HP StorageWorks 2/24 FW 07.00.00/HAFM SW 08.06.00 McDATA Products in a SAN Env - Page 133
SANtegrity Binding, FICON Cascading, Protocol Intermixing, Best Practices
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Planning Considerations for Fibre Channel Topologies 3 Protocol Intermixing Best Practices SANtegrity Binding McDATA offers a SANtegrity Binding feature (including both fabric binding and switch binding) that allows the creation of reliable SAN configurations and provides a mechanism for attached devices to query the user-configured security level employed in a SAN. The feature significantly reduces the impacts of accidental or operatorinduced errors. Fabric binding defines the directors and switches allowed to participate in a fabric, thus preventing accidental fabric merges. Switch binding defines the devices allowed to connect to directors and switches in a fabric, thus providing additional security in SAN environments that must manage a large number of devices. For additional information, refer to SANtegrity Binding. FICON Cascading FICON is most often deployed in SANs that have high data integrity and reliability standards. However, the initial FICON architecture was limited to one domain (i.e. a single-switch fabric), which creates severe distance and connectivity limitations. These data standards and the requirement for FICON fabrics in SANs led to protocol changes that support FICON cascading. FICON cascading allows an IBM eServer zSeries processor to communicate with other zSeries processors or peripheral devices (such as disks, tape libraries, or printers) through a fabric consisting of two or more FICON directors or switches. Cascaded FICON fabrics also provide high end-to-end data integrity to ensure changes to a data stream are always detected and rectified and that data is always delivered to the correct fabric end point. For additional information, refer to FICON Cascading. A related feature to consider is the announcement of FCP support for IBM eServer zSeries processors. This development accelerates the requirement for intermix protocol fabrics, since primary processors now support both FICON and FCP. The Element Manager graphical user interface (GUI) provides an open systems or FICON management style. Users can toggle between management styles with the director or switch online. Planning Considerations for Fibre Channel Topologies 3-47