HP Mainframe Connectivity Design Guide

3 B-series FICON directors and fabric rules
This chapter describes B-series FICON directors and the rules for building B-series fabrics.
B-series FICON directors
B-series FICON directors can be configured as a single-switch fabric or a cascaded fabric. In a
cascaded fabric, there is a 1-hop maximum between the mainframe and the CU (a maximum of
two directors in a data path). The fabric can have more than two directors provided that the 1-hop
maximum is enforced. For more information about hop counts, see “SN8000B 8-Slot Director,
SN8000B 4-Slot Director, DC SAN Backbone Director, and DC04 SAN Director inter-chassis links”
(page 38).
B-series FICON directors support between 16 and 512 ports, depending on the model. FICON
supports a maximum of 256 ports per domain ID. They also support an intermix environment. For
more information about intermix, see “FICON SAN best practices” (page 154).
B-series FICON directors require the following:
• High-integrity fabric features:
In-order frame delivery◦
◦ Unique domain ID and IDID
The unique domain ID and IDID are required for cascaded FICON directors and
recommended for all FICON directors.
• Port-based routing
Exchange-based routing is not supported at this time.
• SFOS or SCC policy
SFOS is required for firmware versions earlier than 5.2.0a.
• FICON management server (CUP)
NOTE: HP recommends that you enable CUP on all FICON directors so that the mainframe can
monitor, control, and gather statistics for them. For more information, see “SAN scaling” (page
11) (FICON CUP bullet).
B-series FICON directors offer:
• High availability
• Scalability
• Cost efficiency
Model numbering
The B-series FICON directors typically use the numbering scheme x/y.
• x—The highest speed at which the ports can operate, measured in Gb/s
• y—The number of ports
For example, the HP StorageWorks 8/80 SAN Switch is an 8 Gb/s switch with 80 ports.
The 16 Gb/s, 8 Gb/s, and 4 Gb/s director ports autonegotiate the signaling speed. For example,
when you connect a16 Gb/s or 8 Gb/s port directly to a 4 Gb/s port, both the ports run at 4
Gb/s in each direction. If the ports are not directly connected, the fabric director that connects the
ports determines the signaling speed.
B-series FICON directors 29