Fibre Channel switch fabric configuration, ports, traps, and firmware operations.

Start monitoring Brocade Communications Fibre Channel switch/director, entire product line (port/trunk/zoning/fabric status) with a free 30-day trial of IPNetwork Monitor. Import MIBs, browse SNMP OIDs, create custom SNMP monitors, configure alerts, and monitor any SNMP-enabled network device from a single console.

Download SW-MIB