Switches and Directors qualified for IBM zSystems FICON and FCP channels

In addition, these vendor products are tested and qualified by IBM with the same test environment and procedures employed to test the protocols used to provide the required connectivity of a GDPS configuration including IBM System Storage Metro Mirror and z/OS Global Mirror. This testing includes functionality, recovery, and in some cases, performance measurements. This allows IBM to configure a fully functional Parallel Sysplex, and simulate failure and recovery actions with multiple generations of IBM zSystems servers.

Connectivity testing is also designed to help ensure switches and directors interoperate with IBM zSystems operating systems – z/OS, z/VM, z/VSE, z/TPF, and Linux on zSystems distributions.

Extended distance testing is also performed and may include unrepeated distances of 10 km and repeated distances up to 300 km (depending on solution).

Cascaded switches/directors: An InterSwitch link (ISL) between two switches/directors which enables two switches/directors to be interconnected, or cascaded. Cascading, used for cross-site connectivity, can help to minimize the number of channels and cross-site connections, reducing implementation costs for disaster recovery and business continuity solutions. Cascaded switches/directors is limited to a two-switch or two-director, single hop configuration.

Cascading switches/directors can also help to reduce fiber optic cabling infrastructure costs for extended storage networks and can allow for shared links to better utilize intersite-connected resources with reduced complexity.

For information regarding use of FICON across more than two cascaded switches/directors (FICON "Multihop") including requirements and supported configurations, please refer to the FICON Multihop: Requirements and Configurations (WP102704) Whitepaper:
https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/node/6355623