Overview; Brocade Dcx-4S Features - Brocade Communications Systems DCX-4S Backbone Hardware Installation Manual

Overview

● Brocade DCX-4S features...............................................................................................13
● Hardware components.................................................................................................... 14
● Brocade DCX-4S blades................................................................................................. 17
● High availability............................................................................................................... 18
● Reliability.........................................................................................................................19
● Serviceability................................................................................................................... 19
● Software features............................................................................................................ 20
● Security........................................................................................................................... 20
● Network manageability....................................................................................................21

Brocade DCX-4S features

The Brocade DCX-4S is part of Brocade's industry-leading Backbone-class product line, a highly robust
class of network switching platform that combines breakthrough performance, scalability, and energy
efficiency with long-term investment. Supporting open systems and System z, DCX Backbones are
designed to address the data growth and application demands of evolving enterprise data centers,
achieve server, SAN, and data center consolidation, and reduce infrastructure and administrative costs.
Key features of the Brocade DCX-4S include:
• Up to 256 external ports in a single chassis, enabling high density SAN configurations with reduced
footprint.
• Support for 1, 2, 4, and 8 Gbps auto-sensing Fibre Channel ports. Trunking technology groups up to
eight ports to create high performance 64-Gbps ISL trunks between switches (10 Gbps ports
(FC10-6) are 10 Gbps only).
• Support for all of the application, port blade, and control processor (CP) blades supported in the
Brocade DCX Backbone (with the exception of the Brocade DCX Core Switch Blade), thereby
providing flexible system configurations and fewer types of new blades.
• Up to 768 ports in one rack can connect with the use of inter-chassis links (ICLs).
• Support for high-performance port blades running at 1, 2, 4, 8, or 10 Gbps, enabling flexible system
configuration.
• Redundant and hot-swappable CP8 and CR4S-8 blades, power supplies, blower assemblies, and
WWN cards that enable a high availability platform and enable nondisruptive software upgrades for
mission-critical SAN applications.
• Universal ports that self-configure as E_Ports, F_Ports, FL_Ports, EX_Ports and M_Ports (mirror
ports). 10 Gbps ports (FC10-6 blade) are E_Ports only.
• Data cryptographic (encryption/decryption) and data compression capabilities through the Brocade
FS8-18 Encryption Blade.
• Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP) functionality through the FX8-24 blade.
• Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) capability through the FCOE10-24 blade.
Brocade DCX-4S Backbone Hardware Installation Guide
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