Cisco Mds 9120 Switch - Cisco MDS 9100 Series Installation Manual

Chapter 1 Product Overview

Cisco MDS 9120 Switch

The Cisco MDS 9120 Switch has a total of 20 1/2-Gbps autosensing, optionally configurable ports. The
first group of four ports on the left-hand side are the bandwidth-optimized ports. They are delineated by
a white border. The remaining four groups of four ports each are the host optimized port groups. See
Figure
Figure 1-4
Cisco MDS Fibre Channel Bladeswitch for IBM BladeCenter
The Cisco MDS Fibre Channel Bladeswitch for IBM BladeCenter is designed for IBM BladeCenter
environments. The Cisco MDS Fibre Channel Bladeswitch is based on the Cisco MDS 9000 Family SAN
switching technology, which integrates the Cisco MDS 9000 Family of switches and directors into a
blade-switch architecture. The advanced architecture of the Cisco MDS Fibre Channel Bladeswitch for
IBM BladeCenter, along with 4-GB technology, provides outstanding performance between
Bladeswitches and the rest of the Fibre Channel infrastructure.
The Cisco MDS Fibre Channel Bladeswitch for IBM BladeCenter provides 4-GB Fibre Channel
performance to blade-server switching. It also provides network intelligence features such as virtual
SANs (VSANs), quality of service (QoS), and N-port interface virtualization (NPIV). It also offers
nondisruptive software upgrades and on-demand port activation and is the most complete embedded
Fibre Channel switching available for the IBM BladeCenter, BladeCenter-T, and BladeCenter-H
platforms.
The Cisco MDS Fibre Channel Bladeswitch for IBM BladeCenter provides up to 20 nonblocking 1-, 2-,
and 4-GB Fibre Channel ports that are available in two configurations: 7 internal ports and 3 external
ports, or 14 internal ports and 6 external ports. Each port provides line-rate performance up to 4-GB
without any performance loss for integrated features such as VSANs, QoS, or Network Address
Translation (NAT). The Cisco MDS Fibre Channel Bladeswitch for IBM BladeCenter supports up to 16
VSANs per blade switch.
Each external port on the Cisco MDS FC Bladeswitch for IBM BladeCenter also provides line-rate
performance up to 4-GB for Inter-Switch Links (ISLs) or additional device connectivity such as storage
or host bus adapters (HBAs).
The Cisco SAN-OS software provides role-based access control (RBAC) for management access of the
Cisco Fibre Channel Bladeswitch for IBM BladeCenter command-line interface (CLI) and Simple
Network Management Protocol (SNMP). For more information, see the Cisco 9000 Family Command
Reference.
OL-16187-01
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Cisco MDS 9120 Switch
Cisco MDS Fibre Channel Bladeswitch for IBM BladeCenter
Cisco MDS 9100 Series Hardware Installation Guide
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