IBM 990 manual Fiber Quick Connect FQC for Escon Quick Connect, Port Escon channel sparing

Draft Document for Review April 7, 2004 6:15 pm 6947ch03.fm

A maximum of 1024 ESCON ports can be activated on a z990 server. This maximum requires sixty-nine16-port ESCON channel cards to be installed. The z990 model A08 can have up to 720 ESCON ports, on 48 channel cards, which is limited by the number of STIs available on the A08 model.

16-port ESCON channel sparing

The last ESCON port on a 16-port ESCON channel card (normally J15) is assigned as a spare port. Should an LIC-CC-enabled ESCON port on the card fail, the spare port is used to replace it, as shown in Figure 3-11 on page 95.

If the initial first spare port (J15) is already in use and a second LIC-CC-enabled port fails, then the highest LIC-CC-protectedport (for instance, J14) is used to spare the failing port.

	110		Failure	120	110				120
		J00	J00			J00		J00
111				121	111				121
		J01	J01			J01		J01
	112			122					122
113		J02	J02		113	J02		J02
		J03	J03	123		J03		J03	123
		J04	J04			J04		J04
		J05	J05			J05	Sparing	J05
PCHID		J06	J06			J06		J06
		J07	J07			J07		J07
Number				C
		J08	J08	H		J08		J08
				S A
				P			Channel
		J09	J09	AN		J09		J09
				RN
		J10	J10	I E		J10		J10
				N L
				G
		J11	J11			J11		J11
		J12	J12			J12		J12
		J13	J13			J13		J13
		J14	J14		112	J14		J14
		J15	J15			J15		J15
		ESCON-16		ESCON-16		ESCON-16			ESCON-16
			SPARE				SPARE
			CHANNELS				CHANNEL

Figure 3-11 16-port ESCON channel sparing

Channel port sparing can only occur between ports on the same 16-port ESCON card. That is, a failing ESCON channel port cannot be spared with another port on a different 16-port ESCON card.

Channel sparing is a service repair action performed by an IBM service representative (SR) using the z990 server maintenance package Repair and Verify procedure. If sparing can take place, the IBM SR moves the external fiber optic cable from the failing port to the spare port. When sparing occurs, the PCHID moves to the spare port (PCHID 112 in Figure 3-11). If sparing cannot be performed, the 16-port ESCON card is replaced.

Fiber Quick Connect (FQC) for ESCON “Quick Connect”

The Fiber Quick Connect (FQC) features are optional features for factory installation of the IBM Fiber Transport System (FTS) fiber harnesses for connection to ESCON channels in the I/O cage. Each direct-attach fiber harness connects to six ESCON channels at one end and one coupler in a Multi-Terminated Push-On Connector (MTP) coupler bracket at the opposite end. When ordered, the features support all of the installed ESCON features in all of the installed I/O cages. FQC cannot be ordered on a partial or one cage basis.

Chapter 3. I/O system structure 95