IBM DS8000 User Manual page 222

F
fabric In fibre channel technology, a routing
structure, such as a switch, receives
addressed information and routes to the
appropriate destination. A fabric can
consist of more than one switch. When
multiple fibre-channel switches are
interconnected, they are said to be
cascaded.
failback
Pertaining to a cluster recovery from
failover following repair. See also failover.
failover
Pertaining to the process of transferring
all control to a single cluster when the
other cluster in the storage unit fails. See
also cluster and failback.
fast write
A write operation at cache speed that
does not require immediate transfer of
data to a disk drive. The subsystem
writes the data directly to cache, to
nonvolatile storage, or to both. The data is
then available for destaging. A fast-write
operation reduces the time an application
must wait for the I/O operation to
complete.
FATA See fibre-channel ATA.
FBA See fixed-block architecture.
FC See feature code. Note: FC is a common
abbreviation for fibre channel in the
industry, but the DS8000 customer
documentation library reserves FC for
feature code.
FC-AL See Fibre Channel ATA.
FCP See Fibre Channel Protocol.
FCS See Fibre Channel standard.
feature code (FC)
A code that identifies a particular
orderable option and that is used by
service personnel to process hardware
and software orders. Individual optional
features are each identified by a unique
feature code.
fibre channel
A data-transmission architecture based on
the ANSI Fibre Channel standard, which
supports full-duplex communication. The
DS8000 supports data transmission over
fiber-optic cable through its fibre-channel
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DS8000 User's Guide
adapters. See also Fibre Channel Protocol
and Fibre Channel standard.
fibre-channel ATA (FATA)
A hard drive that combines a fibre
channel interface with an ATA drive.
FATAs, which provide the high
performance and capacity of an ATA
drive, can be used wherever fibre channel
drives can connect.
Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL)
An implementation of the Fibre Channel
Standard that uses a ring topology for the
communication fabric. Refer to American
National Standards Institute (ANSI)
X3T11/93-275. In this topology, two or
more fibre-channel end points are
interconnected through a looped interface.
This topology directly connects the
storage unit to an open systems host
without going through a fabric switch.
Fibre Channel Connection (FICON)
A fibre-channel communications protocol
that is designed for IBM mainframe
computers and peripherals. It connects
the storage unit to one or more S/390
hosts using a FICON S/390 channel either
directly or through a FICON switch.
Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP)
A protocol used in fibre-channel
communications with five layers that
define how fibre-channel ports interact
through their physical links to
communicate with other ports.
Fibre Channel standard (FCS)
An ANSI standard for a computer
peripheral interface. The I/O interface
defines a protocol for communication
over a serial interface that configures
attached units to a communication fabric.
The protocol has two layers. The IP layer
defines basic interconnection protocols.
The upper layer supports one or more
logical protocols (for example, FCP for
SCSI command protocols and SBCON for
System z command protocols). Refer to
American National Standards Institute
(ANSI) X3.230-199x. See also Fibre Channel
Protocol.
fibre-channel topology
An interconnection topology supported
on fibre-channel adapters. See also
point-to-point connection, switched fabric,
and arbitrated loop.