Cisco MDS 9000 FICON Solutions

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Cisco MDS 9710 and 9706 Multilayer Directors

The Cisco MDS 9710 and 9706 FICON and Fibre Channel multilayer directors set a new standard for availability and performance for connection to the IBM z System. They support 32 and 16 Gigabit FICON and Fibre Channel and are fully interoperable with the new IBM z17. Both 9706 and 9710 are certified with z17 starting with NX-OS 9.4(1a).

Hardware/Software Features include:

• 384 non-blocking, line-rate 32G ports in the MDS 9710 / 192 non-blocking, line rate 32G ports in the MDS 9706
• Support for host and device connection at 4G/8G/16G/32G. Both Longwave and Shortwave optics are supported
• Support for 32G FICON Forward Error Correction (FEC) feature on the System z17 as well as 64G ISLs
• Support for IBM FICON Dynamic Routing on the System z17 processor
• Cisco TrustSec line-rate link encryption for FICON / FC ISLs
• N+1 Switch Fabric cards meaning consistent performance even through a fabric card failure
• N+1 and grid redundancy for power
• Enough bandwidth for support of 32G FICON/FC
• Full support for IBM FICON environments including IBM CUP management interface

The Cisco MDS 9220i Multiservice Fabric Switch

This switch provides highly scalable SAN extension capabilities for the System z environment. The System provides both 32 Gbps FICON and FCP as well as 40 Gigabit FCIP links that can be used for long distance applications.

Hardware/Software Features include:

• 12 line-rate 32G FICON / FC Ports
• 4 10G Fibre Channel over IP Ports (FCIP), or 1x 40G, or 2x 25G.
• Support for host and device connection at 4G/8G/16G/32G. Both Longwave and Shortwave optics are supported.
• FICON Tape Acceleration feature with tape write/read data pipelining to increase performance for virtual and real tape systems
• FICON XRC Acceleration to enable data pipelining of dynamic disk updates for environments at distances over 200km
• Hardware-based, line-rate payload compression and encryption for FCIP links
• Support for IBM FICON Dynamic Routing on the System z17 processor
• Full support for IBM FICON environments including IBM CUP management interface.

For System z environments, reliability and stability out of the box are critical. Given this, Cisco partners with IBM to do interoperability testing of Cisco FICON solutions. This testing is done at the Cisco Lab where all new System z models are tested.

Testing includes:

• Function compliance to interoperate with the System z
• High stress of real System z traffic (no packet blasters)
• Recovery from common failure scenarios
• Validation of In-Service Software Upgrade and downgrade under stress
• Usability and manageability of the MDS director

IBM FICON Qualification Letters for the Cisco MDS Family

• IBM FICON Qualification Letter for NX-OS 9.4(1a)
• IBM FICON Qualification Letter for NX-OS 8.4(2c)
• IBM FICON Qualification Letter for NX-OS 8.4(2e)

Q. Does IBM support Fibre Connection (FICON) on the Cisco MDS products?
Yes. The MDS 9710/ 9706 chassis have been IBM-qualified since 2013. The MDS 9220i is also supported and the MDS 9148V will be supported as of NX-OS 9.4(3b). You can find all IBM qualification letters on the Interoperability tab.

Q. Are the Cisco MDS FICON Directors and switches supported for IBM's Z17 Series? Do they also support 64G FC?
A. Yes, IBM has qualified the MDS 9710/9706 and the MDS 9220i with Z17. The MDS 9148V will be supported on NX-OS 9.4(3b). 64G line cards are supported on the directors and can support 64G ISL connections.

Q. Does the MDS portfolio require a license for FICON or Mainframe?
A. No. As of NX-OS 9.4(1a) The FICON and mainframe feature-set has been moved into the base set of features for the Cisco MDS platform. No additional licenses required for FICON.

Q. Does FICON on the MDS support control unit port (CUP)?
A. Yes. CUP is the inline management interface between the System z and the FICON VSAN. You can use it for both configuration and control of the director if desired. The System z also can use this interface to gather performance statistics from the director. The CUP feature is included as part of the Mainframe license.

Q. Do the MDS 9700 FICON products support FICON Dynamic Routing feature?
A. Yes. All MDS systems that support FICON have FICON Dynamic Routing. In fact, this feature is nothing new; for Cisco this feature is called Originator Exchange ID (OXID)-based routing, and it has been present in the MDS for more than 10 years. NOTE: Microcode changes were needed in the Mainframe I/O Subsystem as well as within each of the Control units due to the difference between “strict” and “loose” In-Order Delivery