When we think about fabric switches, we tend to consider low-end hardware. These typically do not require considerable memory, CPU, intense resources, or functionality. We also tend to think about them as just aggregation layer switches which will reduce our cable runs to the core switch. This helps keep investment and operation costs under control -fewer cables, hardware resources, and management.
All this is true and I am not in disagreement with the previous statements. However, let me address some recent changes that should be considered before making an investment decision.
Spinning disks are being replaced with All-Flash Arrays with NVMe on the horizon. Servers are moving to NVMe storage as well as being NVMe/FC capable. Moreover, Storage Area Network (SAN) Directors also support NVMe/FC, along with robust hardware and software capabilities. The most ignored point is the fabric switch, where we connect our hosts and storage ports. This becomes a real problem if they have limited resources and feature support. More often, the performance problems are found on the edge switches, rather than the core switches because that's the highway entry for the packets to get into the fabric.
Now, what if we had more powerful hardware with more robust feature sets in this small form factor switches that we currently see in Director-class core switches? Cisco's MDS 9000 Series 32G fibre-channel (FC) switches have this unique advantage, using the same switching ASICs across 32G FC Director modules and Cisco MDS 32G FC fabric switches.
Let's discuss some of the unique enterprise-level features of these fabric switches:
So, now when we go FC switch shopping, we don't have to worry about features as they are common across all different models, just know how many ports we need and that's it.
In the next blog, we will cover one more such topic: How Cisco MDS switches are leading innovation.
Until then, happy shopping!
Learn more about Cisco Storage Area Networking.
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Blog: NVMe over Fibre Channel with MDS 9000 Series