HP B-series Fabric OS 6.3.2e Release Notes (5697-1816, March 2012) - includes all 6.3.2x versions

• Addition of Class 3 frame transmit timeout discard counter support for 4Gb platforms.
Previously, 4Gb platforms supported only receive (Rx) timeout counters. See the Fabric Watch
Administrator's Guide for details on use and configuration.
• Addition of configurable "edge hold time" option to timeout frames for F_Ports sooner than
for E_Ports. This option is disabled by default, but when enabled and properly configured, it
reduces the likelihood of devices with high latencies causing frame drops in the core of the
fabric and impacting other unrelated flows.
Optionally licensed software
Optionally licensed features in Fabric OS 6.3.2e are as follows:
• Ports on Demand—Allows customers to instantly scale the fabric by provisioning additional
ports through a license key upgrade (applies to select switch models).
• Extended Fabrics—Provides greater than 10 km of switched fabric connectivity at full bandwidth
over long distances. (Depending on the platform, the distance can be up to 3,000 km.)
• ISL Trunking—Enables aggregation of multiple physical links into one logical link for enhanced
network performance and fault tolerance. It also includes Access Gateway ISL Trunking on
the products that support the Access Gateway deployment.
• Advanced Performance Monitoring—Enables performance monitoring of networked storage
resources. This license includes the Top Talkers feature.
• High-Performance Extension over FCIP/FC (formerly known as FC-IP Services)—For the HP
B-series Multiprotocol Router Blade and 400 MP Router, this license key also includes the FC
FastWrite (FCFW) feature and IPsec capabilities.
• Accelerator for FICON license—Enables unique FICON emulation support for IBM’s Global
Mirror (formerly XRC) application (including Hitachi Data Systems’ HXRC and EMC’s XRC),
as well as tape pipelining for all FICON tape and virtual tape systems to significantly improve
XRC and tape backup/recovery performance over virtually unlimited distance for the 400 MP
Router and B-series Multiprotocol Router Blade.
• Fabric Watch—Monitors mission-critical switch operations, and now includes new Port Fencing
capabilities.
• FICON Management Server (also known as the control unit port [CUP])—Enables host control
of switches in mainframe environments.
• HP StorageWorks DC SAN Director ICL 16-link—Provides dedicated high-bandwidth links
between two DC SAN Backbone Director chassis, without consuming valuable front-end 8Gb
ports. Each DC Backbone Director must have the ICL license installed in order to enable ICL
connections (available on the DC Backbone Director only).
• HP StorageWorks DC SAN Director ICL 8-Link—This license activates all 8 links on ICL ports
on a DC04 SAN Director chassis for connection of two DC04 directors, or half of the ICL
bandwidth for each ICL port on the DC SAN Backbone Director platform by enabling only 8
of the 16 links available. This allows users to purchase half the bandwidth of DC SAN Backbone
Director ICL ports initially, and then upgrade with an additional 8-link license to utilize the full
ICL bandwidth.
This license is also useful for environments in which you want to create ICL connections between
a DC SAN Backbone Director and a DC04 SAN Director. (The DC04 SAN Director can
support only 8 links on an ICL port.) This license is available on the DC04 SAN Director and
DC SAN Backbone Director platforms only. It replaces the original ICL license for the DC04
SAN Director and is new for the DC SAN Backbone Director.
• Adaptive Networking—Ensures high-priority connections and obtains the network resources
necessary for optimum performance, even in congested environments. The QoS SID/DID
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