IBM Tape Solutions for Storage Area Networks and FICON

Chapter 4. Tape building blocks 97

For the latest information about supported servers, host bus adapters, software levels, and

fabric components for both SCSI and Fibre Channel 3590 drives, see:

http://www.storage.ibm.com/hardsoft/tape/3590/3590opn.html

4.4.2 IBM 3590 cartridges

The 3590 cartridges use metal-particle half-inch tape in an enclosed cartridge shell. There

are two capacities of 3590 cartridge media:

򐂰 The J cartridge: The High Performance Cartridge Tape (HPCT) providing 10 GB, 20 GB,

or 30 GB before compression. It is identifiable by the blue tabs on the cartridge case.

򐂰 The K cartridge: The Extended High Performance Cartridge Tape (EHPCT) providing

20 GB, 40 GB, or 60 GB before compression. It is identifiable by the green tabs on the

cartridge case.

The higher of the three capacities shown is achieved in 384-track mode on a 3590H drive in

an uncompressed format. Both types have exactly the same cartridge case so you can

physically store them in the same libraries. The 3590 drives may require the Extended Media

Support feature to use EHPCT cartridges. Check with your IBM customer representative for

verification as to drive capabilities. Extended Media Support is feature 5780 on 3590Bs and

feature 5781 on 3590Es. All 3590 Model H drives are shipped with this support as standard.

4.4.3 IBM 3590 Model A60 ESCON and FICON control unit

The IBM TotalStorage 3590 Model A60 control unit, with up to four times the performance of

the previous model, the 3590 Model A50, provides ESCON and FICON attachment of the

IBM TotalStorage 3590 tape drive to S/390 enterprise servers and the new zSeries 900

servers. Using IBM Seascape architecture to combine proven IBM components (RS/6000

base, AIX operating system, PowerPC® 604E microprocessors, and PCI bus architecture),

the Model A60 provides high performance and enables resource sharing to help reduce

hardware and infrastructure costs.

The IBM TotalStorage 3590-A60 control unit attaches to IBM TotalStorage 3590 Model B,

Model E or Model H tape drives via an UltraSCSI interface. The use of the 3590-A60 for

FICON attachment is covered in detail in Chapter 6, “FICON attachment of IBM tapes” on

page 137.

For more information about the 3590 subsystems, go to:

http://www.storage.ibm.com/hardsoft/tape/3590/prod_data/g225-6633.html

Attaching 3590s to a SAN

There are two ways to attach 3590s to a SAN, depending on whether they have UltraSCSI

interfaces or Fibre Channel interfaces.

UltraSCSI drives can be attached by using the 2108-G07 SAN Data Gateway or the

2108-R03 SAN Data Gateway Router.

Fibre Channel drives can be attached directly to these fabric components:

򐂰 IBM 2103 hub (for distance extension only)

򐂰 IBM 3524 managed hub

򐂰 IBM 2109 switch

򐂰 IBM 2031 McDATA ES-1000 loop switch

򐂰 IBM 2042 Inrange FC/9000 Fibre Channel Director