> # Best Practices for Discovering a Fabric

> Cisco DCNM-SAN Server monitors multiple physical fabrics under the same user interface. This facilitates managing redundant fabrics. A licensed Cisco DCNM-SAN Server maintains up-to-date discovery information on all configured fabrics so device status and interconnections are immediately available when you launch Cisco DCNM-SAN Client.

> Caution | If the Cisco DCNM-SAN Server’s CPU usage exceeds 50 percent, it is recommended that you switch to a higher CPU-class system.

> We recommend that you use these best practices for discovering your network and setting up Performance Manager. This ensures that Cisco DCNM-SAN Server has a complete view of the fabric. Subsequent Cisco DCNM-SAN Client sessions can filter this complete view based on the privileges of the client logging in. For example, if you have multiple VSANs in your fabric and you create users that are limited to a subset of these VSANs, you want to initiate a fabric discovery through Cisco DCNM-SAN Server using a network administrator or network operator role so that Cisco DCNM-SAN Server has a view of all the VSANs in the fabric. When a VSAN-limited user launches Cisco DCNM-SAN Client, that user sees only the VSANs they are allowed to manage.

> Note Cisco DCNM-SAN Server should always monitor fabrics using a local switch account, do not use a AAA (RADIUS or TACACS+) server. You can use a AAA user account to log into the clients to provision fabric services.

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