Cisco MDS 9000 Series 16Gbps Fabric Switches

The two 16Gbps fabric switches are the Cisco MDS 9148S and Cisco MDS 9396S switches, which are listed in Figure 10-28. They are intended to be used in the SAN access layer of the design, as they provide a huge amount of low-cost ports. Some of the major benefits of using them are as follows:

Figure 10-28 Cisco MDS 9000 Series 16Gbps Fabric Switches

• The Cisco MDS 9148S switch provides up to 48 fixed FC ports capable of speeds of 2, 4, 8, and 16Gbps, and the Cisco MDS 9396S switch provides up to 96 autosensing Fibre Channel ports that are capable of speeds of 2, 4, 8, 10, and 16Gbps of dedicated bandwidth for each port. The 16Gbps Cisco MDS 9148S and Cisco MDS 9396S are the first generation of NVMe-ready Fibre Channel 1RU and 2RU switches.
• The Cisco MDS 9396S switch offers more buffer-to-buffer credits and support for more VSANs, making it an excellent choice for standalone small and midsize business (SMB) Fibre Channel networks.
• Support for an N-Port Virtualization (NPV) node or an N-Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) core connecting legacy Fibre Channel switches or multiprotocol Nexus NPV switches.
• High-availability – the Cisco MDS 9148S and Cisco MDS 9396S switches support In-Service Software Upgrades (ISSU). This means that Cisco NX-OS Software can be upgraded while the Fibre Channel ports carry traffic.
• The Cisco MDS 9148S and Cisco MDS 9396S switches include dual redundant hot-swappable power supplies and fan trays, port channels for Inter-Switch Link (ISL) resiliency, and F-port channeling for resiliency on uplinks from a switch operating in NPV mode.
• Hardware-based slow port detection and recovery provide enhanced performance and monitoring capability.
• The Cisco MDS 9148S and Cisco MDS 9396S switches offer built-in storage network management and SAN plug-and-play capabilities. All features are available through a command line interface (CLI) or Cisco Prime DCNM for SAN Essentials Edition, a centralized management tool. Cisco DCNM task-based wizards simplify management of single or multiple switches and fabrics. For virtual infrastructures, it manages the entire path: from the virtual machine and switch to the physical storage.
• The Cisco MDS 9148S and Cisco MDS 9396S switches also support PowerOn Auto Provisioning (POAP) to automate software image upgrades and configuration file installation on newly deployed switches. Additionally, they provide intelligent diagnostics, protocol decoding, network analysis tools, and Cisco Call Home for added reliability, faster problem resolution, and reduced service costs.
• The switches offer support for virtual SAN (VSAN) technology for hardware-enforced, isolated environments within a physical fabric. They offer access control lists (ACLs) for hardware-based, intelligent frame processing. Advanced traffic management features, such as fabric-wide quality of service (QoS) and Inter-VSAN Routing (IVR), are included in the optional Cisco MDS 9000 Family Enterprise Package. QoS prioritizes application data traffic for better and more predictable network service. Zone-based QoS simplifies configuration and administration by using the familiar zoning concept. IVR facilitates resource sharing across VSANs without compromising scalability, reliability, availability, and network security.