System requirements for SMC-R in a dedicated RoCE environment

You need to ensure that your system meets the requirements to use SMC-R with RoCE Express® features operating in a dedicated RoCE environment.

A z/OS® image must be z/OS Version 2 Release 1 or later to use Shared Memory Communications over RDMA (SMC-R) with RoCE Express features operating in a dedicated RoCE environment.

SMC-R requires RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) hardware and firmware support. The following minimum hardware requirements must be met to use SMC-R:

• You must have an IBM® zEnterprise® EC12 (zEC12) with driver 15, or an IBM zEnterprise BC12 (zBC12).
• You must have one or more IBM 10GbE RoCE Express features.

  10GbE RoCE Express features are dual ports with short range (SR) optics and dedicated to a single LPAR image.

  Guideline: Provide two 10GbE RoCE Express features per z/OS image per unique physical network. For more information, see RoCE network high availability.
• You must have System z® OSA-Express for traditional Ethernet LAN connectivity using CHPID type OSD.

  SMC-R does not impose any specific OSA requirements.

• You must have standard 10 GbE switches.