DS-X9334-K9 Cisco MDS 9000 24/10-Port SAN Extension Module

Product overview

The Cisco MDS 9000 24/10-Port SAN Extension Module provides a high-performance, flexible, unified platform for deploying enterprise-class disaster-recovery and business-continuance SAN extension solutions (Figure 1).

Figure 1.           

Cisco MDS 9000 24/10-Port SAN Extension Module

The MDS 9000 24/10-Port SAN Extension Module is supported on Cisco MDS 9700 Series Multilayer Directors. With 24 line-rate 2-, 4-, 8-, 10-, and 16-Gbps Fibre Channel ports and eight 1 and 10 Gigabit Ethernet Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP) ports, this module enables large and scalable deployment of SAN extension solutions. The SAN extension module has two independent service engines that can each be individually and incrementally enabled to scale as business requirements expand. The SAN extension module supports the full range of services available on other Cisco MDS 9000 Family Fibre Channel switching modules, including virtual SAN (VSAN), security, and traffic management services. The FCIP module uses Cisco expertise and knowledge of IP networks to deliver outstanding SAN extension performance, reducing latency for disk and tape operations with FCIP acceleration features, including FCIP write acceleration and FCIP tape write and read acceleration. Hardware-based encryption helps secure sensitive traffic with IP Security (IPsec), and hardware-based compression dramatically enhances performance for both high- and low-speed links, enabling immediate cost savings in expensive WAN infrastructure. Multiple FCIP interfaces within a single engine or across service engines can be grouped into a port channel of up to 16 links for high availability and increased aggregate throughput.

Main features and benefits

The MDS 9000 24/10-Port SAN Extension Module is designed for mission-critical enterprise storage networks that require secure, robust, cost-effective business-continuance services. The SAN extension module offers the following main features:

●      FCIP for remote SAN extension

The Cisco SAN Extension over IP functionality is offered as standard on the eight fixed 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet IP storage services ports, enabling features such as Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP) and compression on the module without the need for additional licenses. The functionality provides the following benefits:

◦    Simplifies data-protection and business-continuance strategies by enabling backup, remote replication, and other disaster-recovery services over WAN distances using open standards FCIP tunneling.

◦    Optimizes utilization of WAN resources for backup and replication by enabling hardware-based compression, hardware-based encryption, FCIP write acceleration, and tape read and write acceleration for both FCIP and FICON over IP. The SAN extension module will support 3 tunnels per interface and can scale up to 24 tunnels (3 tunnels x 8 1/10GE ports).

◦    Preserves MDS 9000 Family enhanced capabilities, including VSANs, advanced traffic management, and security, across remote connections.

●      I/O Accelerator Services

Cisco MDS 9000 IOA functionality can be deployed in conjunction with disk data replication solutions to extend the distance between data centers or reduce the effects of latency on application performance due to slower disk or tape devices or low speed links. Cisco MDS 9000 IOA functionality can also be used to enable remote tape backup and restore operations without significant throughput degradation when compared to local tapes. The capability to accelerate tape traffic over Fibre Channel, and not just over FCIP, is unique in the industry. The main features of Cisco MDS 9000 IOA functionality include:

◦    Transport and Speed-independent acceleration that accelerates Disk and Tape traffic over any 2/4/8/16G Fibre Channel port on the director and 1/10GE FCIP ISLs

◦    Unified solution for disk and tape I/O acceleration over Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs) and WANs

◦    Extension of acceleration as a fabric service to any port in the fabric, regardless of where it is attached

◦    Transport Independent Write Acceleration (WA) of Disk Replication traffic and Tape Acceleration (TA) of Tape Replication Traffic

◦    Data compression in conjunction with FCIP ISLs.

◦    High availability using Port-Channels with acceleration over Fibre Channel and FCIP ISLs

Cisco MDS 9000 IOA capability is available on MDS 9700 series directors from NX-OS 8.2(1) release and can be enabled using the I/O acceleration package license which is available to configure separately on a module. A module can be configured either for IOA or SAN extension over IP functionality at any time.

●      Integrated IP storage services in a high-density form factor: The module supports eight 1 and 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports. Individual ports can be configured with hot-swappable shortwave and longwave Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP) connections.

●      Integrated hardware-based VSANs and Inter-VSAN Routing (IVR): The module enables deployment of large-scale multisite and heterogeneous SAN topologies. Integration into port-level hardware allows any port in a system or fabric to be partitioned into any VSAN. Integrated hardware-based IVR provides line-rate routing between any ports in a system or fabric without the need for external routing appliances. Cisco MDS Enterprise License is required to support IVR.

●      Intelligent network services: The module uses VSAN technology for hardware-enforced, isolated environments in a single physical fabric, Access Control Lists (ACLs) for hardware-based intelligent frame processing, and advanced traffic management features such as fabric wide Quality of Service (QoS) to facilitate migration from SAN islands to enterprise wide storage networks.

●      Sophisticated diagnostics: The module provides intelligent diagnostics, protocol decoding, and network analysis tools as well as integrated Cisco Call Home capability for greater reliability, faster problem resolution, and reduced service costs.

●      Comprehensive network security framework: The module 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) implementing the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), VSANs, hardware-enforced zoning, ACLs, and per-VSAN Role-Based Access Control (RBAC). RBAC provides separate control over management functions and access on a per-VSAN basis, enabling separation of duties among administrators on the same physical switch. Gigabit Ethernet ports support IPsec authentication, data integrity, and hardware-assisted data encryption.

●      IP Version 6 (IPv6) support: The module supports IPv6 as mandated by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), Japan, and China. IPv6 support is provided for FCIP and for management traffic routed in band and out of band.

Integrated FCIP for Remote SAN and Mainframe Channel Extension

Data-distribution, data-protection, and business-continuance services are significant components of today’s information-centered businesses. The capability to efficiently replicate critical data on a global scale helps ensure a higher level of data protection for valuable corporate information, and it also increases utilization of backup resources and lowers total cost of storage ownership. The MDS 9000 24/10-Port SAN Extension Module uses the open-standards FCIP protocol to extend the distance of current Fibre Channel and FICON solutions, enabling interconnection of SAN islands over extended distances. FICON support will be available in a future date.

Advanced SAN Extension features

The MDS 9000 24/10-Port SAN Extension Module supports hardware-based FCIP compression to increase the effective WAN bandwidth of SAN extension solutions. The module can deliver compression ratios in the range of 4:1 to 5:1 over a wide variety of data sources.

The SAN extension module supports AES 256 IPsec encryption for secure transmission of sensitive data over extended distances. Hardware enablement of IPsec helps ensure line-rate throughput. Together, hardware-based compression and hardware-based encryption provide a high-performance, highly secure SAN extension capability.

Additionally, the SAN extension module supports FCIP write acceleration, a feature that can significantly improve application performance when storage traffic is extended across long distances. When FCIP write acceleration is enabled, WAN throughput is optimized by reducing the latency of command acknowledgments.

VSANs

Well suited for efficient, secure SAN consolidation, ANSI T11-standard VSANs enable more efficient storage network utilization by creating hardware-based isolated environments with a single physical SAN fabric or switch. Each VSAN can be zoned as a typical SAN and maintained with its own fabric services for greater scalability and resilience. VSANs allow the cost of SAN infrastructure to be shared among more users, while helping ensure segregation of traffic and retaining independent control of configuration on a VSAN-by-VSAN basis.

Integrated SAN Routing

In another step toward deployment of efficient, cost-effective, consolidated storage networks, the MDS 9000 24/10-Port SAN Extension Module supports IVR, the industry’s first and most efficient routing function for Fibre Channel. IVR allows selective transfer of data between specific initiators and targets on different VSANs while maintaining isolation of control traffic within each VSAN. With IVR, data can transit VSAN boundaries while maintaining control-plane isolation, thereby maintaining fabric stability and availability. IVR eliminates the need for external routing appliances, greatly increasing routing scalability while delivering line-rate routing performance, simplifying management, and eliminating the challenges associated with maintaining separate systems. IVR reduces the total cost of SAN ownership. Cisco MDS Enterprise License is required to support IVR.

Advanced Traffic Management

The advanced traffic management capabilities integrated into the MDS 9000 24/10-Port SAN Extension Module simplify deployment and optimization of large-scale fabrics.

●    Virtual output queuing: Helps ensure line-rate performance on each port, independent of traffic pattern, by eliminating head-of-line blocking

●    Port channels: Allow users to aggregate up to 16 FCIP ISLs into a single logical bundle, providing optimized bandwidth utilization across all links; the bundle can consist of any speed-matched ports from any module in the chassis, helping ensure that the bundle can remain active even in the event of a module failure

●    Fabric Shortest Path First (FSPF)–based multipathing: Provides the intelligence to load-balance traffic across up to 16 equal-cost paths and, in the event of a switch failure, dynamically reroute traffic

●    QoS: Can be used to manage bandwidth and control latency, to prioritize critical traffic

●    Shaper: Rate limits the WAN bandwidth according to the maximum bandwidth configured for the FCIP tunnel

Advanced Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Tools

Management of large-scale storage networks requires proactive diagnostics, tools to verify connectivity and route latency, and mechanisms for capturing and analyzing traffic. The MDS 9000 Family integrates the industry’s most advanced analysis and diagnostic tools. Power-On Self-Test (POST) and online diagnostics provide proactive health monitoring. The MDS 9000 24/10-Port SAN Extension Module implements diagnostic capabilities such as Fibre Channel Traceroute to detail the exact path and timing of flows and Cisco Switched Port Analyzer (SPAN) to intelligently capture network traffic. The module also supports the SAN Extension Tuner (SET) tool, which helps you optimize FCIP performance by generating either direct-access (for magnetic disks) or sequential-access (for magnetic tape) Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) I/O commands and directing this traffic to a specific virtual target. You can specify the size of the test I/O transfers and the number of concurrent or serial I/O operations to generate while testing. The SET tool reports the resulting I/O operations per second (IOPS) and I/O latency, which helps you determine the number of concurrent I/O operations needed to get the best FCIP throughput.

After traffic has been captured, it can be analyzed with the Cisco Fabric Analyzer, an embedded Fibre Channel analyzer. Comprehensive port-based and flow-based statistics facilitate sophisticated performance analysis and Service-Level Agreement (SLA) accounting. With the MDS 9000 Family, Cisco delivers a comprehensive tool set for troubleshooting and analyzing storage networks.

Comprehensive Solution for Robust Network Security

Addressing the need for fail-proof security in storage networks, the MDS 9000 24/10-Port SAN Extension Module offers an extensive security framework to protect highly sensitive data moving in today’s enterprise networks. The module employs intelligent frame inspection at the port level, including the application of ACLs for hardware enforcement of zones, VSANs, and advanced port security features.

●      Extended zoning capabilities restrict broadcasts to only the selected zones (broadcast zones).

●      VSANs are used to achieve greater security and stability by providing complete isolation among devices that are connected to the same physical SAN.

●      FC-SP provides switch-to-switch and host-to-switch Diffie-Hellman Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (DH-CHAP) authentication supporting RADIUS and TACACS+, to help ensure that only authorized devices can access protected storage networks.

Product specifications

Table 1 lists the product specifications for the MDS 9000 24/10-Port SAN Extension Module.

Table 1.        Product specifications