Abstract
This IBM® Redbooks® Product Guide introduces IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6. It is a director-class storage area network (SAN) switch that is designed for deployment in large-scale storage networks to enable enterprise clouds and business transformation. By adding enterprise connectivity options that support IBM FICON® connectivity,
IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6 delivers a high-performing and reliable FICON infrastructure that is designed to support fast and scalable IBM z Systems™ servers.
Layering a comprehensive set of intelligent features onto a high-performance, protocol-independent switch fabric, IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6 addresses the stringent requirements of large virtualized data center storage environments: high availability, security, scalability, ease of management, and transparent integration of new technologies for flexible data center SAN solutions. Sharing the operating system and management interface with other data center switches, IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6 enables seamless deployment of fabrics with high-performance Fibre Channel, IBM Fibre Connection (IBM FICON®), and Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP) connectivity to achieve low total cost of ownership (TCO).
For mission-critical enterprise storage networks that require secure, robust, cost-effective business-continuance services, the FCIP extension module is designed to deliver outstanding SAN extension performance, reducing latency for disk and tape operations with FCIP acceleration features, including FCIP write acceleration and FCIP tape write and read acceleration.
Contents
This IBM® Redbooks® Product Guide introduces IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6. It is a director-class storage area network (SAN) switch that is designed for deployment in large-scale storage networks to enable enterprise clouds and business transformation by adding enterprise connectivity options that support IBM Fibre Connection (IBM FICON®) connectivity.
IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6 delivers a high performing and reliable FICON infrastructure that is designed to support fast and scalable IBM z Systems™ servers.
Layering a comprehensive set of intelligent features onto a high-performance, protocol-independent switch fabric, IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6 addresses the stringent requirements of large virtualized data center storage environments: High availability, security, scalability, ease of management, and transparent integration of new technologies for flexible data center SAN solutions. Sharing the operating system and management interface with other data center switches, IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6 enables seamless deployment of fabrics with high-performance Fibre Channel, IBM Fibre Connection (IBM FICON®), and Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP) connectivity to achieve low total cost of ownership (TCO).
For mission-critical enterprise storage networks that require secure, robust, cost-effective business-continuance services, the FCIP extension module is designed to deliver outstanding SAN extension performance, reducing latency for disk and tape operations with FCIP acceleration features, including FCIP write acceleration and FCIP tape write and read acceleration.
Figure 1 shows IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6.
Figure 1. IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6
Did you know?
- IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6 director class switch enables redundancy on all major components, including the fabric card.
- The 24/10-Port SAN Extension Module supports hardware-based FCIP compression to increase the effective WAN bandwidth of SAN extension solutions. The module can deliver compression ratios in the range of 4:1 - 5:1 over a wide variety of data sources.
- The IBM Storage Networking c-type Family provides deterministic hardware performance and a comprehensive feature set that allows virtual machines to have the same SAN attributes as a physical server.
- The combination of the Supervisor-1, 32 Gbps Fibre Channel switching module and Fabric-1 Crossbar switching modules enables up to 1.5 Tbps of FC throughput between modules for each of the eight IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6 payload slots.
Product overview
The capabilities of IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6 can be extended with modules.
The 24/10-Port SAN Extension Module
The 24/10-Port SAN Extension Module is supported on IBM Storage Networking c-type Family Multilayer Directors. With 24 line-rate 2-, 4-, 8-, 10-, and 16-Gbps Fibre Channel ports and eight 1 and 10 Gigabit Ethernet FCIP ports, this module enables large and scalable deployment of SAN extension solutions. The SAN extension module has two independent service engines that can each be individually and incrementally enabled to scale as business requirements expand.
The SAN extension module supports the full range of services available on other IBM Storage Networking c-type Family Fibre Channel switching modules, including virtual SAN (VSAN), security, and traffic management services. The FCIP module uses IBM expertise and knowledge of IP networks to deliver outstanding SAN extension performance, reducing latency for disk and tape operations with FCIP acceleration features, including FCIP write acceleration and FCIP tape write and read acceleration.
Hardware-based encryption helps secure sensitive traffic with IP Security (IPsec), and hardware-based compression dramatically enhances performance for both high- and low-speed links, enabling immediate cost savings in expensive WAN infrastructure. Multiple FCIP interfaces within a single engine or across service engines can be grouped into a port channel of up to 16 links for high availability and increased aggregate throughput.
Figure 2 shows the 24/10-Port SAN Extension Module.
Figure 2. 24/10-Port SAN Extension Module
Main features and benefits
The 24/10-Port SAN Extension Module is designed for mission-critical enterprise storage networks that require secure, robust, cost-effective business-continuance services. The SAN extension module offers the following main features:
- FCIP for remote SAN extension:
- Simplifies data-protection and business-continuance strategies by enabling backup, remote replication, and other disaster-recovery services over WAN distances using open standards FCIP tunneling.
- Optimizes utilization of WAN resources for backup and replication by enabling hardware-based compression, hardware-based encryption, FCIP write acceleration, and tape read and write acceleration for both FCIP and FICON over IP. The SAN extension module will support four tunnels per interface and can scale up to 32 tunnels (four tunnels x eight 1/10 GbE ports).
- Preserves IBM Storage Networking c-type Family Directors enhanced capabilities, including VSANs, advanced traffic management, and security, across remote connections.
- Integrated IP storage services in a high-density form factor: The module supports eight 1 and 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports. Individual ports can be configured with hot-swappable shortwave and longwave Small Form-factor Pluggable (SFP) connections.
- Integrated hardware-based VSANs and Inter-VSAN Routing (IVR): The module enables deployment of large-scale multisite and heterogeneous SAN topologies. Integration into port-level hardware allows any port in a system or fabric to be partitioned into any VSAN. Integrated hardware-based IVR provides line-rate routing between any ports in a system or fabric without the need for external routing appliances.
- Intelligent network services: The module uses VSAN technology for hardware-enforced, isolated environments in a single physical fabric; access control lists (ACLs) for hardware-based intelligent frame processing; and advanced traffic management features, such as fabric-wide quality of service (QoS), to facilitate migration from SAN islands to enterprise wide storage networks.
- Sophisticated diagnostics: The module provides intelligent diagnostics, protocol decoding, and network analysis tools, in addition to integrated Call Home capability, for greater reliability, faster problem resolution, and reduced service costs.
- Comprehensive network security framework: The module supports RADIUS and TACACS+, Fibre Channel Security Protocol (FC-SP), Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP), Secure Shell (SSH) Protocol, Simple Network Management Protocol Version 3 (SNMPv3) implementing the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), VSANs, hardware-enforced zoning, ACLs, and per-VSAN role-based access control (RBAC). RBAC provides separate control over management functions and access on a per-VSAN basis, enabling separation of duties among administrators on the same physical switch. Gigabit Ethernet ports support IPsec authentication, data integrity, and hardware-assisted data encryption.
- IP Version 6 (IPv6) support: The module supports IPv6 as mandated by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), Japan, and China. IPv6 support is provided for FCIP and for management traffic routed in band and out of band.
Integrated FCIP for remote SAN and mainframe channel extension
Data-distribution, data-protection, and business-continuance services are significant components of today’s information-centered businesses. The capability to efficiently replicate critical data on a global scale helps ensure a higher level of data protection for valuable corporate information, and also increases utilization of backup resources and lowers total cost of storage ownership. The 24/10-Port SAN Extension Module uses the open-standards FCIP protocol to extend the distance of current Fibre Channel and FICON solutions, enabling interconnection of SAN islands over extended distances.
Advanced SAN extension features
The 24/10-Port SAN Extension Module supports hardware-based FCIP compression to increase the effective WAN bandwidth of SAN extension solutions. The module can deliver compression ratios in the range of 4:1 - 5:1 over a wide variety of data sources.
The SAN extension module supports AES 256 IPsec encryption for secure transmission of sensitive data over extended distances. Hardware enablement of IPsec helps ensure line-rate throughput. Together, hardware-based compression and hardware-based encryption provide a high-performance, highly secure SAN extension capability.
Additionally, the SAN extension module supports FCIP write acceleration, a feature that can significantly improve application performance when storage traffic is extended across long distances. When FCIP write acceleration is enabled, WAN throughput is optimized by reducing the latency of command acknowledgments.
VSANs
Well suited for efficient, secure SAN consolidation, ANSI T11-standard VSANs enable more efficient storage network utilization by creating hardware-based isolated environments with a single physical SAN fabric or switch. Each VSAN can be zoned as a typical SAN and maintained with its own fabric services for greater scalability and resilience. VSANs allow the cost of SAN infrastructure to be shared among more users, while helping ensure segregation of traffic and retaining independent control of configuration on a VSAN-by-VSAN basis.
Integrated SAN routing
In another step toward deployment of efficient, cost-effective, consolidated storage networks, the 24/10- Port SAN Extension Module supports IVR, the industry’s first and most efficient routing function for Fibre Channel. IVR allows selective transfer of data between specific initiators and targets on different VSANs while maintaining isolation of control traffic within each VSAN. With IVR, data can transit VSAN boundaries while maintaining control-plane isolation, thereby maintaining fabric stability and availability. IVR eliminates the need for external routing appliances, greatly increasing routing scalability while delivering line-rate routing performance, simplifying management, and eliminating the challenges associated with maintaining separate systems. IVR reduces the total cost of SAN ownership.
Advanced traffic management
The advanced traffic management capabilities integrated into the 24/10-Port SAN Extension Module simplify deployment and optimization of large-scale fabrics:
- Virtual output queuing: Helps ensure line-rate performance on each port, independent of traffic pattern, by eliminating head-of-line blocking.
- Port channels: Allow users to aggregate up to 16 FCIP ISLs into a single logical bundle, providing optimized bandwidth utilization across all links. The bundle can consist of any speed-matched ports from any module in the chassis, helping ensure that the bundle can remain active even in the event of a module failure.
- Fabric Shortest Path First (FSPF)-based multipathing: Provides the intelligence to load-balance traffic across up to 16 equal-cost paths and, in the event of a switch failure, dynamically reroute traffic.
- QoS: Can be used to manage bandwidth and control latency to prioritize critical traffic.
- Shaper: Rate limits the WAN bandwidth according to the maximum bandwidth configured for the FCIP tunnel.
Advanced diagnostics and troubleshooting tools
Management of large-scale storage networks requires proactive diagnostics, tools to verify connectivity and route latency, and mechanisms for capturing and analyzing traffic. The IBM Storage Networking c-type Family integrates the industry’s most advanced analysis and diagnostic tools. Power-on self-test (POST) and online diagnostics provide proactive health monitoring.
The 24/10-Port SAN Extension Module implements diagnostic capabilities, such as Fibre Channel Traceroute to detail the exact path and timing of flows, and Switched Port Analyzer (SPAN) to intelligently capture network traffic. The module also supports the SAN Extension Tuner (SET) tool, which helps you optimize FCIP performance by generating either direct-access (for magnetic disks) or sequential-access (for magnetic tape) Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) I/O commands and directing this traffic to a specific virtual target.
You can specify the size of the test I/O transfers and the number of concurrent or serial I/O operations to generate while testing. The SET tool reports the resulting I/O operations per second (IOPS) and I/O latency, which helps you determine the number of concurrent I/O operations needed to get the best FCIP throughput.
After traffic has been captured, it can be analyzed with the Fabric Analyzer, an embedded Fibre Channel analyzer. Comprehensive port-based and flow-based statistics facilitate sophisticated performance analysis and service-level agreement (SLA) accounting.
Comprehensive solution for robust network security
Addressing the need for fail-proof security in storage networks, the MDS 9000 24/10-Port SAN Extension Module offers an extensive security framework to protect highly sensitive data moving in today’s enterprise networks. The module employs intelligent frame inspection at the port level, including the application of ACLs for hardware enforcement of zones, VSANs, and advanced port security features:
- Extended zoning capabilities restrict broadcasts to only the selected zones (broadcast zones).
- VSANs are used to achieve greater security and stability by providing complete isolation among devices that are connected to the same physical SAN.
- FC-SP provides switch-to-switch and host-to-switch Diffie-Hellman Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (DH-CHAP) authentication supporting RADIUS and TACACS+, to help ensure that only authorized devices can access protected storage networks.
The Supervisor-1 Module
The Supervisor-1 Module delivers the latest advanced switching technology with NX-OS software to power a new generation of scalable and intelligent multilayer switching solutions for SANs.
Designed to integrate multiprotocol switching and routing, intelligent SAN services, and storage applications onto highly scalable SAN switching platforms, the Supervisor-1 Module enables intelligent, resilient, scalable, and secure high performance multilayer SAN switching solutions when combined with the IBM Storage Networking c-type Family switching modules.
The IBM Storage Networking c-type Family lowers the TCO for storage networking by combining a robust and flexible hardware architecture, multiple layers of network and storage intelligence, and compatibility with all IBM Storage Networking c-type Family switching modules. It offers advanced management tools for overall lowest TCO. It supports VSAN technology for hardware-enforced, isolated environments within a single physical fabric for secure sharing of physical infrastructure, which further decreases TCO.
This powerful combination helps organizations to build highly available, scalable storage networks with comprehensive security and unified management. The Supervisor-1 Module is supported in the IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6.
Figure 3 shows the Supervisor-1 Module.
Figure 3. Supervisor-1 Module
48-Port 32-Gbps Fibre Channel Switching Module
The 48-Port 32-Gbps Fibre Channel Switching Module (Figure 4) delivers predictable performance, scalability, and innovative features to support private and virtualized data centers. With industry-leading 768 line-rate 32-Gbps Fibre Channel ports per director, the 32-Gbps 48-port Fibre Channel switching module meets the high-performance needs for flash-memory and Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) over Fibre Channel workloads. It offers innovative services, including virtual machine awareness, on-board Fibre Channel analytics engine, E-port and F-port diagnostics, integrated VSANs, IVR, and port channels. It delivers full-duplex aggregate performance of 1536 Gbps, making it well suited for high-speed 32-Gbps storage subsystems, 32-Gbps Inter-Switch Links (ISLs), high-performance virtualized servers, and all-flash and NMVe arrays.
Figure 4. 48-Port 32-Gbps Fibre Channel Switching Module
The 48-Port 32-Gbps Fibre Channel Switching Module enables administrators to scale and consolidate SAN deployments with fewer hardware components. Your SAN administrators can consolidate workloads from hundreds of high-performance virtual machines and scale them with incremental updates as your SAN grows while protecting your existing investment.
This switching module ships with a built-in analytics engine. The engine can analyze real-time Fibre Channel exchanges and report on various metrics in detail, enabling comprehensive and timely monitoring of any potential performance problems among SAN edge devices. The on-board network processing unit (NPU) in the module allows I/O-level metrics to be computed at every switch.
The NPU can monitor all flows on all ports at line rate. The NPU examines every exchange passing through the 32-Gbps application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) to capture flow metrics such as exchange completion time, maximum number of outstanding exchanges, data access latency, read and write IOPS, throughput, logical unit number (LUN) access pattern (sequential or random), and I/O block sizes.
The switching module is hot swappable and compatible with 4-, 8-, 16-, and 32-Gbps Fibre Channel interfaces. This module also supports hot-swappable Enhanced Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP+) transceivers. Individual ports can be configured with 32-, 16-, and 8-Gbps SFP+ transceivers. Each port supports 500 buffer credits for exceptional extensibility without the need for additional licenses. With the Enterprise Package license, up to 8191 buffer credits can be allocated to an individual port, enabling full link bandwidth over long distances with no degradation in link utilization.
The 32-Gbps Fibre Channel switching module also provides existing features, such as predictable performance, high availability, advanced traffic management capabilities, integrated VSAN and IVR, resilient high-performance ISLs, hardware-assisted slow-drain support, comprehensive security frameworks, fault detection and isolation of errored packets, and sophisticated diagnostics.
Main features
The 48-Port 32-Gbps Fibre Channel Switching Module offers the following main features:
- Outstanding SAN performance: The combination of the 32-Gbps Fibre Channel switching module and Fabric-1 crossbar switching modules enables up to 1.5 terabits per second (Tbps) of Fibre Channel throughput between the modules in each direction for each payload slot in the Multilayer Directors. The IBM Storage Networking c-type Family architecture, which is based on central arbitration and a crossbar fabric, provides 32-Gbps line-rate, nonblocking, predictable performance across all traffic conditions for every port in the chassis.
- High availability: The IBM Storage Networking c-type Family directors provide outstanding availability and reliability. They are the industry's first director-class switches considered to support mission-critical workloads because they enable redundancy on all major components, including the fabric card. They also provide grid redundancy on the power supply and 1+1 redundant supervisors. Users can add a fabric card to enable N+1 fabric redundancy at 16-Gbps Fibre Channel speeds. The suggested number of modules per chassis is 6 if there are 32-Gbps line linecards with 32-Gbps transceivers. If you do not want to upgrade, or you want to partially upgrade, review Table 1.
- Industry-leading scalability: The IBM Storage Networking c-type Family directors combine industry-leading scalability with performance to meet the needs of even the largest data center storage environments. IBM Storage Networking SAN768C-6 supports up to 48 Tbps of Fibre Channel system bandwidth and 768 2-, 4-, 8-, 16-, and 32-Gbps full line-rate autosensing Fibre Channel ports in a single chassis. IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6 Multilayer Director supports up to 24 Tbps of Fibre Channel system bandwidth and up to 384 2-, 4-, 8-, 16-, and 32-Gbps full line-rate autosensing Fibre Channel ports in a single chassis.
- Intelligent network services: VSAN technology, ACLs for hardware-based intelligent frame processing, and fabricwide QoS enable migration from SAN islands to enterprise wide storage networks.
- Fibre Channel Redirect (FC-Redirect): FC-Redirect infrastructure provides the capability to redirect a flow to a specific service engine in the fabric to provide intelligent services such as Data Mobility Manager and I/O Accelerator.
- Integrated hardware-based VSANs and IVR: VSANs are integrated into port-level hardware so that any port in a system or fabric can be assigned to any VSAN. The IVR provides line-rate routing between any ports in a system or fabric without the need for external routing appliances.
- Intelligent storage services: The IBM Storage Networking c-type Family directors support intelligent service capabilities on other switches to provide services, such as acceleration of storage applications for data replication and backup.
- Smart Zoning: When the Smart Zoning feature is enabled, IBM Storage Networking c-type Family fabrics provision the hardware ACL entries, specified by the zone set, more efficiently. This feature helps prevent superfluous entries that might allow servers (initiators) to talk to other servers or allow storage devices (targets) to talk to other storage devices. This feature makes feasible larger zones with multiple initiators and multiple targets without excessive consumption of hardware resources. Smart Zones can correspond to applications, application clusters, hypervisor clusters, and other data center entities, saving the time that administrators previously spent creating many small zones and enabling automation of zoning tasks.
- Virtual machine transparency: The IBM Storage Networking c-type Family provides deterministic hardware performance and a comprehensive feature set that allows virtual machines to have the same SAN attributes as a physical server. On a per-virtual machine basis, NX-OS Software offers VSANs, QoS policies, access control, performance monitoring, and data protection to promote the scalability and mobility of virtual machines. Data Center Network Manager (DCNM) enables rapid troubleshooting in mission-critical virtualized environments by providing end-to-end visibility from the virtual machine to storage with resource allocation, performance measurements, and predictions available on a per-virtual machine basis.
- Comprehensive security: The IBM Storage Networking c-type Family devices supports services including VSANs, hardware-enforced zoning, ACLs, per-VSAN role-based access control (RBAC), and TrustSec Fibre Channel link encryption. The comprehensive security framework consists of RADIUS and TACACS+, FC-SP, SFTP, SSH Protocol, and SNMPv3. The TrustSec Fibre Channel link encryption delivers transparent, hardware-based 32-Gbps line-rate AES 128-bit encryption of Fibre Channel data on 32-Gbps Fibre Channel switching modules.
- Resilient high-performance ISLs: The IBM Storage Networking c-type Family 32-Gbps Fibre Channel switching modules support high-performance ISLs consisting of 32-Gbps secure Fibre Channel. Fibre Channel switching modules also support port-channel technology for additional scalability and resilience. Administrators can group up to 16 links spanning any port on any module in a chassis into a logical link.
- Sophisticated diagnostics: The 48-Port 32-Gbps Fibre Channel Switching Module provides intelligent diagnostics, protocol decoding, E-port diagnostics, and network analysis tools along with an integrated Call Home capability for greater reliability, faster problem resolution, and reduced service costs.
- Compatibility: The 48-Port 32-Gbps Fibre Channel Switching Module can co-exist with previous-generation supported modules on the IBM Storage Networking c-type Family director.
- Investment protection: The 48-Port 32-Gbps Fibre Channel Switching Module can easily be inserted into existing IBM Storage Networking c-type Family directors without any impact on operations.
Table 1. Number of Fabric Modules needed according to ports running at 32 Gbps performance in a 48-port 32-Gbps linecard
| # of ports | Running at (Performance) | # of fabric modules needed | Restrictions |
24 | 32 Gbps | 3 | Other 24 ports shut down |
| 32 | 32 Gbps | 4 | Other 16 ports shut down |
| 40 | 32 Gbps | 5 | Other 8 ports shut down |
| 48 | 32 Gbps | 6 | No restrictions |
The smaller IBM Storage Networking SAN192C-6 supports up to 12 Tbps of Fibre Channel system bandwidth and 192 2-, 4-, 8-, 16-, and 32-Gbps full line-rate autosensing Fibre Channel ports in a single chassis.
Administrators can also allocate up to 8191 buffer-to-buffer credits to a single Fibre Channel port, providing industry-leading extension of storage networks to up to 4,000 kilometers at 4 Gbps, 2,000 kilometers at 8 Gbps, 1,000 kilometers at 16 Gbps, and 500 kilometers at 32 Gbps, while maintaining full link utilization. The IBM Storage Networking c-type Family switch architecture helps ensure that frames are never reordered within a switch, leading to optimal application performance because end devices never have to use resources to reorder the frames.
Main benefits
The 48-Port 32-Gbps Fibre Channel Switching Module offers the following benefits:
- Lower TCO with SAN consolidation: With the exponential growth of data in today's business environment, organizations need to deploy large-scale SANs in the most efficient and cost-effective ways. To meet scalability requirements while managing TCO, the IBM Storage Networking c-type Family directors offer the following features:
- Industry-leading port density of line-rate 32-Gbps Fibre Channel ports per chassis
- 1.5-Tbps Fibre Channel performance per slot
- Up to 48-Tbps front-panel Fibre Channel line-rate, non-blocking, system-level switching
- Exceptional capabilities with intelligent fabric services
- VSANs for consolidating individual physical SAN islands while maintaining logical boundaries
- IVR for sharing resources across VSANs
- Built-in network processing unit for inline analytics
These features enable the consolidation of an organization's data assets into fewer, larger, and more manageable SANs, thus reducing the hardware footprint and associated capital and operating expenses:
- Enterprise-class availability: The IBM Storage Networking c-type Family was specifically designed from the beginning for high-availability and mission-critical environments. Beyond meeting the basic requirements of nondisruptive software upgrades and redundancy of all critical hardware components, the IBM Storage Networking c-type Family software architecture offers outstanding greater than five-nines availability.
- Virtual machine-aware SAN deployment: The growing adoption of server virtualization in data centers increases the number of hosts attached to the SAN, places higher workloads on the SAN, and requires more storage, thereby increasing the need for SAN services. The VMpath technology, part of DCNM, provides end-to-end visibility from the virtual machines to the storage devices. Resource allocation, performance measurements, and predictions are available on a per-virtual machine basis to enable rapid troubleshooting in mission-critical virtualized environments.
- Advanced traffic management: The following advanced traffic management capabilities, integrated into every 48-Port 32-Gbps Fibre Channel Switching Module, simplify deployment and optimization of large-scale fabrics:
- The virtual output queue (VOQ) helps ensure line-rate performance on each port, independent of traffic pattern, by eliminating head-of-line blocking.
- Up to 8191 buffer-to-buffer credits can be assigned to any individual port for optimal bandwidth utilization across distances.
- Port channels allow up to 16 physical ISLs to be aggregated into a single logical bundle, providing optimized bandwidth utilization across all links. The bundle can be a mix of any port from any module in the chassis. This approach helps ensure that the bundle can remain active even if a module fails.
- Fabric Shortest Path First (FSPF)-based multipathing provides the intelligence to load-balance across up to 16 equal-cost paths and dynamically reroute traffic if a switch fails.
- QoS helps manage bandwidth and control latency to prioritize critical traffic and is available on every port.
- The lossless network-wide in-order delivery guarantee helps ensure that frames are never reordered within a switch. This guarantee extends across the entire multiswitch fabric, assuming that the fabric is stable and no topology changes are made.
- Advanced diagnostics and troubleshooting tools: The IBM Storage Networking c-type Family integrates proactive diagnostics, tools to verify connectivity and route latency and to capture and analyze traffic, thereby simplifying the management of large-scale storage networks. The POST and online diagnostics provide proactive health monitoring. Starting with NX-OS Software Release 8.1(1b), the powerful Generic Online Diagnostics (GOLD) framework replaces the Online Health Management System (OHMS) diagnostic framework on the new IBM Storage Networking c-type Family Multilayer Director chassis.
- Integrated hardware functions support diagnostic capabilities, such as Fibre Channel traceroute, to identify the exact path and timing of flows, and SPAN and Remote SPAN (RSPAN) to intelligently capture network traffic. The captured Fibre Channel traffic can be analyzed with the embedded Fabric Analyzer. Comprehensive port-based and flow-based statistics enable sophisticated performance analysis and SLA accounting.
- Comprehensive solution for robust security: Addressing the need for stringent security in storage networks, the 32-Gbps Fibre Channel line card offers an extensive security framework to protect the highly sensitive data crossing today's enterprise networks. The IBM Storage Networking c-type Family employs intelligent packet inspection at the port level, including the application of ACLs for hardware enforcement of zones, VSANs, and advanced port security features. VSANs are used to achieve greater security and stability by providing complete isolation of devices that are connected to the same physical SAN. IVR enables controlled sharing of resources between VSANs.
- In addition, FC-SP1 provides switch-to-switch and host-to-switch DH CHAP authentication supporting RADIUS or TACACS+ to help ensure that only authorized devices access protected storage networks. TrustSec1 Fibre Channel link encryption, available on the 32-Gbps modules, enables you to transparently encrypt ISLs at up to line-rate speeds, providing an additional layer of protection for traffic within and between data centers. The IBM Storage Networking c-type Family supports a fabric binding feature that helps ensure that ISLs are enabled only between specified switches in the fabric binding configuration.
- Integrated mainframe support: The IBM Storage Networking c-type Family is mainframe ready, with full support for FICON for IBM z Systems and Linux environments. The IBM Storage Networking c-type Family supports transport of the FICON protocol in both cascaded and noncascaded fabrics. It also supports a mix of FICON and open-systems Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP) traffic on the same switch.
GOLD is a suite of diagnostic facilities that verify whether the hardware and internal data paths are operating as designed. Boot-time diagnostics, continuous monitoring, standby fabric loopback tests, and on-demand and scheduled tests are part of the GOLD feature set. This industry-leading diagnostics subsystem enables rapid fault isolation and continuous system monitoring, which are critical features in today's continuously operating environments.
Product highlights
IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6 and its components offer the following main features:
- Outstanding SAN performance: The combination of the 32 Gbps Fibre Channel switching modules and Fabric-1 Crossbar switching modules enables up to 1.5 Tbps of front-panel FC throughput between modules in each direction for each of the eight IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6 payload slots. This per-slot bandwidth is double the bandwidth that is needed to support a 48-port 32 Gbps FC module at full line rate. Based on central arbitration and a crossbar fabric, the SAN384C-6 architecture provides 32 Gbps line-rate, non-blocking, predictable performance across all traffic conditions for every chassis port.
- High availability: The SAN384C-6 director class switch enables redundancy on all major components, including the fabric card. It provides Grid Redundancy on Power Supply and 1+1 redundant Supervisors. Users can include a fourth fabric card to enable N+1 Fabric Redundancy at 768 Gbps slot bandwidth. The SAN384C-6 combines nondisruptive software upgrades, stateful process restart and failover, and full redundancy of major components for higher availability.
- Business continuity: The SAN384C-6 director enables large and scalable deployment of SAN extension solutions through the SAN Extension module.
- Outstanding scalability: The SAN384C-6 director provides up to 24 Tbps of FC backplane bandwidth. A single chassis delivers 384 4/8 Gbps, 2/4/8 Gbps, 4/8/16 Gbps, or 8/16/32 Gbps full line-rate autosensing Fibre Channel ports. A single rack supports up to 1152 Fibre Channel ports. The IBM Storage Networking c-type Family directors are designed to meet the requirements of even the largest data center storage environments.
- Deployment of SAN extension solutions: Enable large and scalable with the 24/10-port SAN Extension Module.
- Intelligent network services: VSAN technology, ACLs for hardware-based intelligent frame processing, and fabric-wide QoS enable migration from SAN islands to enterprise-wide storage networks and include the following features:
- Integrated hardware-based VSANs and IVR: Integration of VSANs into port-level hardware allows any port in a system or fabric to be partitioned to any VSAN. Integrated hardware-based IVR provides line-rate routing between any ports in a system or fabric without the need for external routing appliances.
- Intelligent storage services: SAN384C-6 operates with intelligent service capabilities on other IBM Storage Networking c-type Family platforms to provide services, such as acceleration of storage applications for data replication and backup, and data migration to hosts and targets that are attached to SAN384C-6.
- SmartZoning: When the SmartZoning feature is enabled, IBM Storage Networking c-type Family fabrics provision the hardware access control entries that are specified by the zone set more efficiently, which avoids the superfluous entries that allow servers (initiators) to talk to other servers, or allow storage devices (targets) to talk to other storage devices. This feature makes larger zones with multiple initiators and multiple targets feasible without excessive consumption of hardware resources.
- Virtual machine transparency: The IBM Storage Networking c-type Family provides deterministic hardware performance and a comprehensive feature set that allows virtual machines to have the same SAN attributes as a physical server. On a per-virtual machine basis, the NX-OS Software offers VSANs, QoS policies, access control, performance monitoring, and data protection to promote the scalability and mobility of virtual machines.
- Comprehensive security: The IBM Storage Networking c-type Family supports a comprehensive security framework. It consists of RADIUS and TACACS+, FC-SP, SFTP, SSH Protocol, and SNMPv3 implementing VSANs, hardware-enforced zoning, ACLs, and per-VSAN role-based access control.
- Unified SAN management: The IBM Storage Networking c-type Family includes built-in storage network management with all features available through a command-line interface (CLI) or DCNM, a centralized management tool that simplifies managing unified fabrics. DCNM supports the federation of up to 10 DCNM servers to manage up to 150,000 devices by using a single management pane.
- Sophisticated diagnostic tests: The SAN384C-6 provides intelligent diagnostic tests, protocol decoding, network analysis tools, and integrated Call Home capability for greater reliability, faster problem resolution, and reduced service costs.
- Multiprotocol intelligence: The multilayer architecture of the IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6 enables the following consistent feature set over a protocol-independent switch fabric. IBM Storage Networking SAN192C-6 transparently integrates Fibre Channel, and FICON. Consider the following points:
- IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6 supports 2/4/8/16/32 Gbps ports on the 48-Port 32 Gbps Fibre Channel Switching Module for deployment in open systems and FICON environments.
- IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6 is mainframe-ready, with full support for IBM z Systems FICON and Linux environments.
Thus, smart zones can correspond to applications, application clusters, hypervisor clusters, or other data center entities, which saves the time that administrators previously spent creating many small zones, and enables the automation of zoning tasks.
Data Center Network Manager for SAN (DCNM-SAN) provides end-to-end visibility all the way from the virtual machine down to storage, with resource allocation, performance measurements, and predictions that are available on a per-virtual machine basis to enable rapid troubleshooting in mission-critical, virtualized environments.
Main benefits
IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6 features the benefits that are described in this section.
Reduce TCO with SAN Consolidation
With data growing exponentially, organizations need efficient, cost-effective, large-scale SANs. You can scale while managing TCO with industry-leading port densities of up to 384 32 Gbps Fibre Channel ports per chassis. You can deploy 1.5-Tbps front-panel Fibre Channel performance per slot and up to 24-Tbps front-panel Fibre Channel line-rate nonblocking system-level switching.
Intelligent fabric services, VSANs for consolidating physical SAN islands while maintaining logical boundaries, and IVR for sharing resources across VSANs can be deployed. You can consolidate your data into fewer, larger, and more manageable SANs, which reduces the hardware footprint and associated capital and operating expenses.
Enterprise-class availability
IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6 is designed from the beginning for high availability. In addition to meeting the basic requirements of nondisruptive software upgrades and redundancy of all critical hardware components, IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6 software architecture offers outstanding availability. The Supervisor Modules automatically restart failed processes, which makes IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6 exceptionally robust. In the rare event that a supervisor module is reset, complete synchronization between the active and standby supervisor modules helps ensure stateful failover with no disruption of traffic.
IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6 director provides redundancy on all major active hardware components. Table 2 lists the redundancy that is available across all components.
Table 2. Redundancy details for IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6
| Item | Redundancy |
| Supervisors | 1+1 |
| Power supplies | Grid redundancy |
| Fabrics | N+1 redundancy |
High availability is implemented at the fabric level by using robust and high-performance ISLs. PortChannel allows users to aggregate up to 16 physical links into one logical bundle. The bundle can consist of any speed-matched ports in the chassis, which helps ensure that the bundle can remain active if a port, ASIC, or module fails. ISLs in a PortChannel can have significantly different lengths.
This capability is valuable in campus and metropolitan area network (MAN) environments because logical links can now be spread over multiple physical paths, which helps ensure uninterrupted connectivity even if one of the physical paths is disrupted. IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6 provides outstanding high availability, which helps ensure that solutions exceed the 99.999% uptime requirements of today’s most demanding environments.
Business Transformation with Enterprise Cloud Deployment
With industry-leading scalability and pay-as-you-grow flexibility, IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6 enables you to quickly scale enterprise clouds up or down as needed. You also receive the following benefits:
- Robust security protects multitenancy cloud applications
- Predictable high performance meets stringent SLAs
- Resilient connectivity helps ensure always-on cloud infrastructure
- Advanced traffic management capabilities (such as QoS) quickly and cost-efficiently allocate elastic network capabilities to cloud applications
DCNM also provides resource monitoring and capacity planning on a per-virtual machine basis. You can efficiently complete the following tasks:
- Consolidate enterprise cloud deployments
- Federate up to 10 DCNM servers to easily manage large-scale clouds
- Use information through Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI-S)-based developer APIs to deliver IT as a service
Advanced traffic management
Deploy and optimize large-scale fabrics more easily by using the following features:
- Virtual Output Queuing: Helps ensure line-rate performance on each port (independent of traffic patterns) by eliminating head-of-line blocking.
- Up to 4095 Buffer-to-Buffer Credits: By using extended credits, allows up to 4095 buffer credits from a pool of more than 6000 buffer credits for a module to be allocated to ports as needed to greatly extend the distance for Fibre Channel SANs. Alternatively, 4095 buffer credits can be assigned to an individual port for optimal bandwidth utilization across distance.
- PortChannels: Allows users to aggregate up to 16 physical ISLs into a single logical bundle, which provides optimized bandwidth usage across all links. The bundle can consist of any speed-matched ports from any module in the chassis, which helps ensure that the bundle can remain active even if there is a module failure.
- FSPF-Based Multipathing: Provides the intelligence to load balance across up to 16 equal cost paths and dynamically reroute traffic if there is a switch failure.
- QoS: Helps manage bandwidth and control latency to prioritize critical traffic.
Ease of management
IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6 presents the user with a consistent and logical CLI. By using the CLI, customers can enable debugging modes for each switch feature and view a real-time updated activity log of control protocol exchanges. Each log entry is timestamped and listed in chronological order.
DCNM (formerly Fabric Manager) is an easy-to-use application that simplifies management across multiple switches and converged fabrics. Its intuitive GUI simplifies day-to-day operations of unified fabrics in virtualized data center environments.
The DCNM offers the following functionality:
- Monitoring of events and performance historically and at scale
- Wizard- and template-based provisioning of NX-OS technologies and services
- VMpath analytics, with dynamic topology views for extended visibility into virtual infrastructure
- Resource management through trend analysis of inventory and performance
- Rule-based event notification and filtering
- Role-based access control to provide separation between network and storage teams
You can scale to large deployments through scale-out server architecture with automated failover capability. DCNM provides a resilient management system that centralizes infrastructure and path monitoring across geographically dispersed data centers. The DCNM base management function is available at no charge, and advanced features are unlocked with a license.
Comprehensive solution for robust security
The extensive security framework of IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6 protects sensitive data that is crossing enterprise networks. It features intelligent, port-level packet inspection, including the use of ACLs for hardware enforcement of zones, VSANs, and advanced port security features. VSANs are used to achieve greater security and stability by providing complete isolation of devices that are connected to the same physical SAN. IVR enables controlled sharing of resources between VSANs.
In addition, FC-SP provides switch-to-switch and host-to-switch DH-CHAP that supports RADIUS or TACACS+. This feature ensures that only authorized devices access protected storage networks.
Advanced diagnostic and troubleshooting tools
Managing large-scale storage networks requires proactive diagnostics, tools to verify connectivity and route latency, and traffic analysis. A comprehensive tool set is delivered for analyzing, troubleshooting, and debugging storage networks. POST and online diagnostics proactively monitor system health. The exact path and timing of flows can be identified with capabilities, such as Fibre Channel traceroute. Network traffic can be captured by using SPAN and RSPAN. Then, traffic can be analyzed by using the Fabric Analyzer, which is an embedded Fibre Channel analyzer. You gain sophisticated performance analysis and SLA accounting by collecting port-based and flow-based statistics.
Consolidation, reduced complexity, and lower power consumption
With the ongoing increase in server workloads, converged networks reduce complexity and provide lower overall data center power consumption, which extends the lifecycle of assets. Moreover, a converged network improves SAN attachment rates, which simplifies virtual machine mobility.
Integrated mainframe support
IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6 is mainframe-ready, with full support for IBM z Systems FICON and Linux environments. IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6 supports transporting the FICON protocol in cascaded and non-cascaded fabrics, and an intermix of FICON and open systems Fibre Channel Protocol traffic on the same switch.
IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6 product specifications
The product specifications for IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6 are described in this section. IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6 supports FC connectivity for servers and storage. The IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6 model supports all the FICON features and functions that are listed in this section, and requires NX-OS 8.1(1b) or later.
Table 3 lists the product specifications for IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6.
Table 3. Product specifications for IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6
| Feature | Description |
| Product compatibility | IBM Storage Networking c-type Family |
| Operating systems | For the most current and complete information, see the IBM System Storage Interoperation Center (SSIC): http://ibm.co/1Pmc6de |
| Optional features |
|
| Software compatibility | NX-OS Software Release 8.1(1b) or later is required for FICON support. The 48-port 32 Gbps Fibre Channel switching module requires NX-OS Release 8.1(1b) or later. |
| Chassis slot configuration |
|
| Performance/Scalability |
|
| Feature | Description |
| Fabric services |
|
| Advanced functions |
|
| Diagnostic tests and troubleshooting tools |
|
| Network security |
|
| FICON |
|
| Feature | Description |
| Serviceability |
|
| Reliability and availability |
|
| Network management |
|
| Programming interface |
|
| Physical dimensions |
|
| Weight |
|
Table 4 lists the switching capabilities per fabric.
Table 4. Switching capabilities per fabric
Switching capability per fabric | Number of fabric cards | Front panel Fibre Channel bandwidth per slot |
| 1 | 256 Gbps | |
| 2 | 512 Gbps | |
| 3 | 768 Gbps | |
| 4 | 1024 Gbps | |
| 5 | 1280 Gbps | |
| 6 | 1536 Gbps |
Table 5 lists the supported protocols for IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6 and its components.
Table 5. Supported protocols for IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6
| Supported standards | |
Fibre Channel protocols |
|
| Supported standards | |
Protocols |
|
| Supported standards | |
Protocols (continued) |
|
Table 6 lists the specifications for the 24/10-Port SAN Extension Module.
Table 6. Product specifications for the 24/10-Port SAN Extension Module
| Feature | Description |
| Product compatibility | IBM Storage Networking c-type Family |
| Software compatibility | NX-OS Software 8.1(1b) |
| Protocols | Fibre Channel standards:
|
| Feature | Description |
| Protocols (cont.) |
Ethernet standards:
Internet Key Exchange (IKE) standards:
|
| Cards, ports, and slots | 24 x fixed 2/4/8/10/16-Gbps Fibre Channel ports, 8 x 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet ports |
| Features and Functions | |
| Fabric services |
|
| Feature | Description |
| Cards, ports, and slots | 24 x fixed 2/4/8/10/16-Gbps Fibre Channel ports, 8 x 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet ports |
| Fabric services |
|
| Advanced functions |
|
| Diagnostics and troubleshooting tools |
|
| Network security |
|
| Feature | Description |
| Serviceability |
|
| Performance |
|
| Reliability and availability |
|
| Network management |
|
| Programming interfaces |
|
| Environmental |
|
| Physical dimensions |
|
| Feature | Description |
| Approvals and compliance | Safety compliance:
|
Specifications for the 48-Port 32-Gbps Fibre Channel Switching Module
Table 7 lists the specifications for the 48-Port 32-Gbps Fibre Channel Switching Modules.
Table 7. Specifications for the 48-Port 32-Gbps Fibre Channel Switching Module
| Item | Description |
Product compatibility | IBM Storage Networking c-type Family Multilayer Directors |
| Software compatibility | NX-OS Software Release NX-OS 8.1(1b) |
| Protocols |
|
| Item | Description |
| Protocols (continued) |
|
| Cards, ports, and slots |
|
| Features and functions | |
| Fabric services | Name server:
|
| Item | Description |
| Advanced functions |
|
| Diagnostics and troubleshooting tools |
|
| Network security |
|
| Serviceability |
|
| Item | Description |
| Performance |
|
| Reliability and availability |
|
| Network management |
|
| Programming interfaces |
|
| Environmental |
|
| Physical dimensions |
|
| Item | Description |
| Approvals and compliance |
|
Table 8 lists supported optics, media, and transmission distances.
Table 8. Supported optics, media, and transmission distances.
| Speed | Media | Distance |
|
|
|
Product specifications for the Supervisor-1 Module
Table 9 lists the specifications for the Supervisor-1 Module.
Table 9. Specifications for the Supervisor-1 Module
| Feature | Description |
| Product compatibility | IBM Storage Networking c-type Family |
| Software compatibility | NX-OS Software Release 8.1(1b) or later. |
| Interfaces |
|
| Indicators |
|
| Backplane bandwidth |
|
| Chassis slot configuration | Two Supervisor-1 modules are required per system. |
| Feature | Description |
| Fabric services |
|
| Advanced functions |
|
| Diagnostic and troubleshooting tools |
|
| Network security |
|
| Serviceability |
|
| Feature | Description |
| Reliability and availability |
|
| Network management |
|
| Programming interface |
|
| Physical dimensions |
|
Table 10 lists the feature codes for licensed software.
Table 10. Licensed software
| Feature Code | Description |
| AJJ9 | Enterprise Package |
| AJJA | DCNM SAN Advanced Edition |
| AJJB | Mainframe Package |
| AJKV | SAN Insights |
Why IBM
IBM offers a vast portfolio of hardware, software, and services that can help organizations of all sizes address their IT infrastructure requirements in a comprehensive and integrated way. With IBM, organizations can create a more flexible, robust, and resilient infrastructure to support critical business operations.
Related information
For more information, see the following documents:
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/tips1359.html
- IBM Storage Networking SAN384C-6 Product Guide, TIPS1360
- IBM Storage Networking SAN32C-6 Product Guide, TIPS1361
- IBM Storage Networking SAN192C-6 Product Guide, TIPS1362
- IBM Storage Networking SAN768C-6 Product Guide, REDP5513
- IBM Support Fix Central support site (select a product from drop-down menus)
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/tips1360.html
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/tips1361.html
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/tips1362.html
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/redp5513.html
http://www.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/
- IBM System Storage Interoperation Center (SSIC)
http://www.ibm.com/systems/support/storage/ssic/interoperability.wss
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