HP Mainframe Connectivity Design Guide

For storage system information, see “P9500 storage system rules” (page 103) and “XP storage
system rules” (page 110).
• Scalability and migration
Select a design that can be expanded incrementally over time as storage and connectivity
needs increase. Migration paths for each of the topologies provide flexibility to expand a
SAN.
For information on scaling and migrating, see “FICON SAN best practices” (page 154).
• Disaster tolerance
Consider remote data replication requirements to ensure protection against site failures and
recovery of critical data.
For information about disaster tolerance and failover protection, see “FICON and FICON
SAN extension” (page 120).
• Director and hop counts
FICON supports a maximum of one hop in the data path (two FICON directors connected by
an ISL).
• Oversubscription
For improved performance, reduce the potential for oversubscription. Ensure that the FICON
SAN design provides an adequate number of ISLs between directors, and when feasible,
avoid having several devices sharing a single ISL.
For information about oversubscription, see “Recommended ISL ratios” (page 18).
• Data locality, performance, and application workloads
Provide an adequate level of performance based on application workloads. For frequent data
reference and quick response times, use local, high-capacity paths to connect mainframes
and storage systems. Deploy mainframes and storage in your SAN based on your data access
requirements.
For more information, see “FICON SAN fabric topologies” (page 15).
• Manageability
To increase efficiency, you can manage consolidated storage from a centralized location.
• Isolation techniques
You can use zoning, LSANs or TI zones (B-series), VSANs (C-series), or SAN LPARs (McDATA)
to control SAN access at the device or port level, and to isolate FICON ports from FCP ports
in the same fabric. If the FICON director has CUP installed, you can use the mainframe and
the PDCM to control access.
For information about zoning, see the following:
◦ “B-series FICON directors and fabric rules” (page 29)
◦ “C-series FICON directors and fabric rules” (page 46)
◦ “McDATA FICON directors and fabric rules” (page 63)
• SAN security
Use a combination of SAN features and sound management practices to ensure data security
throughout the SAN. Use one of the isolation techniques to prohibit FCP ports from
communicating with FICON ports.
14 FICON SAN design overview