FICON cascaded directors have the added value of high integrity connectivity. New integrity features introduced within the FICON Express channel and the FICON cas- caded switch fabric to aid in the detection and reporting of any miscabling actions occurring within the fabric can prevent data from being delivered to the wrong end point.
FICON cascaded directors are offered in conjunction with IBM, CNT, and McDATA directors.
Two site
With
Inter Switch Links (ISLs), less fiber cabling may be needed
for
Two Site cascaded director
topology. Each CEC connects to local directors only.
FICON Bridge Channel
Introduced fi rst on the 9672 G5 processors, the FICON Bridge (FCV) channel is still an effective way to use FICON bandwidth with existing ESCON control units. FICON Express LX channel cards in FCV (FICON Converted) Mode of operation can attach to the 9032 Model 005 ESCON Director through the use of a director bridge card. Up to 16 bridge cards are supportable on a single 9032 Model 005 with each card capable of sustaining up to eight concurrent ESCON data transfers. 9032 Model 005 ESCON Directors can be fi eld upgradeable at no charge to support the bridge cards, and bridge cards and ESCON cards can coexist in the same director.
FCP Channels
zSeries supports FCP channels, switches and FCP/SCSI disks with full fabric connectivity under Linux on zSeries and z/VM Version 4 Release 3 and later for Linux as a guest under z/VM. Support for FCP devices means that zSeries servers will be capable of attaching to select FCP/ SCSI devices and may access these devices from Linux on zSeries. This expanded attachability means that enter- prises have more choices for new storage solutions, or may have the ability to use existing storage devices, thus leveraging existing investments and lowering total cost of ownership for their Linux implementation.
For details of supported FICON and FCP attachments access Resource Link at ibm.com/servers/resourcelink and in the Planning section, go to z890/z990 I/O Connec- tion information.
The support for FCP channels is for Linux on zSeries and z/VM 4.3 and later for Linux as a guest under z/VM. Linux may be the native operating system on the zSeries server (note z990 runs LPAR mode only), or it can be in LPAR mode or, operating as a guest under z/VM 4.3 or later. The z990 now provides support for IPL of Linux guest images from appropriate FCP attached devices.
Now, z/VM V5.1 supports SCSI FCP disks enabling the deployment of a Linux server farm running under VM con-
figured only with SCSI disks. With this support you can install, IPL, and operate z/VM from SCSI disks.
The 2 Gbps capability on the FICON Express channel cards means that 2 Gbps link speeds are available for FCP channels as well.
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