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

32 FICON Administrator’s Guide
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FICON best practices
2
• Default switch
Leave the default switch FID at 128.
• Logical switches
Always use a logical switch other than the default switch for FICON and do not disable virtual
fabrics.
• Cascading
When cascading switches, connect ISLs so that a fabric forms before configuring switches for
FICON. Merging switches into the fabric after configuring FICON is possible, but allowing the
fabrics to form before applying the FICON settings will simplify the configuration process.
• Address mode
Always use Mode 1 (zero-based) addressing. You can bind ports to specific addresses and
ensure Mode 1 or Mode 2 (port-based) addressing using the portaddress --bind command.
Use the Fabric OS scripts in“Sequential address binding” on page 89 and “Zero-Based to
Port-Based Address Binding” on page 95 to help simplify configuration.
• Port fencing
Set port fencing parameters as follows:
- C3 Discard Frames - 2 per min
- Invalid Words - 25 per min
- *Invalid CRCs - 3 per min
- Link Reset - 2 per min
- Protocol Error - 2 per min
- State Change - 7 per min
• WWN-based persistent port area IDs (PIDs).
Do not enable these for FICON environments.