Why switched FICON? - Dr. Steve Guendert's Mainframe World
Why switched FICON? - Dr. Steve Guendert's Mainframe World
Why switched FICON? - Dr. Steve Guendert's Mainframe World
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<strong>Why</strong> You Should Deploy<br />
Switched-<strong>FICON</strong><br />
David Lytle, BCAF<br />
Global Solutions Architect<br />
System z Technologies and Solutions<br />
Brocade
Legal Disclaimer<br />
All or some of the products detailed in this presentation may still be under<br />
development and certain specifications, including but not limited to, release<br />
dates, prices, and product features, may change. The products may not<br />
function as intended and a production version of the products may never be<br />
released. Even if a production version is released, it may be materially<br />
different from the pre-release version discussed in this presentation.<br />
NOTHING IN THIS PRESENTATION SHALL BE DEEMED TO CREATE A<br />
WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR<br />
OTHERWISE, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES<br />
OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR<br />
NONINFRINGEMENT OF THIRD-PARTY RIGHTS WITH RESPECT TO ANY<br />
PRODUCTS AND SERVICES REFERENCED HEREIN.<br />
Brocade, Fabric OS, File Lifecycle Manager, MyView, and StorageX are<br />
registered trademarks and the Brocade B-wing symbol, DCX, and SAN Health<br />
are trademarks of Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. or its subsidiaries,<br />
in the United States and/or in other countries. All other brands, products, or<br />
service names are or may be trademarks or service marks of, and are used to<br />
identify, products or services of their respective owners.<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Presentation – For Customer and/or Partner Use Only<br />
© 2009-2010 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.<br />
All Rights Reserved.<br />
2
Switched-<strong>FICON</strong> is a Best Practice for System z<br />
‣ Brocade <strong>FICON</strong> switching devices do not cause<br />
performance problems within a local data center<br />
‣ Architected and deployed correctly, Brocade <strong>FICON</strong><br />
switching devices do not cause performance problems<br />
even across very long distances<br />
‣ In fact, use of Brocade <strong>switched</strong>-<strong>FICON</strong> and Brocade<br />
FCIP long distance connectivity solutions can even<br />
enhance DASD replication performance and long<br />
distance tape operations effectiveness and performance<br />
‣ Switched-<strong>FICON</strong> is the only way to efficiently and<br />
effectively support Linux on System z connectivity<br />
‣ Switched-<strong>FICON</strong> is the only way to really take advantage<br />
of the full value of the System z I/O subsystem<br />
• Over the next set of slides you’ll discover why this is true<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Presentation – For Customer and/or Partner Use Only<br />
© 2009-2010 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.<br />
All Rights Reserved.<br />
3
SM to MM Conversion and Vice Versa<br />
Point-to-Point Deployment of <strong>FICON</strong><br />
Long-wave Optics<br />
<strong>FICON</strong><br />
Point-to-Point<br />
Would have to be<br />
long-wave Optics<br />
Longwave-to-Shortwave<br />
Long-wave Optics<br />
Long-wave<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> DCX<br />
Long-wave to short-wave conversion<br />
without having to modify storage optics<br />
Short-wave or<br />
long-wave Optics<br />
Short-wave<br />
Most IBM <strong>FICON</strong> Express8 channel<br />
cards have long-wave optics<br />
• IBM is pushing long-wave in the data center<br />
• They know that 16 Gbps is on the near horizon<br />
If your “on the floor” legacy storage<br />
currently has short-wave ports:<br />
• End-to-end connections must be the same<br />
•LW-to-LW<br />
•SW-to-SW<br />
•You would have to be sure that storage ports were<br />
also long-wave – potential budget hit for optics!<br />
• Long-wave optics for storage and Directors is<br />
more expensive than short-wave optics<br />
Switched <strong>FICON</strong> allows long-wave into<br />
the switch/Director and short-wave out<br />
of the switch/Director<br />
• Port by port basis in the switching device<br />
• Just have to order the proper port cards<br />
• Financially better <strong>FICON</strong> TCO<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Presentation – For Customer and/or Partner Use Only<br />
© 2009-2010 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.<br />
All Rights Reserved.<br />
4
Point-to-Point versus Switched-<strong>FICON</strong><br />
Point-to-point <strong>FICON</strong> is exactly the same as what is called in<br />
the Open Systems world - Direct Attach Storage (DAS)<br />
And it also suffers from exactly the same issues that caused<br />
companies to being implementing SANs in their growing<br />
storage environments beginning in the late 1990’s<br />
Switched-<strong>FICON</strong> provides very compelling benefits to the user<br />
in the areas of:<br />
• Consolidation (dynamic connections to fewer storage boxes)<br />
• High Availability (far beyond point-to-point and over distance)<br />
• Management (especially of fast or abrupt growth - planning)<br />
• Performance (balanced and better use of all channel resources)<br />
• Scalability (in many different ways including Fan In-Fan out)<br />
Let’s discuss this in detail on the following slides<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Presentation – For Customer and/or Partner Use Only<br />
© 2009-2010 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.<br />
All Rights Reserved.<br />
5
Point-to-Point <strong>FICON</strong> is almost dead!<br />
System z<br />
There are a LOT of reasons for not getting caught in the<br />
trap of doing direct-attached <strong>FICON</strong>:<br />
• Maximum Point-to-Point distances are going to shrink<br />
dramatically as bandwidth increases<br />
• Reliability<br />
• Scalability<br />
• As of <strong>FICON</strong> Express8, buffer credits are also shrinking<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Presentation – For Customer and/or Partner Use Only<br />
© 2009-2010 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.<br />
All Rights Reserved.<br />
6
End-to-End <strong>FICON</strong>/FCP Connectivity<br />
System z<br />
Fiber Cable<br />
Cabling<br />
Considerations<br />
• Long wave single mode still works well<br />
• 1/2/4/8/10 Gbps out to 10km with SM<br />
• Short wave multi-mode might be limiting<br />
• 4G optics auto-negotiate back to 1, 2G<br />
• 8G optics auto-negotiate back to 2, 4G<br />
• 1G storage connectivity requires 2/4G SFPs<br />
Distance with Multi-Mode Cables (meters)<br />
© 2009-2010 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.<br />
All Rights Reserved.<br />
7
End-to-End <strong>FICON</strong>/FCP Connectivity<br />
System z cable distances at 8Gbps<br />
OS1 9m<br />
OM3 50m<br />
150 meters<br />
492 feet<br />
2, 4 and 8Gbps<br />
4 to 10 km<br />
2.5 to 6.2 miles<br />
System z<br />
OM2 50m<br />
50 meters<br />
164 feet<br />
Longwave 8G on a<br />
z10 only comes<br />
at 10km – no 4km<br />
~80% of System z CHPIDs are long wave<br />
But older OM2 cables are going to start requiring the<br />
mainframe PtP devices to hover very close to System z<br />
• And db link loss budget on all cable types is reduced at 8G<br />
What is your current cable distance to the farthest<br />
attachment point Will it have to change<br />
• If not already, now is the time to deploy <strong>switched</strong>-<strong>FICON</strong>!<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Presentation – For Customer and/or Partner Use Only<br />
© 2009-2010 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.<br />
All Rights Reserved.<br />
8
End-to-End <strong>FICON</strong>/FCP Connectivity<br />
Cable distances at 8Gbps<br />
75 th<br />
floor<br />
366m of cable run<br />
using OM3 MM cable<br />
1,280ft 80-story office tower<br />
with a printer on 75 th floor<br />
(about 1200 ft from the M/F)<br />
Today using 4Gbps you might<br />
have need to connect a tape<br />
drive or printer at distances up<br />
to 380m (1,246 feet) using<br />
multimode cable (shortwave)<br />
Now you want to deploy 8Gbps<br />
soon<br />
But 8Gbps will only reach out<br />
to 150m (492 feet) …so…<br />
…that tape drive or printer<br />
might have to be relocated<br />
down to the 41 st floor …or…<br />
…you might change interfaces<br />
and cables to run Single-mode<br />
to regain the lost distance<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Presentation – For Customer and/or Partner Use Only<br />
© 2009-2010 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.<br />
All Rights Reserved.<br />
9
End-to-End <strong>FICON</strong>/FCP Connectivity<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Director cable distances at 8Gbps<br />
SM<br />
SM<br />
MM<br />
MM<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Director<br />
OS1 9m using 10km transceivers<br />
OS1 9m using 4km transceivers<br />
OM3 50m<br />
OM2 50m<br />
50 meters<br />
164 feet<br />
150 meters<br />
492 feet<br />
LWL(10km) ELWL(40km)<br />
6.2 or 49.7 miles<br />
4 km – 2.5 miles<br />
Majority of local storage connections are still short wave<br />
What is your current cable distance to farthest storage<br />
attachment point<br />
4Gbps allowed it to be 1,246 feet (380m) away using OM3<br />
• Will you have to relocate some storage closer in at 8G<br />
• Do you need to re-cable from OM2 to OM3 or up to OS1<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Presentation – For Customer and/or Partner Use Only<br />
© 2009-2010 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.<br />
All Rights Reserved.<br />
10
Provide for Greater Distance Connectivity<br />
long-wave<br />
short-wave<br />
Point-to-Point Deployment of <strong>FICON</strong><br />
10 KM native<br />
Only 40 buffer credits per CHPID<br />
Point-to-Point<br />
150 meters native<br />
Distance Extension<br />
DCX with<br />
FX8-24 FCIP<br />
Blade<br />
Long-wave connections can push a native<br />
unrepeated, <strong>FICON</strong> connection up to 10km<br />
• This is from mainframe to storage port (LX)<br />
• And be careful as <strong>FICON</strong> Express8 has only 40<br />
buffer credits per CHPID<br />
In a <strong>switched</strong>-<strong>FICON</strong> environment, the<br />
switch/Director acts like a repeater so that<br />
you get the full distance on each side of the<br />
switching device<br />
• 150m to 10km from mainframe to switch device<br />
• 150m to 25km from switch device to storage<br />
When designed with well-thought out<br />
placement in mind, a <strong>FICON</strong> switching<br />
device can help alleviate some concerns<br />
about distance connectivity even in a local<br />
computing environment<br />
• Locally, can send frames up to 25km (LX)<br />
• Can use 7800 / FX8-24 Blade for FCIP extension<br />
• Over 1,300 buffer credits provides long<br />
distance (on 1 port of each port blade ASIC)<br />
• Tape emulation and Global Mirror (XRC)<br />
emulation are supported for <strong>FICON</strong><br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Presentation – For Customer and/or Partner Use Only<br />
© 2009-2010 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.<br />
All Rights Reserved.<br />
11
<strong>Mainframe</strong> Channel Cards<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Express2<br />
z10, z9, z990, z890<br />
Longwave (LX) to 10km<br />
Shortwave (SX)<br />
1 or 2 GBps link rate<br />
270MBps FD max thru-put<br />
68% of 400MBps potential<br />
107 Buffer Credits per port<br />
• 108km @ 2G full frame / port<br />
• 54km @ 2G half frame / port<br />
• 43km @ 2G 819 byte payloads<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Express4<br />
• z10, z9<br />
• 4km & 10km LX<br />
• Shortwave (SX)<br />
• 1, 2 or 4 GBps link rate<br />
• 520MBps FD max thru-put<br />
• 65% of 800MBps potential<br />
• 200 Buffer Credits per port<br />
– 101km @ 4G full frame / port<br />
– 51km @ 4G half frame / port<br />
– 40km @ 4G 819 byte payloads<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Express4 provides the<br />
last native 1Gbps CHPID support<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Express8<br />
• z10<br />
• 10km LX<br />
• Shortwave (SX)<br />
• 2, 4 or 8 GBps link rate<br />
• 740MBps FD max thru-put<br />
• 46% of 1600MBps potential<br />
• 40 Buffer Credits per port<br />
– 10km @ 8G full frame / port<br />
– 5km @ 8G half frame / port<br />
– 4km @ 8G 819 byte payloads<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> switching devices will<br />
provide BCs for long distances<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Presentation – For Customer and/or Partner Use Only<br />
© 2009-2010 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.<br />
All Rights Reserved.<br />
12
Switched-<strong>FICON</strong> Provides additional BCs<br />
• To the left is just an example of<br />
the limitations of buffer credits<br />
provided on mainframe CHPIDs<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Express8<br />
• 40 Buffer Credits per port<br />
– 10km @ 8G full frame / port<br />
– 5km @ 8G half frame / port<br />
– 4km @ 8G 819 byte payloads<br />
• <strong>FICON</strong> switching devices can<br />
provide as many as 1,300 buffer<br />
credits on a single port<br />
• If a dark fiber connection, or any<br />
long distance connection,<br />
requires more than 5-10km of<br />
distance then <strong>switched</strong>-<strong>FICON</strong><br />
can provide connectivity ports<br />
that can reach far further, at full<br />
path utilization, than a CHPID<br />
can provide<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Presentation – For Customer and/or Partner Use Only<br />
© 2009-2010 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.<br />
All Rights Reserved.<br />
13
Availability After A Component Failure<br />
Point-to-Point Deployment of <strong>FICON</strong><br />
CHPID path Fails<br />
Both sides are down<br />
X<br />
Cable or optic failure occurs<br />
X<br />
Avoid complete path failures<br />
…BUT…<br />
Storage Port<br />
Remains<br />
Available!<br />
A failure of a FE8 card …or… FE8 channel<br />
port …or… failure of the P-2-P cable …or…<br />
failure of the storage port optic …or…<br />
storage adapter causes:<br />
• FE8 port to become unavailable AND<br />
• Storage port becomes unavailable for<br />
everyone!<br />
A failure anywhere affects both the mainframe<br />
connection and the storage connection<br />
• Lose an SFP and lose host + storage connect<br />
• The WORST possible reliability and<br />
availability is provided by a P-2-P topology!<br />
• FC optics are most likely element to fail in the<br />
channel path – same as in a SAN<br />
• FC cables are second most likely failure in a<br />
fabric<br />
In a <strong>switched</strong>-<strong>FICON</strong> environment, only a<br />
segment is rendered unavailable:<br />
• The non-failing side remains available<br />
• If the storage has not failed, its port is still<br />
available to be used by other CHIPDs<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Presentation – For Customer and/or Partner Use Only<br />
© 2009-2010 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.<br />
All Rights Reserved.<br />
14
Fan In–Fan Out For Better Efficiency<br />
It is a common practice in a storage network to share one port on<br />
the storage subsystem among multiple CHPIDs (HBAs) from<br />
multiple servers (partitions).<br />
• Fan In: the common practice of attaching many underutilized server<br />
connected switch ports to a single storage subsystem port as long as<br />
additional bandwidth remains and the FC <strong>switched</strong> fabric is non-blocking<br />
• Fan Out: the common practice of oversubscribing storage connected<br />
switch ports by connecting each of them to many server ports, making the<br />
best use of that critical resource.<br />
• The SAN fan-out ratio of storage ports typically ranges from 4:1 to 12:1<br />
server-to-storage subsystem ports – bandwidth dependent.<br />
• The intent is to fully utilize available storage port bandwidth while<br />
enabling the maximum throughput of each HBA (CHPID) to achieve nearwire-rate<br />
throughput at a given time.<br />
• The ratio also implies that the server (partition) ports are being underused<br />
(5-50% of possible bandwidth) most of the time.<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Presentation – For Customer and/or Partner Use Only<br />
© 2009-2010 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.<br />
All Rights Reserved.<br />
15
FI-FO To Overcome System Bottlenecks<br />
System z<br />
Fiber Cable<br />
<strong>FICON</strong><br />
Director<br />
Cascaded<br />
<strong>FICON</strong><br />
<strong>FICON</strong><br />
Director<br />
DASD<br />
135-740 MBps<br />
@ 2/4/8Gbps<br />
Per CHPID<br />
(transmit and receive)<br />
Example Fan In:<br />
To one CHPID = 12<br />
(trying to keep the CHPID busy)<br />
380 MBps @ 2Gbps<br />
760 MBps @ 4Gbps<br />
1520 MBps @ 8Gbps<br />
1900 MBps @ 10Gbps<br />
Per Link<br />
(transmit and receive)<br />
Example Fan Out:<br />
From 12 Storage Adapters<br />
Total <strong>FICON</strong> path usually does not support full speed<br />
• Must utilize Fan In – Fan Out to utilize CHPID port wisely<br />
• Multiple I/O flows funneled over a single channel path<br />
• Direct attached <strong>FICON</strong> is really not a best practice<br />
70-740 MBps<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Presentation – For Customer and/or Partner Use Only<br />
© 2009-2010 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.<br />
All Rights Reserved.<br />
16
DASD Fan In–Fan Out<br />
Maximize CHPID Capacity Utilization<br />
Storage-to-<strong>Mainframe</strong><br />
1 : 5<br />
FAN-IN<br />
(~510 MBps possible)<br />
460MBps<br />
CHPID<br />
110MBps<br />
120MBps<br />
50MBps<br />
80MBps<br />
100 MBps<br />
Storage<br />
Port<br />
Storage-to-<strong>Mainframe</strong><br />
1 : 5<br />
FAN-Out<br />
(~1800 MBps possible)<br />
Maximize Storage Port Capacity Utilization<br />
<strong>Mainframe</strong>-to-Storage<br />
1 : 5<br />
FAN-IN<br />
(~380 MBps possible)<br />
360MBps<br />
Storage<br />
Port<br />
75MBps<br />
100MBps<br />
20MBps<br />
65MBps<br />
100 MBps<br />
CHPID<br />
<strong>Mainframe</strong>-to-Storage<br />
1 : 5<br />
FAN-Out<br />
(~2550 MBps possible)<br />
NOTE: Remember that at 8Gbps a Command Mode z/OS CHPID can do about 510MBps maximum<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Presentation – For Customer and/or Partner Use Only<br />
© 2009-2010 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.<br />
All Rights Reserved.<br />
17
Fan In–Fan Out for Tape<br />
Maximize CHPID Capacity Utilization<br />
Tape-to-<strong>Mainframe</strong><br />
1 : 1<br />
FAN-IN<br />
(~510 MBps possible)<br />
320MBps<br />
CHPID<br />
320MBps<br />
Tape<br />
Port<br />
Tape-to-<strong>Mainframe</strong><br />
1 : 1<br />
FAN-Out<br />
(~320 MBps<br />
possible)<br />
Maximize Tape Port Capacity Utilization<br />
<strong>Mainframe</strong>-to-Tape<br />
1 : 1<br />
FAN-IN<br />
(~160 MBps possible)<br />
320MBps<br />
Storage<br />
Port<br />
320MBps<br />
CHPID<br />
<strong>Mainframe</strong>-to-Tape<br />
1 : 1<br />
FAN-Out<br />
(~160 MBps<br />
possible)<br />
NOTE: Remember that at 8Gbps a Command Mode z/OS CHPID can do about 510MBps maximum<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Presentation – For Customer and/or Partner Use Only<br />
© 2009-2010 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.<br />
All Rights Reserved.<br />
18
Fan In–Fan Out On A System Basis Too<br />
12 Paths<br />
FAN-IN<br />
<strong>FICON</strong><br />
Directors<br />
ESCON had performance<br />
constraints that effectively<br />
circumvented its ability to<br />
provide Fan In-Fan Out<br />
8 Paths<br />
FAN-OUT<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Presentation – For Customer and/or Partner Use Only<br />
© 2009-2010 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.<br />
All Rights Reserved.<br />
19
Minimize <strong>Mainframe</strong> Channel Card Costs<br />
For Example<br />
16<br />
CHPIDS<br />
Point-to-Point Deployment of <strong>FICON</strong><br />
<strong>FICON</strong><br />
Point-to-Point<br />
Same<br />
16<br />
Storage<br />
Ports<br />
Can use Fan In – Fan Out to minimize CHPID<br />
ports required as long as required bandwidth<br />
requirements are satisfied<br />
For<br />
MAX<br />
16<br />
Storage<br />
Ports<br />
One CHPID per each Storage Port – expensive!<br />
Use only 8<br />
of the CHPIDs<br />
to contain $$<br />
Each storage port in a P-2-P connection<br />
requires its very own physical port<br />
connection on the mainframe<br />
• <strong>FICON</strong> Express8 cards are fairly expensive<br />
• By model, there is a finite limit to the<br />
number of <strong>FICON</strong> channels available<br />
• Deploying many P-2-P connections can get<br />
• pretty expensive<br />
• A high TCO is usually attributed to P-2-P<br />
How do you continue to scale when you run<br />
out of either mainframe or storage ports<br />
• Buy a new mainframe or storage chassis<br />
In a <strong>switched</strong>-<strong>FICON</strong> environment, the Fan<br />
In – Fan Out ratios solve this problem just<br />
like it solves other connectivity problems<br />
• Director/switch ports are less expensive<br />
than mainframe <strong>FICON</strong> Express8 cards<br />
• If you run out of <strong>FICON</strong> CHPIDs then simply<br />
continue to Fan-Out to more storage ports<br />
• Or simply use fewer <strong>FICON</strong> Express8<br />
channel cards on your Fan-In into storage<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Presentation – For Customer and/or Partner Use Only<br />
© 2009-2010 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.<br />
All Rights Reserved.<br />
20
Minimize <strong>Mainframe</strong> Channel Card Costs<br />
For Example<br />
16<br />
CHPIDS<br />
Point-to-Point Deployment of <strong>FICON</strong><br />
<strong>FICON</strong><br />
Point-to-Point<br />
Same<br />
16<br />
Storage<br />
Ports<br />
Can use Fan In – Fan Out to minimize CHPID<br />
ports required as long as required bandwidth<br />
requirements are satisfied<br />
For<br />
MAX<br />
16<br />
Storage<br />
Ports<br />
One CHPID per each Storage Port – expensive!<br />
Use only 8<br />
of the CHPIDs<br />
to contain $$<br />
Each storage port in a P-2-P connection<br />
requires its very own physical port<br />
connection on the mainframe<br />
• <strong>FICON</strong> Express8 cards are fairly expensive<br />
• By model, there is a finite limit to the<br />
number of <strong>FICON</strong> channels available<br />
• Deploying many P-2-P connections can get<br />
• pretty expensive<br />
• A high TCO is usually attributed to P-2-P<br />
How do you continue to scale when you run<br />
out of either mainframe or storage ports<br />
• Buy a new mainframe or storage chassis<br />
In a <strong>switched</strong>-<strong>FICON</strong> environment, the Fan<br />
In – Fan Out ratios solve this problem just<br />
like it solves other connectivity problems<br />
• Director/switch ports are less expensive<br />
than mainframe <strong>FICON</strong> Express8 cards<br />
• If you run out of <strong>FICON</strong> CHPIDs then simply<br />
continue to Fan-Out to more storage ports<br />
• Or simply use fewer <strong>FICON</strong> Express8<br />
channel cards on your Fan-In into storage<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Presentation – For Customer and/or Partner Use Only<br />
© 2009-2010 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.<br />
All Rights Reserved.<br />
21
Robust General Scalability<br />
Core<br />
DCX<br />
DCX<br />
4S<br />
6140<br />
B5300<br />
DCX<br />
DCX<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> switching allows for dynamic connectivity<br />
in a local or remote environment<br />
Point-to-Point does not allow for easy,<br />
dynamic growth and scalability<br />
• One mainframe port is tied to one<br />
storage port<br />
In a <strong>switched</strong>-<strong>FICON</strong> environment, you<br />
can provide dynamic connectivity<br />
• Better use of all channel resources<br />
• Better use of all storage resources (fan<br />
in-fan out)<br />
In a <strong>switched</strong>-<strong>FICON</strong> environment, you<br />
can provide dynamic scalability if you<br />
implement <strong>FICON</strong> cascading<br />
• Better use of all channel resources<br />
• Better use of all storage resources<br />
• Fan in-Fan out<br />
• Efficient utilization of all resources<br />
• Quick response to new connectivity<br />
demands<br />
• Proven Core-to-Edge connectivity<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Presentation – For Customer and/or Partner Use Only<br />
© 2009-2010 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.<br />
All Rights Reserved.<br />
22
Scalability Beyond System z CHPID Limits<br />
<strong>Mainframe</strong>s<br />
Have a limited<br />
Number of<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> CHPIDs<br />
Attach to many<br />
more devices<br />
than possible<br />
with P-2-P<br />
z800: 32 <strong>FICON</strong> Express<br />
z900: 96 <strong>FICON</strong> Express<br />
z890: 40 <strong>FICON</strong> Express<br />
z890: 80 <strong>FICON</strong> Express2<br />
z990: 120 <strong>FICON</strong> Express2<br />
z990: 240 <strong>FICON</strong> Express2<br />
z9BC: 112 <strong>FICON</strong> Express4<br />
z9EC: 336 <strong>FICON</strong> Express4<br />
z10BC: 112 <strong>FICON</strong> Express8<br />
z10EC: 336 <strong>FICON</strong> Express8<br />
ICL’d DCX<br />
Maximums<br />
Can use DCX ICL’s and <strong>FICON</strong> Cascading<br />
to act as a CHPID multiplier for obtaining<br />
access to storage devices<br />
Each storage port in a P-2-P<br />
connection requires its own physical<br />
port connection on the mainframe<br />
• There is a finite limit to the number of <strong>FICON</strong><br />
channels – depends upon the model of the<br />
mainframe that you are using<br />
• What happens when you need more <strong>FICON</strong><br />
connectivity than you have CHPIDs<br />
How do you continue to scale when<br />
you run out of mainframe CHPIDs<br />
• Even if you make really good use of of Fan-<br />
In, this could eventually happen<br />
In a <strong>switched</strong>-<strong>FICON</strong> environment, the<br />
Fan In – Fan Out ratios solve this<br />
problem just like it solves many other<br />
connectivity and scalability problems<br />
• If you run out of <strong>FICON</strong> CHPIDs then simply<br />
continue to Fan-Out to more storage ports<br />
• Or simply use fewer <strong>FICON</strong> channel cards<br />
on your Fan-In into storage depending upon<br />
your bandwidth requirements<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Presentation – For Customer and/or Partner Use Only<br />
© 2009-2010 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.<br />
All Rights Reserved.<br />
23
Balance Workload Across All Storage Ports<br />
Point-to-Point Deployment of <strong>FICON</strong><br />
CHPIDs<br />
8<br />
Path<br />
Group<br />
<strong>FICON</strong><br />
Point-to-Point<br />
Path Busy %<br />
20%<br />
20%<br />
20%<br />
20%<br />
Overall low utilization but no way to balance workload.<br />
Use only 8 of<br />
the CHPIDs to<br />
contain $$<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> DCX<br />
Can use Fan In – Fan Out to help<br />
distribute workload across all<br />
of the storage ports evenly while<br />
making best use of high-capacity<br />
storage arrays<br />
Maybe<br />
only buy<br />
10 of 16<br />
Storage<br />
Ports<br />
IF CHPIDs 10 through 17 (8 path<br />
group) are consistently pushing<br />
low amounts of data, there is really<br />
no opportunity to make better use<br />
of either those channel ports or<br />
those storage ports<br />
• <strong>FICON</strong> does not do channel disconnect<br />
• With P-2-P no sharing of ports is possible<br />
• Capability of storage device may be under<br />
utilized as a result of these P-2-P<br />
connections<br />
In a <strong>switched</strong>-<strong>FICON</strong> environment,<br />
Fan In to Fan Out ratios help<br />
evenly distribute storage workload<br />
across all ports<br />
• Fewer channel ports can often actually<br />
push more bandwidth across fewer storage<br />
ports<br />
• Can typically put more capacity inside of a<br />
DASD array when using Fan In – Fan Out<br />
rather than P-2-P while using equal or<br />
fewer total storage connections<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Presentation – For Customer and/or Partner Use Only<br />
© 2009-2010 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.<br />
All Rights Reserved.<br />
24
<strong>Mainframe</strong> and Linux Resource Sharing<br />
Point-to-Point Deployment of <strong>FICON</strong><br />
<strong>FICON</strong><br />
FCP<br />
Will need to provide unique CHPIDs and maybe<br />
storage ports, some for Linux and some for <strong>FICON</strong><br />
and possibly even different storage arrays<br />
<strong>FICON</strong><br />
FCP<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> and Linux Intermix<br />
Point-to-Point<br />
Point-to-Point<br />
Many customers are adopting Linux on<br />
System z<br />
• Use mainframe functionality to manage up to<br />
several thousands of Linux clients running on<br />
your System z<br />
• Use Node Point ID Virtualization (NPIV) to<br />
interleave I/O across physical channels<br />
• IFL engines keep software costs down<br />
In a <strong>switched</strong>-<strong>FICON</strong> environment, the<br />
switch/Director accepts both <strong>FICON</strong> and<br />
Linux FC connections and can then<br />
maximize the use of storage ports via<br />
reasonable Fan In – Fan Out ratios<br />
• Better scalability and access to storage ports<br />
• Lower TCO for both <strong>FICON</strong> and Linux<br />
• Easier manageability of both <strong>FICON</strong> and Linux<br />
Might want to have <strong>FICON</strong> using some<br />
storage arrays and Linux other storage<br />
arrays<br />
• Open systems maintenance might be on a<br />
different schedule than <strong>FICON</strong> maintenance<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Presentation – For Customer and/or Partner Use Only<br />
© 2009-2010 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.<br />
All Rights Reserved.<br />
25
A Simplified Schematic<br />
Linux on a System z without NPIV<br />
NPIV is ONLY available<br />
in a switch-<strong>FICON</strong> fabric!<br />
Linux on System z<br />
without NPIV<br />
Linux Guests<br />
Linux A<br />
V<br />
M<br />
A<br />
I/O<br />
A<br />
One FCP CHPID<br />
per Linux guest<br />
A<br />
A<br />
A<br />
M-Series and<br />
B-Series<br />
Linux B<br />
B<br />
B<br />
B<br />
B<br />
B<br />
Linux C<br />
Linux n<br />
C<br />
n<br />
IOS<br />
Linux on System z can run in its<br />
own LPAR(s) but usually it is<br />
deployed as guests under VM<br />
C<br />
C<br />
C<br />
C<br />
n n n n<br />
No parallelism so it<br />
is very difficult to<br />
drive I/O for lots of<br />
Linux images with<br />
only 256 CHPIDs<br />
Probably very little<br />
I/O bandwidth<br />
utilization per CHPID<br />
and switch port<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Presentation – For Customer and/or Partner Use Only<br />
© 2009-2010 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.<br />
All Rights Reserved.<br />
26
Linux on System z using NPIV<br />
System z using NPIV<br />
Linux Guests<br />
Linux A<br />
Linux B<br />
Linux C<br />
Linux n<br />
V<br />
M<br />
A<br />
B<br />
C<br />
n<br />
I/O<br />
IOS<br />
NPIV works<br />
only when using<br />
<strong>switched</strong>-<strong>FICON</strong><br />
One FCP channel for<br />
many Linux guests<br />
n C B A<br />
Lots of<br />
Parallelism<br />
Fewer switch<br />
ports required!<br />
8 Gbps Is Great For NPIV!<br />
M-Series and<br />
B-Series<br />
NPIV enabled<br />
Much better I/O<br />
bandwidth<br />
utilization<br />
per path<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Presentation – For Customer and/or Partner Use Only<br />
© 2009-2010 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.<br />
All Rights Reserved.<br />
27
How Are Directors and Switches Different<br />
B5100<br />
B5300<br />
M-Series can run<br />
at up to 400MBps and<br />
B-Series can run<br />
at up to 800MBps on<br />
a port by port basis<br />
M6140<br />
Director<br />
Mi10K<br />
Director<br />
DCX-4S<br />
DCX<br />
SAN Switches<br />
Good Availability up to 99.99%<br />
Based upon motherboard design<br />
Some redundant components like<br />
power supplies and fans<br />
24-80 Fiber Channel ports<br />
Good fabric Scalability (100’s of ports)<br />
Online microcode activation<br />
Online Health Monitoring<br />
Online Error Detection<br />
Online Fault isolation checking<br />
It is not when it is working, but rather when a problem<br />
occurs, that truly differentiates a Director from a Switch!<br />
SAN Directors<br />
Superb Availability up to 99.999%<br />
Based on discrete, redundant parts<br />
Redundancy and hot swap FRUs<br />
throughout the architecture<br />
Highest port counts – up to 384 ports<br />
Superior fabric Scalability (1,000s of ports)<br />
Online microcode activation<br />
Online Health Monitoring<br />
Online Error Detection<br />
Online Fault isolation checking<br />
Online Error Recovery (non-disruptive failover)<br />
Online Repair of the error (hot swap)<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Presentation – For Customer and/or Partner Use Only<br />
© 2009-2010 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.<br />
All Rights Reserved.<br />
28
How Are Directors and Switches Different<br />
‣ Since switches are motherboard-based, they are engineered<br />
to run at the then current line rate<br />
• Today each port of a B5100 and B5300 can run at 8Gbps<br />
• Failing SFPs can be hot-swapped but physical ports cannot be replaced<br />
• A switch must be completely replaced to repair a failed physical port(s)<br />
‣ Directors have discrete, redundant components that are<br />
engineered to run at the then current line rate<br />
• Today each port of a DCX and DCX-4S can run at 8Gbps<br />
• Failing SPFs can be hot-swap replaced (and fans and power supplies…)<br />
• New blades can replace blades that have failing or failed physical ports<br />
‣ Brocade expects to have 16Gbps blades for the DCX and<br />
DCX-4S within the next 12 months<br />
• The next generation mainframe will be engineered for 16G CHPIDs<br />
• A DCX and DCX-4S should be upgradable in the future to 16Gbps<br />
non-disruptively (swap out old 8G blades swap in new 16G blades)<br />
• But 8G switches will have to be completely swapped out and replaced<br />
with 16G capable switches to achieve 16G fabrics<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Presentation – For Customer and/or Partner Use Only<br />
© 2009-2010 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.<br />
All Rights Reserved.<br />
29
The DCX/DCX-4S is a GREAT Chassis for <strong>FICON</strong>!<br />
Highlights<br />
The DCX/DCX-4S has an internal cycle time of ~1 microsec<br />
DCX/DCX-4S has 32 times more chassis bandwidth than<br />
previous, popular Brocade <strong>FICON</strong> Directors<br />
DCX/DCX-4S scales up to as many as 2,304 ports per fabric<br />
through use of our ingenious, unique inter-chassis links<br />
DCX/DCX-4S was built for 16G link speeds while currently<br />
shipping with only 8G capable blades and SFPs<br />
DCX/DCX-4S has the best energy efficiency, for <strong>FICON</strong><br />
Directors, in the world!<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Presentation – For Customer and/or Partner Use Only<br />
© 2009-2010 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.<br />
All Rights Reserved.<br />
30
The DCX/DCX-4S is a GREAT Chassis for <strong>FICON</strong>!<br />
Technical Description Overview<br />
• 512Gb aggregate bandwidth per slot (256Gb transmit & receive)<br />
• 16 ports/blade = 256Gb / 16p = 16.0Gb/port potential (gated by 8G SFPs)<br />
• 32 ports/blade = 256Gb / 32p = 8.0Gb/port potential (1:1)<br />
• 48 ports/blade = 256Gb / 48p = 5.3Gb/port (get to 1:1 via Local Switching)<br />
• A full, real 2Tb of bandwidth for internal frame handling<br />
• DCX; DCX-4S has 1Tb of bandwidth<br />
• A full, real 3Tb of bandwidth when local switching used<br />
• DCX; DCX-4S has 1.5Tb of bandwidth<br />
• Chassis-to-Chassis bandwidth of .5Tb when using ICLs<br />
• DCX: ICL’s allow <strong>FICON</strong> scaling of up to 2,304 ports per fabric!<br />
• DCX-4S: ICL’s allow <strong>FICON</strong> scaling of up to 1,152 ports per fabric!<br />
• The DCX can pass up to 5.088 BILLION frames per second<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Presentation – For Customer and/or Partner Use Only<br />
© 2009-2010 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.<br />
All Rights Reserved.<br />
31
Just Say NO to Direct-Attached <strong>FICON</strong>!<br />
Point-to-Point Deployment of <strong>FICON</strong><br />
<strong>FICON</strong><br />
Point-to-Point<br />
As a Best Practice, never direct attach <strong>FICON</strong>!<br />
<strong>FICON</strong> Presentation – For Customer and/or Partner Use Only<br />
© 2009-2010 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.<br />
All Rights Reserved.<br />
32
THE END<br />
I hope this information was<br />
useful to you!