Cisco MDS 9132T Fibre Channel Switch

The next-generation Cisco® MDS 9132T 32-Gbps 32-Port Fibre Channel Switch (Figure 1) provides high-speed Fibre Channel connectivity from the server rack to the SAN core. It empowers small, midsize, and large enterprises that are rapidly deploying cloud-scale applications using extremely dense virtualized servers, providing the dual benefits of greater bandwidth and consolidation. Small-scale SAN architectures can be built from the foundation using this low-cost, low-power, non-blocking, line-rate, and low-latency, bi-directional airflow capable, fixed standalone SAN switch connecting both storage and host ports. Medium-size to largescale SAN architectures built with SAN core directors can expand 32-Gbps connectivity to the server rack using these switches either in switch mode or Network Port Virtualization (NPV) mode. Additionally, investing in this switch for the lower-speed (4- or 8- or 16-Gbps) server rack gives you the option to upgrade to 32-Gbps server connectivity in the future using the 32-Gbps Host Bus Adapter (HBA) that are available today. The Cisco® MDS 9132T 32-Gbps 32-Port Fibre Channel switch also provides unmatched flexibility through a unique port expansion module (Figure 2) that provides a robust cost-effective, field swappable, port upgrade option. This switch also offers state-of-the-art SAN analytics and telemetry capabilities that have been built into this next-generation hardware platform. This new state-of-the-art technology couples the next-generation port ASIC with a fully dedicated Network Processing Unit designed to complete analytics calculations in real time. The telemetry data extracted from the inspection of the frame headers are calculated on board (within the switch) and, using an industry-leading open format, can be streamed to any analytics-visualization platform. This switch also includes a dedicated 10/100/1000BASE-T telemetry port to maximize data delivery to any telemetry receiver including Cisco Data Center Network Manager.

Main features

The main features of the MDS 9132T 32-Gbps 32-Port Fibre Channel Switch include:

• High performance: MDS 9132T architecture, with chip-integrated nonblocking arbitration, provides consistent 32-Gbps low-latency performance across all traffic conditions for every Fibre Channel port on the switch.
• Capital Expenditure (CapEx) savings: The 32-Gbps ports allow users to deploy them on existing 16- or 8-Gbps transceivers, reducing initial CapEx with an option to upgrade to 32-Gbps transceivers and adapters in the future.
• High availability: MDS 9132T switches is designed to provide 99.999% availability. It provides such outstanding availability and reliability by providing redundancy on all major components, such as the power supply and cooling subsystems. Dual power supplies also facilitate redundant power grids.