> # About Enabling FICON on a VSAN

> By default FICON is disabled in all VSANs on the switch.

> You can enable FICON on a per VSAN basis in one of the following ways:

> - Manually address each prerequisite.

> See the "Information About FICON" topic.

> - Use Device Manager (refer to the Fabric Configuration Guide, Cisco DCNM for SAN).

> When you enable the FICON feature in Cisco MDS switches, the following restrictions apply:

> - You cannot disable in-order delivery for the FICON-enabled VSAN.
> - You cannot disable fabric binding or static domain ID configurations for the FICON-enabled VSAN.
> - The load balancing scheme is changed to Source ID (SID)—Destination ID (DID). You cannot change it back to SID—DID—OXID.
> - The IPL configuration file is automatically created.

> See the "FICON Configuration Files" topic.

> Tip Using Device Manager, FICON auto-save can be invoked by multiple users logged on to the same FICON-enabled switch. Device Manager performs a periodic auto-save on any FICON-enabled switch causing increments in the FICON key counter. These increments highlight a change that has actually not occurred. To avoid this situation, we recommend that only one instance of Device Manager monitor a FICON-enabled switch.

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