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SAN extension, replication and remote backup are key components of a comprehensive disaster recovery and business continuity solution. In fact, customers want to connect to various Fibre Channel (FC) SAN islands at a distance, but the maximum distance of FC is about 6 miles. Cisco's SAN expansion solution for MDS 9000 Series Multilayer SAN Switches provides a great way to break through distance limitations without affecting the core functionality that makes FC SAN a must-have component in high reliability data centers.
Break through FC SAN expansion restrictions
<P>FC SANs have made huge profits for enterprises, improving their storage utilization and reliability, simplifying management, and enabling more efficient disaster recovery and business continuity strategies. However, SAN has been primarily deployed on mission-critical application silos in each single data center. In the past, SANs were physically close and ISL connections were available. When the distance is far, institutions need to turn to slower WAN links, using dedicated bare fiber and dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) technologies. Both technologies have their own inherent limitations and are too expensive. In addition, until recently, the high difficulty and high cost of porting a large number of mid- and low-end servers to FC have prevented IT managers from expanding the advantages of SAN to mid-range applications.In 2004, Cisco Systems made a series of improvements to its existing FC SAN solution family using powerful IP-based protocols developed. Cisco (through a combination of software and hardware) upgraded their MDS 9000 series multi-layer switches for faster, secure and cost-effective SAN expansion. The IP capabilities provided by Cisco MDS 9000 series multi-layer switches break through the limitations of SAN expansion, allowing enterprises to leverage the ubiquitous IP network to extend the range of their FC SAN to the entire data center and even the data center.
There are two solutions in Cisco's SAN extension family that are particularly noteworthy, namely the Cisco MDS 9216i multi-layer switch and the Cisco MDS 9000 multi-protocol service module.
CiscoMDS 9216i Multilayer Switch
The Cisco MDS 9216i integrates FC and IP storage services in a single system, enabling the highest flexibility of user configuration. The MDS 9216i integrates FC and IP storage services in one optimized model, supports 14 2Gbps Fibre Channel interfaces for high-performance SAN connections, and 2 Gigabit Ethernet ports for FCIP and iSCSI storage services. This unprecedented level of integration can benefit Cisco MDS 9216i users from multi-protocol systems without reducing FC port density.
The open standard FCIP protocol is used to break through the distance limitations of current FC solutions and enable the interconnection of long-distance SAN islands. The Cisco MDS 9216i is designed to support strong business continuity services, using FCIP for remote connections and providing a range of advanced features such as VSAN and inter-VSAN routing (IVR), hardware-assisted FCIP compression and encryption, FCIP write acceleration, and FCIP tape acceleration. (For more information about FCIP, read our previous article: Extending SAN via FCIP)
For IT managers who need to extend SAN access to mid-range data centers but are reluctant to bear the high cost of upgrading large numbers of mid-range servers to FCs, they will find the Cisco MDS 9216i a great option. It breaks through the original restrictions and allows IT organizations to expand their storage networks with the cost-effective Ethernet infrastructure that adopts iSCSI.
Additionally, the expansion slot on the Cisco MDS 9216i can be used to add any Cisco MDS 9000 series modules, so users can add more FC ports and more IP ports. With the further expansion of SAN, the Cisco MDS 9000 Series modules can be removed from the Cisco MDS 9216i switch and ported to the Cisco MDS 9500 Series multi-layer guide for smooth porting and excellent investment protection.
Cisco MDS 9000 Multi-Protocol Service Module
The Cisco MDS 9000 multi-protocol service module is suitable for mission-critical enterprise storage networks that require strong, cost-effective business continuity services. It can be installed in Cisco MDS 9200 Series Network Switches and Cisco MDS 9500 Series Directors, and integrates FC, FICON, and IP storage services to provide high-performance FC SAN and mainframe connections, including FCIP and iSCSI storage services.
The module supports up to 14 2Gbps Fibre Channel interfaces and 2 Gigabit Ethernet ports to provide FCIP and iSCSI storage services. It supports SAN extension via FCIP, thus simplifying data protection, backup and remote replication across WANs. It also terminates 3 virtual ISLs to a single Gigabit Ethernet port, thus optimizing the utilization of WAN resources for backup and recovery, and supports hardware-based compression, FCIP write acceleration, and FCIP tape acceleration.
The MDS 9000 multi-protocol service module also extends the advantages of FC SAN-based storage to Ethernet connected servers through iSCSI, thus integrating IP and FC storage, improving storage utilization and availability.
These technologies greatly enhance the multi-protocol capability of the Cisco Storage Network family, which now allows customers to choose any combination of FC and IP technologies to build or expand their SANs. This series can meet the storage network and cost-effective requirements of companies of any size, making it one of the most comprehensive and flexible single-vendor product sets in the industry. In addition to Cisco's optical network, LAN switching and IP routing products, customers can now deploy end-to-end SAN solutions from enterprise data centers to remote branches.
Article entry: csh Editor in charge: csh