Configuring And Monitoring Ficon Extension Services; Ficon Extension Products Licensing; Platforms That Support Ficon Extension Over Ip; Fcip Configuration Requirements For Ficon Extension - HP A7533A - Brocade 4Gb SAN Switch Base Administrator's Manual

23 Configuring and monitoring FICON Extension
Services
This chapter describes the FICON extension concepts, configuration procedures, and tools and procedures
for monitoring network performance. Commands described in this chapter require Admin or root user
access. See the Fabric OS Command Reference for detailed information on command syntax.

FICON extension products licensing

Several specific licensed features are available for FICON extension. These include the following.
• XRC emulation.
• Tape write pipelining.
• Tape read pipelining.
Use the licenseShow command to verify that the licenses present on the hardware used on both ends the
FCIP tunnel. For details on obtaining and installing licensed features, see
These features are described later in this chapter under
page 514.

Platforms that support FICON extension over IP

Fabric OS supports SAN extension between 400 MP Router, or between B-Series Multi-Protocol Router
Blades. The 400 MP Router and the B-Series Multi-Protocol Router Blade both have 16 physical Fibre
Channel ports and 2 physical GbE ports.

FCIP Configuration requirements for FICON extension

FICON extension uses FCIP for transport. FCIP interfaces and tunnels used for FICON extension must be
defined prior to configuring FICON emulation. Ports should remain persistently disabled until after FICON
emulation is configured. See
FCIP interfaces and tunnels.

Configuration requirements for switches and directors

There are three configuration issues to consider when a SAN router is connected to a switch in a FICON
configuration.
• Ensure enough buffer credits are configured to support extending the FICON channel over distance.
• If you are creating a cascaded configuration (connecting two switches or directors with different
domain IDs), be aware of IBM requirements for high integrity fabrics.
• In configurations with ISLs, ensure that ISL paths are properly configured to meet FICON emulation
requirements for a determinate path for FICON commands and responses.

Configuration of sufficient buffer credits

Many switches may have default values that are not sufficient for extending a FICON channel over
distance. Having the buffer credits too low may result in device paths not coming online and Fibre Channel
aborts. FICON hosts and devices commonly have in excess of 60 credits. HP recommends a minimum of
60 buffer credits available to all Fibre Channel ports in the path.

High integrity fabric requirements for cascaded configurations

Extended FICON connections between or through 400 MP Router models or B-Series Multi-Protocol Router
Blade Ethernet interfaces create a cascaded FICON switched configuration. The fabric must be set up to
provide a secure, or high integrity fabric to enable this configuration to operate in an IBM environment.
See "Configuring and monitoring FCIP extension
requirements.
"Administering ISL trunking" on page 435 for information about configuring
services" on page 457 for an explanation of these
"Licensed
"FICON emulation concepts and
Fabric OS 6.2 administrator guide 513
features" on page 43.
features" on