ANSI/INCITS 399-2004

The rise of Storage Area Networks (SANs) has generated a need for extended areas of management withinthe storage environment. With the introduction of Fibre Channel fabric switches, the SANs being deployednow and in the future rely on fabrics for both I/O connectivity and management services. The switched fabrichas become an essential source for management information and a target for control. Managementapplications would benefit from a robust and consistent interface for monitoring and controlling themanagement services of the fabric.

This standard describes an API to interface into the fabric, to expose the services and data available in thefabric. The Fibre Channel Switch API, SWAPI, is designed to hide data communication implementation detailsfrom the caller. Implementation may be via in-band or out-of-band communication to the target switch, and isdependent on the implementation by the switch vendor.