HP AE370A - Brocade 4Gb SAN Switch 4/12, Administrator'S Manual

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Fabric OS 5.2.x administrator guide 239
12 Administering FICON fabrics
Overview of Fabric OS support for FICON
IBM Fibre Connections (FICON
®
) is an industry-standard, high-speed input/output (I/O) interface for
mainframe connections to storage devices. Fabric OS supports
intermix mode
operations, in which FICON
and Fibre Channel technology work together. For specific information about intermix mode and other
aspects of FICON, refer to the IBM Redbook, FICON ® Implementation Guide (SG24-6497-01).
Fabric OS provides standard support for FICON single-switch operation.
Multiple-switch cascaded FICON operation requires a Secure Fabric OS license.
Control Unit Port (CUP) operation requires a FICON CUP license.
The following Fabric OS
standard features
support FICON fabrics:
• Web Tools
Can be used to manage a Director (switch) that supports FICON and Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP)
devices and traffic.
• Port swapping
Redirects resources from a failed port to a healthy port without changing the FICON host configuration.
Port swapping is available for both FICON and open system environments. Port swapping resolves
situations in which the hardware has failed and the channel configurations cannot be changed quickly.
Port swapping has minimal or no impact on other switch features.
• Insistent domain ID (IDID)
Allows the switch to insist on a specific domain ID before joining a fabric. This feature guarantees that
a switch operates only with its preassigned domain ID.
• The FICON MIB module
Addresses link incident data for FICON hosts and devices connected to a switch. It supplements other
MIBs used to manage switches and should be used in conjunction with those other MIBs. For more
information, refer to the Fabric OS MIB Reference Manual .
• Link incident detection, registration, and reporting
Provide administrative and diagnostic information.
• Switch Connection Control (SCC) policy
Includes switch binding security methods that prevent unauthorized devices from joining a fabric.
These
optional features
provide further support:
• The Secure Fabric OS optional license
Includes fabric binding, switch binding, and port binding security methods that prevent unauthorized
devices from joining a fabric.
• A Fabric Manager optional license
Can be used to manage a fabric that supports FICON and FCP devices and traffic. This is the
recommended GUI management tool for FICON environments.
To incorporate and manage FICON on a switch or fabric, your system must have Fabric OS v4.1.2 or later
installed. If you are implementing FICON in a single-switch noncascaded environment, there are no
additional software requirements. The Secure Fabric OS and Advanced Zoning optionally licensed features
are required on all switches participating in a FICON multiple-switch
cascaded
environment.
NOTE: Some licenses are installed and activated on the switch at the factory. Verify that the required
licenses are installed and activated on the switch by issuing the licenseshow command via the CLI.
The optional Secure Fabric OS license provides the following fabric, switch, and port binding features:
• Fabric binding is a security method for restricting switches within a multiple-switch fabric. The Switch
Connection Control (SCC) policy prevents unauthorized switches from joining a fabric. Switches are