IBM Z10 EC User Manual

IBM System z10 Enterprise Class (z10 EC) Reference Guide

April 2009

Table of Contents

IBM System z10 EnterpriseClass (z10 EC) Overview page 3 z/Architecture page 6 z10 EC page 11 z10 EC Design and Technology page 14 z10 EC Model page 15 z10 EC Performance page 17 z10 EC I/O Subsystem page 18 z10 EC Channels and I/O Connectivity page 19 HiperSockets page 32 Security page 34 Cryptography page 34 On Demand Capabilities page 39 Reliability, Availability, and Serviceability (RAS) page 43 Availability Functions page 44 Environmental Enhancements page 47 Parallel Sysplex Cluster Technology page 48 HMC System Support page 57 Implementation Services for Parallel Sysplex Fiber Quick Connect for FICON LX Environments page 60 z10 EC Physical Characteristics page 60 z10 EC Conﬁ guration Detail page 61 Coupling Facility – CF Level of Support page 64 Statement of Direction page 65 Publications page 66

page 59

IBM System z10 Enterprise Class (z10 EC) Overview

The IBM System z10™ Enterprise Class (z10™ EC) server is

designed to meet the challenges of today’s business world

and to be the cornerstone of an evolutionary new model for

efﬁ cient IT delivery called the Dynamic Infrastructure

. This

model helps reset the economics of IT and can dramati-

cally improve operational efﬁ ciency, security, and respon-

siveness – to help keep a business competitive.

™

The z10 EC

, with its advanced combination of reliability,

availability, serviceability, security, scalability, and virtual-

ization, delivers the technology that can help deﬁ ne this

framework for the future. The z10 EC delivers improvements

to performance, capacity, and memory which can help

enterprises grow their existing business while providing a

cost-effective infrastructure for large-scale consolidation.

The October 2008 announcements extend the z10 EC

leadership with improved access to data and the network;

tighter security with longer Personal Account Numbers for

stronger protection of data; enhancements for improved

performance when connecting to the network; increased

ﬂ exibility in deﬁ ning your options to handle backup require-

ments; and enhanced time accuracy to an external time

source.

Any successful business needs to be able to deliver timely,

integrated information to business leaders, support per-

sonnel, and customers on a 24x7 basis. This means that

access to data needs to be fast, secure, and dependable.

Enhancements made to z/Architecture

and the FICON®

interface architecture with the High Performance FICON

for System z (zHPF) are optimized for online transaction

processing (OLTP) workloads. The FICON Express4 and

FICON Express2 features support the native FICON proto-

col and the zHPF protocol.

The System z10 was introduced with a new connectivity

option for LANs – Open Systems Adapter-Express3 (OSA-

Express3). The OSA-Express3 features provide improved

performance by reducing latency at the TCP/IP application.

Direct access to the memory allows packets to ﬂ ow directly

from the memory to the LAN without ﬁ rmware intervention in

the adapter.

An IT system needs to be available and protected every

The z10 EC offers availability enhancements which

day.

faster service time for CF Duplexing, updates to

include

Server Time

Protocol (STP) for enhanced time accuracy to

an External Time Source, and support for heterogeneous

platforms in an enterprise to track to the same time source.

Security enhancements to the Crypto Express2 feature

support for 13-, 14-, 15-, 16-, 17-, 18-, and 19-digit

deliver

Personal

Account Numbers for stronger protection of data.

The z10 EC has a new architectural approach for temporary

offerings that have the potential to change the thinking

about on demand capacity. The z10 EC can have one or

more ﬂ exible conﬁ guration deﬁ nitions that can be available

to solve multiple temporary situations and multiple capacity

conﬁ gurations that can be active at once. This means that

On/Off Capacity on Demand (CoD) can be active and up to

seven other offerings can be active simultaneously. Tokens

are available that can be purchased for On/Off CoD either

before or after execution.

Updates to the z10 EC are designed to help improve IT

today, outline a compelling case for the future running on

System z, and lock in the z10 EC as the cornerstone in your

Dynamic Infrastructure by delivering superior business and

IT services with agility and speed.

Just-in-time deployment of IT resources

Infrastructures must be more ﬂ 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 conﬁ 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 capac-

ity or for testing new applications. Capacity Backup

Upgrade (CBU) can help provide reserved emergency

backup capacity for all processor conﬁ gurations.

An additional 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.

By having ﬂ exible and dynamic conﬁ guration deﬁ 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 deﬁ nition that has four CBUs is accept-

able). And if the deﬁ nition doesn’t have enough resources

deﬁ ned, an order can easily be processed to increase the

capacity (so if four CBUs aren’t enough it can be redeﬁ ned

to be six CBUs) as long as enough server infrastructure is

available to meet maximum needs.

With the z10 EC, it is now possible to add permanent

capacity while a temporary capacity is currently activated,

without having to return ﬁ rst to the original conﬁ guration.

The activation of On/Off CoD on z10 EC can be simpliﬁ ed

or automated by using z/OS Capacity Provisioning (avail-

able with z/OS

1.9 and above). This capability enables the

monitoring of multiple systems based on Capacity Provi-

sioning and Workload Manager (WLM) deﬁ nitions. When

the deﬁ 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 automati-

cally and without operator intervention.

Specialty engines offer an attractive alternative

The z10 EC continues the long history of providing inte-

grated technologies to optimize a variety of workloads. The

use of specialty engines can help users expand the use

of the mainframe for new workloads, while helping to lower

the cost of ownership. The IBM System z

specialty engines

can run independently or complement each other. For

example, the zAAP and zIIP processors enable you to pur-

chase additional processing capacity exclusively for spe-

ciﬁ c workloads, without affecting the MSU rating of the IBM

System z model designation. This means that adding a

specialty engine will not cause increased charges for IBM

System z software running on general purpose processors

in the server.

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

deﬁ ned, then they can be made available.

In order of introduction:

The Internal Coupling Facility (ICF) processor was intro-

duced to help cut the cost of Coupling Facility functions

by reducing the need for an external Coupling Facility.

IBM System z Parallel Sysplex

technology allows for

greater scalability and availability by coupling mainframes

together. Using Parallel Sysplex clustering, System z serv-

ers are designed for up to 99.999% availability.

The Integrated Facility for Linux (IFL) processor offers sup-

port for Linux

and brings a wealth of available applications

that can be run in a real or virtual environment on the z10

™

EC. An example is the z/VSE

strategy which supports

integration between the IFL, z/VSE and Linux on System z

to help customers integrate timely production of z/VSE data

into new Linux applications, such as data warehouse envi-

ronments built upon a DB2

data server. To consolidate dis-

tributed servers onto System z, the IFL with Linux and the

System z virtualization technologies fulﬁ ll the qualiﬁ cations

for business-critical workloads as well as for infrastructure

workloads. For customers interested to use a z10 EC only

for Linux workload, the z10 EC can be conﬁ gured as a

server with IFLs only.

Available on System z since 2004, the System z10 Applica-

tion Assist Processor (zAAP) is designed to help enable

strategic integration of new application technologies

™

such as Java

technology-based Web applications and

XML-based data interchange services with core business

database environments. This helps provide a more cost-

effective, specialized z/OS application Java execution envi-

ronment. Workloads eligible for the zAAP (with z/OS V1.8)

include all Java processed via the IBM Solution Developers

Kit (SDK) and XML processed locally via z/OS XML System

Services.

System z10 Integrated Information Processor (

The

zIIP) is

designed to support select data and transaction process-

ing and network workloads and thereby make the consoli-

dation of these workloads on to the System z platform more

cost effective. Workloads eligible for the zIIP (with z/OS

V1.7 or later) include remote connectivity to DB2 to help

support these workloads: Business Intelligence (BI), Enter-

prise Relationship Management (ERP), Customer Relation-

ship Management (CRM) and Extensible Markup Language

(XML) applications. In addition to supporting remote

connectivity to DB2 (via DRDA

over TCP/IP) the zIIP also

supports DB2 long running parallel queries—a workload

integral to Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing

solutions. The zIIP (with z/OS V1.8) also supports IPSec

processing, making the zIIP an IPSec encryption engine

helpful in creating highly secure connections in an enter-

prise. In addition, zIIP (with z/OS V1.10) supports select

z/OS Global Mirror (formerly called Extended Remote

Copy, XRC) disk copy service functions. z/OS V1.10 also

™

introduces zIIP-Assisted HiperSockets

for large messages

(available on System z10 servers only).

The new capability provided with z/VM®-Mode partitions

increases ﬂ exibility and simpliﬁ es systems management by

allowing z/VM 5.4 to manage guests to operate Linux on

System z on IFLs, to operate z/VSE and z/OS on CPs,

to ofﬂ oad z/OS system software overhead, such as DB2

workloads on zIIPs, and to offer an economical Java exe-

cution environment under z/OS on zAAPs, all in the same

z/VM LPAR.

Numerical computing on the chip

Integrated on the z10 EC processor unit is a Hardware

Decimal Floating Point unit to accelerate decimal ﬂ oating

point transactions. This function is designed to markedly

improve performance for decimal ﬂ oating point operations

which offer increased precision compared to binary ﬂ oating

z/Architecture

point operations. This is expected to be particularly useful

for the calculations involved in many ﬁ nancial transactions.

Decimal calculations are often used in ﬁ nancial applica-

tions and those done using other ﬂ oating point facilities

have typically been performed by software through the

use of libraries. With a hardware decimal ﬂ 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

, Rational® and Lotus® strengthen the ﬂ exibility of

CICS

doing SOA.

Evolving for your business

The z10 EC is the next step in the evolution of the System

z mainframe, fulﬁ lling our promise to deliver technol-

ogy improvements in areas that the mainframe excels

in—energy efﬁ 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 beneﬁ t from the inherit strengths of

the mainframe. This evolving technology delivers a compel-

ling case for the future to run on System z.

The z10 EC continues the line of upward compatible main-

frame processors and retains application compatibility

since 1964. The z10 EC supports all z/Architecture-compli-

ant Operating Systems. The heart of the processor unit is

the Enterprise Quad Core z10 Processor Unit chip which

is speciﬁ cally designed and optimized for mainframe sys-

tems. New features enhance enterprise data serving per-

formance 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 CISC 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 efﬁ 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

Delivering the technologies required to address today’s IT

challenges also takes much more than just a server; it

requires all of the system elements to be working together.

IBM system z10 operating systems and servers are

designed with a collaborative approach to exploit each

other’s strengths.

The z10 EC is also able to exploit numerous operating sys-

tems concurrently on a single server, these include z/OS,

z/VM, z/VSE, z/TPF, TPF and Linux for System z. These

operating systems are designed to support existing appli-

cation investments without anticipated change and help

you realize the beneﬁ ts of the z10 EC. System z10 – the

new business equation.

z/OS

August 5, 2008, IBM announced z/OS V1.10. This release

of the z/OS operating system builds on leadership capa-

bilities, enhances time-tested technologies, and leverages

deep synergies with the IBM System z10 and IBM System

Storage

™

family of products. z/OS V1.10 supports new

capabilities designed to provide:

• Storage scalability. Extended Address Volumes (EAVs)

enable you to deﬁ ne volumes as large as 223 GB to

relieve storage constraints and help you simplify storage

management by providing the ability to manage fewer,

large volumes as opposed to many small volumes.

• Application and data serving scalability. Up to 64

engines, up to 1.5 TB per server with up to 1.0 TB of

real memory per LPAR, and support for large (1 MB)

pages on the System z10 can help provide scale and

performance for your critical workloads.

• Intelligent and optimized dispatching of workloads. Hip-

erDispatch can help provide increased scalability and

performance of higher n-way z10 EC systems by improv-

ing the way workload is dispatched within the server.

• Low-cost, high-availability disk solution. The Basic

™

HyperSwap

capability (enabled by TotalStorage® Pro-

ductivity Center for Replication Basic Edition for System

z) provides a low-cost, single-site, high-availability disk

solution which allows the conﬁ guration of disk replication

services using an intuitive browser-based graphical user

interface (GUI) served from z/OS.

• Improved total cost of ownership. zIIP-Assisted

HiperSockets for Large Messages, IBM Scalable

™

Architecture for Financial Reporting

enabled for zIIP (a

service offering of IBM Global Business Services), zIIP-

Assisted z/OS Global Mirror (XRC), and additional z/OS

XML System Services exploitation of zIIP and zAAP help

make these workloads more attractive on System z.

• Improved management of temporary processor capac-

ity. A Capacity Provisioning Manager, which is avail-

able on z/OS V1.10, and available on z/OS V1.9 with

PTFs, can monitor z/OS systems on z10 EC servers.

Activation and deactivation of temporary capacity can

be suggested or performed automatically based on

™

user-deﬁ ned schedules and workload criteria. RMF

equivalent function is required to use the Capacity Provi-

sioning Manager.

• Improved network security. z/OS Communications Server

introduces new defensive ﬁ ltering capability. Defensive

ﬁ lters are evaluated ahead of conﬁ gured IP ﬁ lters, and

can be created dynamically, which can provide added

protection and minimal disruption of services in the

event of an attack.

• z/OS V1.10 also supports RSA key, ISO Format-3 PIN

block, 13-Digit through 19-Digit PANdata, secure key

AES, and SHA algorithms.

• Improved productivity. z/OS V1.10 provides improve-

ments in or new capabilities for: simplifying diagnosis

and problem determination; expanded Health Check

Services; network and security management; automatic

dump and re-IPL capability; as well as overall z/OS, I/O

conﬁ guration, sysplex, and storage operations

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 exploita-

tion 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 64 engines in a single image (on z10

EC model only)

• Simpliﬁ ed and centralized policy-based networking

• Expanded IBM Health Checker

• Simpliﬁ ed RACF

Administration

• Hardware Decimal Floating Point

• Parallel Sysplex support for Inﬁ niband

Coupling Links

• NTP Support for STP

• HiperSockets Multiple Write Facility

• OSA-Express3 support

• Advancements in ease of use for both new and existing

IT professionals coming to z/OS

• Support for zIIP-Assisted IPSec, System Data Mover

(SDM) ofﬂ oad to zIIP, and support for eligible portions of

DB2 9 XML parsing workloads to be ofﬂ oaded to zAAP

processors

• Expanded options for AT-TLS and System SSL network

security

• Improved creation and management of digital certiﬁ -

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 improvement

• Enhanced application development and integration with

™

new System REXX

System Services commands

UNIX

facility, Metal C facility, and z/OS

• Enhanced Workload Manager in managing discretionary

work and zIIP and zAAP workloads

Commitment to system integrity

™

First issued in 1973, IBM’s MVS

ment and subsequent statements for OS/390

System Integrity State-

and z/OS

stand as a symbol of IBM’s conﬁ dence and commitment to

the z/OS operating system. Today, IBM reafﬁ 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,

circumventing, disabling, altering, or obtaining control of

key z/OS system processes and resources unless allowed

by the installation. Speciﬁ cally, z/OS “System Integrity” is

deﬁ ned as the inability of any program not authorized by

a mechanism under the installation’s control to circumvent

or disable store or fetch protection, access a resource pro-

tected by the z/OS Security Server (RACF), or obtain con-

trol 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 problem 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 modiﬁ cation. This is one of

the many reasons System z remains the industry’s premier

data server for mission-critical workloads.

z/VM

z/VM V5.4 is designed to extend its System z virtualization

technology leadership by exploiting more capabilities of

System z servers including:

SSL server now operates in a CMS environment, instead of

requiring a Linux distribution, thus allowing encryption ser-

vices to be deployed more quickly and helping to simplify

installation, service, and release-to-release migration.

• Greater ﬂ exibility, with support for the new z/VM-mode

logical partitions, allowing all System z processor-types

(CPs, IFLs, zIIPs, zAAPs, and ICFs) to be deﬁ ned in the

same z/VM LPAR for use by various guest operating sys-

tems

• Capability to install Linux on System z as well as z/VM

from the HMC on a System z10 that eliminates the need

for any external network setup or a physical connection

between an LPAR and the HMC

• Enhanced physical connectivity by exploiting all OSA-

Express3 ports, helping service the network and reduc-

ing the number of required resources.

• Dynamic memory upgrade support that allows real

memory to be added to a running z/VM system. With z/VM

V5.4, memory can be added non-disruptively to individual

guests that support the dynamic memory reconﬁ guration

architecture. Systems can now be conﬁ gured to reduce

the need to re-IPL z/VM. Processors, channels, OSA

adapters, and now memory can be dynamically added to

both the z/VM system itself and to individual guests.

The operation and management of virtual machines

has been enhanced with new systems management

APIs, improvements to the algorithm for distributing a

guest’s CPU share among virtual processors, and usability

enhancements for managing a virtual network.

Security capabilities of z/VM V5.4 provide an upgraded

LDAP server at the functional level of the z/OS V1.10 IBM

Directory Server for z/OS and enhancements to the

Tivoli

RACF Security Server to create LDAP change log entries

in response to updates to RACF group and user proﬁ les,

including user passwords and password phrases. The 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 provide

the capability for clients to run hundreds to thousands of

Linux servers in a single mainframe, together with other

System z operating systems such as z/OS, or as a large-

scale Linux-only enterprise-server solution. z/VM V5.4 can

also help to improve productivity by hosting non-Linux

workloads such as z/OS, z/VSE, and z/TPF.

August 5, 2008, IBM announced z/VM 5.4. Enhancements

in z/VM 5.4 include:

• Increased ﬂ exibility with support for new z/VM-mode

logical partitions

• Dynamic addition of memory to an active z/VM LPAR

by exploiting System z dynamic storage-reconﬁ guration

capabilities

• Enhanced physical connectivity by exploiting all OSA-

Express3 ports

• Capability to install Linux on System z from the HMC

without requiring an external network connection

• Enhancements for scalability and constraint relief

• Operation of the SSL server in a CMS environment

• Systems management enhancements for Linux and

other virtual images

For the most current information on z/VM, refer to the z/VM

Web site at http://www.vm.ibm.com.

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 simpliﬁ 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-

ﬁ gurable Crypto Express2, and TS1120 encrypting tape

• Midrange Workload License Charge (MWLC) pricing,

including full-capacity and sub-capacity options.

IBM has previewed z/VSE 4.2. When available, z/VSE 4.2

is designed help address the needs of VSE clients with

growing core VSE workloads. z/VSE V4.2 is designed to

support:

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 application efﬁ -

ciency as I/Os or memory management can be eliminated.

z/TPF is designed to support:

• 64-bit mode

• Linux development environment (GCC and HLASM for Linux)

• 32 processors/cluster

• Up to 84* engines/processor

• 40,000 modules

• Workload License Charge

• More than 255 VSE tasks to help clients grow their CICS workloads and to ease migration from CS/VSE to CICS Transaction Server for VSE/ESA

™

• Up to 32 GB of processor storage

• Sub-Capacity Reporting Tool running “natively”

• Encryption Facility for z/VSE as an optional priced feature

• IBM System Storage TS3400 Tape Library (via the TS1120 Controller)

• IBM System Storage TS7740 Virtualization Engine

Release 1.3

z/VSE V4.2 plans to continue the focus on hybrid solu-

tions exploiting z/VSE and Linux on System z, service-ori-

ented architecture (SOA), and security. It is the preferred

replacement for z/VSE V4.1, z/VSE V3, or VSE/ESA. It is

designed to protect and leverage existing VSE information

assets.

Linux on System z

The System z10 EC supports the following Linux on

System z distributions (most recent service levels):

• Novell SUSE SLES 9

• Novell SUSE SLES 10

• Red Hat RHEL 4

• Red Hat RHEL 5

z10 EC

Operating System ESA/390 z/Architecture (31-bit) (64-bit)

z/OS V1R8, 9 and 10 No Yes

z/OS V1R7

(1)(2)

with BM Lifecycle

Extension for z/OS V1.7 No Yes

Linux on System z

(2)

, Red Hat

RHEL 4, & Novell SUSE SLES 9 Yes Yes

Linux on System z

(2)

, Red Hat

RHEL 5, & Novell SUSE SLES 10 No Yes

(3)

z/VM V5R2

z/VSE V3R1

z/VSE V4R1

(3)

, 3

and 4 No* Yes

(2)(4)

(2)(5)

and 2

(5)

Yes No

No Yes

z/TPF V1R1 No Yes

TPF V4R1 (ESA mode only) Yes No

1. z/OS V1.7 support on the z10 BC™ requires the Lifecycle Extension for z/OS V1.7, 5637-A01. The Lifecycle Extension for z/OS R1.7 + zIIP Web Deliverable required for z10 to enable HiperDispatch on z10 (does not require a zIIP). z/OS V1.7 support was withdrawn September 30, 2008. The Lifecycle Extension for z/OS V1.7 (5637-A01) makes fee-based corrective service for z/OS V1.7 available through September 2009. With this Lifecycle Extension, z/OS V1.7 supports the z10 BC server. Certain functions and features of the z10 BC server require later releases of z/OS. For a complete list of software support, see the PSP buckets and the Software Requirements section of the System z10 BC announcement letter, dated October 21, 2008.

2. Compatibility Support for listed releases. Compatibility support allows OS to IPL and operate on z10 BC

3. Requires Compatibility Support which allows z/VM to IPL and operate on the z10 providing IBM System z9 Guests. *z/VM supports 31-bit and 64-bit guests

4. z/VSE V3 operates in 31-bit mode only. It does not implement z/ Architecture, and speciﬁ cally does not implement 64-bit mode capabilities. z/VSE is designed to exploit select features of IBM System z10, System z9, and IBM eServer

5. z/VSE V4 is designed to exploit 64-bit real memory addressing, but will not support 64-bit virtual memory addressing

Note: Refer to the z/OS, z/VM, z/VSE subsets of the 2098DEVICE Preventive Planning (PSP) bucket prior to installing a z10 BC

functionality for the base OS and

™

zSeries® hardware.

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 ﬁ 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

solutions. Our coupling solutions with Parallel Sysplex tech-

nology allows for greater scalability and availability. The

Inﬁ niBand Coupling Links on the z10 EC provides 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, security enhancements,

additional high availability characteristics, Concurrent

Driver Upgrade (CDU) improvements, enhanced network-

ing and on demand offerings. The z10 EC provides our

IBM customers an option for continued growth, continuity,

and upgradeability.

The IBM System z10 EC builds upon the structure

introduced on the IBM System z9 EC – scalability 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 perfor-

mance and capacity, you have an opportunity to continue

to consolidate diverse applications on a single 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 Processor

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 per-

formance of higher n-way and multi-book z10 EC systems

by improving the way workload is dispatched across the

server. HiperDispatch accomplishes this by recognizing

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.

Processor Units (cores) deﬁ ned as Internal Coupling

Facilities (ICFs), Integrated Facility for Linux (IFLs), System

z10 Application Assist Processor (zAAPs) and System

z10 Integrated Information 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 signiﬁ cantly simpli-

ﬁ 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 sepa-

rately. Capacity BackUp (CBU) features are available for

IFLs, ICFs, zAAPs and zIIPs.

For LAN connectivity, z10 EC provides a OSA-Express3

2-port 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) Long Reach feature along

with the OSA-Express3 Gigabit Ethernet SX and LX with

four ports per features. The z10 EC 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, z10 BC, z9 EC and z9 (CCL) using OSA-

Express3 or OSA-Express2 to help eliminate the require-

ment for external hardware for communications.

Additional channel and networking improvements include

support for Layer 2 and Layer 3 trafﬁ c, FCP management

facility for z/VM and Linux for System z, FCP security

improvements, and Linux support for HiperSockets IPv6.

STP enhancements include the additional support for NTP

clients and STP over Inﬁ niBand links.

Like the System z9 EC, the z10 EC offers a conﬁ gurable

Crypto Express2 feature, with PCI-X adapters that can

be individually conﬁ 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):

• DES, TDES, AES-128, AES-192, AES-256

• SHA-1, SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512

• Pseudo Random Number Generation (PRNG)

z10 EC is designed to deliver the industry leading Reli-

ability, Availability and Serviceability (RAS) custom-

ers expect from System z servers. RAS is designed to

reduce all sources of outages by reducing unscheduled,

scheduled and planned outages. Planned outages are

further designed to be reduced by reducing preplanning

requirements.

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 Deﬁ nition –

z/VM 5.3

– Dynamic Change to Logical Cryptographic Coproces-

sor Deﬁ nition – z/OS ICSF

Additionally, several service enhancements have also

been designed to avoid scheduled outages and include

concurrent ﬁ rmware ﬁ 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 Inﬁ 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 excep-

tion of the E64, which is disruptive. If you desire a con-

solidation platform for your mainframe and Linux capable

applications, you can add capacity and even expand you

current application workloads in a cost-effective manner. If

your traditional and new applications are growing, you may

ﬁ nd the z10 EC a good ﬁ 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 speciﬁ cally designed and

optimized for full z/Architecture compatibility. New features

enhance enterprise data serving performance, industry

leading virtualization capabilities, energy efﬁ ciency at

system and data center levels. The z10 EC is designed

to further extend and integrate key platform characteris-

tics such as dynamic ﬂ exible partitioning and resource

management in mixed and unpredictable workload envi-

ronments, providing scalability, high availability and Quali-

ties of Service (QoS) to emerging applications such as

WebSphere, Java and Linux.

With the logical partition (LPAR) group capacity limit on

z10 EC, z10 BC, z9 EC and z9 BC, you can now specify

LPAR group capacity limits allowing you to deﬁ 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 utilization within a group will not exceed the

group’s deﬁ ned capacity. Each LPAR in a group can still

optionally continue to deﬁ ne an individual LPAR capacity

limit.

The z10 EC has ﬁ ve models with a total of 100 capacity

settings available as new build systems and as upgrades

from the z9 EC and z990.

The ﬁ 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 signiﬁ cant enhancements in the z10 EC that

help bring improved performance, availability and function

to the platform have been identiﬁ ed. The following sections

highlight the functions and features of the z10 EC.

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, speciﬁ 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 ﬁ 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 instruc-

tions 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 Translation Look-aside Buffer (TLB) of 512 entries

associated with it. The PU, which uses a 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 pro-

vides the ﬂ exibility to conﬁ gure the PUs for different uses;

there are two spares and up to 11 System Assist Proces-

sors (SAPs) standard per system. The remaining inactive

PUs on each installed MCM are available to be charac-

terized as either CPs, ICF processors for Coupling Facil-

ity 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 ﬂ 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 ﬁ xed

Hardware 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 Inﬁ niBand Multiplexer (IFB-

MP) card replaces the Self-Timed Interconnect Multiplexer

(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 Inﬁ niBand coupling.

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-

ﬁ 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.

z10 EC Model

The z10 EC has been designed to offer high performance

and efﬁ cient I/O structure. All z10 EC models ship with two

frames: an A-Frame and a Z-Frame, which together sup-

port the installation of up to three I/O cages. The z10 EC

will continue to use the Cargo cage for its I/O, supporting

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 efﬁ 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 ﬁ ve models offering between 1 to 64 pro-

cessor units (PUs), which can be conﬁ 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.

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 Identiﬁ er 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 afﬁ 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 ﬁ 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.

z10 EC Base and Sub-capacity Offerings

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 Identiﬁ ers:

• 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

•

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

z10 EC Performance

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 modiﬁ 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 conﬁ 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/Archi-

tecture processor capacity ratios for different conﬁ gura-

tions of Central Processors (CPs) across a wide variety

of system control programs and workload environments.

For z10 EC, z/Architecture processor capacity identiﬁ er is

deﬁ ned with a (7XX) notation, where XX is the number of

installed CPs.

may experience will vary depending upon considerations

such as the amount of multiprogramming in the user’s job

stream, the I/O conﬁ guration, and the workload processed.

LSPR workloads have been updated to reﬂ ect more

closely your current and growth workloads. The classiﬁ ca-

tion Java Batch (CB-J) has been replaced with a new clas-

siﬁ 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 conﬁ 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/.

CPU Measurement Facility

The CPU Measurement Facility is a hardware facility which

consists of counters and samples. The facility provides a

means to collect run-time data for software performance

tuning. The detailed architecture information for this facility

™

can be found in the System z10 Library in Resource Link

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 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

z10 EC I/O Subsystem

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, OSA-Express2,

and Crypto Express2 features plug into the z10 EC I/O

cage along with any ISC-3s and Inﬁ 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 Reconﬁ guration

• Logical Channel SubSystem (LCSS) Spanning

system hardware administrator access to the information

from these many sources in one place. This will make it

much easier to manage I/O conﬁ gurations, particularly

across multiple CPCs. The SIOA is a “view-only” tool. It

does not offer any options other than viewing options.

First the SIOA tool analyzes the current active IOCDS on

the SE. It extracts information about the deﬁ ned channel,

partitions, link addresses and control units. Next the SIOA

tool asks the channels for their node ID information. The

FICON channels support remote node ID information, so

that is also collected from them. The data is then formatted

and displayed on ﬁ ve screens:

1)PCHID Control Unit Screen – Shows PCHIDs, CSS.

CHPIDs and their control units

2)PCHID Partition Screen – Shows PCHIDS, CSS. CHPIDs

and what partitions they are in

3)Control Unit Screen – Shows the control units, their

PCHIDs and their link addresses in each of the CSS’s

4)Link Load Screen – Shows the Link address and the

PCHIDs that use it

5)Node ID Screen – Shows the Node ID data under the

PCHIDs

The SIOA tool allows the user to sort on various columns

and export the data to a USB ﬂ ash drive for later viewing.

System I/O Conﬁ guration Analyzer

Today the information needed to manage a system’s I/O

conﬁ guration has to be obtained from many separate

applications. The System’s I/O Conﬁ guration Analyzer

(SIOA) tool is a SE/HMC-based tool that will allow the

z10 EC Channels and I/O Connectivity

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 ﬂ 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.

Choose the FICON Express4 features that best meet

your business requirements.

To meet the demands of your Storage Area Network (SAN),

provide granularity, facilitate redundant paths, and satisfy

your infrastructure requirements, there are three features

from which to choose.

Feature FC # Infrastructure Ports per Feature

FICON Express4 10KM LX 3321

FICON Express4 4KM LX 3324

FICON Express4 SX 3322 Multimode ﬁ ber 4

Single mode ﬁ ber

FICON Express4 Channels

The z10 EC supports up to 336 FICON Express4 channels,

each one operating at 1, 2 or 4 Gb/sec auto-negotiated.

The FICON Express4 features are available in long wave-

length (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 ﬁ ber optic cables. The SX feature uses 50

or 62.5 micron multimode ﬁ ber optic cables. Each FICON

Express4 feature has four independent channels (ports)

and can be conﬁ gured to carry native FICON trafﬁ c or Fibre

Channel (SCSI) trafﬁ 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.

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

ﬁ ber optic cables and short wavelength (SX) using 50 and

62.5 micron multimode ﬁ ber optic cables. Each FICON

Express2 feature has four independent channels (ports)

and each can be conﬁ gured to carry native FICON trafﬁ c

or Fibre Channel (SCSI) trafﬁ 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.

Choose the features that best meet your granularity, ﬁ ber

optic cabling, and unrepeated distance requirements.

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

Express feature conforms to the Fibre Connection (FICON)

architecture and the Fibre Channel (FC) architecture, pro-

viding connectivity between any combination of servers,

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 capa-

ble 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 beneﬁ 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

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

deﬁ 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 conﬁ gured on a channel-by-channel basis – each of

the four channels can be conﬁ 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.

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/.

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.

The FICON Express4, FICON Express2 and FICON

Express channels support native FICON and FICON

Channel-to-Channel (CTC) trafﬁ 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

deﬁ 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 deﬁ nitions.

FICON Support for Cascaded Directors

Native FICON (FC) channels support cascaded directors.

This support is for a single hop conﬁ 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 ﬁ ber infrastructure cost

savings by reducing the number of channels for intercon-

necting the two sites.

FICON cascaded directors have the added value of high

integrity connectivity. Integrity features introduced within

the FICON Express channel and the FICON cascaded

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.

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 invest-

ments and lowering total cost of ownership for their Linux

implementations.

The same FICON features used for native FICON chan-

nels can be deﬁ ned to be used for Fibre Channel Protocol

(FCP) channels. FCP channels are deﬁ 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 for small block sizes

The Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP) Licensed Internal

Code has been modiﬁ ed to help provide increased I/O

operations per second for small block sizes. With FICON

Express4, there may be up to 57,000 I/O operations

per second (all reads, all writes, or a mix of reads and

writes), an 80% increase compared to System z9. These

results are achieved in a laboratory environment using

one channel conﬁ gured as CHPID type FCP with no other

processing occurring and do not represent actual ﬁ eld

measurements. A signiﬁ cant increase in I/O operations per

second for small block sizes can also be expected with

FICON Express2.

FCP Channels

z10 EC supports FCP channels, switches and FCP/ SCSI

disks with full fabric connectivity under Linux on System

z and 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

This FCP performance improvement is transparent to

operating systems that support FCP, and applies to all

the FICON Express4 and FICON Express2 features when

conﬁ gured as CHPID type FCP, communicating with SCSI

devices.

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IBM Z10 EC User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual