HP Mainframe Connectivity Design Guide

5 McDATA FICON directors and fabric rules
This chapter describes the Brocade McDATA FICON directors and the fabric rules for building
McDATAfabrics.
NOTE: This chapter is provided as a reference only. HP does not sell or support any McDATA
FICON products. The information in this chapter is provided because HP allows McDATA FICON
connectivity to P9500 and XP disk arrays.
McDATA FICON directors
McDATA 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 as long as the 1-hop
maximum is enforcedMcDATA FICON directors support between 16 and 140 ports, depending
on the model. They also support an intermix environment. For more information about intermix,
see “FICON SAN best practices” (page 154).
FICON fabrics can contain Brocade FICON directors and McDATA FICON directors. Do not mix
McDATA FICON directors with other Brocade FICON Silkworm directors or with CNT/InRange
FICON directors. For more information, see “FICON third-party director support” (page 83).
NOTE: HP recommends that you enable CUP on all FICON directors so that the mainframe can
monitor and control them and gather statistics for them. For more information, see “SAN scaling”
(page 11) (FICON CUP bullet).
The McDATA FICON directors offer:
• High availability
• Scalability
• Cost efficiency
Model numbering
The McDATA FICON directors typically use the old McDATA model number, preceded by an M.
For example, the McDATA i10K is now the Brocade Mi10K.
The 4 Gb/s and 2 Gb/s director ports auto negotiate the signaling speed. For example, when
you connect a 4 Gb/s or 2 Gb/s port directly to a 1 Gb/s port, both ports run at 1 Gb/s in each
direction. If the ports are not directly connected, the fabric director that connects the ports determines
the signaling speed.
NOTE: Some 1 Gb/s CUs may not be able to auto negotiate with the 4 Gb/s or 2 Gb/s director
ports. If this occurs, you must configure the director ports to run at 1 Gb/s.
Model naming
The McDATA FICON directors are called the Brocade Intrepid series (Mxxxx) Directors, or the
M4700 Fabric Switch. Directors are core (enterprise-class) switches; the M4700 is a FICON-capable
edge switch.
McDATA FICON directors 63