DS-C9396T-96ETK9

Description

The Cisco MDS 9396T 32-Gbps 96-Port Fibre Channel Switch is a next-generation Fibre Channel switch designed for high-speed connectivity in storage area networks (SANs). Key features and benefits of this switch include:

1. High-speed connectivity: The switch supports 32-Gbps Fibre Channel connectivity, providing fast and reliable data transfer for SAN environments. This high-speed connectivity ensures optimal performance for demanding workloads.

2. Advanced analytics and telemetry: The switch is equipped with state-of-the-art analytics and telemetry capabilities built into its next-generation ASIC platform. These features allow for comprehensive monitoring and analysis of the SAN infrastructure, helping to optimize performance and troubleshoot issues.

3. FC-NVMe ready: The switch is ready for Fibre Channel Non-Volatile Memory Express (FC-NVMe) workloads, allowing for seamless transition to NVMe-based storage technologies without the need for hardware upgrades. This future-proof design ensures compatibility and flexibility for evolving storage requirements.

4. Scalability and density: The MDS 9396T switch is designed for medium to large departmental SANs, offering high density with 96 ports in a compact 2-rack unit form factor. This scalability allows organizations to easily expand their SAN infrastructure as needed.

5. Highly reliable and available: The switch provides enterprise-class reliability and availability, ensuring consistent performance and uptime for critical applications. It supports redundant components and features such as automatic zoning and failover, minimizing disruptions and enhancing data availability.

6. Autozone feature: For standalone SANs, the switch offers an Autozone feature that enables automatic zoning of host and storage ports without manual configuration. This simplifies deployment and management, particularly in dense hyperscale server environments with large numbers of virtual Host Bus Adapters (vHBAs).

7. Flexible deployment options: The MDS 9396T switch can be deployed as an N-Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) core switch, connecting to existing top-of-rack switches in N-Port Virtualization (NPV) mode. It can also serve as an end-of-row, middle-of-row, or top-of-rack switch in forward or reverse airflow directions, allowing for flexible integration with existing SAN core infrastructure.

The Cisco MDS 9396T 32-Gbps 96-Port Fibre Channel Switch provides organizations with a high-performance, scalable, and reliable solution for their SAN environments. Its advanced features and flexible deployment options make it suitable for medium to large departmental SANs, hyperscale server environments, and integration with existing SAN infrastructure.

The MDS 9396T 32-Gbps 96-Port Fibre Channel Switch offers a wide range of features that cater to the demands of modern data center environments. Here’s a summary of the key features:

1. High Density and Scale: The switch provides 96 32-Gbps line rate Enhanced Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP+) ports, offering an aggregate bandwidth of 3-Tbps per switch. It supports up to 8270 Buffer-To-Buffer (B2B) credits for enhanced long-distance connectivity.

2. Fully Integrated SAN Analytics: The switch includes state-of-the-art SAN analytics and telemetry capabilities, enabling real-time analytics calculations and telemetry data extraction.

3. High Performance: The switch architecture ensures consistent 32-Gbps low-latency performance across all traffic conditions for every Fibre Channel port.

4. CapEx Savings: Users can deploy 32-Gbps ports on existing 16- or 8-Gbps transceivers, providing investment protection with the option to upgrade to 32-Gbps transceivers and adapters.

5. High Availability: The switch is designed to provide 99.999% availability, featuring redundancy on major components and port-channel link member stitching for additional high availability.

6. Incremental Growth: It offers flexible port configurations, allowing deployments of 48, 64, 80, or 96 ports, with the ability to grow in increments of 16 ports.

7. Next-Generation ASIC: Powered by a high-performance 32-Gbps Cisco ASIC with an integrated network processor, the switch supports advanced features such as flow inspection and telemetry.

8. Intelligent Network Services: The switch includes features like slow-drain detection and isolation, Virtual SAN (VSAN) identifier, ACLs for hardware-based frame processing, smart zoning, and fabricwide Quality of Service (QoS).

9. Sophisticated Diagnostics: Intelligent diagnostics tools, including ISL diagnostics and HBA diagnostics, enable comprehensive network analysis and monitoring.

10. Virtual Machine Awareness: The switch provides visibility into virtual machines accessing storage LUNs in the fabric, supporting priority tagging of Virtual Machine Identifiers (VMID) on Fibre Channel frames.

11. Programmable Fabric: It offers powerful REST and Cisco NX-OS Software API capabilities for flexible and rapid programming of utilities for the SAN.

12. Single-Pane Management: The switch can be managed with Cisco Data Center Network Manager (DCNM), providing provisioning, monitoring, and troubleshooting capabilities.

13. Secure-Boot and Anti-Counterfeiting Technology: The switch utilizes onboard hardware to protect critical components from malicious attacks, ensuring system integrity and security.

The MDS 9396T 32-Gbps 96-Port Fibre Channel Switch encompasses advanced features that address the scalability, performance, security, and management needs of modern SAN environments.

The adoption of 32-Gbps fabric switches in SAN architectures brings several benefits to modern data center environments:

1. Server port consolidation: The increasing virtual machine density per rack, along with the need for higher bandwidth HBA ports, requires server port consolidation. The MDS 9396T with its high port density of 96 ports provides an excellent solution for consolidating server connectivity in a rack, whether it’s for top-of-rack or end-of-row deployments. The switch’s flexibility to expand from a 48-port base to up to 96 ports allows for scalability as server capacity increases.

2. Simplification: Consolidation of ports and connectivity simplifies SAN management and reduces complexity for the SAN administrator. By deploying the MDS 9396T as an NPIV core switch in network virtualization mode, top-of-rack switches can be scaled out in N-Port Virtualization (NPV) mode, streamlining management without the need for additional NPV switches.

3. Multiprotocol convergence: The higher bandwidth and lower latency of 32-Gbps links enable better performance for storage workloads. This is especially important as newer storage protocols, like NVMe over Fibre Channel, become available and can share links with existing SCSI workloads. Multiprotocol convergence simplifies infrastructure and allows for better utilization of resources.

4. Scale and performance: The MDS 9396T is designed to support the scale and performance requirements of dedicated, standalone Fibre Channel SANs. It provides high bandwidth and low latency connectivity for both initiators and targets, allowing for efficient and high-performance storage operations without the need for additional switching infrastructure.

The adoption of 32-Gbps fabric switches in SAN architectures brings greater consolidation, simplification, multiprotocol convergence, and improved scale and performance to data center environments. These benefits help organizations optimize their SAN infrastructure and meet the demands of modern storage technologies and virtualized workloads.

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