Fibre Channel Directors/Switches offer open trunking.
Press Release Summary:
McDATA Intrepid and Sphereon families of Fibre Channel Director and Switch Fabric offerings feature Open Trunking to optimize network performance, automatically detect bottlenecks, and reroute traffic to links with available capacity. Enterprise Operating System 5.1 provides Hard Zoning, increased number of inter-switch links, and SANpilot and CLI enhancements. EFCM Software v7.1 provides Open Trunking management and Zoning Change registered state change notification control management.
Original Press Release:
Open Trunking and EOS 5.1 Update Release Added to McDATA Directors and Switches
At a Glance
o Open Trunking designed to optimize network performance, automatically detect bottlenecks, and reroute traffic to links with available capacity
o Extended warranty options for Open Trunking software
o Enterprise Operating System 5.1 designed to provide Hard Zoning, increased number of inter-switch links (ISLs), and SANpilot and CLI enhancements
o Enterprise Fabric Connectivity Management (EFCM) Software 7.1 designed to provide Open Trunking management and Zoning Change registered state change notification (RSCN) Control management
For ordering, contact:
Your IBM representative or the Americas Call Centers at 800-IBM-CALL (Reference: YE001).
Overview
McDATA Intrepid and Sphereon families of Fibre Channel Director and Switch Fabric offerings, resold by IBM, now offer:
o McDATA Open Trunking optional feature
o Extended warranty options for Open Trunking software
Additionally, McDATA Intrepid and Sphereon families now provide expanded capabilities with the update release of Enterprise Operating System 5.1 and Enterprise Fabric Connectivity Management (EFCM) Software 7.1.
Key Prerequisites
The McDATA Intrepid Enterprise Directors and Sphereon Switches provide Fibre Channel connectivity support for the following: Servers
o IBM zSeries(TM) and selected S/390® Servers
o IBM pSeries(TM) and selected RS/6000® Servers
o IBM iSeries(TM) and selected AS/400® Servers
o IBM xSeries(TM), BladeCenter(TM), and selected Netfinity® Servers
o Other Intel®-based Servers with Microsoft(TM) Windows NT® and Windows® 2000
o Selected Sun and HP Servers
Storage Systems
o IBM Enterprise Storage Server(TM)
o IBM TotalStorage(TM) FAStT Storage Server
o IBM TotalStorage Enterprise Tape System 3590 and IBM TotalStorage Enterprise Tape Library 3494
o IBM TotalStorage Enterprise Automated Tape Libraries 3494
o IBM 3583 Ultrium Tape Library and IBM 3584 UltraScalable Tape Library
o Other selected storage systems
For specific configuration support dates and other details on availability, server models, operating system levels, and storage attachment capabilities, consult the following product Web site: ibm.com/storage/mcdata
Support for some configurations may not be available on the initial GA date.
Planned Availability Date
May 23, 2003
Description
McDATA Open Trunking is designed to optimize the total throughput between two switches automatically by redirecting traffic from high utilization links to links with available bandwidth. McDATA Open Trunking helps continuously monitor loads on all links, detect congestion, and automatically balance traffic across available Inter-Switch Links (ISLs) without operator interaction. Based on constant traffic monitoring, Open Trunking acts to help improve throughput and reroute traffic efficiently. To extend Open Trunking service maintenance beyond the first year software warranty, McDATA provides extended warranty options for Open Trunking software.
McDATA Intrepid and Sphereon families now provide expanded capabilities with the release of Enterprise Operating System (E/OS) 5.1, including the following E/OS updates (at no additional cost) for new and existing customers:
o Open Trunking-Reroute Log: E/OS 5.1 includes support for a new event log recording reroute events generated by McDATA's optional Open Trunking feature, which is purchased separately and enabled via Product Feature Enablement (PFE). The E/OS 5.1 Open Trunking-Reroute Log data is available through command line interface (CLI) and enterprise fabric connectivity management (EFCM) and is provided as a no additional cost E/OS update to new and existing customers.
oHard Zoning: E/OS 5.1 includes support for the McDATA Hardware Enforced Zoning capability, which is designed to prevent ingress ports from accessing devices outside of designated and established zones. McDATA's Hardware Enforced Zoning capability is designed to increase security within the SAN and to be compatible with legacy zone definitions, including WWN and port zoning. Since there are no changes to zoning interfaces, McDATA customers may use existing zone and zone-set definitions without modification.
o Increased Numbers of ISLs: E/OS 5.1 includes support for Intrepid 6140 (2032-140) up to 70 ISLs per Director, and Intrepid 6064 (2032-064) up to 32 ISLs per Director.
o Intermix of Fibre Channel (FCP) and FICON(TM) Traffic: E/OS 5.1 supports fabrics with FCP Open System and FICON traffic in specific configurations.
o SANpilot Enhancements: E/OS 5.1 includes McDATA's easy-to-use SANpilot interface, an embedded Web server GUI that allows SAN management with standard Web browsers. With E/OS 5.1, SANpilot now provides support for configuration of Port Binding and Open Trunking (when optionally purchased and enabled via PFE). The SANpilot zoning interface has also been enhanced to allow the user to add zone members (who are not directly attached) to the locally managed switch. The user is presented with a list of devices logged in to the fabric and can conveniently select the additional members for addition to a zone.
o Command Line Interface (CLI) Enhancements: E/OS 5.1 CLI includes support for Open Trunking-Reroute Log and Symbolic NameServer Support.
McDATA Intrepid and Sphereon families now provide expanded capabilities with the update release of EFCM Software 7.1, including the following no-additional-cost EFCM updates for new and existing customers:
o Open Trunking Management: EFCM 7.1 includes management support for the McDATA optional Open Trunking feature, which is purchased separately and enabled via PFE. EFCM 7.1 Open Trunking Management includes the following capabilities: enable and disable trunking, configure congestion threshold for each E_Port, configure metered-off threshold, and display reroute flow statistics.
o Import/Export Nicknames: EFCM 7.1 includes support to import and export a list of nicknames in a name/value pair format, to help assist efficient SAN administration.
o Zoning Change RSCN EFCM 7.1 includes support to control the switch "Zoning Change RSCN" state. This switch setting is enabled by default. Disabling this switch setting helps to eliminate distribution of Fabric Format RSCN messages to ports on the switch, following a change to the fabric's Active Zone Set. This may be configured by EFCM 7.1 while a switch is online.
McDATA Intrepid Director (2032-140/064) and McDATA Sphereon
