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Using a FibreChannel Port for Seial communication

  • 1.  Using a FibreChannel Port for Seial communication

    Posted Thu December 29, 2022 04:18 PM
    Edited by Luis Alberto Rojas Kramer Thu December 29, 2022 04:32 PM

    Hey guys... does anyone know how to use a fiber channel device as a raw link to transmit information from one server to another as a serial communication?

    Special device file like /dev/fcsX doesn't exist, and /dev/fscsiX does, but it can't be used to send something through it (for example using dd command) or file redirection)...neither to read nor to write

    Could anyone have tried something like this before? .. maybe you can share results or procedures..

    Regards



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    Luis Alberto Rojas Kramer
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  • 2.  RE: Using a FibreChannel Port for Seial communication

    IBM Champion
    Posted Mon January 02, 2023 01:59 PM

    Hi Luis,

    There is no "serial" protocol defined on top of fiber channel.

    The expected protocol is "SCSI over FC" (used to access disk and tape), and there is also a definition of IP over FC (which you could use to do TCP/IP over the SAN, but I don't know if AIX 7 still has that).



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    José Pina Coelho
    IT Specialist at Kyndryl
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Using a FibreChannel Port for Seial communication

    Posted Tue January 03, 2023 08:35 AM
    Hi Luis,
    within CAA/PowerHA there was a concept available called "Heartbeating over storage area network" (see https://www.ibm.com/docs/ro/powerha-aix/7.2?topic=networks-heartbeating-over-storage-area-network , also https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/zoning-requirements-use-san-heartbeat-communication may have some additional information). However, this concept was limited to certain FC adapters only supporting the "target mode enabled (TME)" attribute - see https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/aix/7.1?topic=aware-setting-up-cluster-san-communication .  This TME support is needed to enable the adapter to act as a target and initiator at the same time, otherwise the adapter will act as initiator only and will not accept any incoming connection requests.
    Newer adapters running with 16 Gbps or faster speed do not support this TME attribute, and to my knowledge there are no plans to have this implemented.

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    Bertram Begau
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    Original Message