IBM System z10 EC User manual

February 2008
IBM System z10 Enterprise Class (z10 EC)
Reference Guide

2
Table of Contents
z/Architecture page 6
IBM System z10 page 8
z10 EC Models page 12
z10 EC Performance page 14
z10 EC I/O SubSystem page 15
z10 EC Channels and I/O Connectivity page 15
ESCON page 15
Fibre Channel Connectivity page 15
OSA-Express page 19
HiperSockets page 25
Security page 26
Cryptography page 27
On Demand Capabilities page 31
Reliability, Availability, and Security page 34
Availability Functions page 34
Environmental Enhancements page 37
Parallel Sysplex Cluster Technology page 38
Fiber Quick Connect for FICON LX Environment page 43
System z10 EC Conguration Details page 44
System z10 EC Physical Characteristics page 46
Coupling Facility – CF Level of Support page 47
Publications page 48

3
IBM System z10 Enterprise Class (z10 EC) Overview
In today’s world, IT is woven in to almost everything that a
business does and is consequently pivotal to a business.
Some of the key requirements today are the need to
maximize return on investments by deploying resources
designed to drive efciencies and economies of scale,
managing growth through resources that can scale to
meet changing business demands, reducing risk by
reducing the threat of lost productivity through downtime
or security breaches, reduce complexity by reversing the
trend of server proliferation and enabling business innova-
tion by deploying resources that can help protect existing
investments while also enabling those new technologies
that enable business transformation.
The IBM System z10™ Enterprise Class (z10™ EC) delivers
a world-class enterprise server designed to meet these
business needs. The z10 EC provides new levels of per-
formance and capacity for growth and large scale con-
solidation, improved security, resiliency and availability to
reduce risk, and introduces just in time resource deploy-
ment to help respond to changing business requirements.
As environmental concerns raise the focus on energy
consumption, the z10 EC is designed to reduce energy
usage and save oor space when used to consolidate x86
servers. Specialty engines continue to help users expand
the use of the mainframe for a broad set of applications,
while helping to lower the cost of ownership. The z10 EC is
at the core of the enhanced System z™ platform that deliv-
ers technologies that businesses need today along with a
foundation to drive future business growth.
Just in time deployment of IT resources
Infrastructures must be more exible to changing capacity
requirements and provide users with just-in-time deploy-
ment of resources. Having the 16 GB dedicated HSA on
the z10 EC means that some preplanning conguration
changes and associated outages may be avoided. IBM
Capacity Upgrade on Demand (CUoD) provides a perma-
nent increase in processing capacity that can be initiated
by the customer.
IBM On/Off Capacity on Demand (On/Off CoD) provides
temporary capacity needed for short-term spikes in
capacity or for testing new applications. Capacity Backup
Upgrade (CBU) can help provide reserved emergency
backup capacity for all processor congurations.
A new temporary capacity offering on the z10 EC is
Capacity for Planned Events (CPE), a variation on CBU.
If unallocated capacity is available in a server, it will allow
the maximum capacity available to be used for planned
events such as planned maintenance in a data center.
The z10 EC introduces a new architectural approach for
temporary offerings that can change the thinking about
on demand capacity. One or more exible conguration
denitions can be used to solve multiple temporary situa-
tions and multiple capacity congurations can be active at
once. This means that On/Off CoD can be active and up to
three other offerings can be active simultaneously.
By having exible and dynamic conguration denitions,
when capacity is needed, activation of any portion of an
offering can be done (for example activation of just two
CBUs out of a denition that has four CBUs is accept-
able). And if the denition doesn’t have enough resources
dened, an order can easily be processed to increase the
capacity (so if four CBUs aren’t enough it can be redened
to be six CBUs) as long as enough server infrastructure is
available to meet maximum needs.

4
All activations can be done without having to interact with
IBM—when it is determined that capacity is required, no
passwords or phone connections are necessary. As long
as the total z10 EC can support the maximums that are
dened, then they can be made available.
A new z10 EC feature now makes it possible to add per-
manent capacity while a temporary capacity is currently
activated, without having to return rst to the original con-
guration.
The activation of On/Off CoD on z10 EC can be simplied
or automated by using z/OS Capacity Provisioning (avail-
able with z/OS® 1.9). This capability enables the monitoring
of multiple systems based on Capacity Provisioning and
Workload Manager (WLM) denitions. When the dened
conditions are met, z/OS can suggest capacity changes
for manual activation from a z/OS console, or the system
can add or remove temporary capacity automatically and
without operator intervention.
Specialty engines offer an attractive alternative
The z10 EC continues to support the use of specialty
engines that can help users expand the use of the main-
frame for new workloads, while helping to lower the cost of
ownership.
The IBM System z10 Integrated Information Processor
(zIIP) works closely with z/OS, which manages and directs
work between CPs and the zIIP. It is designed to free up
general computing capacity and lower overall total cost
of computing for select data and transaction process-
ing workloads for Business Intelligence (BI), Enterprise
Resource Planning (ERP), and Customer Relationship
Management (CRM). The z10 EC also allows IPSec pro-
cessing to take advantage of the zIIP, making the zIIP a
high-speed IPSec protocol processing engine providing
better price performance for IPSec processing. IPSec is
an open networking standard used to create highly secure
connections between two points in an enterprise.
For IBM WebSphere® Application Server and other Java™
technology based solutions the IBM System z10 Applica-
tion Assist Processor (zAAP) offers a specialized engine
that provides a strategic z/OS Java execution environment.
When congured with CPs within logical partitions running
z/OS, zAAPs may help increase general purpose proces-
sor productivity and may contribute to lowering the overall
cost of computing for z/OS Java technology-based appli-
cations. Beginning with z/OS 1.8, z/OS XML System Ser-
vices can also take advantage of zAAPs for cost savings.
z/VM® 5.3 is designed to provide new guest support for
zAAPs and zIIPs and includes:
• Simulation support — z/VM guest virtual machines can
create virtual specialty processors on processor models
that support the same types of specialty processors but
don’t necessarily have them installed. Virtual specialty
processors are dispatched on real CPs. Simulating
specialty processors provides a test platform for z/VM
guests to exploit mixed-processor congurations. This
allows users to assess the operational and CPU utiliza-
tion implications of conguring a z/OS system with zIIP
or zAAP processors without requiring the real specialty
processor hardware. This simulation also supports
z/VM’s continuing role as a disaster-recovery platform,
since a virtual conguration can be dened to match the
real hardware conguration even when real zIIP or zAAP
processors are not available on the recovery system
zIIPs can be simulated only on System z10 EC, IBM
System z9® Enterprise Class (z9™ EC) and IBM System
z9 Business Class (z9 BC) servers. zAAPs can be
simulated only on z10 EC, z9 EC, z9 BC, IBM eServer™
zSeries® 990 (z990), and IBM eServer zSeries 890
(z890) servers.
• Virtualization support — z/VM can create virtual spe-
cialty processors for virtual machines by dispatching the
virtual processors on corresponding specialty proces-
sors of the same type in the real conguration. Guest
support for zAAPs and zIIPs may help improve your total
cost of ownership by allowing available zAAP and zIIP

5
capacity not being used by z/OS LPARs to be allocated
to a z/VM LPAR hosting z/OS guests running Java and
DB2® workloads. zAAPs and zIIPs cost less than stan-
dard CPs, so this support might enable you to avoid
purchasing additional CPs, thereby helping to reduce
your costs both for additional hardware and for software
licensing fees.
The System z10 EC offers the Integrated Facility for Linux®
(IFL) to support Linux and open standards. Linux brings
a wealth of available applications that can be run in a real
or virtual environment under the z10 EC. The System z
platform, with z/VM, provides users with the ability to scale
out, deploying hundreds to thousands of virtual Linux serv-
ers in one CEC footprint. The z/VSE™ strategy supports
integration between z/VSE and Linux on System z to help
customers integrate timely production z/VSE data into new
Linux applications, such as data warehouse environments
built upon a DB2 data server. The mainframe offers a com-
prehensive suite of characteristics and features such as
availability, scalability, clustering, systems management,
HiperSockets and security to enable and support new and
existing environments.
Numerical computing on the chip
Integrated on the z10 EC processor unit is a Hardware
Decimal Floating Point unit to accelerate decimal oating
point transactions. This function is designed to markedly
improve performance for decimal oating point operations
which offer increased precision compared to binary oating
point operations. This is expected to be particularly useful
for the calculations involved in many nancial transactions.
Decimal calculations are often used in nancial applica-
tions and those done using other oating point facilities
have typically been performed by software through the
use of libraries. With a hardware decimal oating point
unit, some of these calculations may be done directly and
accelerated.
Liberating your assets with System z
Enterprises have millions of dollars worth of mainframe
assets and core business applications that support the
heart of the business. The convergence of service oriented
architecture (SOA) and mainframe technologies can help
liberate these core business assets by making it easier to
enrich, modernize, extend and reuse them well beyond
their original scope of design. The z10 EC, along with the
inherent strengths and capabilities of a z/OS environment,
provides an excellent platform for being an enterprise hub.
Innovative System z software solutions from WebSphere,
CICS®, Rational® and Lotus® strengthen the exibility of
doing SOA.
Evolving for your business
The z10 EC is the next step in the evolution of the System z
mainframe, fullling our promise to deliver technology
improvements in areas that the mainframe excels in—
energy efciency, scalability, virtualization, security and
availability. The redesigned processor chip helps the z10
EC make high performance compute-intensive processing
a reality. Flexibility and control over capacity gives IT the
upper edge over planned or unforeseen demands. And
new technologies can benet from the inherit strengths of
the mainframe. This evolving technology delivers a com-
pelling case for the future to run on System z.

6
The z10 EC continues the line of upward compatible
mainframe processors and retains application compatibility
since 1964. The z10 EC supports all z/Architecture®-com-
pliant Operating Systems. The heart of the processor unit is
the new Enterprise Quad Core z10 PU chip which is specif-
ically designed and optimized for mainframe systems. New
features enhance enterprise data serving performance as
well as CPU-intensive workloads.
The z10 EC, like its predecessors, supports 24-, 31-, and
64-bit addressing, as well as multiple arithmetic formats.
High-performance logical partitioning via Processor
Resource/Systems Manager™ (PR/SM™) is achieved by
industry-leading virtualization support provided by z/VM.
z10 EC Architecture
• Rich CICS Instruction Set Architecture (ISA)
• 894 instructions (668 implemented entirely in hardware)
• Multiple address spaces robust inter-process security
• Multiple arithmetic formats
• Architectural extensions for z10 EC
• 50+ instructions added to z10 EC to improve compiled
code efciency
• Enablement for software/hardware cache optimization
• Support for 1 MB page frames
• Full hardware support for Hardware Decimal Floating-
point Unit (HDFU)
z/Architecture operating system support
The z10 EC is capable of supporting multiple operating
systems. Each operating system environment exploits
z/Architecture in a unique way and offers business value.
Each new release further exploits the hardware architec-
ture.
z/OS
With z/OS 1.9, IBM delivers functionality that continues to
solidify System z leadership as the premier data server.
z/OS 1.9 offers enhancements in the areas of security, net-
working, scalability, availability, application development,
integration, and improved economics with more exploitation
for specialty engines. A foundational element of the platform
— the z/OS tight interaction with the System z hardware and
its high level of system integrity.
With z/OS 1.9, IBM introduces:
• A revised and expanded Statement of z/OS System
Integrity
• Large Page Support (1 MB)
• Capacity Provisioning
• Support for up to 54 engines in a single image
• Simplied and centralized policy-based networking
• Advancements in ease of use for both new and existing
IT professionals coming to z/OS
• Support for zIIP-assisted IPSec, and support for eli-
gible portions of DB2 9 XML parsing workloads to be
ofoaded to zAAP processors
• Expanded options for AT-TLS and System SSL network
security
• Improved creation and management of digital certi-
cates with RACF®, SAF, and z/OS PKI Services
• Additional centralized ICSF encryption key management
functions for applications
• Improved availability with Parallel Sysplex® and Coupling
Facility improvements
• Enhanced application development and integration with
new System REXX™ facility, Metal C facility, and z/OS
UNIX® System Services commands
• Enhanced Workload Manager in managing discretionary
work and zIIP and zAAP workloads
z/Architecture

7
Commitment to system integrity
First issued in 1973, IBM’s MVS
™
System Integrity State-
ment and subsequent statements for OS/390® and z/OS
stand as a symbol of IBM’s condence and commitment to
the z/OS operating system. Today, IBM reafrms its com-
mitment to z/OS system integrity.
IBM’s commitment includes designs and development
practices intended to prevent unauthorized application
programs, subsystems, and users from bypassing z/OS
security—that is, to prevent them from gaining access, cir-
cumventing, disabling, altering, or obtaining control of key
z/OS system processes and resources unless allowed by the
installation. Specically, z/OS “System Integrity” is dened
as the inability of any program not authorized by a mecha-
nism under the installation’s control to circumvent or disable
store or fetch protection, access a resource protected by
the z/OS Security Server (RACF), or obtain control in an
authorized state; that is, in supervisor state, with a protection
key less than eight (8), or Authorized Program Facility (APF)
authorized. In the event that an IBM System Integrity prob-
lem is reported, IBM will always take action to resolve it.
IBM’s long-term commitment to System Integrity is unique
in the industry, and forms the basis of the z/OS industry
leadership in system security. z/OS is designed to help you
protect your system, data, transactions, and applications
from accidental or malicious modication. This is one of
the many reasons System z remains the industry’s premier
data server for mission-critical workloads.
z/VM
The z/VM hypervisor is designed to help clients extend the
business value of mainframe technology across the enter-
prise by integrating applications and data while providing
exceptional levels of availability, security, and operational
ease. z/VM virtualization technology is designed to allow
the capability for clients to run hundreds to thousands of
Linux servers on a single mainframe running with other
System z operating systems, such as z/OS, or as a large-
scale Linux-only enterprise server solution. z/VM 5.3 can
also help to improve productivity by hosting non-Linux
workloads such as z/OS, z/VSE, and z/TPF.
z/VM 5.3 is designed to offer:
• Large real memory exploitation support (up to 256 GB)
• Single-image CPU support for 32 processors
• Guest support enhancements, including a z/OS testing
environment for the simulation and virtualization of zAAP
and zIIP specialty processors
• Support for selected features of the IBM System z10 EC
• Comprehensive security with a new LDAP server and
RACF feature, including support for password phrases
• Enhancements to help improve the ease-of-use of virtual
networks
• Management enhancements for Linux and other virtual
images
• Integrated systems management from the HMC
z/VSE
z/VSE 4.1, the latest advance in the ongoing evolution of
VSE, is designed to help address needs of VSE clients
with growing core VSE workloads and/or those who wish
to exploit Linux on System z for new, Web-based business
solutions and infrastructure simplication.
z/VSE 4.1 is designed to support:
• z/Architecture mode only
• 64-bit real addressing and up to 8 GB of processor
storage
• System z encryption technology including CPACF, con-
gurable Crypto Express2, and TS1120 encrypting tape
• Midrange Workload License Charge (MWLC) pricing,
including full-capacity and sub-capacity options.

8
IBM has previewed z/VSE 4.2. When available, z/VSE 4.2 is
designed to support up to 32 GB of processor storage and
more than 255 VSE tasks.
z/TPF
z/TPF is a 64-bit operating system that allows you to move
legacy applications into an open development environ-
ment, leveraging large scale memory spaces for increased
speed, diagnostics and functionality. The open develop-
ment environment allows access to commodity skills and
enhanced access to open code libraries, both of which
can be used to lower development costs. Large memory
spaces can be used to increase both system and appli-
cation efciency as I/Os or memory management can be
eliminated.
z/TPF is designed to support:
• Linux development environment (GCC and HLASM for
Linux)
• 32 processors/cluster
• Up to 84* engines/processor
• 40,000 modules
Everyday the IT system needs to be available to users
– customers that need access to the company Web site,
line of business personnel that need access to the system,
application development that is constantly keeping the
environment current, and the IT staff that is operating and
maintaining the environment. If applications are not consis-
tently available, the business can suffer.
The z10 EC continues our commitment to deliver improve-
ments in hardware Reliability, Availability and Serviceability
(RAS) with every new System z server. They include micro-
code driver enhancements, dynamic segment sparing for
memory as well as the xed HSA. The z10 EC is a server
that can help keep applications up and running in the
event of planned or unplanned disruptions to the system.
IBM System z servers stand alone against competition and
have stood the test of time with our business resiliency solu-
tions. Our coupling solutions with Parallel Sysplex technol-
ogy allows for greater scalability and availability. The new
InniBand® Coupling Links (planned to be available 2nd
quarter 2008*) on the z10 EC are rated a 6 Gbps and pro-
vides a high speed solution to the 10 meter limitation of ICB-4
since they will be available in lengths up to 150 meters.
What the z10 EC provides over its predecessors are
improvements in the processor granularity offerings,
more options for specialty engines, newer security
enhancements, additional high availability characteristics,
Concurrent Driver Upgrade (CDU) improvements,
enhanced networking and on demand offerings. The
z10 EC provides our IBM customers an option for contin-
ued growth, continuity, and upgradeability.
The IBM System z10 EC builds upon the structure intro-
duced on the IBM System z9 EC (formerly z9-109) – scal-
ability and z/Architecture. The System z10 EC expands
upon a key attribute of the platform – availability – to help
ensure a resilient infrastructure designed to satisfy the
demands of your business. With the potential for increased
performance and capacity, you have an opportunity to
continue to consolidate diverse applications on a single
IBM System z10 EC

9
platform. The z10 EC is designed to provide up 1.7** times
the total system capacity than the z9 EC, and has up to
triple the available memory. The maximum number of Pro-
cessor Units (PUs) has grown from 54 to 64, and memory
has increased from 128 GB per book and 512 GB per
system to 384 GB per book and 1.5 TB per system.
The z10 EC will continue to use the Cargo cage for its I/O,
supporting up to 960 Channels on the Model E12 (64 I/O
features) and up to 1,024 (84 I/O features) on the Models
E26, E40, E56 and E64.
HiperDispatch helps provide increased scalability and
performance of higher n-way and multi-book z10 EC sys-
tems by improving the way workload is dispatched across
the server. HiperDispatch accomplishes this by recogniz-
ing the physical processor where the work was started and
then dispatching subsequent work to the same physical
processor. This intelligent dispatching helps reduce the
movement of cache and data and is designed to improve
CPU time and performance. HiperDispatch is available
only with new z10 EC PR/SM and z/OS functions.
PUs dened as Internal Coupling Facilities (ICFs), Inte-
grated Facility for Linux (IFLs), System z10 Application
Assist Processor (zAAPs) and System z10 Integrated Infor-
mation Processor (zIIPs) are no longer grouped together in
one pool as on the z990, but are grouped together in their
own pool, where they can be managed separately. The
separation signicantly simplies capacity planning and
management for LPAR and can have an effect on weight
management since CP weights and zAAP and zIIP weights
can now be managed separately. Capacity BackUp (CBU)
features are available for IFLs, ICFs, zAAPs and zIIPs.
For LAN connectivity, z10 EC will provide a new OSA-
Express3 2-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) Long Reach
feature (planned to be available 2nd quarter 2008*) and
continues to support OSA-Express2 1000BASE-T and
GbE Ethernet features, and supports IP version 6 (IPv6) on
HiperSockets. OSA-Express2 OSN (OSA for NCP) is also
available on System z10 EC to support the Channel Data
Link Control (CDLC) protocol, providing direct access from
the host operating system images to the Communication
Controller for Linux on the z10 EC, z9 EC and z9 BC (CCL)
using OSA-Express2 to help eliminate the requirement for
external hardware for communications.
Additional channel and networking improvements include
support for Layer 2 and Layer 3 trafc, FCP management
facility for z/VM and Linux for System z, FCP security
improvements, and Linux support for HiperSockets IPv6.
InniBand coupling links with 6 GBps bandwidth are
exclusive to System z10 and distance has been extended
to 150 meters. STP enhancements include the additional
support for NTP clients and STP over InniBand links.
Like the System z9 EC, the z10 EC offers a congurable
Crypto Express2 feature, with PCI-X adapters that can
be individually congured as a secure coprocessor or
an accelerator for SSL, the TKE workstation with optional
Smart Card Reader, and provides the following CP Assist
for Cryptographic Function (CPACF):
• Data Encryption Standard (DES)
• Triple DES (TDES)
• Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 128-, 192-, and
256-bit
• Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA-1) 160-bit
• SHA-2 256-, 384-, and 512-bit
• Pseudo Random Number Generation (PRNG)
z10 EC is designed to deliver the industry leading Reli-
ability, Availability and Serviceability (RAS) customers
expect from System z servers. RAS is designed to reduce
all sources of outages by reducing unscheduled, sched-
uled and planned outages. Planned outages are further
designed to be reduced by reducing preplanning require-
ments.

10
z10 EC preplanning improvements are designed to avoid
planned outages and include:
• Flexible Customer Initiated Upgrades
• Enhanced Driver Maintenance
– Multiple “from” sync point support
• Reduce Pre-planning to avoid Power-On-Reset
– 16 GB for HSA
– Dynamic I/O enabled by default
– Add Logical Channel Subsystems (LCSS)
– Change LCSS Subchannel Sets
– Add/delete Logical partitions
• Designed to eliminate a logical partition deactivate/
activate/IPL
– Dynamic Change to Logical Processor Denition
– z/VM 5.3
– Dynamic Change to Logical Cryptographic Coproces-
sor Denition – z/OS ICSF
Additionally, several service enhancements have also
been designed to avoid scheduled outages and include
concurrent rmware xes, concurrent driver upgrades,
concurrent parts replacement, and concurrent hardware
upgrades. Exclusive to the z10 EC is the ability to hot
swap ICB-4 and InniBand hub cards.
Enterprises with IBM System z9 EC and IBM z990 may
upgrade to any z10 Enterprise Class model. Model
upgrades within the z10 EC are concurrent with the
exception of the E64, which is disruptive. If you desire
a consolidation platform for your mainframe and Linux
capable applications, you can add capacity and even
expand your current application workloads in a cost-effec-
tive manner. If your traditional and new applications are
growing, you may nd the z10 EC a good t with its base
qualities of service and its specialty processors designed
for assisting with new workloads. Value is leveraged with
improved hardware price/performance and System z10 EC
software pricing strategies.
The z10 EC processor introduces IBM System z10
Enterprise Class with Quad Core technology, advanced
pipeline design and enhanced performance on CPU inten-
sive workloads. The z10 EC is specically designed and
optimized for full z/Architecture compatibility. New features
enhance enterprise data serving performance, industry
leading virtualization capabilities, energy efciency at
system and data center levels. The z10 EC is designed to
further extend and integrate key platform characteristics
such as dynamic exible partitioning and resource man-
agement in mixed and unpredictable workload environ-
ments, providing scalability, high availability and Qualities
of Service (QoS) to emerging applications such as
WebSphere, Java and Linux.
With the logical partition (LPAR) group capacity limit on
z10 EC, z9 EC and z9 BC, you can now specify LPAR
group capacity limits allowing you to dene each LPAR
with its own capacity and one or more groups of LPARs
on a server. This is designed to allow z/OS to manage the
groups in such a way that the sum of the LPARs’ CPU uti-
lization within a group will not exceed the group’s dened
capacity. Each LPAR in a group can still optionally con-
tinue to dene an individual LPAR capacity limit.
The z10 EC has ve models with a total of 100 capacity
settings available as new build systems and as upgrades
from the z9 EC and z990.
The ve z10 EC models are designed with a multi-book
system structure that provides up to 64 Processor Units
(PUs) that can be characterized as either Central Proces-
sors (CPs), IFLs, ICFs, zAAPs or zIIPs.
Some of the signicant enhancements in the z10 EC that
help bring improved performance, availability and function
to the platform have been identied. The following sections
highlight the functions and features of the z10 EC.

11
z10 EC Design and Technology
The System z10 EC is designed to provide balanced
system performance. From processor storage to the
system’s I/O and network channels, end-to-end bandwidth
is provided and designed to deliver data where and when
it is needed.
The processor subsystem is comprised of one to four
books connected via a point-to-point SMP network. The
change to a point-to-point connectivity eliminates the need
for the jumper book, as had been used on the System z9
and z990 systems. The z10 EC design provides growth
paths up to a 64 engine system where each of the 64
PUs has full access to all system resources, specically
memory and I/O.
Each book is comprised of a Multi-Chip Module (MCM),
memory cards and I/O fanout cards. The MCMs, which
measure approximately 96 x 96 millimeters, contain the
Processor Unit (PU) chips, the “SCD” and “SCC” chips of
z990 and z9 have been replaced by a single “SC” chip
which includes both the L2 cache and the SMP fabric
(“storage controller”) functions. There are two SC chips on
each MCM, each of which is connected to all ve CP chips
on that MCM. The MCM contain 103 glass ceramic layers
to provide interconnection between the chips and the
off-module environment. Four models (E12, E26, E40 and
E56) have 17 PUs per book, and the high capacity z10 EC
Model E64 has one 17 PU book and three 20 PU books.
Each PU measures 21.973 mm x 21.1658 mm and has an
L1 cache divided into a 64 KB cache for instructions and a
128 KB cache for data. Each PU also has an L1.5 cache.
This cache is 3 MB in size. Each L1 cache has a Transla-
tion Look-aside Buffer (TLB) of 512 entries associated with
it. The PU, which uses a new high-frequency z/Architecture
microprocessor core, is built on CMOS 11S chip technology
and has a cycle time of approximately 0.23 nanoseconds.
The design of the MCM technology on the z10 EC provides
the exibility to congure the PUs for different uses; there
are two spares and up to 11 System Assist Processors
(SAPs) standard per system. The remaining inactive PUs
on each installed MCM are available to be character-
ized as either CPs, ICF processors for Coupling Facility
applications, or IFLs for Linux applications and z/VM
hosting Linux as a guest, System z10 Application Assist
Processors (zAAPs), System z10 Integrated Information
Processors (zIIPs) or as optional SAPs and provide you
with tremendous exibility in establishing the best system
for running applications. Each model of the z10 EC must
always be ordered with at least one CP, IFL or ICF.
Each book can support from the 16 GB minimum memory,
up to 384 GB and up to 1.5 TB per system. 16 GB of the
total memory is delivered and reserved for the xed Hard-
ware Systems Area (HSA). There are up to 48 IFB links per
system at 6 GBps each.
The z10 EC supports a combination of Memory Bus
Adapter (MBA) and Host Channel Adapter (HCA) fanout
cards. New MBA fanout cards are used exclusively for
ICB-4. New ICB-4 cables are needed for z10 EC and are
only available on models E12, E26, E40 and E56. The
E64 model may not have ICBs. The InniBand Multiplexer
(IFB-MP) card replaces the Self-Timed Interconnect Mul-
tiplexer (STI-MP) card. There are two types of HCA fanout
cards: HCA2-C is copper and is always used to connect
to I/O (IFB-MP card) and the HCA2-O which is optical
and used for customer InniBand coupling which in being
announced and made generally available in 2Q08.
Data transfers are direct between books via the level 2
cache chip in each MCM. Level 2 Cache is shared by all
PU chips on the MCM. PR/SM provides the ability to con-
gure and operate as many as 60 Logical Partitions which
may be assigned processors, memory and I/O resources
from any of the available books.

12
The z10 EC has been designed to offer high performance
and efcient I/O structure. All z10 EC models ship with
two frames: an A-Frame and a Z-Frame, which together
support the installation of up to three I/O cages. The z10
EC will continue to use the Cargo cage for its I/O, support-
ing up to 960 ESCON® and 256 FICON® channels on the
Model E12 (64 I/O features) and up to 1,024 ESCON and
336 FICON channels (84 I/O features) on the Models E26,
E40, E56 and E64.
To increase the I/O device addressing capability, the I/O
subsystem provides support for multiple subchannels
sets (MSS), which are designed to allow improved device
connectivity for Parallel Access Volumes (PAVs). To sup-
port the highly scalable multi-book system design, the z10
EC I/O subsystem uses the Logical Channel Subsystem
(LCSS) which provides the capability to install up to 1024
CHPIDs across three I/O cages (256 per operating system
image). The Parallel Sysplex Coupling Link architecture
and technology continues to support high speed links pro-
viding efcient transmission between the Coupling Facility
and z/OS systems. HiperSockets provides high-speed
capability to communicate among virtual servers and logi-
cal partitions. HiperSockets is now improved with the IP
version 6 (IPv6) support; this is based on high-speed TCP/
IP memory speed transfers and provides value in allowing
applications running in one partition to communicate with
applications running in another without dependency on
an external network. Industry standard and openness are
design objectives for I/O in System z10 EC.
The z10 EC has ve models offering between 1 to 64 pro-
cessor units (PUs), which can be congured to provide
a highly scalable solution designed to meet the needs
of both high transaction processing applications and On
Demand Business. Four models (E12, E26, E40 and E56)
have 17 PUs per book, and the high capacity z10 EC
Model E64 has one 17 PU book and three 20 PU books.
The PUs can be characterized as either CPs, IFLs, ICFs,
zAAPs or zIIPs. An easy-to-enable ability to “turn off” CPs
or IFLs is available on z10 EC, allowing you to purchase
capacity for future use with minimal or no impact on
software billing. An MES feature will enable the “turned
off” CPs or IFLs for use where you require the increased
capacity. There are a wide range of upgrade options avail-
able in getting to and within the z10 EC.
z10 EC Models
E64
E56
E40
E26
E12
Concurrent Upgrade
z990
z10 EC
z9 EC

13
The z10 EC hardware model numbers (E12, E26, E40, E56
and E64) on their own do not indicate the number of PUs
which are being used as CPs. For software billing pur-
poses only, there will be a Capacity Indicator associated
with the number of PUs that are characterized as CPs. This
number will be reported by the Store System Information
(STSI) instruction for software billing purposes only. There
is no afnity between the hardware model and the number
of CPs. For example, it is possible to have a Model E26
which has 13 PUs characterized as CPs, so for software
billing purposes, the STSI instruction would report 713.
z10 EC model upgrades
There are full upgrades within the z10 EC models and
upgrades from any z9 EC or z990 to any z10 EC. Upgrade
of z10 EC Models E12, E26, E40 and E56 to the E64 is
disruptive. When upgrading to z10 EC Model E64, unlike
the z9 EC, the rst book is retained. There are no direct
upgrades from the z9 BC or IBM eServer zSeries 900
(z900), or previous generation IBM eServer zSeries.
IBM is increasing the number of sub-capacity engines on
the z10 EC. A total of 36 sub-capacity settings are avail-
able on any hardware model for 1-12 CPs. Models with 13
CPs or greater must be full capacity.
For the z10 EC models with 1-12 CPs, there are four
capacity settings per engine for central processors (CPs).
The entry point (Model 401) is approximately 23.69% of
a full speed CP (Model 701). All specialty engines con-
tinue to run at full speed. Sub-capacity processors have
availability of z10 EC features/functions and any-to-any
upgradeability is available within the sub-capacity matrix.
All CPs must be the same capacity setting size within one
z10 EC.
z10 EC Model Capacity IDs:
• 700, 401 to 412, 501 to 512, 601 to 612 and 701 to 764
• Capacity setting 700 does not have any CP engines
• Nxx, where n = the capacity setting of the engine, and
xx = the number of PU characterized as CPs in the CEC
• Once xx exceeds 12, then all CP engines are full capacity
z10 EC Base and Subcapacity Offerings
• The z10 EC has 36 additional capacity settings at the
low end
• Available on ANY H/W Model for 1 to 12 CPs. Models
with 13 CPs or greater have to be full capacity
• All CPs must be the same capacity within the z10 EC
• All specialty engines run at full capacity. The one for one
entitlement to purchase one zAAP or one zIIP for each
CP purchased is the same for CPs of any capacity.
• Only 12 CPs can have granular capacity, other PUs
must be CBU or characterized as specialty engines
E12 E26 E40 E54 E64
7xx
6xx
5xx
4xx
CP Capacity Relative to Full Speed
7xx = 100%
6xx ~ 69.35%
5xx ~ 51.20%
4xx ~ 23.69%
xx = 01 through 12
Sub Capacity Models

14
The performance design of the z/Architecture can enable
the server to support a new standard of performance for
applications through expanding upon a balanced system
approach. As CMOS technology has been enhanced to
support not only additional processing power, but also
more PUs, the entire server is modied to support the
increase in processing power. The I/O subsystem supports
a greater amount of bandwidth than previous generations
through internal changes, providing for larger and faster
volume of data movement into and out of the server. Sup-
port of larger amounts of data within the server required
improved management of storage congurations, made
available through integration of the operating system and
hardware support of 64-bit addressing. The combined bal-
anced system design allows for increases in performance
across a broad spectrum of work.
Large System Performance Reference
IBM’s Large Systems Performance Reference (LSPR)
method is designed to provide comprehensive
z/Architecture processor capacity ratios for different con-
gurations of Central Processors (CPs) across a wide
variety of system control programs and workload environ-
ments. For z10 EC, z/Architecture processor capacity
indicator is dened with a (7XX) notation, where XX is the
number of installed CPs.
Based on using an LSPR mixed workload, the perfor-
mance of the z10 EC (2097) 701 is expected to be up to
1.62 times that of the z9 EC (2094) 701.
The LSPR contains the Internal Throughput Rate Ratios
(ITRRs) for the new z10 EC and the previous-generation
zSeries processor families based upon measurements
and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a con-
trolled environment. The actual throughput that any user
may experience will vary depending upon considerations
such as the amount of multiprogramming in the user’s job
stream, the I/O conguration, and the workload processed.
LSPR workloads have been updated to reect more
closely your current and growth workloads. The classica-
tion Java Batch (CB-J) has been replaced with a new clas-
sication for Java Batch called ODE-B. The remainder of
the LSPR workloads are the same as those used for the z9
EC LSPR. The typical LPAR conguration table is used to
establish single-number-metrics such as MIPS and MSUs.
The z10 EC LSPR will rate all z/Architecture processors
running in LPAR mode, 64-bit mode, and assumes that
HiperDispatch is enabled.
For more detailed performance information, consult the
Large Systems Performance Reference (LSPR) available
at: http://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/lspr/.
z10 EC Performance

15
The z10 EC contains an I/O subsystem infrastructure
which uses an I/O cage that provides 28 I/O slots and the
ability to have one to three I/O cages delivering a total of
84 I/O slots. ESCON, FICON Express4, FICON Express2,
FICON Express, OSA-Express3 LR, OSA-Express2, and
Crypto Express2 features plug into the z10 EC I/O cage
along with any ISC-3s and InniBand Multiplexer (IFB-
MP) cards. All I/O features and their support cards can
be hot-plugged in the I/O cage. Installation of an I/O
cage remains a disruptive MES, so the Plan Ahead fea-
ture remains an important consideration when ordering a
z10 EC system. Each model ships with one I/O cage as
standard in the A-Frame (the A-Frame also contains the
Central Electronic Complex [CEC] cage where the books
reside) and any additional I/O cages are installed in the
Z-Frame. Each IFB-MP has a bandwidth up to 6 GigaBytes
per second (GB/sec) for I/O domains and MBA fanout
cards provide 2.0 GB/sec for ICB-4s.
The z10 EC continues to support all of the features
announced with the System z9 EC such as:
• Logical Channel Subsystems (LCSSs) and support for
up to 60 logical partitions
• Increased number of Subchannels (63.75k)
• Multiple Subchannel Sets (MSS)
• Redundant I/O Interconnect
• Physical Channel IDs (PCHIDs)
• System Initiated CHPID Reconguration
• Logical Channel SubSystem (LCSS) Spanning
ESCON Channels
The z10 EC supports up to 1,024 ESCON channels. The
high density ESCON feature has 16 ports, 15 of which
can be activated for customer use. One port is always
reserved as a spare which is activated in the event of a
failure of one of the other ports. For high availability the
initial order of ESCON features will deliver two 16-port
ESCON features and the active ports will be distributed
across those features.
Fibre Channel Connectivity
The on demand operating environment requires fast data
access, continuous data availability, and improved exibil-
ity, all with a lower cost of ownership. The four port FICON
Express4 and FICON Express2 features available on the
z9 EC continue to be supported on the System z10 EC.
FICON Express4 Channels
The z10 EC supports up to 336 FICON Express4 chan-
nels, each one operating at 1, 2 or 4 Gb/sec auto-negoti-
ated. The FICON Express4 features are available in long
wavelength (LX) and short wavelength (SX). For customers
exploiting LX, there are two options available for unre-
peated distances of up to 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) or up to
10 kilometers (6.2 miles). Both LX features use 9 micron
single mode ber optic cables. The SX feature uses 50
or 62.5 micron multimode ber optic cables. Each FICON
Express4 feature has 4 independent channels (ports) and
can be congured to carry native FICON trafc or Fibre
Channel (SCSI) trafc. LX and SX cannot be intermixed on
a single feature. The receiving devices must correspond to
the appropriate LX or SX feature. The maximum number of
FICON Express4 features is 84 using three I/O cages.
z10 EC I/O Subsystem z10 EC Channels and I/O Connectivity

16
FICON Express2 Channels
The z10 EC supports carrying forward up to 336 FICON
Express2 channels, each one operating at 1 or 2 Gb/sec
auto-negotiated. The FICON Express2 features are avail-
able in long wavelength (LX) using 9 micron single mode
ber optic cables and short wavelength (SX) using 50 and
62.5 micron multimode ber optic cables. Each FICON
Express2 feature has four independent channels (ports)
and each can be congured to carry native FICON trafc
or Fibre Channel (SCSI) trafc. LX and SX cannot be inter-
mixed on a single feature. The maximum number of FICON
Express2 features is 84, using three I/O cages.
FICON Express Channels
The z10 EC also supports carrying forward FICON Express
LX and SX channels from z9 EC and z990 (up to 120 chan-
nels) each channel operating at 1 or 2 Gb/sec auto-negoti-
ated. Each FICON Express feature has two independent
channels (ports).
The System z10 EC Model E12 is limited to 64 features
– any combination of FICON Express4, FICON Express2
and FICON Express LX and SX features.
The FICON Express4, FICON Express2 and FICON Ex-
press feature conforms to the Fibre Connection (FICON)
architecture and the Fibre Channel (FC) architecture,
providing connectivity between any combination of serv-
ers, directors, switches, and devices in a Storage Area
Network (SAN). Each of the four independent channels
(FICON Express only supports two channels per feature) is
capable of 1 gigabit per second (Gb/sec), 2 Gb/sec, or 4
Gb/sec (only FICON Express4 supports 4 Gbps) depend-
ing upon the capability of the attached switch or device.
The link speed is auto-negotiated, point-to-point, and is
transparent to users and applications. Not all switches and
devices support 2 or 4 Gb/sec link data rates.
FICON Express4 and FICON Express2 Performance
Your enterprise may benet from FICON Express4 and
FICON Express2 with:
• Increased data transfer rates (bandwidth)
• Improved performance
• Increased number of start I/Os
• Reduced backup windows
• Channel aggregation to help reduce infrastructure costs
For more information about FICON, visit the IBM Redbooks®
Web site at: http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/ search for
SG24-5444. There are also various FICON I/O Connectivity
information at: www-03.ibm.com/systems/z/connectivity/.
Extended distance FICON – improved performance at extended
distance
An enhancement to the industry standard FICON architec-
ture (FC-SB-3) helps avoid degradation of performance at
extended distances by implementing a new protocol for
“persistent” Information Unit (IU) pacing. Control units that
exploit the enhancement to the architecture can increase
the pacing count (the number of IUs allowed to be in ight
from channel to control unit). Extended Distance FICON also
allows the channel to “remember” the last pacing update
for use on subsequent operations to help avoid degrada-
tion of performance at the start of each new operation.
Improved IU pacing can help to optimize the utilization of
the link (for example – help keep a 4 Gbps link fully utilized
at 50 km) and provide increased distance between servers
and control units.
The requirements for channel extension equipment are
simplied with the increased number of commands in
ight. This may benet z/OS Global Mirror (Extended
Remote Copy – XRC) applications as the channel exten-
sion kit is no longer required to simulate (or spoof) specic
channel commands. Simplifying the channel extension
requirements may help reduce the total cost of ownership
of end-to-end solutions.

17
Extended distance FICON is transparent to operating sys-
tems and applies to all the FICON Express4 and FICON
Express2 features carrying native FICON trafc (CHPID
type FC). For exploitation, the control unit must support the
new IU pacing protocol.
The channel will default to current pacing values when
operating with control units which cannot exploit extended
distance FICON.
Concurrent Update
The FICON Express4 SX and LX features may be added
to an existing z10 EC concurrently. This concurrent update
capability allows you to continue to run workloads through
other channels while the new FICON Express4 features are
being added. This applies to CHPID types FC and FCP.
Continued Support of Spanned Channels and Logical
Partitions
The FICON Express4 and FICON Express2, FICON and
FCP (CHPID types FC and FCP) channel types, can be
dened as a spanned channel and can be shared among
logical partitions within and across LCSSs.
Modes of Operation
There are two modes of operation supported by FICON
Express4 and FICON Express2 SX and LX. These modes
are congured on a channel-by-channel basis – each of
the four channels can be congured in either of two sup-
ported modes.
• Fibre Channel (CHPID type FC), which is native FICON
or FICON Channel-to-Channel (server-to-server)
• Fibre Channel Protocol (CHPID type FCP), which sup-
ports attachment to SCSI devices via Fibre Channel
switches or directors in z/VM, z/VSE, and Linux on
System z10 environments
Native FICON Channels
Native FICON channels and devices can help to reduce
bandwidth constraints and channel contention to enable
easier server consolidation, new application growth,
large business intelligence queries and exploitation of On
Demand Business.
The FICON Express4, FICON Express2 and FICON
Express channels support native FICON and FICON
Channel-to-Channel (CTC) trafc for attachment to serv-
ers, disks, tapes, and printers that comply with the FICON
architecture. Native FICON is supported by all of the
z10 EC operating systems. Native FICON and FICON
CTC are dened as CHPID type FC.
Because the FICON CTC function is included as part of
the native FICON (FC) mode of operation, FICON CTC is
not limited to intersystem connectivity (as is the case with
ESCON), but will support multiple device denitions.
FICON Support for Cascaded Directors
Native FICON (FC) channels support cascaded directors.
This support is for a single hop conguration only. Two-
director cascading requires a single vendor high integrity
fabric. Directors must be from the same vendor since cas-
caded architecture implementations can be unique. This
type of cascaded support is important for disaster recov-
ery and business continuity solutions because it can help
provide high availability, extended distance connectivity,
and (particularly with the implementation of 2 Gb/sec Inter
Switch Links) has the potential for ber infrastructure cost
savings by reducing the number of channels for intercon-
necting the two sites.

18
FICON cascaded directors have the added value of high
integrity connectivity. New integrity features introduced
within the FICON Express channel and the FICON cas-
caded switch fabric to aid in the detection and reporting
of any miscabling actions occurring within the fabric can
prevent data from being delivered to the wrong end point.
FCP Channels
z10 EC supports FCP channels, switches and FCP/ SCSI
disks with full fabric connectivity under Linux on System z
a nd z/VM 5.2 (or later) for Linux as a guest under z/VM,
under z/VM 5.2 (or later), and under z/VSE 3.1 for system
usage including install and IPL. Support for FCP devices
means that z10 EC servers are capable of attaching to select
FCP-attached SCSI devices and may access these devices
from Linux on z10 EC and z/VSE. This expanded attachability
means that enterprises have more choices for new storage
solutions, or may have the ability to use existing storage
devices, thus leveraging existing investments and lowering
total cost of ownership for their Linux implementations.
The same FICON features used for native FICON chan-
nels can be dened to be used for Fibre Channel Protocol
(FCP) channels. FCP channels are dened as CHPID type
FCP. The 4 Gb/sec capability on the FICON Express4
channel means that 4 Gb/sec link data rates are available
for FCP channels as well.
FCP – increased performance
The Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP) Licensed Internal
Code has been modied to help provide increased I/O
operations per second for small block sizes. With FICON
Express4, there may be up to 52,000 I/O operations per
second (all reads, all writes, or a mix of reads and writes),
a 60% increase compared to System z9. These results are
achieved in a laboratory environment using one channel
congured as CHPID type FCP with no other processing
occurring and do not represent actual eld measurements.
A signicant increase in I/O operations per second for small
block sizes can also be expected with FICON Express2.
This FCP performance improvement is transparent to oper-
ating systems and applies to all the FICON Express4 and
FICON Express2 features when congured as CHPID type
FCP, communicating with SCSI devices.
FCP Full fabric connectivity
FCP full fabric support means that any number of (single
vendor) FCP directors/ switches can be placed between
the server and an FCP/SCSI device, thereby allowing
many “hops” through a Storage Area Network (SAN) for I/O
connectivity. FCP full fabric connectivity enables multiple
FCP switches/directors on a fabric to share links and there-
fore provides improved utilization of inter-site connected
resources and infrastructure.
FICON Express enhancements for Storage Area Networks
N_Port ID Virtualization
N_Port ID Virtualization is designed to allow for sharing of
a single physical FCP channel among multiple operating
system images. Virtualization function is currently available
for ESCON and FICON channels, and is now available for
FCP channels. This new function offers improved FCP chan-
nel utilization due to fewer hardware requirements, and can
reduce the complexity of physical FCP I/O connectivity.
Two site non-cascaded director
topology. Each CEC connects to
directors in both sites.
Two Site cascaded director
topology. Each CEC connects to
local directors only.
IBM
IBM
With Inter Switch Links (ISLs),
less fiber cabling may be needed
for cross-site connectivity

19
Program Directed re-IPL
Program Directed re-IPL is designed to enable an operat-
ing system to determine how and from where it had been
loaded. Further, Program Directed re-IPL may then request
that it be reloaded again from the same load device using
the same load parameters. In this way, Program Directed re-
IPL allows a program running natively in a partition to trigger
a re-IPL. This re-IPL is supported for both SCSI and ECKD™
devices. z/VM 5.3 provides support for guest exploitation.
FICON Link Incident Reporting
FICON Link Incident Reporting is designed to allow an
operating system image (without operating intervention)
to register for link incident reports, which can improve the
ability to capture data for link error analysis. The informa-
tion can be displayed and is saved in the system log.
Serviceability Enhancements
Requests Node Identication Data (RNID) is designed to
facilitate the resolution of ber optic cabling problems. You
can now request RNID data for a device attached to a na-
tive FICON channel.
Connectivity for LANs – Open Systems Adapters
Networking enhancements for the OSA-Express family
of features are designed to facilitate serviceability, help
simplify the infrastructure, facilitate load balancing, reduce
latency, improve performance, and allow ports to be com-
bined in a single logical link for increased throughput and
nondisruptive failover.
Local Area Network (LAN) connectivity for the z10 EC is
being enhanced with the introduction of a dual port Open
Systems Adapter-Express3 (OSA-Express3) 10 Gbps Long
Reach. Open Systems Adapter-Express2 (OSA-Express2),
continues to be supported on the z10 EC for connectivity
to Local Area Networks (LANs), and supports 1000BASE-T
Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) LX and SX, and 10 GbE
LR. When OSA-Express3 10 GbE LR becomes available,
OSA-Express2 10 GbE LR will no longer be available for
ordering.
The OSA-Express3 and OSA-Express2 features are
hot-pluggable, support the Multiple Image Facility (MIF)
sharing of channels across logical partitions, and can be
dened as a spanned channel to be shared among logical
partitions within and across LCSSs. The maximum com-
bined number of OSA-Express3 and OSA-Express2 fea-
tures supported per server is 24 on the z10 EC (up to 48
ports). OSA-Express2 features can be carried forward on
an upgrade from a z9 EC, z990 or z900 server. The OSA-
Express features are not supported on z10 EC servers.
The OSA-Express2 1000BASE-T Ethernet feature and the
OSA-Express2 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) feature support
the IBM Communication Controller for Linux (CCL) on the
System z platform. The OSA-Express2 OSN (OSA for NCP)
supports the Channel Data Link Control (CDLC) protocol,
which provides direct access from the host operating sys-
tem (such as z/OS and TPF) to the CCL.
With the large volume and complexity of today’s network
trafc, the z10 EC offers systems programmers and
network administrators the ability to more easily solve net-
work problems. With the introduction of the OSA-Express
Network Trafc Analyzer and QDIO Diagnostic Synchro-
nization on the System z and available on the z10 EC,
customers will have the ability to capture trace/trap data
and forward it to z/OS 1.8 tools for easier problem determi-
nation and resolution.
This function is designed to allow the operating system
to control the sniffer trace for the LAN and capture the
records into host memory and storage (le systems), using
existing host operating system tools to format, edit, and
process the sniffer records.

20
OSA-Express Network Trafc Analyzer is exclusive to the
z10 EC, z9 EC and z9 BC, and is applicable to the OSA-
Express3 and OSA-Express2 features when congured as
CHPID type OSD (QDIO), and is supported by z/OS.
Dynamic LAN idle for z/OS
Dynamic LAN idle is designed to reduce latency and
improve network performance by dynamically adjusting
the inbound blocking algorithm. When enabled, the z/OS
TCP/IP stack is designed to adjust the inbound blocking
algorithm to best match the application requirements.
For latency sensitive applications, the blocking algorithm is
modied to be “latency sensitive.” For streaming (through-
put sensitive) applications, the blocking algorithm is ad-
justed to maximize throughput. The z/OS TCP/IP stack can
dynamically detect the application requirements, making
the necessary adjustments to the blocking algorithm. The
monitoring of the application and the blocking algorithm
adjustments are made in real-time, dynamically adjusting
the application’s LAN performance.
System administrators can authorize the z/OS TCP/IP stack
to enable a dynamic setting, which was previously a static
setting. The z/OS TCP/IP stack is able to help determine
the best setting for the current running application, based
on system conguration, inbound workload volume, CPU
utilization, and trafc patterns.
Link aggregation for z/VM in Layer 2 mode
z/VM Virtual Switch-controlled (VSWITCH-controlled) link
aggregation (IEEE 802.3ad) allows you to dedicate an
OSA-Express2 (or OSA-Express3) port to the z/VM operat-
ing system when the port is participating in an aggregated
group when congured in Layer 2 mode. Link aggregation
(trunking) is designed to allow you to combine multiple
physical OSA-Express3 and OSA-Express2 ports (of the
same type for example 1GbE or 10GbE) into a single
logical link for increased throughput and for nondisruptive
failover in the event that a port becomes unavailable.
• Aggregated link viewed as one logical trunk and con-
taining all of the Virtual LANs (VLANs) required by the
LAN segment
• Load balance communications across several links in a
trunk to prevent a single link from being overrun
• Link aggregation between a VSWITCH and the physical
network switch
• Point-to-point connections
• Up to eight OSA-Express3 or OSA-2 ports in one aggre-
gated link
• Ability to dynamically add/remove OSA ports for “on
demand” bandwidth
• Full-duplex mode (send and receive)
• Target links for aggregation must be of the same type
(for example, Gigabit Ethernet to Gigabit Ethernet)
The Open Systems Adapter/Support Facility (OSA/SF) will
provide status information on an OSA port – its “shared” or
“exclusive use” state. OSA/SF is an integrated component
of z/VM.
Link aggregation is exclusive to z10 EC, z9 EC and z9 BC ,
is applicable to the OSA-Express3 and OSA-Express2
features in Layer 2 mode when congured as CHPID type
OSD (QDIO), and is supported by z/VM.
OSA Layer 3 Virtual MAC for z/OS
To simplify the infrastructure and to facilitate load balanc-
ing when an LPAR is sharing the same OSA Media Access
Control (MAC) address with another LPAR, each operating
system instance can now have its own unique “logical” or
“virtual” MAC (VMAC) address. All IP addresses associ-
ated with a TCP/IP stack are accessible using their own
VMAC address, instead of sharing the MAC address of
an OSA port. This applies to Layer 3 mode and to an OSA
port shared among Logical Channel Subsystems.