Restrictions in FCP point-to-point topology We are planning to use FCP disk with a z/Linux under z/VM system, running under z/VM 5.4. To reduce cost, we are planning to use the point-to-point topology.
Are there any restriction in using this topology? I seem to remember some restrictions mentioned in the presentation given at SHARE when the point-to-point support first appeared in z/VM. The load (write) volume will be high (the higher the better), but only occasionally and for less than a day at a time. Another reason to use point-to-point is that we think it will perform better without the switch. We want to have a 4TB LVM, spread across 8 LUNs. Picture: +-------------------+ +-------------------+ | LPAR 1 | | LPAR 2 | | +---------------+ | +---------------+ | | z/VM 1 |-FCP--4TB---FCP-| | z/VM 2 | | | +-----------+ disk | | +-----------+ | | | Linux 1 | | | | Linux 2 | +---+---+-----------+ +---+---+-----------+ A wider picture is z/OS<--Hipersocket-->Linux-->FCP<--Hipersocket-->z/OS DB2 disk I found a presentation "Introduction to SCSI over FCP for Linux on System z" at <http://www.vm.ibm.com/education/lvc/lvc1020c.pdf>. It mentions (on foil 6) the two topologies, point-to-point and switched fabric, but gives no restrictions. Thanks! Alan Ackerman Alan (dot) Ackerman (at) Bank of America (dot) com
