Fcp And Ficon In A Single Fabric - McDATA StorageWorks 2/140 - Director Switch Planning Manual

FCP and FICON in a
Single Fabric
Director or Switch
Management
Fibre Channel Layer 4 (FC-4) describes the interface between Fibre
Channel and various upper-level protocols. FCP and FICON are the
major FC-4 protocols. FCP is the Fibre Channel protocol that supports
the small computer system interface (SCSI) upper-level transport
protocol. FICON is the successor to the enterprise systems connection
(ESCON) protocol and adds increased reliability and integrity to that
provided by the FCP protocol.
Because FCP and FICON are both FC-4 protocols, routing of Fibre
Channel frames is not affected when the protocols are mixed in a
single fabric environment. However, management differences in the
protocols arise when a user changes director or fabric switch
parameters through zoning or connectivity control. In particular:
• FCP communication parameters are port number and name-
centric, discovery oriented, assigned by the fabric, and use the
Fibre Channel name server to control device communication.
• FICON communication parameters are logical port address-
centric, definition oriented, assigned by the attached host, and
use host assignment to control device communication.
Considerations that need to be evaluated when intermixing FCP and
FICON protocols are:
• Director or switch management.
• Port numbering versus port addressing.
• Management limitations.
• Features that impact protocol intermixing.
• Best practices.
When intermixing FCP and FICON protocols, it must be determined
if the director or fabric switch is to be operated using the open
systems or FICON management style. This setting only affects the
operating mode used to manage the director or switch; it does not
affect F_Port operation. FCP devices can communicate with each
other when the attached fabric element is set to FICON management
style, and FICON devices can communicate with each other when the
attached fabric element is set to open systems management style.
Planning Considerations for Fibre Channel Topologies
Planning Considerations for Fibre Channel Topologies
3
3-41