Brocade FICON Administrator's Guide v7.1.0 (53-1002753-01, March 2013)

26 FICON Administrator’s Guide

53-1002753-01

FICON and FICON CUP in Virtual Fabrics

For FICON CUP, FICON Management Server (FMS) mode is enabled on the logical switch and not

the chassis. For example, in a Virtual Fabrics environment on the Brocade 6510 switch and the

Brocade DCX Backbones, enable CUP on each logical switch.

You can configure up to four CUP switches as logical switches in a Virtual Fabrics-enabled platform

for FMS mode. You can find the complete instructions for creating a logical switch using Fabric OS

commands in the Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide or for using Brocade Network Advisor in the

Brocade Network Advisor User Manual. Once the logical switches are configured, install CUP on the

logical switch per the instructions in “Configuring FICON CUP” on page 37.

Table 3 specifies the maximum number of logical switches and maximum number of logical

switches with FMS mode enabled for supported Brocade switches and Backbones.

When creating a logical switch, consider the following for FICON:

• Set the addressing mode to 1 (zero-based) or 2 (port-based) for FICON CUP. Setting these

modes may be required for specific hardware configurations. Following are examples:

- For 48-port blades in an 8-slot chassis, FICON is supported only on a logical switch with

zero-based (mode 1) configured. This must be in a logical switch other than the default

switch.

- For 48-port blades in a DCX-4S backbone, FICON is supported only on a logical switch

defined for port-based (mode 2) addressing. This must be in a logical switch other than the

default switch.

For more information on addressing modes, refer to “Addressing modes” on page 27.

• You can use the Fabric OS Configure command to Allow XISL Use.

An extended interswitch link (XISL) is an interswitch link (ISL) that connects the logical switch

to a base switch and carries traffic for multiple logical fabrics. The XISL is a logical switch

feature, not a link feature. It is shared by multiple logical switches and can be used for multiple

(Fabric IDs) FIDs. Creating an XISL is disruptive since it provides a core routing function for the

switch. For more information on creating XISLs and restrictions, refer to the Configure

command in the Fabric OS Command Reference.

• A base switch can only be used for XISLs and therefore cannot be managed through a CUP port

and cannot report statistics for RMF.

• Logical switches enabled for FICON CUP are not supported as fabric-capable logical switches,

so these switches will not participate in the use of extended ISLs on the base switch.

TABLE 3 Maximum logical switches for FICON switches and Backbones

Switch or backbone Maximum number of logical switches Maximum number of logical switches

with FMS (CUP) enabled

8510-8 8 4

8510-4 8 4

6510 4 (3 if using a base switch) 2

7800 4 (does not support base switch) 2

DCX 8 4

DVC-4S 8 4

5300 4 2