Brocade Communications Systems StoreFabric SN6500B Service manual

53-1002753-01
14 December 2012
®
53-1002753-01
FICON
Administrator’s Guide
Supporting Fabric OS v7.1.0

Copyright © 2009-2012 Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Brocade, the B-wing symbol, BigIron, DCX, Fabric OS, FastIron, NetIron, SAN Health, ServerIron, and TurboIron are registered
trademarks, and Brocade Assurance, Brocade NET Health, Brocade One, CloudPlex, MLX, VCS, VDX, and When the Mission Is
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Notice: This document is for informational purposes only and does not set forth any warranty, expressed or implied, concerning
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Brocade Communications Systems, Incorporated
Document History
Corporate and Latin American Headquarters
Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.
130 Holger Way
San Jose, CA 95134
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]
Asia-Pacific Headquarters
Brocade Communications Systems China HK, Ltd.
No. 1 Guanghua Road
Chao Yang District
Units 2718 and 2818
Beijing 100020, China
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]
European Headquarters
Brocade Communications Switzerland Sàrl
Centre Swissair
Tour B - 4ème étage
29, Route de l'Aéroport
Case Postale 105
CH-1215 Genève 15
Switzerland
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]
Asia-Pacific Headquarters
Brocade Communications Systems Co., Ltd. (Shenzhen WFOE)
Citic Plaza
No. 233 Tian He Road North
Unit 1308 – 13th Floor
Guangzhou, China
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]
Title Publication number Summary of changes Date
FICON Administrator’s Guide 53-1001348-01 New document July 2009
FICON Administrator’s Guide 53-1001771-01 Updated document to
include new features used
with FICON.
March 2010
FICON Administrator’s Guide 53-1002154-01 Updated document for
Fabric OS version 7.0.0.
April 2011
FICON Administrator’s Guide 53-1002473-01 Corrections made to
document
December 2011
FICON Administrator’s Guide 53-1002473-02 Corrections made to
document
November 2012
FICON Administrator’s Guide 53-1002753-01 Corrections made to and
updated document for
Fabric OS version 7.1.0.
December 2012

FICON Administrator’s Guide iii
53-1002753-01
Contents
About This Document
How this document is organized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Supported hardware and software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
What’s new in this document. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
Document conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Text formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Command syntax conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x
Command examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x
Notes, cautions, and warnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x
Key terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Notice to the reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Additional information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Brocade resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Other industry resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xii
Getting technical help. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xii
Document feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Chapter 1 Introducing FICON
FICON overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Fabric OS support for FICON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Latency guideline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
FICON concepts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
FICON configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Switched point-to-point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Cascaded FICON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Access control in FICON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Cascaded zoning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Error reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Secure access control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
FICON commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
Link and FC addressing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Domain ID. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Port area. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
ALPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

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Chapter 2 Administering FICON Fabrics
User security considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Meeting Query Security Attribute requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Preparing a switch for FICON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Cascaded FICON and 2-byte addressing considerations . . . . . 19
Configuring switched point-to-point FICON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20
Configuring cascaded FICON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
FICON and FICON CUP in Virtual Fabrics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26
Addressing modes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Mode 0 (10-bit addressing). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Mode 1 (zero-based addressing) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Mode 2 (port-based addressing) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28
Changing the addressing mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28
FICON and blade support for addressing modes . . . . . . . . . . .29
Moving ports to a logical switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Port swap limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Clearing the FICON management database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29
Automating CS_CTL Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
FICON best practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Chapter 3 Configuring FICON CUP
Control Unit Port overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33
FICON CUP restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
CUP configuration recommendations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
FICON CUP zoning and PDCM considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36
Port and switch naming standards for FMS mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
FICON CUP Fabric OS commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Configuring FICON CUP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Disabling ports 0xFE and 0xFF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Configuring FICON CUP in Virtual Fabrics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38
Determining physical port assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38
FMS mode and FICON CUP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Fabric OS command limitations and considerations. . . . . . . . . 40
Displaying FMS mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Enabling FMS mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Disabling FMS mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40
FMS mode and FICON OxFE or OxFF ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Upgrade considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Port swap limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Mode register bit settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
FICON file access facility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43
Setting the mode register bits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Setting the MIHPTO value. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Persistently enabling and disabling ports for CUP . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46

FICON Administrator’s Guide v
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Chapter 4 Administering FICON Extension Services
Platforms supporting FICON extension over IP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
FICON emulation overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
IBM z/OS Global Mirror emulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48
Tape emulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Printer emulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Teradata emulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
FCIP configuration requirements for FICON extension . . . . . . . . . . .52
Configuration requirements for switches and Backbones . . . . . . . .52
High integrity fabric requirements for cascaded
configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53
FICON emulation requirement for a determinate path . . . . . . . 53
Configuring FICON emulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Configuring emulation on the 7800 switch and FX8-24
blade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54
Displaying FICON emulation configuration values. . . . . . . . . . .55
Modifying FICON emulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55
Displaying FICON emulation performance statistics . . . . . . . . . . . .55
FICON emulation monitoring. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56
Options for displaying statistics on 7800 switches and
FX8-24 blades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Chapter 5 Maintaining and Troubleshooting FICON
Firmware management in a FICON environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59
Upgrade and downgrade considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Firmware upgrade disruption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60
Non-disruptive firmware upload and download. . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Configuration restoration in a FICON environment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Traffic Isolation Zoning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Determining ports for the TI Zone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62
Enhanced TI Zoning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Port fencing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Defining port fencing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Settings for FICON environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69
FICON information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Link incidents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69
Registered listeners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Node identification data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
FRU error reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Swapping port area IDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72
Important notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Blade swapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73
Common FICON issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

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Troubleshooting FICON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
General information to gather for all cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Switched point-to-point topology checklist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Cascaded topology checklist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78
Gathering additional information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78
Troubleshooting FICON CUP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79
Troubleshooting NPIV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Appendix A Platforms supporting FICON
Supported platforms with end of support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Currently supported platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Supported Brocade blades. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Unsupported blades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83
Appendix B Basic Switch Configuration
Appendix C Address Binding Examples
Sequential address binding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Example scripts for binding ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .90
Zero-Based to Port-Based Address Binding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Example scripts for binding ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95
Unbinding Multiple Ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100
Appendix D Configuration Information Record
Appendix E EBCDIC Code Page
Index

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About This Document
•How this document is organized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
•Supported hardware and software. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
•What’s new in this document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
•Document conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
•Notice to the reader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
•Additional information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
•Getting technical help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xii
•Document feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
How this document is organized
This document is organized to help you find the information that you want as quickly and easily as
possible.
The document contains the following components:
•Chapter 1, “Introducing FICON” provides basic FICON concepts.
•Chapter 2, “Administering FICON Fabrics” allows you to set up and get started using FICON
quickly, if you are already familiar with FICON concepts and basic procedures.
•Chapter 3, “Configuring FICON CUP” provides basic conceptual information on FICON CUP and
instructions on how to set CUP up in your FICON environment.
•Chapter 4, “Administering FICON Extension Services” provides basic conceptual information on
emulation products and how to set them up in a FICON environment.
•Chapter 5, “Maintaining and Troubleshooting FICON” discusses maintaining your switch in a
FICON environment, provides symptoms, troubleshooting tips, and possible solutions to known
issues.
•Appendix A, “Platforms supporting FICON” lists Brocade switches and Backbones supported
for FICON for various IBM systems. Also listed are Brocade switch blades supported for FICON
on Backbone platforms
•Appendix B, “Basic Switch Configuration” provides basic steps and commands to quickly
configure a switch for fabric and possible FICON and cascaded FICON operation.
•Appendix C, “Address Binding Examples” provides examples and scripts with appropriate
commands for the following:
-“Sequential address binding”
-“Zero-Based to Port-Based Address Binding”
-“Unbinding Multiple Ports”

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•Appendix D, “Configuration Information Record” provides a form to record your FICON
configuration information.
•Appendix E, “EBCDIC Code Page” provides a table of the EBCDIC Code Page 37.
Supported hardware and software
Although many different software and hardware configurations are tested and supported by
Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. for Fabric OS v7.1,0 documenting all possible
configurations and scenarios is beyond the scope of this document.
For a complete list of platforms supported by FICON and Fabric OS v7.1.0, refer to Appendix A,
“Platforms supporting FICON”.
In cases where procedures or parts of procedures do not apply to all Brocade hardware platforms,
this guide identifies which platforms are supported.
What’s new in this document
The following information was added or changed in this document:
•Throughout manual
-Removed mention and details of FR4-18i blade since this is not supported for FCIP this
release.
•Preface.
-Updated “What’s new in this document” section to include all changes incorporated in this
manual.
•Chapter 1, “Introducing FICON.”
-Added new commands to Table 1, “Fabric OS commands related to FICON.”
-Removed “Platforms supporting FICON” and added “Platforms Supporting FICON”
appendix.
-Added information on Fabric OS routing policies supported by FICON in the “Fabric OS
support for FICON” section.
-Fabric OS support for FICON
•Removed Device connection control (DCC) policy
•Chapter 2, Administering FICON Fabrics
-Added step under “Configuring switched point-to-point FICON” to configure the fill word for
8 Gbps ports.
-Added “Automating CS_CTL Mapping” section.
-In “FICON and FICON CUP in virtual fabrics section,” added the following:
•Details from “Configuring FICON CUP in Virtual Fabrics” in Chapter 3 to this section
since having same subject matter in two different chapters is confusing.
•FMS mode cannot be enabled when a logical switch is using 10-bit addressing mode.
•Port swap limitations section.

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•Removed restriction that XISLs cannot be configured.
•Added instructions and restrictions on enabling XISL use and referenced Fabric OS
Command Reference for details.
-Added section on FICON Best Practices.
-Added section on FICON link address and FC address.
•Chapter 3, “Configuring FICON CUP.”
-Under “FMS Mode and FICON CUP” section, added the following:
•New section called “Fabric OS command limitations and considerations” to collect
differences in using Fabric OS commands when FMS mode is enabled.
•Noted that FMS mode cannot be enabled when a logical switch is using 10-bit
addressing mode.
•Section on port swapping limitations.
-Moved information that was in “Configuring FICON CUP in Virtual Fabrics” section to
“FICON and FICON CUP in Virtual Fabrics” section of Chapter 2 because having sections in
two different chapters dealing with same subject is confusing. Left heading in the chapter
but referenced section in chapter 2.
-Under “Port and switch naming standards for FMS mode,” added restrictions for using
unique CUP port name.
•Chapter 5, Maintaining and Troubleshooting FICON
-Under “Configuration restoration in a FICON environment” section, fixed ASM bit “on” row
in “Backup and restore in a FICON CUP environment” table, to say that “The IPL file is not
replaced because Active=Saved mode is on.” This did say Active=Saved mode is “off.”
•Added Appendix on Brocade and IBM platform support for FICON, Appendix on basic switch
configuration, and Appendix containing switch binding examples and scripts.
Document conventions
This section describes text formatting conventions and important notice formats used in this
document.
Text formatting
The narrative-text formatting conventions that are used are as follows:
bold text Identifies command names
Identifies the names of user-manipulated GUI elements
Identifies keywords and operands
Identifies text to enter at the GUI or CLI
italic text Provides emphasis
Identifies variables
Identifies paths and Internet addresses
Identifies document titles
code text Identifies CLI output
Identifies command syntax examples

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For readability, command names in the narrative portions of this guide are presented in mixed
lettercase: for example, switchShow. In actual examples, command lettercase is often all
lowercase. Otherwise, this manual specifically notes those cases in which a command is case
sensitive.
Command syntax conventions
Command syntax in this manual follows these conventions:
Command examples
This guide describes how to perform configuration tasks using the Fabric OS command line
interface, but does not describe the commands in detail. For complete descriptions of all Fabric OS
commands, including syntax, operand descriptions, and sample output, refer to the Brocade Fabric
OS Command Reference Manual.
Notes, cautions, and warnings
The following notices and statements are used in this manual. They are listed below in order of
increasing severity of potential hazards.
NOTE
A note provides a tip, guidance, or advice, emphasizes important information, or provides a
reference to related information.
ATTENTION
An Attention statement indicates potential damage to hardware or data.
command Commands are printed in boldface.
--option, option Command options are printed in bold.
-argument, arg Arguments.
[ ] Optional element.
variable Variables are printed in italics. In the help pages, values are underlined or
enclosed in angled brackets < >.
... Repeat the previous element, for example “member[;member...]”
value Fixed values following arguments are printed in plain font. For example,
--show WWN
| Boolean. Elements are exclusive. Example: --show -mode egress | ingress

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CAUTION
A Caution statement alerts you to situations that can be potentially hazardous to you.
DANGER
A Danger statement indicates conditions or situations that can be potentially lethal or extremely
hazardous to you. Safety labels are also attached directly to products to warn of these conditions
or situations.
Key terms
For definitions specific to Brocade and Fibre Channel, see the technical glossaries on MyBrocade.
See “Brocade resources,” for instructions on accessing MyBrocade.
For definitions of SAN-specific terms, visit the Storage Networking Industry Association online
dictionary at:
http://www.snia.org/education/dictionary
Notice to the reader
This document may contain references to the trademarks of the following corporations. These
trademarks are the properties of their respective companies and corporations.
These references are made for informational purposes only.
Additional information
This section lists additional Brocade and industry-specific documentation that you might find
helpful.
Brocade resources
To get up-to-the-minute information, go to http://my.brocade.com and register at no cost for a user
ID and password.
Corporation Referenced Trademarks and Products
International Business Machines Corp. IBM, FICON, S/390, z/OS, zSeries, Series z, Redbooks, z/OS
Global Mirror, System z, zEnterprise
Teradata Corporation Teradata
Optica Technologies, Inc. Prizm FICON to ESCON converter and ESBT Bus/Tag Interface
Module for Prizm

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For additional Brocade documentation, visit the Brocade SAN Info Center and click the Resource
Library location:
http://www.brocade.com
Release notes are available on the MyBrocade website and are also bundled with the Fabric OS
firmware.
Other industry resources
White papers, online demonstrations, and data sheets are available through the Brocade
website at http://www.brocade.com/products-solutions/products/index.page
•Best practice guides, white papers, data sheets, and other documentation is available through
the Brocade Partner website.
For additional resource information, visit the Technical Committee T11 website. This website
provides interface standards for high-performance and mass storage applications for Fibre
Channel, storage management, and other applications:
http://www.t11.org
For information about the Fibre Channel industry, visit the Fibre Channel Industry Association
website:
http://www.fibrechannel.org
Getting technical help
Contact your switch support supplier for hardware, firmware, and software support, including
product repairs and part ordering. To expedite your call, have the following information available:
1. General Information
•Switch model
•Switch operating system version
•Error numbers and messages received
•supportSave command output
•Detailed description of the problem, including the switch or fabric behavior immediately
following the problem, and specific questions
•Description of any troubleshooting steps already performed and the results
•Serial console and Telnet session logs
•syslog message logs
2. Switch Serial Number
The switch serial number and corresponding bar code are provided on the serial number label,
as illustrated below:
*FT00X0054E9*
FT00X0054E9

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The serial number label on FICON-qualified devices is located as follows:
•Brocade 5100, 5300, 7800, and 6510 — On the switch ID pull-out tab located inside the
chassis on the port side on the left.
•Brocade DCX 8510-8 and DCX - On the port side of the chassis, on the lower right side and
directly above the cable management comb.
•Brocade DCX 8510-4 and DCX-4S - On the nonport side of the chassis, on the lower left
side.
3. World Wide Name (WWN)
Use the licenseIDShow command to display the switch WWN.
If you cannot use the licenseIDShow command because the switch is inoperable, you can get
the WWN from the same place as the serial number, except for the Brocade DCX. For the
Brocade DCX, access the numbers on the WWN cards by removing the Brocade logo plate at
the top of the nonport side of the chassis.
Document feedback
Quality is our first concern at Brocade and we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy and
completeness of this document. However, if you find an error or an omission, or you think that a
topic needs further development, we want to hear from you. Forward your feedback to:
[e-mail]
Provide the title and version number of the document and as much detail as possible about your
comment, including the topic heading and page number and your suggestions for improvement.

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FICON Administrator’s Guide 1
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Chapter
1
Introducing FICON
•FICON overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
•FICON concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
•FICON configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
•Access control in FICON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
•FICON commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
•Link and FC addressing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
FICON overview
IBM Fibre Connection (FICON®) is an industry-standard, high-speed input/output (I/O) interface for
mainframe connections to storage devices. This guide discusses support offered by Fabric OS in
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), and Implementing an IBM/Brocade
SAN with 8 Gbps Directors and Switches (SG24-6116-08).
NOTE
In this guide, the term switch is used to refer to a Brocade switch, Backbone, or backbone platform
unless otherwise noted.
Fabric OS support for FICON
The following Fabric OS standard features support FICON fabrics:
•Blade swapping
Allows you to swap a blade of the same type so that you can perform a FRU replacement with
minimal traffic disruption. This feature is available for both FICON and open system
environments. Blade swapping resolves situations in which the hardware has failed and the
channel configurations cannot be changed quickly. In addition, a blade swap minimizes and
eliminates the need to make changes to the I/O sysgen in the hardware configuration
definition (HCD). Blade swapping has minimal or no impact on other switch features.
•Routing policies
FICON does not support exchange based routing, but does support port based and device
based routing. For details on these policies, refer to the “Routing Traffic” chapter in the
Brocade Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide.
•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.

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FICON overview
1
•Insistent (IDID)
Disables the dynamic domain ID feature and only allows the switch to use a pre-set domain ID.
All switches in a fabric must have a unique domain ID. An insistent domain ID is required with
2-byte addressing. IDID is required for cascaded FICON configurations.
•Link incident detection, registration, and reporting
Provides administrative and diagnostic information.
•Swap port area IDs (PIDs) of physical ports
Redirects resources from a failed port to a healthy port without changing the mainframe
hardware configuration definition (HCD) settings. This feature, also called “port swapping,” is
available for both FICON and open system environments. Swapping PIDs on ports resolves
situations in which the hardware has failed and the channel configurations cannot be changed
quickly. This feature has minimal or no impact on other switch features.
•Switch connection control (SCC) policy
Includes switch binding security methods that prevent unauthorized switches from joining a
fabric. SCC policy is required for cascaded FICON configurations and whenever 2-byte
addressing is used.
•Traffic Isolation (TI) Zones and Enhanced TI Zones
TI Zones are used to direct traffic across links through a specified path. Enhanced TI Zones
allow you to have ports in more than one TI Zone and to program domain controller routes to
destination domains for F-class traffic, ensuring fabric stability.
NOTE
For more detail on these features and configuration procedures, refer to the Fabric OS
Administrator’s Guide.
Brocade management tools provide further support:
•Brocade Network Advisor
Brocade Network Advisor is an optional software program that 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 on B-series enterprise-class switches. For more information on
Brocade Network Advisor refer to the manual appropriate for your version requirements:
-Brocade Network Advisor SAN + IP User Manual
-Brocade Network Advisor SAN User Manual
•Fabric OS MIB Reference
The MIB reference provides information and procedures on setting up the SNMP agent and
FICON Management Information Base (MIB) on your switch.
•Web Tools
Web Tools is an embedded GUI management tool that can be used to manage a Brocade
switch or Backbone that supports FICON and Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP) devices and traffic.
For more information on Web Tools, refer to the Web Tools Administrator’s Guide.
NOTE
Some licenses are installed and activated on the switch at the factory. Use a Brocade management
interface to verify that the required licenses are installed and activated on the switch.

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FICON concepts 1
Latency guideline
The maximum supported distance for a FICON channel is 300 Km (1.5 msec of delay).
Synchronous mirroring applications are generally limited to 100 Km (0.5 msec of delay). Greater
distances require that the FICON Acceleration feature be used with FCIP. The FICON Acceleration
feature emulates control unit response to the channel to make the devices appear closer to the
channel than they actually are.
FICON concepts
Figure 1 shows how the traffic in a switched point-to-point configuration flows in a FICON
environment. The logical path of the traffic is defined as frames moving from the channel to the
switch to the control unit. FICON traffic moves from a logical partition (LPAR) and through the
channel, through a Fibre Channel link to the switch through the control unit, and ends at the device.
This is also called a channel path, which is a single interface between a central processor and one
or more control units along which signals and data can be sent to perform I/O requests. The
channel path uses the logical path to traverse the Fibre Channel fabric. The channel path is defined
using an ID, called the channel path ID (CHPID). This information is stored in the Input/Output
Definition File (IODF) and may be dynamically configured using the mainframe feature, zDAC
(Dynamic Auto-Discovery). The IODF is typically built using the hardware configuration definition
(HCD).
FIGURE 1 FICON traffic
The traffic on the channel path communicates using channel command words (CCWs) that direct
the device to perform device-specific actions, such as Seek, Read, or Rewind. In a FICON
environment, buffer credits are used at the fibre channel protocol level for flow control between
optically adjacent ports, while information unit (IU) pacing is the flow control mechanism used by
the channel. There are times when there are no more buffer credits to pass back to the other end
of the link and a frame pacing delay occurs. Frame pacing delay is the number of intervals of 2.5
microsecond duration that a frame had to wait to be transmitted due to a lack of available buffer
credits. Frame pacing delay information is reported in the FICON Director Activity Report with the
System z RMF feature.
FICON introduces the following concepts:

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FICON concepts
1
•FICON Control Unit Port (CUP)
The internal port in a switch that assumes an FC address such that it is the FC DID used to
direct FICON traffic to the FICON Management Server.
•FICON Manager
Host communication includes control functions such as blocking and unblocking ports, as well
as monitoring and error-reporting functions.
•Hardware Configuration Definition (HCD)
HCD is an IBM interactive interface application that allows you to define the hardware
configuration for both the processor channel subsystem and the operating system running on
the processor.
•Information unit
A unit of FICON data consisting of from one to four Fibre Channel frames.
•Link Incident Record Registration (LIRR)
The LIRR Extended Link Service (ELS) requests that the recipient add the requesting port to its
list of ports that are to receive a Registered Link Incident Report (RLIR).
•Node
A node is an endpoint that contains information. It can be a computer (host), a device
controller, or a peripheral device, such as a disk array or tape drive. A node has a unique 64-bit
identifier known as the Node_Name. The Node_Name is typically used for management
purposes.
•Prohibit Dynamic Connectivity Mask (PDCM) and connectivity attributes
PDCM controls whether or not communication between a pair of ports in the switch is
prohibited. Connectivity attributes control whether all the communication is blocked for a port.
•Read Record Set (RRS)
RRS is an IBM Channel-initiated CCW command. The Brocade FCIP FICON Acceleration License
allows the emulation of command chains that include this CCW command. The command is
used in IBM z/OS Global Mirror configurations to read updates from a volume in an active
mirroring session.
•Registered Link Incident Report (RLIR)
RLIR ELS provides a way for a node port to send an incident record to another node port.
•Request Node Identification Data (RNID)
RNID ELS acquires the associated node’s identification data, which provides configuration
discovery and management purpose information.
•Resource Measurement Facility (RMF)
Performance monitoring software that gathers transaction data from the environment and
generates performance reports. All Level II reports, which include port statistics, require the
FICON Control Unit Port (CUP) and FICON Management Server (FMS).
•Systems Operations (SysOps)
SysOps provides the ability to monitor and control all subsystems in a sysplex from any system
in the sysplex. This includes controlled startup, controlled shutdown, and automated recovery
of software resources.

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FICON configurations 1
•Sysplex
In IBM mainframe computers, a Systems Complex, commonly called a sysplex, allows multiple
processors to be joined into a single unit, sharing the same sysplex name and Couple Data
Sets.
FICON configurations
There are two types of FICON configurations that are supported using Brocade Fabric OS: switched
point-to-point and cascaded topologies.
Switched point-to-point
A single-switch configuration is called switched point-to-point and allows the channel to use
single-byte addressing. Cascaded configurations require two-byte addressing, Figure 2 illustrates
an example of the switched point-to-point configuration.
FIGURE 2 Switched point-to-point FICON

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FICON configurations
1
Cascaded FICON
Cascaded FICON refers to an implementation of FICON that uses one or more FICON channel paths
whereby the domain ID of the entry switch is different than the domain of the switch where the
control unit is attached. Therefore, cascading requires a 2-byte link address. Any time a 2-byte link
address is defined on a channel, all link addresses must be 2-byte link addresses.
Switches may be interconnected using the following links:
•Traditional ISLs
•Inter-Chassis Links (ICL)
•Fibre Channel over Internet Protocol (FCIP)
The processor interface is connected to one switch (known as the entry switch), while the storage
interface is connected to the other. This configuration is supported for both disk and tape, with
multiple processors, disk subsystems, and tape subsystems sharing the ISLs or ICLs between the
switches and Backbones. Multiple ISLs between the switches and Backbones are also supported.
Cascading between switches and Backbones is also supported, An example of this would be a
Brocade DCX 8510-8 Backbone enterprise-class platform connected to a Brocade 6510.
A cascaded configuration (Figure 3) requires two-byte addressing. Two byte-addressing requires a
list of authorized switches. This authorization feature, called fabric binding, is available through the
Secure Access Control List feature. The fabric binding policy allows a predefined list of switches
(domains) to exist in the fabric and prevents other switches from joining the fabric. This type of
configuration is described in “User security considerations” on page 17.
FIGURE 3 Cascaded FICON
There are hardware and software requirements specific to two-byte addressing:
•The FICON switches themselves must be from the same vendor (that is, both should be from
Brocade).
Site A
FC
FC
FC Switch FC Switch
FC Link
FC Link
FC Link
FC Link
FICON CU
FICON CU
Site B
ISL