This IBM® Redbooks® publication describes the connectivity options that are available for use within and beyond the data center for the IBM Z family of mainframes, which includes these systems:

This book highlights the hardware and software components, functions, typical uses, coexistence, and relative merits of these connectivity features. It helps readers understand the connectivity alternatives that are available when planning and designing their data center infrastructures.

The changes to this edition are based on the IBM Z hardware announcement dated 17 July, 2017.

This book is intended for data center planners, IT professionals, systems engineers, and network planners who are involved in the planning of connectivity solutions for IBM mainframes.

This book was produced by a team of specialists from around the world working at the International Technical Support Organization, Poughkeepsie Center.

Bill White is an IBM Redbooks Project Leader and Senior Networking and Connectivity Specialist at IBM Redbooks, Poughkeepsie Center.

Hervey Kamga is an IBM Z Product Engineer with the EMEA I/O Connectivity Team in Montpellier, France. Before that, he was a Support Engineer and Engineer On Site for 13 years with Sun MicroSystems and Oracle in EMEA. Hervey’s areas of expertise include Oracle Solaris Operating System and hardware products, virtualization (VMware, virtualBox), Linux (Ubuntu), and IBM Z I/O features and protocols (IBM FICON® and OSA).

Michal Kordyzon is an IBM Z Client Technical Specialist at IBM Poland with 12 years of experience with the IBM Z platform. His areas of expertise include mainframe architecture, Linux systems, Hyperledger fabric, Node.js, and Machine Learning algorithms. He also has expertise in LinuxONE.

Frank Packheiser is a Senior zIT Specialist at the Field Technical Sales Support office in Germany. He has 26 years of experience in IBM Z. Frank has worked for 10 years in the IBM Education Center in Germany, developing and providing professional training. He also provides professional services to IBM Z and mainframe clients. In 2008 and 2009, Frank supported clients in Middle East/North Africa (MENA) as a zIT Architect. Besides co-authoring several IBM Redbooks publications since 1999, he has been an official presenter at ITSO workshops for the last four years.

John Troy is an IBM Z and Storage Hardware National Top Gun in the northeast area of the United States. He has 36 years of experience in the service field. His areas of expertise include IBM Z server and high-end storage systems technical and customer support. John has been an IBM Z hardware technical support course designer, developer, and instructor for the last seven generations of IBM high-end servers.

Esra Ufacik is an IBM Z Lead Architect in IBM Systems covering Asia Pacific. Throughout her career, she has held various roles in different companies with Z “flavors,” including IBM z/OS®, IBM Parallel Sysplex®, implementation, migration, SAN, storage, software problem support, solution designing, Linux on z Systems®, IT Optimization, TCO assessments, technical authoring, and guest lecturing. In March 2016, she was assigned as IOT lead for Blockchain in the IBM Systems division.

Bo Xu is a Senior System Service Representative in China. He has more than 20 years of experience with IBM Z products maintenance support. He has been working in the GTS department. He provides IBM Z support to clients as a local Top Gun, and provides second-level support for IBM DS8000® as a Top Gun and Skill Owner. His areas of expertise include IBM Z hardware, channel connectivity, and IBM DS8000.

Octavian Lascu is an IBM Redbooks Project Leader and a Senior IT Consultant for IBM Romania with over 20 years of experience. He specializes in designing, implementing, and supporting complex IT infrastructure environments (systems, storage, and networking), including high availability and disaster recovery solutions and high-performance computing deployments. He has developed materials for and taught over 50 workshops for technical audiences around the world. He has written several IBM publications.

Thanks to the following people for their contributions to this project:

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