The IBM SAN42B-R Extension Switch and IBM b-type Gen 6 Extension Blade in Distance Replication Configurations (Disk and Tape), REDP-5404 IBM Redpaper publication is now available.

The IBM SAN42B-R and the IBM b-type Gen 6 Extension Blade for the IBM SAN512B-6 and SAN256B-6 directors are the latest products from IBM that offer IP Extension (IPEX) technology. They provide the following benefits:

• A platform for building a high-performance data center extension infrastructure for replication and backup solutions. They can use any type of inter-data center wide area network (WAN) transport to extend open systems and mainframe storage applications over any distance.
• Scalable deployment options to extend disaster recovery and data protection storage solutions across any distance. They include a suite of features that help ensure continuous availability of a storage extension network, from pre-deployment validation tools to advanced network failure recovery technologies.
• Enterprise class extension benefits that were previously only available for FCIP extension now also apply to IP storage replication.

IP Extension

The SAN42B-R and the IBM b-type Gen 6 Extension Blade incorporate several advanced technologies that are essential to ensuring maximum throughput and bandwidth utilization over distance, including the following features:

• An aggressive Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) stack that is optimized for storage, called WAN-Optimized TCP (WO-TCP), a capability that is not available with solutions that use standard TCP stacks alone
• An advanced line-rate data compression architecture with three compression
• An encapsulation methodology that enables efficient data transport across the WAN

The primary use case for the IPEX technology is with the IBM TS7700 family of products, specifically for the TS7760 or TS7700 Grid solution.

FCIP Extension

FCIP extension provides a remote data replication solution for Fibre Channel connection (FICON) replication over long distance solutions such as IBM z/OS Global Mirror and IBM tape read/write pipelining. The SAN42B-R and IBM Gen 6 Extension blade are also ideal for FCIP extension of asynchronous DASD remote data replication solutions such as IBM Global Mirror. In addition, the high availability features make them ideal for FCIP extension of synchronous DASD remote data replication solutions such as IBM Metro Mirror.

Implementation scenarios and troubleshooting

Read REDP-5404 for more information about the following topics:

• Hardware and software features
• Extension architecture
• Example implementations
  • FCIP replication
  • IP extension with the TS7760/TS7700 Grid
  • FCIP and integrated routing
• Troubleshooting