Brocade Communications Systems StoreFabric SN6500B, FICON Administrator's Manual

53-1002753-01

®

53-1002753-01
14 December 2012

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
Critical, the Network Is Brocade are trademarks of Brocade Communications Systems, Inc., in the United States and/or in other
countries. Other brands, products, or service names mentioned are or may be trademarks or service marks of their respective
owners.

Notice: This document is for informational purposes only and does not set forth any warranty, expressed or implied, concerning
any equipment, equipment feature, or service offered or to be offered by Brocade. Brocade reserves the right to make changes to
this document at any time, without notice, and assumes no responsibility for its use. This informational document describes
features that may not be currently available. Contact a Brocade sales office for information on feature and product availability.
Export of technical data contained in this document may require an export license from the United States government.

The product described by this document may contain “open source” software covered by the GNU General Public License or other
open source license agreements. To find out which open source software is included in Brocade products, view the licensing
terms applicable to the open source software, and obtain a copy of the programming source code, please visit

http://www.brocade.com/support/oscd.

Brocade Communications Systems, Incorporated

Corporate and Latin American Headquarters
Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.
130 Holger Way
San Jose, CA 95134
Tel: [phone]
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Document History

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.

FICON Administrator’s Guide 53-1002154-01 Updated document for

Fabric OS version 7.0.0.

FICON Administrator’s Guide 53-1002473-01 Corrections made to

document

FICON Administrator’s Guide 53-1002473-02 Corrections made to

document

FICON Administrator’s Guide 53-1002753-01 Corrections made to and

updated document for
Fabric OS version 7.1.0.

March 2010

April 2011

December 2011

November 2012

December 2012

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

FICON Administrator’s Guide iii
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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

iv FICON Administrator’s Guide

Setting the MIHPTO value. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45

Persistently enabling and disabling ports for CUP . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46

53-1002753-01

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

FICON Administrator’s Guide v
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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

vi FICON Administrator’s Guide

53-1002753-01

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”

FICON Administrator’s Guide vii
53-1002753-01

• 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.

viii FICON Administrator’s Guide

53-1002753-01

• 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

FICON Administrator’s Guide ix
53-1002753-01

For readability, command names in the narrative portions of this guide are presented in mixed

NOTE

ATTENTION

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 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

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

or

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.

A note provides a tip, guidance, or advice, emphasizes important information, or provides a
reference to related information.

An Attention statement indicates potential damage to hardware or data.

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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.

Corporation Referenced Trademarks and Products

International Business Machines Corp. IBM, FICON, S/390, z/OS, zSeries, Series z, Redbooks, z/OS

Teradata Corporation Teradata

Optica Technologies, Inc. Prizm FICON to ESCON converter and ESBT Bus/Tag Interface

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.

Global Mirror, System z, zEnterprise

Module for Prizm

FICON Administrator’s Guide xi
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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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Chapter

NOTE

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).

1

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
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.

and open system

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FICON overview

NOTE

NOTE

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
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.

and open system environments. Swapping PIDs on ports resolves

• 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.

• Traffi c I s o l ation (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.

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.

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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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).

FICON concepts

1

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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• 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.

FICON configurations

1

FIGURE 2 Switched point-to-point FICON

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FICON configurations

Site A

FC

FC

FC Switch FC Switch

FC Link

FC Link

FC Link

FC Link

FICON CU

FICON CU

Site B

ISL

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

6 FICON Administrator’s Guide

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).

53-1002753-01

FICON configurations

Channel

A

Control

Unit

B

Switch

Domain ID = 21

Switch

Domain ID = 22

Channel

A

Control

Unit

C

Control

Unit

D

Switch

Domain ID = 23

Switch

Domain ID = 21

Switch

Domain ID = 22

1

• The mainframes must be zSeries machines or System z processors: z196, z114, z800, 890,

900, 990, z9 BC, z9 EC, z10 BC, EC, and zEC12. Cascaded FICON requires 64-bit architecture
to support the 2-byte addressing scheme. Cascaded FICON is not supported on 9672 G5/G6
mainframes.

• z/OS version 1.4 or later, or z/OS version 1.3 with required PTFs/MCLs to support 2-byte link

addressing (DRV3g and MCL (J11206) or later) is required.

• Two-byte addressing, which has the following requirements:

- E_D_TOV must be the same on all switches in the fabric (typically this is not changed from

the default).

- R_A_TOV must be the same on all switches in the fabric (typically this is not changed from

the default).

- Insistent Domain ID.

- Fabric binding (strict SCC policy).

Qualified FICON cascaded configurations

Not all fibre channel fabrics are qualified for FICON. Cascaded FICON configurations are limited to
well-controlled paths. Only the channel paths described in this section are supported for FICON.
The resulting fabric scenario after ISL failures must not result in an unsupported configuration.
When physical cabling is not practical to enforce these configurations, zoning or traffic isolation
zoning (TI zoning) with failover disabled may be used to ensure unsupported fabrics cannot be
formed. Note that these restrictions apply to logical switches and not the chassis.

Figure 4 and Figure 5 show two cascaded configurations. These configurations require Channel A

to be configured for 2-byte addressing and require IDID and fabric binding. It is recommended that
there be only two domains in a path from a FICON Channel interface to a FICON Control Unit
interface. There are exceptions to the two-domain rule when extended fabric solutions are
deployed.

FIGURE 4 Cascaded configuration, two switches

Figure 5 illustrates multiple switches cascaded off of switch 21 As long as there is only one hop

from channel to control unit, the configuration is supported.

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FIGURE 5 Cascaded configuration, core-edge architecture

Access control in FICON

NOTE

NOTE

1

Access control in FICON

Zoning is used to control access in a FICON environment. A zone consists of a group of ports or
WWNs. Connectivity is permitted only between connections to the switch that are in the same zone.
There are three types of zoning: WWN, port, and domain index zoning. A zone configuration
includes at least one zone. In open systems environments and in more complex FICON
deployments, the zone configuration contains multiple zones. Although index zoning is supported,
WWN zoning for QoS is recommended in environments where NPIV is deployed. For more
information on how to implement QoS domain index zoning in your fabric, refer to the QOS zones
section of the Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide for details.

When zoning changes occur, Registered State Change Notification (RSCN) messages are sent out
throughout the zone. RSCNs are part of the low-level Fibre Channel protocol that alerts channels
and devices to changes in the fabric. Using multiple smaller zones instead of one large zone helps
alleviate the need for channels and device interfaces to process RSCNs that are not relevant.

Session-based zoning enforcement is not recommended on a FICON switch. For more information
on session-based zoning enforcement, refer to the Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide.

Cascaded zoning

Figure 6 illustrates multiple sites sharing the same disaster recovery site. Each switch or Backbone

at a remote site—labeled Director 1 and Director 3—can pass traffic to Director 2, but no traffic is
permitted between Zone A and Zone B.

FIGURE 6 Simple cascaded zoning

Figure 7 illustrates the multiple zoning concepts that can be used to restrict traffic. In Figure 7, any

host channel at the Backup Site (connected to Director 11 or Director 12) can connect to the
backup tape contained within the same zone. Notice that no more than a single hop is ever allowed
and only Channel Path Identifiers (CHPIDs) 79 and 7A on the Primary Site can connect to the
backup tape. Furthermore, CHPIDs 79 and 7A can only connect to the backup tape at the Backup
Site.

Zoning does not replace the need to set up the connectivity from the host to storage control units in
the HCD or IOCP. For more information on zoning, refer to the Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide.

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Access control in FICON

1

FIGURE 7 Complex cascaded zoning

Blue Zone A: Any CHPID connected to Director 1, except CHPID 79, can get to any control unit
connected to Director 1. The zone includes all ports in Director 1 except ports 4, 5, and 6.

Orange Zone B: Any CHPID connected to Director 2, except CHPID 7A, can get to any control unit
connected to Director 2. The zone includes all ports in Director 2 except ports 4, 5, and 6.

Green Zone C: Any CHPID connected to Director 11 can get to any control unit connected to Director

11. The zone includes all ports in Director 11 except ports 5 and 6. Adding ports 5 and 6 to the
zone, so that all ports in the switch or backbone are in the same zone, would not affect permitted
connectivity and may be a more practical alternative.

Yellow Zone D: Any CHPID connected to Director 12 can get to any control unit connected to
Director 12. The zone includes all ports in Director 12 except ports 5 and 6, which are used for
ISLs.

Red Zone E: CHPID 79 can talk only to the remote tape connected to ports 7 and 8 on Director 11.
The zone includes port 4 of Director 1 and ports 7 and 8 of Director 11. Either ISL can be used.

Purple Zone F: CHPID 7A can talk only to the remote tape connected to ports 7 and 8 on Director

12. The zone includes port 4 of Director 2 and ports 7 and 8 of Director 12. Either ISL can be used.

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Access control in FICON

1

Error reporting

Non-implicit (such as Fabric OS recognized or bit error rate threshold exceeded) and implicit (FRU
failure) link incidents are reported to registered listeners on the local switch. The RMF 74-7 record
(FICON Director Activity Report, which is the same RMF Record containing the average frame
pacing delay information) reports port errors, which in turn are also reported back to the
mainframe host management consoles.

Secure access control

Binding is a method used to prevent devices from attaching to the switch or Backbone. Secure

Access Control List (ACL) provides the following fabric, switch, and port binding features:

• Fabric binding is a security method for restricting switches within a multiple-switch fabric.

Brocade recommends using fabric binding for cascaded FICON. SCC ACL with strict fabric-wide
consistency is required for FICON fabric binding.

• Switch binding is a security method for restricting devices that connect to a particular switch or

Backbone. If the device is another switch, this is handled by the SCC policy. If the device is a
host or storage device, the device connection control (DCC) policy binds those devices to a
particular switch. Policies range from completely restrictive to reasonably flexible, based upon
customer needs. SCC ACL with strict fabric-wide consistency is necessary for FICON switch
binding.

• Port binding is a security method for restricting host or storage devices that connect to

particular switch ports. The DCC policy also binds device ports to switch ports. Policies range
from completely restrictive to reasonably flexible, based on customer needs.

Figure 8 on page 11 demonstrates the three types of binding you can use depending on the

security requirements of your fabric.

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Access control in FICON

1

FIGURE 8 Three types of binding

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FICON commands

NOTE

1

FICON commands

The Fabric OS CLI supports only a subset of the Brocade management features for FICON fabrics.
The full set of FICON CUP administrative procedures is available using the Brocade Network Advisor
and Web Tools software features. You can also use an SNMP agent and the FICON
Information Base (MIB).

Tab le 1 summarizes the Fabric OS CLI commands that can be used for managing FICON fabrics.

For detailed information on these commands, refer to the Fabric OS Command Reference Manual.

TABLE 1 Fabric OS commands related to FICON

Command Description

Standard Fabric OS commands

bladeSwap Swaps the area numbers for matching port pairs of two blades.

configure Changes a variety of switch configuration settings, including

configUpload Backs up the current configuration.

firmwareShow Displays the current version of the firmware.

licenseAdd Adds a license to the switch. The license key is case-sensitive and

licenseRemove Removes a license from the switch. Note that FMS mode must be

licenseShow Displays current license keys, along with a list of licensed

licenseSlotCfg Enable and display slot-based licenses for a switch chassis. Note

portAddress Binds the 16-bit address to the lower two bytes of a port 24-bit

portSwap Swaps ports. Note that the portswap --restore command restores

portSwapDisable Disables the portSwap feature. The portSwap command cannot

portSwapEnable Enables the portSwap feature.

portSwapShow Displays information about swapped ports.

supportShowCfgEnable ficon Turns on logging of FICON information on the switch.

Commands specific to FICON

ficonclear rlir Removes all RLIR records from the local RLIR database.

Management

setting the domain ID and the insistent mode.

must be entered exactly.

disabled before removing the FICON license.

products enabled by these keys.

that for a switch without blades, such as the 7800 Extension
Switch, slot 0 is used as the slot-based license target. For blades,
slot numbers are based on the switch chassis numbering
scheme. A license key with the specified capacity must be
installed with the licenseAdd command before you can enable a
feature on a specified slot with this command.

Fibre Channel address. Also unbinds the currently bound address
for the specified port.

swapped ports to an unswapped state.

be used after this feature is disabled.The disabled state is
persistent across reboots and power cycles. Enabling or disabling
the PortSwap feature does not affect previously performed
PortSwap operations.

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FICON commands

TABLE 1 Fabric OS commands related to FICON (Continued)

Command Description

ficonclear rnid Removes all outdated RNID records from the local RNID

database.

ficoncfg

ficoncfg

ficonhelp Displays a list of FICON support commands.

ficoncupset fmsmode enable|disable Enables or disables FICON Management Server (FMS) mode.

ficoncupset modereg <bitname> 0|1 Sets FICON-CUP mode register bits.

ficoncupset MIHPTO <seconds> Sets missing interrupt primary timeout (MIHPTO) values.

ficoncupset CRP <PID> <CHID> Sets the current reporting path (CRP).

ficoncupshow DD_LOG Displays the log information associated with the last diagnostic

ficoncupshow diag_info Displays the diagnostic interval setting and related statistic

ficoncupshow fmsmode Displays the current FMS mode setting.

ficoncupshow hlthchk_log Displays health check logs for the logical switch.

ficoncupshow modereg <bitname> Displays FICON-CUP mode register bits.

ficoncupshow MIHPTO Displays MIHPTO values.

ficoncupshow LP Displays the CUP logical path and error reporting path

ficonshow lirr [fabric] Displays registered listeners for link incidents for the local switch

ficonshow rlir [fabric] While all FICON channels register as “conditional” recipients of

ficonshow rnid [fabric] Displays node identification data for all devices registered with

ficonshow rnid [port] Displays node identification data for a specified port.

ficonshow switchrnid [fabric] Displays node identification data for the local switch or for the

--set LIRR <portnumber> Sets the current LIRR device port number persistently.

--reset LIRR <portnumber> Clears the currently configured LIRR port number.

command processed by the CUP.

sampling information for diagnostic information collected by the
CUP.

information.

or for the fabric, if specified.

registered link incident reports (RLIRs) and are added to the
switch LIRR database, only one channel per switch is selected to
forward reports to the host. The command output displays all
channels which have registered and indicates which node on
each switch is selected to generate reports to the host.

the local switch or all devices registered with all switches defined
in the fabric, if specified.

fabric, if specified.

1

For limitations and considerations for using Fabric OS commands with FMS mode enabled, refer to

“Fabric OS command limitations and considerations” on page 40.

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Link and FC addressing

1

Link and FC addressing

To understand the addressing mode requirements and restrictions for FICON it is important to
understand the relationship between the link address and the FC address. Understanding this
relationship is also valuable for troubleshooting paths.

Figure 9 represents components of link and FC addresses that are explained in this section.

FIGURE 9 Link and FC address components

Domain ID

Although you enter the domain ID in decimal format when configuring a switch, it is represented in
hexadecimal formal in the FC address.

For single-byte addressing the domain area returned from the switch where the channel logs in is
used for the FC address. Therefore the channel and control unit must be in the same logical switch.
With 2-byte link addressing the most significant byte of the link address is used for the domain
area of the FC address. Once 2-byte link addressing is defined for a channel, all link addressing for
that channel must use 2-byte link addressing.

Port area

The port address is the single-byte link address or the least significant byte of a 2-byte link address.
The link address is entered in the HCD in hexadecimal format and is represented in hexadecimal in
the FC address.

ALPA

The Arbitrated Loop Physical Address (ALPA) was originally used in fibre channel for loop devices.
Currently, the ALPA is used for Node Port Identification Virtualization (NPIV), which allows multiple
WWNs to log into the same switch port. The ALPA determines the logical entity to which frames
belong. This is how virtual servers using zLinux or zVM can share the same channel. Since the DCX
and DCX 8510-8 Backbones can have up to 512 ports, the upper two bits of the ALPA are used in
certain addressing modes.

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Link and FC addressing

FICON protocol does not use the ALPA byte. However, the ALPA is a required byte in the FC address.
The channel completes the FC address for a control unit link address by acquiring the ALPA that the
switch returned to the channel when the channel logged in. This is why the ALPA must be the same
for both the channel port and the control unit port. This is also the reason why 10-bit addressing
mode cannot be used for FICON (refer to “Addressing modes” on page 27).

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