Cisco Cisco MDS 9000 NX-OS Software Release 5.2 Hoja De Datos
Data Sheet
© 2011 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
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Each VSAN is a logically and functionally separate SAN with its own set of Fibre Channel fabric services. This
partitioning of fabric services greatly reduces network instability by containing fabric reconfigurations and error
conditions within an individual VSAN. The strict traffic segregation provided by VSANs helps ensure that the control
and data traffic of a given VSAN are confined within the VSAN’s own domain, increasing SAN security, scalability,
and resilience. VSANs help reduce costs by facilitating the consolidation of isolated SAN islands into a common
infrastructure without compromising availability, security, or scalability. Users can create SAN administrator roles that
are limited in scope to certain VSANs. For example, a SAN administrator role can be set up to allow configuration of
all platform-specific capabilities, and other roles can be set up to allow configuration and management within specific
VSANs only. This approach improves the manageability of large SANs and reduces disruptions resulting from
human errors by isolating the effect of a SAN administrator’s action to a specific VSAN whose membership can be
isolated based on switch ports or world wide names (WWNs) of attached devices.
VSANs are supported across FCIP links between SANs, extending VSANs to include devices at a remote location.
The Cisco MDS 9000 Family also implements trunking for VSANs. Trunking allows Inter-Switch Links (ISLs) to carry
traffic for multiple VSANs on the same physical link. F-port trunking allows multiple VSANs on a single uplink in N-
port virtualization (NPV) mode.
Inter-VSAN Routing
Data traffic can be transported between specific initiators and targets on different VSANs using inter-VSAN routing
(IVR) without merging VSANs into a single logical fabric. Fibre Channel control traffic does not flow between VSANs,
nor can initiators access any resources aside from the ones designated with IVR. Valuable resources such as tape
libraries can be easily shared without compromise. IVR also can be used in conjunction with FCIP to create more
efficient business continuity and disaster recovery solutions.
Intelligent Fabric Applications
Cisco MDS 9000 NX-OS forms a solid foundation for delivering network-based storage applications and services
such as virtualization, snapshots, continuous data protection, data migration, and replication on Cisco MDS 9000
Family switches. The Fabric Application Interface Standard (FAIS) - based API and the SANTap protocol
accommodate sophisticated partner applications. The Cisco MDS 9000 Family intelligent fabric applications make
use of all Fibre Channel features and services offered by Cisco MDS 9000 NX-OS, simplifying security, diagnostics,
and management.
Network-Assisted Applications
Cisco MDS 9000 Family network-assisted storage applications offer deployment flexibility and investment protection
by allowing the deployment of appliance-based storage applications for any server or storage device in the SAN
without the need to rewire SAN switches or end devices. Easy insertion and provisioning of appliance-based storage
applications is achieved by removing the need to insert the appliance into the primary I/O path between servers and
storage. Cisco MDS 9000 SANTap taps the primary I/O path and provides a reliable copy of the storage write
operations to a partner appliance. This capability enables partner applications to help ensure data continuity, data
protection, storage performance, and service-level agreement (SLA) monitoring, without the drawbacks of
deployment of in-band data-path or out-of-band host-based devices. Cisco MDS 9000 SANTap provides replication
support for heterogeneous storage without compromising the integrity, availability, or performance of I/O operations
between the host and the primary target.
Cisco MDS 9000 SANTap allows storage application appliances to receive a copy of the primary I/O to support
continuous data protection (CDP), continuous remote replication (CRR), and concurrent local and remote replication
(CLR). The Cisco MDS 9000 SANTap application provides highly scalable solutions that allow efficient workload
distribution to multiple appliances based on the application and the source and target combination.