A fiber channel switch (hereinafter, FC-SW) connected to a plurality of
communications devices is provided with a buffer for temporarily storing
data received from servers via a first communications port, a trace data
storage memory for storing trace data, and a microprocessor (MP) for
sending data accumulated in the buffer to a storage control system. The
MP stores the information about the data about the received data into the
trace data storage memory as trace data, issues a write command to the
storage control system if it is detected that trace data sending
condition is satisfied, and reads out the trace data stored in the trace
data storage memory and sends it to the storage control system.