The ESCON card fitted in the HSM8-Exxxxx HSM variants allows the HSM to be connected to a mainframe via an ESCON optical fibre cable. In order to communicate with the mainframe the ESCON HSM emulates a standard IBM supported device – a model 3490 tape drive controller with 16 attached drives. This is a basic tape control unit with limited command capabilities and can connect to any ESCON channel.
Because of the diversity of host connections, and the wide range of cable lengths that may be required, Thales e-Security cannot supply cables for connection to HSM8-Exxxxx HSMs.
See the installation section for the specification of the optical fibre connection cable and connector.
The “host” end of the HSM ESCON cable may be connected to a number of different device types:
· ESCON Director
· Distribution panel
· Repeater
· Others
Other than the message header length, there are no other settings that the user must supply.
The ESCON interface supports single-channel half-duplex operation.
Example:
Offline> CH <Return>
Message header length (1-255): 4
Asynch, Ethernet, SNA-SDLC 3274, or ESCON? [A/E/S/C]: C
EBCDIC/ASCII (E/A):
Save HOST settings to smart card? [Y/N]: N <Return>
Standard error messages are generated in response to transmission faults on the ESCON interface.