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36-4
Cisco MDS 9000 Family Fabric Manager Configuration Guide
OL-17256-03, Cisco MDS NX-OS Release 4.x
Chapter 36 Configuring FICON
About FICON
Figure 36-2 VSAN-Specific Fabric Optimization
VSANs enable global SAN consolidation by allowing you to convert existing SAN islands into virtual
SAN islands on a single physical network. It provides hardware-enforced security and separation
between applications or departments to allow coexistence on a single network. It also allows virtual
rewiring to consolidate your storage infrastructure. You can move assets between departments or
applications without the expense and disruption of physical relocation of equipment.
Note While you can configure VSANs in any Cisco MDS switch, you can enable FICON in at most eight of
these VSANs. The number of VSANs configured depends on the platform.
Note Mainframe users can think of VSANs as being like FICON LPARs in the MDS SAN fabric. You can
partition switch resources into FICON LPARs (VSANs) that are isolated from each other, in much the
same way that you can partition resources on a zSeries or DS8000. Each VSAN has its own set of fabric
services (such as fabric server and name server), FICON Control Unit Port, domain ID, Fabric Shortest
Path First (FSPF) routing, operating mode, IP address, and security profile.
FICON LPARs can span line cards and are dynamic in size. For example, one FICON LPAR with 10
ports can span 10 different line cards. FICON LPARs can also include ports on more than one switch in
a cascaded configuration. The consistent fairness of the Cisco MDS 9000 switching architecture means
that “all ports are created equal”, simplifying provisioning by eliminating the “local switching” issues
seen on other vendors’ platforms.
Separate physical fabrics Collapsed fabric with
VSANs
SAN island for
department no.1
SAN island for
department no. 2
SAN island for
department no. 3
Application
servers
Disk
arrays
Department no. 1
Department no. 2
VSAN
Department no.3
VSAN
Common
storage pool
found among
VSANs
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