VMS Help V73 Features, System Management Features, OpenVMS Cluster Systems, New Fibre Channel Support (Alpha)  *Conan The Librarian (sorry for the slow response - running on an old VAX)

    Support for new Fibre Channel hardware, larger configurations,
    Fibre Channel Fast Path, and larger I/O operations is included in
    OpenVMS Version 7.3. The benefits include:

    o  Support for a broader range of configurations: the lower cost
       HSG60 controller supports two SCSI buses instead of six SCSI
       buses supported by the HSG80; multiple DSGGB 16-port Fibre
       Channel switches enable very large configurations.

    o  Backup operations to tape, enabled by the new Modular Data
       Router (MDR), using existing SCSI tape subsystems

    o  Distances up to 100 kilometers between systems, enabling
       more configuration choices for multiple-site OpenVMS Cluster
       systems

    o  Better performance for certain types of I/O due to Fibre
       Channel Fast Path and support for larger I/O requests

    The following new Fibre Channel hardware has been qualified on
    OpenVMS Version 7.2-1 and on OpenVMS Version 7.3:

    o  KGPSA-CA host adapter

    o  DSGGB-AA switch (8 ports) and DSGGB-AB switch (16 ports)

    o  HSG60 storage controller (MA6000 storage subsystem)

    o  Compaq Modular Data Router (MDR)

    OpenVMS now supports Fibre Channel fabrics. A Fibre Channel
    fabric is multiple Fibre Channel switches connected together.
    (A Fibre Channel fabric is also known as cascaded switches.)

    Configurations that use Fibre Channel fabrics can be extremely
    large. Distances up to 100 kilometers are supported in a
    multisite OpenVMS Cluster system. OpenVMS supports the Fibre
    Channel SAN configurations described in the Compaq StorageWorks
    Heterogeneous Open SAN Design Reference Guide, available at the
    following Compaq web site:

    http://www.compaq.com/storage

    Enabling Fast Path for Fibre Channel can substantially increase
    the I/O throughput on an SMP system. For more information about
    this new feature, see Fast Path for SCSI and Fibre Channel
    (Alpha).

    Prior to OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3, I/O requests larger than
    127 blocks were segmented by the Fibre Channel driver into
    multiple I/O requests. Segmented I/O operations generally have
    lower performance than one large I/O. In OpenVMS Version 7.3,
    I/O requests up to and including 256 blocks are done without
    segmenting.

    For more information about Fibre Channel usage in OpenVMS Cluster
    configurations, refer to the Guidelines for OpenVMS Cluster
    Configurations.

  Additional Information (explode) :

• Tape Support