143-120 · Question #105
You are migrating from direct attached FICON at one site to a cascaded FICON architecture spanning two sites that are 20 km apart. You are concerned about performance on the cascaded links. You wish…
The correct answer is A. You need FICON CUP to report on frame pacing delay. D. You need FICON CUP so you can add the DCX to your I/O sysgen for hardware error reporting. See the full explanation below for the reasoning.
Question
You are migrating from direct attached FICON at one site to a cascaded FICON architecture spanning two sites that are 20 km apart. You are concerned about performance on the cascaded links. You wish to implement FICON CUP on all the new Brocade DCXs and want to justify your decision to implement that license. What are two reasons that justify your decision? (Choose two.) Brocade 143-120 Exam
Options
- AYou need FICON CUP to report on frame pacing delay.
- BCUP is required for cascaded fabrics.
- CYou will not be able to do synchronous remote copy between sites without CUP installed on the
- DYou need FICON CUP so you can add the DCX to your I/O sysgen for hardware error reporting
How the community answered
(42 responses)- A81% (34)
- B14% (6)
- C5% (2)
Community Discussion
8
Mei-Ling H.Apr 18, 2026The correct answers are A and D, and once you understand what CUP actually does, the other two options fall apart pretty fast. CUP gives the mainframe a way to communicate directly with the switch as if it were a control unit, which is exactly what lets you add the DCX to your I/O sysgen so the mainframe can receive hardware error notifications from it, that is answer D. Answer A is also correct because CUP exposes frame pacing delay data to the host, which is precisely the performance metric you care about when your cascaded links stretch 20 km and you are watching for latency impact. Option B is a trap because the word "required" is too strong, cascaded FICON fabrics function without CUP, it just adds management and reporting capability on top. Option C confuses a storage replication feature with a fabric licensing requirement, synchronous remote copy runs at the storage layer and does not depend on CUP being installed on the DCX at all.
Orla P.Apr 18, 2026The only thing I would add on A is that frame pacing delay visibility matters even on short links if you have a high-fanout cascaded topology, because hop count compounds the latency picture in ways that raw distance does not capture.
Prof. SaraDec 12, 2025The correct answers are A and D. FICON CUP gives your DCX the ability to participate in mainframe I/O sysgen so the host can receive hardware error reporting directly from the switch, and it also enables frame pacing delay reporting, which is exactly the performance visibility you need when you stretch that cascaded link across 20 km. Remember that B is a classic trap on this exam, because CUP is a management and reporting license, not a requirement for cascading itself.
Orla P.Apr 30, 2026I froze on this one for a solid ninety seconds because B sounds so plausible when you are staring at a cascaded architecture scenario, but once I reminded myself that CUP is about host control and reporting, not a topology requirement, A and D clicked right into place and I moved on without looking back.
Fatima Z.May 23, 2026B is the trap they set for you because the word "cascaded" is right there in the scenario and your brain just wants to grab it, but CUP is not a cascading requirement, it is a management and visibility license. Think "CUP holds A and D" like a coffee cup holding your morning alerts, A for frame pacing delay visibility so you can prove where your 20 km latency is hiding, and D for plugging the DCX into your z/OS I/O sysgen so the mainframe can actually see and report hardware errors, two reasons that are rock solid justification for that license purchase.
Mei-Ling H.May 25, 2026Good memory trick, but I would add that knowing WHY B fails on principle, not just because the scenario word "cascaded" does not match CUP's scope, is what protects you when the exam rewords the same concept with a different distractor so your brain cannot just pattern-match to the mnemonic.
Lena V.May 9, 2026A and D are your two and they hold up under scrutiny. CUP gives the mainframe host a direct management path into the DCX fabric, which means the switch can surface frame pacing delay data back to the host, and at 20 km you absolutely need visibility into that metric because cascaded distance links will introduce latency that can hammer throughput if you are not watching it. The sysgen piece in D is just as important, because without CUP the DCX is invisible to your I/O definition and you lose the hardware error reporting path that ops needs to catch fabric faults before they become outages. B and C are traps, cascaded FICON does not require CUP and synchronous remote copy has nothing to do with the CUP license.
Anjali D.Apr 15, 2026Group agrees, A and D are correct. CUP enables frame pacing visibility and plugs into HCD for hardware error alerts.