HP Mainframe Connectivity Design Guide

Figure 1 Single-switch FICON fabric
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Director models
Single-switch FICON SANs typically consist of director-class products (up to 256 ports per domain
ID or switch ID). Switch-class products are rarely used in a single-switch SAN. For a high-availability
SAN, use two directors configured in a dual-fabric SAN. For supported director models, 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)
Benefits
The benefits of a single-switch fabric are as follows:
• Easy installation and configuration of mainframes and storage
• Support of single-switch fabrics by all FICON mainframes and CUs
• Maximum fabric performance because all communicating devices connect to the same FICON
director
• Support for local, centralized, and distributed data access needs
Cascaded FICON fabric
A cascaded FICON fabric is a pair of directors with one or more ISLs. You can connect one FICON
director to another director using one ISL or multiple ISLs as shown in Figure 2 (page 17), or you
can connect one FICON director to multiple directors using one ISL or multiple ISLs as shown in
Figure 3 (page 17). Each data path from the mainframe to the CU has a one-hop maximum (two
FICON directors in the path). HP recommends that you have a minimum of two ISLs on each director
to provide fabric path redundancy.
16 FICON SAN fabric topologies