unit fibre-channel ports. Shared access to a storage unit fibre-channel port might
come from host platforms that support a combination of bus adapter types and the
operating systems.
Attaching a DS8000 series to an open-systems host with
fibre-channel adapters
You can attach a DS8000 series to an open-systems host with fibre-channel
adapters.
Fibre channel is a 1 Gbps or 2 Gbps, full-duplex, serial communications technology
to interconnect I/O devices and host systems that are separated by tens of
kilometers.
The IBM TotalStorage DS8000 series supports SAN connections at 1 Gbps to 4
Gbps with 2 Gbps host bus adapters. The DS8000 series negotiates automatically
and determines whether it is best to run at 1 Gbps link or 2 Gbps link. The IBM
TotalStorage DS8000 series detects and operates at the higher link speed.
Fibre channel transfers information between the sources and the users of the
information. This information can include commands, controls, files, graphics, video,
and sound. Fibre-channel connections are established between fibre-channel ports
that reside in I/O devices, host systems, and the network that interconnects them.
The network consists of elements like switches, bridges, and repeaters that are
used to interconnect the fibre-channel ports.
Fibre-channel (SCSI-FCP) attached open-systems hosts that the
storage unit supports
You can attach the DS8000 storage unit to fibre-channel (SCSI-FCP) attached
open-systems hosts.
Each storage unit fibre-channel adapter has four ports. Each port has a unique
worldwide port name (WWPN). You can configure the port to operate with the
SCSI-FCP upper-layer protocol. Shortwave adapters and longwave adapters are
available on the storage unit.
Fibre-channel adapters for SCSI-FCP support provide the following configurations:
v A maximum of 64 host ports for DS8100 Model 921 and a maximum of 128 host
ports for DS8300 Models 922 and 9A2
v A maximum of 509 host logins per fibre-channel port
v A maximum of 2000 N-port logins per storage image
v Access to all 63.7KB LUNs per target (one target per host adapter), depending
on host type
v Either arbitrated loop, switched fabric, or point-to-point topologies
The
storage unit supports the following host systems for shortwave fibre-channel
attachment and longwave fibre-channel attachment:
v IBM eServer iSeries
™
servers that run an IBM OS/400
®
operating system
v IBM eServer i5 servers that run an IBM i5/OS
™
operating system
v IBM RS/6000
®
, pSeries
®
, eServer p5, RS/6000 SP
™
, and pSeries SP server that
run an IBM AIX
®
operating system
v IBM zSeries servers that run the Linux
™
operating system
v IBM zSeries servers that run the z/VM
®
operating system
v Apple Macintosh servers
12 DS8000 User’s Guide