New Features for IBM SAN04B-R Router Under z/OS

The IBM System Storage SAN04B-R router is equipped with 16 Fibre Channel and 2 Ethernet ports. The base model provides 2 active Fibre Channel ports and 2 Ethernet ports operating at 50 Mbps. The Fabric Operating System (FOS) determines the number of ports that are enabled and the speed at which they operate. An upgrade license is available for the SAN04B-R router that activates all 16 Fibre Channel ports, enables Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) speeds on the ethernet ports, and permits the full complement of features, including those available with the High-Performance Extension license. Application of the High-Performance Extension Activation (#7537) to the 2005-R04 base model will provide the same functionality as the 2005-R18 base model.

The IBM System Storage SAN04B-R router, which supports Fibre Channel connectivity for servers and storage, has added FICON CUP Activation that is designed to allow in-band management for OS/390 or z/OS from IBM System z10, z9tm EC, z9 BC, zSeries 990, 900, 890, and 880 servers.

FICON Accelerator employs emulation techniques to reduce or eliminate performance degradation for certain defined applications. The main emulation techniques are IBM z/OS Global Mirror and tape pipelining.

The benefits of FICON Accelerator are:

• Improves FICON read and write performance over distance
• Enhances data protection while meeting recovery objectives
• Allows faster backup and disaster recovery operations
• Conserves WAN bandwidth and reduces costs
• Enables new solutions while protecting investments
• Provides flexibility to place FICON disk and tape where needed, regardless of location

The SAN04B-R requires FOS v6.1.1, or later.

Planned availability date: October 24, 2008