HP Mainframe Connectivity Design Guide

FICON director interoperability rules
Table 46 (page 82) describes the rules for FICON director interoperability.
Table 46 FICON director interoperability rules
Description
Rule
nl
number
In general, FICON fabrics and intermix fabrics must contain directors of the same series. For exceptions,
see “Interoperability with McDATA directors” (page 44).
1
In addition to the series-specific zoning rules covered in “B-series FICON directors and fabric rules”
(page 29), “C-series FICON directors and fabric rules” (page 46), and “McDATA FICON directors
2
and fabric rules” (page 63), FICON directors with CUP enabled also support PDCM. Mainframe fabric
administrators use this matrix to allow or prohibit connectivity between FICON ports on the director.
They can also use PDCM to block or unblock a port. Blocking a port prohibits all connectivity through
that port, effectively disabling it.
There is a maximum of one hop (two directors) between any two communicating FICON
devices—mainframe to CU, or mainframe to CTC. For exceptions, see “SN8000B 8-Slot Director,
3
SN8000B 4-Slot Director, DC SAN Backbone Director, and DC04 SAN Director inter-chassis links”
(page 38).
Dual interoperable, heterogeneous FICON SAN fabrics
A dual interoperable, heterogeneous FICON SAN consists of two fabrics, with each fabric
containing only directors of the same series.
HP supports dual interoperable FICON SAN fabrics for the following director combinations:
• A FICON SAN with one fabric containing B-series directors only and a second fabric containing
C-series directors only
• A FICON SAN with one fabric containing B-series directors only and a second fabric containing
McDATA directors only
• A FICON SAN with one fabric containing C-series directors only and a second fabric
containing McDATA directors only
When creating a dual-fabric FICON SAN, consider the following:
• HP recommends that you use the same fabric topology and configuration in both fabrics.
• Design both fabrics using the lowest common denominator. Match port speeds and total
throughput of each fabric.
• Distribute CHPID and storage system ports evenly between fabrics.
• HA configurations require that both fabrics support the same mainframe operating system
level and the same storage system firmware version because mainframes and storage systems
connect to both fabrics.
82 FICON SAN fabric connectivity and director interoperability rules