Book description
IBM® System Storage® Gen 5 fabric backbones are among the industry's most powerful Fibre Channel switching infrastructure offerings. They provide reliable, scalable, and high-performance foundations for mission-critical storage. These fabric backbones also deliver enterprise connectivity options to add support for IBM FICON® connectivity, offering a high-performing and reliable FICON infrastructure with fast and scalable IBM System z® servers.
Designed to increase business agility while providing nonstop access to information and reducing infrastructure and administrative costs, Gen 5 Fibre Channel fabric backbones deliver a new level of scalability and advanced capabilities to this robust, reliable, and high-performance technology.
Although every network type has unique management requirements, most organizations face similar challenges managing their network environments. These challenges can include minimizing network downtime, reducing operational expenses, managing application service level agreements (SLAs), and providing robust security. Until now, no single tool could address these needs across different network types.
To address this issue, the IBM Network Advisor management tool provides comprehensive management for data, storage, and converged networks. This single application can deliver end-to-end visibility and insight across different network types by integrating with Fabric Vision technology; it supports Fibre Channel SANs, including Gen 5 Fibre Channel platforms, IBM FICON, and IBM b-type SAN FCoE networks. In addition, this tool supports comprehensive lifecycle management capabilities across different networks through a simple, seamless user experience.
This IBM Redbooks® publication introduces the concepts, architecture, and basic implementation of Gen 5 and IBM Network Advisor. It is aimed at system administrators, and pre- and post-sales support staff.
Table of contents
- Front cover
- Notices
- Preface
- Chapter 1. Product introduction
-
Chapter 2. Product hardware and features
- 2.1 Topologies
- 2.2 Gen 5 Fibre Channel technology
- 2.3 IBM System Networking SAN b-type family
-
2.4 IBM System Networking Gen 5 SAN b-type family
- 2.4.1 IBM System Networking SAN24B-5 (2498-F24, 2498-X24, and 2498-24G)
- 2.4.2 IBM System Networking SAN48B-5 (2498-F48)
- 2.4.3 IBM System Networking SAN96B-5 (2498-F96 / 2498-N96)
- 2.4.4 IBM System Networking SAN384B-2 (2499-416) and IBM System Networking SAN768B-2 (2499-816)
- 2.4.5 IBM Fabric backbone blades
- 2.4.6 Optical UltraScale Inter-Chassis Links
- 2.5 Generic features
-
Chapter 3. IBM Network Advisor
-
3.1 Planning server and client system requirements
- 3.1.1 Server and client operating system and hardware requirements
- 3.1.2 Client and server system requirements
- 3.1.3 Browser requirements for IBM Network Advisor
- 3.1.4 Supported Fabric OS versions with IBM Network Advisor V12.0.x
- 3.1.5 Recommended upgrade path and supported Fabric OS
- 3.1.6 Enterprise Fabric Connectivity Manager upgrade path to IBM Network Advisor target path
- 3.1.7 Downloading software
- 3.1.8 Pre-installation requirements
- 3.1.9 Syslog troubleshooting
- 3.2 New installations and upgrading IBM Network Advisor to Version 12.0.3
- 3.3 User, device, and dashboard management
- 3.4 New features of IBM Network Advisor V12.0.3
- 3.5 IBM Network Advisor Dashboard
- 3.6 Scheduling daily or weekly backups for the fabric configuration
- 3.7 Fabric Vision
- 3.8 Using MAPS with IBM Network Advisor
- 3.9 Configuring Flow Vision using IBM Network Advisor
-
3.1 Planning server and client system requirements
- Chapter 4. Initial switch setup and configuration
- Chapter 5. Gen 5 switches and IBM FlashSystem
-
Chapter 6. Preferred practices
-
6.1 Physical patching
- 6.1.1 Using a structured approach
- 6.1.2 Modular cabling
- 6.1.3 Cabling high-density and high-port count fiber equipment
- 6.1.4 Using color to identify cables
- 6.1.5 Establishing a naming scheme
- 6.1.6 Patch cables
- 6.1.7 Patch panels
- 6.1.8 Horizontal and backbone cables
- 6.1.9 Horizontal cable managers
- 6.1.10 Vertical cable managers
- 6.1.11 Overhead cable pathways
- 6.1.12 Cable ties
- 6.1.13 Implementing the cabling infrastructure
- 6.1.14 Testing the links
- 6.1.15 Building a common framework for the racks
- 6.1.16 Preserving the infrastructure
- 6.1.17 Documentation
- 6.1.18 Stocking spare cables
- 6.1.19 Preferred practices for managing cabling
- 6.1.20 Summary
- 6.2 SAN design basics
- 6.3 Data flow considerations
- 6.4 Redundancy and resiliency
-
6.5 Distance
- 6.5.1 Buffer allocation
- 6.5.2 Fabric interconnectivity over Fibre Channel at longer distances
- 6.5.3 Fibre Channel over IP
- 6.5.4 FCIP with FCR
- 6.5.5 Using EX_Ports and VEX_Ports
- 6.5.6 Advanced FCIP configuration
- 6.5.7 FCIP design preferred practices
- 6.5.8 FCIP Trunking
- 6.5.9 Virtual Fabrics
- 6.5.10 Ethernet Interface Sharing
- 6.5.11 Workloads
- 6.5.12 Intel -based virtualization storage access
-
6.6 Security
- 6.6.1 Zone Management: Dynamic Fabric Provisioning (DFP)
- 6.6.2 Zone management: Duplicate WWNs
- 6.6.3 Role-Based Access Controls
- 6.6.4 Default accounts
- 6.6.5 Access control lists
- 6.6.6 Policy Database Distribution
- 6.6.7 In-flight encryption and compression: b-type (16 Gbps) platforms only
- 6.6.8 In-flight encryption and compression guidelines
- 6.7 Monitoring
- 6.8 Scalability, supportability, and performance
-
6.1 Physical patching
- Chapter 7. Troubleshooting
- Related publications
- Back cover
Product information
- Title: IBM b-type Gen 5 16 Gbps Switches and Network Advisor
- Author(s):
- Release date: May 2014
- Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
- ISBN: None
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