HP Mainframe Connectivity Design Guide

Figure 19 (page 127) shows a FICON native tape extension implementation. It includes a cascaded
fabric, but you can have a single-switch fabric or a fabric without FICON directors in the channel
path.
Figure 19 FICON native tape extension
25295a
Production
LPARs
FICON directors
(optional)
Local Remote
Tape
library
Virtual tape vaulting
Two mainframe virtual tape vaulting products can be connected across an HP FICON SAN:
• IBM VTS
• Sun StorageTek VSM
Virtual Tape Server
VTS presents virtual tape drives and volumes to the mainframe. You configure VTS systems on the
mainframe as tape drives to provide a storage replication solution for mainframe tapes.
Figure 20 (page 127) shows a VTS extension. You can extend the FICON channel path between
the mainframe and VTS. The VTS models are as follows:
• B10—Supports FICON and ESCON
• B18—Supports ESCON only
• B20—Supports FICON and ESCON
Figure 20 VTS extension
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Production
LPARs
FICON directors
(optional)
Local Remote
VTS/Tape library
FICON long-distance extension applications 127