Brocade 6505 BR-6505-12-0R Data Sheet

EXCEPTIONAL PRICE/PERFORMANCE 

FOR GROWING SAN WORKLOADS

The Brocade 6505 combines market-leading 
throughput with an affordable switch form 
factor, making it ideal for growing SAN 
workloads. The 24 ports produce an 
aggregate 384 Gbps full-duplex throughput; 
any eight ports can be trunked for 128 Gbps 
Inter-Switch Links (ISLs). Exchange-based 
Dynamic Path Selection (DPS) optimizes 
fabric-wide performance and load balancing 
by automatically routing data to the most 
efficient and available path in the fabric 
(see Figure 1). It augments Brocade ISL 
Trunking to provide more effective load 
balancing in certain configurations.

In addition, the Brocade 6505 provides a low 
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) thanks to a 
12-port base configuration, easy administration, 
1U footprint, and low-energy consumption— 
0.22 watts per Gbps and 3.3 watts per port. 
Enterprise-class capabilities combined with 
a low TCO yield 40 percent higher performance 
compared to 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) 
alternatives at a similar cost. 

INDUSTRY-LEADING TECHNOLOGY 

THAT IS FLEXIBLE, SIMPLE, AND  

EASY TO USE

The Brocade 6505 delivers industry-leading 
Gen 5 Fibre Channel technology within a 
flexible, simple, and easy-to-use solution. 
The base configuration includes 12 ports, 
with up to 24 ports on demand. In addition 
to providing best-in-class scalability, the 
Brocade 6505 is easy to deploy with the 
Brocade EZSwitchSetup wizard and the 
ClearLink Diagnostic Ports (D_Ports) 
feature, which simplifies setup. 

A BUILDING BLOCK FOR VIRTUALIZED, 

PRIVATE CLOUD STORAGE

The Brocade 6505 provides a critical 
building block for today’s highly virtualized, 
private cloud storage environments. It 
simplifies server virtualization and Virtual 
Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) management 
while meeting the high-throughput demands 
of Solid State Disks (SSDs). The Brocade 6505 
also supports multi-tenancy in cloud 
environments through Quality of Service (QoS) 
and fabric-based zoning features. 

BROCADE ACCESS GATEWAY MODE

The Brocade 6505 can be deployed as a 
full-fabric switch or as a Brocade Access 
Gateway, which simplifies fabric topologies 
and heterogeneous fabric connectivity  
(the default mode setting is a switch). 
Brocade Access Gateway mode utilizes 
N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) switch 
standards to present physical and virtual 
servers directly to the core of SAN fabrics. 
This makes Brocade Access Gateway 
transparent to the SAN fabric, greatly 
reducing management of the network edge. 
The Brocade 6505 in Brocade Access 
Gateway mode

*

 can connect servers to 

NPIV-enabled Brocade B-Series, Brocade 
M-Series, and other SAN fabrics.

Organizations can easily enable Brocade Access 
Gateway mode via Brocade Network Advisor 
or a CLI. Key benefits of Brocade Access 
Gateway mode include:

• Improved scalability for large or rapidly growing 

server and virtual server environments

• Reduced management of the network 

edge, since Brocade Access Gateway 
does not have a domain identity and 
appears transparent to the core fabric

• Support for heterogeneous SAN 

configurations without reduced 
functionality for server connectivity

Brocade Fabric Vision Technology 

Brocade Fabric Vision technology, an 
extension of Gen 5 Fibre Channel, 
provides unprecedented insight and 
visibility across the storage network 
with powerful built-in monitoring, 
management, and diagnostic tools that 
enable organizations to:

• Simplify monitoring: 

 

– Deploy 15 years of SAN best 

practices in one click to simplify 

the deployment of monitoring 

with pre-defined, threshold-based 

rules, actions, and policies 

 

– Instantly identify latency and 

congestion issues in the fabric 

through increased instrumentation 

and granularity

 

– Gain comprehensive visibility  

into network health and 

performance using browser-

accessible dashboards with  

drill-down capabilities 

• Increase availability: 

 

– Avoid 50 percent of common 

network problems with  

proactive monitoring and 

advanced diagnostic tools that 

address problems before they 

impact operations

 

– Identify hot spots and network 

problems before they impact 

application performance  

through intuitive reporting  

and trend analysis

 

– Minimize downtime and  

accelerate troubleshooting 

with live monitoring, integrated 

diagnostics, and point-in-time 

playback

• Dramatically reduce costs: 

 

– Eliminate nearly 50 percent 

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 

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