IBM DS8900F Introduction And Planning Manual page 43

The following HA-type plug order is used during manufacturing when different types of HA cards are
installed.
1. 4-port 32 Gbps longwave host adapters
2. 4-port 32 Gbps shortwave host adapters
3. 4-port 16 Gbps longwave host adapters
4. 4-port 16 Gbps shortwave host adapters
Open-systems host attachment with Fibre Channel adapters
You can attach a storage system to an open-systems host with Fibre Channel adapters.
The storage system supports SAN speeds of up to 32 Gbps with the current 32 Gbps host adapters. The
storage system detects and operates at the greatest available link speed that is shared by both sides of
the system.
Fibre Channel technology transfers data between the sources and the users of the information. Fibre
Channel connections are established between Fibre Channel ports that reside in I/O devices, host
systems, and the network that interconnects them. The network consists of elements like switches,
bridges, and repeaters that are used to interconnect the Fibre Channel ports.
FICON attached IBM Z hosts overview
The storage system can be attached to FICON attached IBM Z host operating systems under specified
adapter configurations.
Each storage system Fibre Channel adapter has four ports. Each port has a unique worldwide port name
(WWPN). You can configure the port to operate with the FICON upper-layer protocol.
With Fibre Channel adapters that are configured for FICON, the storage system provides the
following configurations:
• Either fabric or point-to-point topologies
• A maximum of 32 ports on model 993, 64 ports on model 994, and 128 ports on model 996.
• A maximum of 509 logins per Fibre Channel port
• A maximum of 8,192 logins per storage system
• A maximum of 1,280 logical paths on each Fibre Channel port
• Access to all 255 control-unit images (65,280 CKD devices) over each FICON port
• A maximum of 512 logical paths per control unit image
®
Note: IBM z13 and IBM z14
®
zEnterprise EC12 and IBM zEnterprise BC12 servers support 24,576 devices per FICON host channel.
Earlier IBM Z servers support 16,384 devices per FICON host channel. To fully access 65,280 devices, it
is necessary to connect multiple FICON host channels to the storage system. You can access the devices
through a Fibre Channel switch or FICON director to a single storage system FICON port.
The storage system supports the following operating systems for IBM Z hosts:
• Linux
• Transaction Processing Facility (TPF)
• Virtual Storage Extended/Enterprise Storage Architecture
• z/OS
®
• z/VM
®
• z/VSE
For the most current information on supported hosts, operating systems, adapters, and switches, go to
the IBM System Storage Interoperation Center (SSIC) website (www.ibm.com/systems/support/storage/
config/ssic).
™
servers support 32,768 devices per FICON host channel, while IBM
Chapter 2. Hardware features 29