IBM 890 Concurrent Update, Continued Support of Spanned Channels and LPARs, Modes of Operation

Concurrent Update

The FICON Express2 SX and LX features may be added to an existing z890 concurrently. This concurrent update capability allows you to continue to run workloads through other channels while the new FICON Express2 features are being added. This applies to CHPID types FC and FCP.

Continued Support of Spanned Channels and LPARs

The FICON Express2, both FICON and FCP (CHPID types FC and FCP) channel types, can be defi ned as a spanned channel and can be shared among LPARs within and across LCSSs.

Modes of Operation

There are two modes of operation supported by FICON Express2 SX and LX. These modes are confi gured on a channel-by-channel basis – each of the four channels can be confi gured in either of two supported modes.

•Fibre Channel (CHPID type FC), which is native FICON or FICON Channel-To-Channel (server-to-server)

•Fibre Channel Protocol (CHPID type FCP), which sup- ports attachment to SCSI devices via Fibre Channel switches or directors in z/VM and Linux on zSeries envi- ronments

Cascading

The FICON Express2 features also support cascading (the connection of two FICON Directors in succession) to minimize the number of cross-site connections and reduce implementation costs for disaster recovery, business conti- nuity, GDPS, and remote copy solutions.

FICON Express2 Replaces FICON Express on z890

FICON Express2 SX and LX (#3320, #3319) replace the FICON Express SX and LX features (#2320, #2319) cur- rently offered on z890. When the FICON Express2 features become available, the FICON Express features will no longer be orderable.

CHPID Type FCV Not Supported on FICON Express2

FICON Bridge (CHPID type FCV) is not supported on FICON Express2. CHPID type FCV was designed to be used with the bridge feature in the ESCON Director Model 5, which was withdrawn from marketing December 31, 2004. If your customers continue to have a requirement for CHPID type FCV, then they may wish to add FICON Express2 for growth, supporting CHPID types FC and FCP, and use FICON Express, supporting CHPID type FCV, for connectivity to ESCON control units.

When the FICON Express2 features become available, the FICON Express features are no longer orderable. For customers requiring additional FICON Express features to support CHPID type FCV an RPQ 8P2295 is available. For existing infrastructures using FCV, FICON Express will con- tinue to be supported on the z890.

The FICON Express2 features are exclusive to z990 and z890, and are supported by z/OS, z/OS.e, z/VM, VSE/ESA, TPF, and Linux on zSeries.

FICON Express2 is planned to be available on January 28, 2005 and June 30, 2005 in Argentina and Venezuela.

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