The Cisco MDS 9000 SAN-OS

Flexibility and Scalability

The Cisco MDS 9000 SAN-OS Software is a highly flexible and scalable platform for enterprise SANs.

Common Software Across All Platforms

The Cisco MDS 9000 SAN-OS Software runs on all Cisco MDS 9000 family switches, from multilayer fabric switches to multilayer directors. Using the same base system software across the entire product line helps Cisco provide an extensive, consistent, and compatible feature set across the Cisco MDS 9000 family.

Multiprotocol Support

In addition to supporting Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP), the Cisco MDS 9000 SAN-OS Software supports IBM Fibre Connection (FICON), Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI), and Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP) in a single platform. Native iSCSI support in the Cisco MDS 9000 family helps customers consolidate storage for a wide range of servers into a common pool on the SAN. Native FCIP support allows customers to take advantage of their existing investment in IP networks for cost-effective business-continuance solutions for both Fibre Channel and FICON environments. With Cisco MDS 9000 SAN-OS Software multiprotocol support, customers can better use their enterprise resources, thereby lowering costs.

Virtual SANs

Virtual SAN (VSAN) technology partitions a single physical SAN into multiple VSANs. The Cisco MDS 9000 family switches are the first SAN switches on the market with VSAN support built into the switch hardware. VSAN capabilities allow the Cisco MDS 9000 SAN-OS Software to logically divide a large physical fabric into separate, isolated environments to improve Fibre Channel SAN scalability, availability, manageability, and network security. For FICON, VSANs facilitate true hardware-based separation of FICON and open systems.

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. VSANs help reduce costs by facilitating consolidation of isolated SAN islands into a common infrastructure without compromising availability.

Users can create administrator roles that are limited in scope to certain VSANs. For example, a network administrator role can be set up to allow configuration of all platform-specific capabilities, while other roles can be set up to allow configuration and management only within specific DWDM-XFP-54।94= This approach improves the manageability of large SANs and reduces disruptions due to human error by isolating the effect of a user's action to a specific VSAN whose membership can be assigned based on switch ports or the worldwide name (WWN) 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.