Delivering twice the bandwidth of previous Cisco MDS Fibre Channel switching modules, the Cisco MDS 9000 4/44-Port Host-Optimized FC switching module allows you to build consolidated SANs that require less space, power, and cooling, dramatically reducing your TCO.
Designed to provide optimized performance and port density for high-performance and virtualized servers, the Cisco MDS 9000 4/44-Port Host Optimized FC switching module scales up to 528 ports per chassis.
Up to 96 Gb/sec of full-duplex bandwidth
With 4 8 Gb/sec and 44 4 Gb/sec ports, and up to 96 Gb/sec of full-duplex bandwidth, the Cisco MDS 9000 4/44-Port Host-Optimized FC switching module enables storage consolidation with high-density, cost-effective connectivity.
High-performance storage and inter-switch connectivity
Thanks to its easy-to-use traffic engineering capabilities, the Cisco MDS 9000 4/44-Port Host-Optimized FC switching module provides predictable high-performance storage and inter-switch connectivity.
Up to 1584 ports per rack
For maximum flexibility and density, the module supports industry-leading densities of up to 528 8 Gb/sec FC ports per chassis and 1584 ports per rack.
Intelligent Network Services
Enabling migration to enterprise SANs
The Cisco MDS 9000 4/44-Port 8 Host-Optimized FC switching module’s intelligent network services provide integrated support for VSAN technology, access control lists (ACLs) for hardware-based intelligent frame processing, and advanced traffic-management features.
These features, including Fibre Channel Congestion Control (FCC) and fabric-wide quality of service (QoS), enable migration from SAN islands to enterprise storage networks.
VSANs
Designed for consolidation
Ideal for efficient, secure SAN consolidation, ANSI T11-compliant VSANs allow improved SAN utilization by creating hardware-based isolated environments within a single physical SAN fabric or switch.
Foundation of a virtualized datacenter
Each VSAN can be zoned as a typical SAN, maintaining its own fabric services for added scalability. Through unique, industry-first virtualization features, VSANs benefits can be extended to virtualized serves, providing the foundation for an end-to-end virtualized datacenter.
Deploy multisite and heterogeneous SANs
The Cisco MDS 9000 4/44-Port Host-Optimized FC switching module’s integrated, hardware-based VSANs and Inter-VSAN Routing (IVR) enable you to deploy large-scale multisite and heterogeneous SAN topologies. The integration into port-level hardware allows any port of any virtual machine (VM) within a system or fabric to be partitioned into any VSAN.
No compromise
VSANs allow hardware-based separation of Fibre Channel and FICON traffic switched on a single physical SAN, lowering overall TCO without compromising your network’s scalability, availability, manageability, and security.
Eliminate external routing appliances
Integrated, hardware-based IVR provides line rate routing between any ports within a system or fabric without the need for external routing appliances.
Advanced FICON Services
Multiprotocol connectivity
With its multiprotocol connectivity, the Cisco MDS 9000 4/44-Port Host-Optimized FC switching module transparently integrates FICON protocol, FICON Control Unit Port (CUP) management, and switch cascading to enable mainframe connectivity.
Supports 8 Gb FICON environments
The module support 8 Gb FICON environments, including cascaded FICON fabrics, VSAN-enabled intermix of mainframe and open systems environments, and N-Port ID virtualization for mainframe Linux platforms. CUP support enables in-band management of Cisco MDS 9000 Family switches from the mainframe management console.
Comprehensive Security Framework
End-to-end security
The switching module's comprehensive security framework supports:
RADIUS and TACACS+, Fibre Channel Security Protocol (FC-SP)
Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP)
Secure Shell (SSH) Protocol
Simple Network Management Protocol Version 3 (SNMPv3)
