Hardware architecture
2.2 Hardware architecture
UNIX/Windows
Figure 3: Example of a CentricStor configuration
In this example, CentricStor comprises the following hardware components:
a VLP (Virtual Library Processor), which monitors and controls the CentricStor
●
hardware and software components
two ICPs (Integrated Channel Processors), which communicate with the hosts via
●
ESCON (via ESCON Director), FICON (via FICON switch) or FC (via FC switch)
two IDPs (Integrated Device Processors), which communicate with the tape drives in
●
the robot system via SCSI or FC
one or more RAID systems for the TVC (Tape Volume Cache) for buffering logical
●
volumes
an FC switch, which is used by the ICP, IDP, and VLP to transfer data
●
a CentricStor console for performing configuration and administration tasks
●
a LAN connection between CentricStor and the robot system
●
a LAN connection, which is used by the ICP, IDP, and VLP for communication
●
The PLM (Physical Library Manager) and VLM (Virtual Library Manager) are software
components which are particularly important for system operation (see
26
Mainframe
ESCON
Director
ESCON
FC
Switch
FICON
FICON
Switch
Mainframe
CentricStor
VLP
LAN
VLM
PLM
LAN
ICP
Virtual
tape drives
FC Switch
ICP
Virtual
tape drives
TVC
CentricStor - Virtual Tape Library
CentricStor
Console
LAN
LAN
Robots
IDP
SCSI
SCSI
Real
tape drives
IDP
SCSI
SCSI
Real
tape drives
page
U41117-J-Z125-7-76
34).