Cisco MDS 9000 Mainframe

The Cisco MDS 9000 Mainframe Package provides the following features:

• Virtual SANs (VSANs): Like Logical Partitions (LPARs) on IBM System z, VSANs provide hardware-based partitioning of a single physical SAN into multiple VSANs. VSANs provide isolation of traffic, management, and fault conditions. VSANs can be used to separate production and test and development environments as well as to provide true hardware-based separation of FICON and FCP traffic. They can be used to enable consolidation of prior-generation FICON directors into a more modern, scalable infrastructure. All this can be done without compromising scalability, availability, manageability, and network security.

• Persistent FICON Fibre Channel ID (FCID) assignment: In conjunction with VSANs, persistent FICON FCID assignment enables consolidation and migration of multiple legacy directors into a Cisco MDS 9500 Series DWDM-XFP-48.51= Director, such as a Cisco MDS 9513 Multilayer Director, without requiring changes to the IBM System z I/O configuration (IOCDS).

• FICON Control Unit Port (CUP): Implementation of a special FICON control device, known as CUP, in the Cisco MDS 9000 Family allows in-band management of the switch from FICON hosts.

• Fabric binding: Fabric binding helps ensure that Inter-Switch Links (ISLs) are enabled between only switches that have been authorized in the fabric binding configuration. This feature helps prevent unauthorized switches from joining the fabric or disrupting current fabric operations.

• Switch cascading: Switch cascading supports a topology for FICON devices wherein ISLs can be used between a host and an I/O device. Thus, switch cascading facilitates creation of mainframe storage networks consisting of multiple switches.

• Physical and virtual tape: The Cisco MDS 9000 Family is fully qualified for a variety of physical and virtual tape products from IBM and Sun/StorageTek (STK). These FICON capabilities enhance data backup and recovery and data availability. Deploying tape or virtual tape on VSAN-enabled networks protects the local mainframe environment from instability or excessive control traffic introduced by the metropolitan-area network (MAN), WAN, and remote network.

• IBM TotalStorage z/OS Global Mirror: The Cisco MDS 9000 Family is fully qualified with the IBM TotalStorage z/OS Global Mirror application, formerly known as Extended Remote Copy (XRC). XRC simplifies business-continuance implementation strategies by allowing asynchronous replication of data over extended distances. Deploying XRC on VSAN-enabled networks protects the local mainframe environment from instability and excessive control traffic introduced by the MAN, WAN, and remote network. XRC dynamic update performance can be enhanced by the addition of the license for the Cisco MDS 9000 XRC Acceleration Package.

• FICON tape acceleration: This feature provides local acknowledgment to tape operations and is used to extend distance and reduce application latency due to tape operations over an FCIP WAN. Virtual and real tape devices can be located farther away from each other and systems while maintaining local-like performance.

• Additional features: Additional FICON-related features included in the Cisco MDS 9000 Mainframe Package are:

– FICON native mode and native mode channel-to-channel operation

– Port swapping for host-channel cable connections