IBM SAN64B-6 Product Manual page 5

Increase availability:
– Avoid 50% of common network problems with proactive monitoring and advanced
diagnostic tools that address problems before they impact operations
– Identify hot spots and automatically mitigate network problems (
application performance) through intuitive reporting, trend analysis, and integrated
actions
– Minimize downtime and accelerate troubleshooting with live monitoring, integrated
diagnostics, and point-in-time playback
Dramatically reduce costs:
– Eliminate nearly 50% of maintenance costs through automated testing and diagnostic
tools that validate the health, reliability, and performance of the network prior to
deployment
– Save up to millions of dollars on capital expenditure (CapEx) costs by eliminating the
need for expensive third-party tools through built-in monitoring and diagnostics
– Leverage specialized tools for pre-testing and validating IT infrastructure to accelerate
deployment, simplify support, and reduce operational costs
Maximize performance for application and solid-state storage architectures
Faced with unpredictable virtualized workloads and growing flash storage environments,
organizations need to ensure that the network does not become the bottleneck. The
SAN64B-6 delivers increased performance for growing and dynamic workloads through a
combination of market-leading throughput and low latency across 32 Gbps and
128 Gbps links.
With Gen 6 application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) technology providing up to
566 million frames switched per second, the SAN64B-6 switch shatters application
performance barriers with up to 100 million IOPS to meet the demands of flash-based storage
workloads. At the same time, port-to-port latency is minimized to 700 nanoseconds (ns)
through the use of cut-through switching at 32 Gbps.
With 48 SFP+ ports and 4 Q-Flex ports, each providing four 32 Gbps connections, the
SAN64B-6 can scale up to 64 device ports for an aggregate throughput of 2 terabits per
second (Tbps). Moreover, each Q-Flex port is capable of 128 Gbps parallel Fibre Channel for
device or inter-switch link (ISL) connectivity, enabling administrators to consolidate and
simplify cabling infrastructure.
Administrators can achieve optimal bandwidth utilization, high availability, and load balancing
by combining up to eight ISLs in a 256 Gbps framed-based trunk. This can be achieved
through eight individual 32 Gbps SFP+ ports or two 4 × 32 Gbps quad small form-factor
pluggable (QSFP) ports.
In addition, exchange-based Dynamic Path Selection (DPS) optimizes fabric-wide
performance and load balancing by automatically routing data to the most efficient, available
path in the fabric. This augments b-type ISL Trunking to provide more effective load balancing
in certain configurations.
before
they impact
3