DS-C9250I-K9

Description

Product overview

The Cisco MDS 9250i Multiservice Fabric Switch is the next generation of the Cisco MDS 9200 Series Multiservice Switches. It is designed to provide high-performance SAN extension solutions, distributed intelligent fabric services, and cost-effective multiprotocol connectivity for both open systems and mainframe environments. With its advanced capabilities and compact form factor, it is suitable for departmental and remote branch-office SANs, as well as large-scale SANs in conjunction with the Cisco MDS 9710 Multilayer Director.

The Cisco MDS 9250i offers up to forty 16-Gbps Fibre Channel ports, two 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet IP storage services ports, and eight 10 Gigabit Ethernet Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) ports in a fixed Two-Rack-Unit (2RU) form factor. It seamlessly connects to existing native Fibre Channel networks, ensuring compatibility and protecting investments in storage networks. The switch includes the Cisco SAN Extension over IP application package license as standard on the two fixed 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet IP storage services ports. This enables features such as Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP) and compression without the need for additional licenses.

Additionally, the Cisco MDS 9250i platform has eight 10 Gigabit Ethernet FCoE ports, allowing it to connect to directly connected FCoE and Fibre Channel storage devices. It supports multitiered unified network fabric connectivity directly over FCoE, providing flexibility and scalability.

In summary, the Cisco MDS 9250i Multiservice Fabric Switch is a versatile and high-performance solution that offers SAN extension, distributed intelligent fabric services, and multiprotocol connectivity. With its compact form factor and advanced capabilities, it is suitable for various SAN environments and can be seamlessly integrated into existing Fibre Channel networks.

Main features and benefits

The Cisco MDS 9250i Multiservice Fabric Switch provides a comprehensive set of features and capabilities in a compact 2RU form factor. Here are some key features of the switch:

SAN Consolidation with Integrated Multiprotocol Support: The Cisco MDS 9250i supports SAN consolidation by providing integrated multiprotocol support. It offers a base configuration of 20 ports of 16-Gbps Fibre Channel for high-performance SAN connectivity, 2 ports of 1/10-Gigabit Ethernet for FCIP and iSCSI storage services, and 8 ports of 10 Gigabit Ethernet for FCoE connectivity.

High-Density Fibre Channel Switch: The switch can scale up to 40 ports of 16-Gbps Fibre Channel in a fixed configuration. The base configuration includes 20 ports of 16‑Gbps Fibre Channel, and it can be upgraded on-site to enable an additional 20 ports of 16-Gbps Fibre Channel by adding the Cisco MDS 9250i On-Demand Port Activation license. It also supports IBM FICON mainframe environments.

Intelligent Application Services Engine: The Cisco MDS 9250i includes a single application services engine that enables the Cisco SAN Extension over IP software solution package to run on the 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet storage services ports. This package provides cost-effective and reliable business continuity solutions using FCIP for remote SAN extension, along with advanced features for optimizing performance and manageability.

Hardware-Based Virtual Fabric Isolation: The switch supports Virtual SANs (VSANs) and Inter-VSAN Routing (IVR) for fabric isolation and Fibre Channel routing. VSANs allow for the creation of hardware-based isolated environments within a single physical fabric, while IVR enables routing between different VSANs without the need for external routing appliances.

Remote SAN Extension with High-Performance FCIP: The Cisco MDS 9250i supports remote SAN extension using FCIP, enabling backup, remote replication, and other disaster recovery services over WAN distances. It offers hardware-based compression, encryption, write acceleration, and tape read/write acceleration for optimizing WAN resource utilization and ensuring secure transmission of data.

Cost-Effective iSCSI Connectivity: The switch provides cost-effective iSCSI connectivity to Ethernet-attached servers, extending the benefits of Fibre Channel SAN-based storage to these servers at a lower cost. It increases storage utilization and availability through consolidation of IP and Fibre Channel block storage, while preserving the capability of existing storage management applications.

Advanced FICON Services: The Cisco MDS 9250i supports FICON environments, including cascaded FICON fabrics, VSAN-enabled intermix of mainframe and open systems environments, and N-Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) for mainframe Linux partitions. It also offers FICON tape acceleration and support for IBM Extended Remote Copy (XRC) Acceleration.

Cisco Data Mobility Manager (DMM): The switch supports Cisco DMM, a fabric-based data migration solution that transfers block data non-disruptively across heterogeneous storage volumes and distances, whether the host is online or offline.

Platform for Intelligent Fabric Applications: The switch provides an open platform for hosting and accelerating applications such as data migration, storage backup, and data replication. This improves scalability, availability, security, and manageability of the storage environment, resulting in increased utility and lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

In Service Software Upgrade (ISSU) for Fibre Channel Interfaces: The switch supports ISSU, allowing Cisco MDS 9000 NX-OS Software to be upgraded while the Fibre Channel ports are carrying traffic, promoting high serviceability.

Intelligent Network Services: The switch incorporates Virtual Output Queue (VOQ) for line-rate performance, PortChannels for optimized bandwidth utilization, and Fabric Shortest Path First (FSPF)-based multipathing for load balancing and dynamic rerouting. It also supports comprehensive network security features, including RADIUS/TACACS+ authentication, ACLs, VSAN-based access control, and IPsec for FCIP and iSCSI.

Comprehensive Network Security Framework: The switch includes a comprehensive security framework with features such as Smart Zoning, intelligent packet inspection, extended zoning capabilities, switch-to-switch and host-to-switch authentication, port security, and IPsec protocol suite for secure authentication, data integrity, and hardware-assisted data encryption.

Advanced Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Tools: The switch provides advanced diagnostic capabilities, including Fibre Channel traceroute, Switched Port Analyzer (SPAN), Cisco Fabric Analyzer, and comprehensive port-based and flow-based statistics for performance analysis. It also includes proactive health monitoring features such as Power-On Self-Test (POST) and Cisco Generic Online Diagnostics (GOLD).

Ease of Management: The switch can be managed through the Cisco MDS 9000 Family CLI, Cisco Prime DCNM, and integration with third-party storage management tools. The Cisco MDS 9000 Enterprise package and Cisco Prime DCNM provide advanced management features, while Cisco DMM and Cisco IOA Services packages offer additional functionality for data migration and improved application performance.

The Cisco MDS 9250i Multiservice Fabric Switch offers a comprehensive set of features and capabilities to meet the needs of modern storage networks, including SAN consolidation, high-density Fibre Channel connectivity, intelligent application services, remote SAN extension, iSCSI connectivity, support for mainframe environments, advanced traffic management, robust network security, advanced diagnostics, and ease of management.

 Advanced Software Packages Not Requiring Application Services Engine

Advanced Software Packages Requiring Application Services Engine

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