Cisco MDS 9124 Express for System Storage

Highlights

• Foundation for new infrastructure simplification and business continuity solutions for servers running Microsoft® Windows®, UNIX®, Linux®, NetWare and IBM OS/400 operating systems (OS)
• High-performance 1, 2 and 4 Gigabits per second (Gbps) links with pay-as-you-grow scalability enable growth from 8 to 16 to 24 ports
• Designed for high availability with hot-swappable, dual power supplies and non-disruptive firmware upgrades
• Cisco MDS 9000 family compatibility supports scalability and consistent service as the SAN grows
• Enterprise Package and Fabric Manager Server Package provide added intelligence and value.

Cisco MDS 9124 Express for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs)

The Cisco MDS 9124 Express for IBM System Storage is designed to address the needs of SMBs with a wide range of SAN capabilities. It can be used as part of SAN solutions from simple single-switch configurations to larger multi-switch configurations in support of fabric connectivity and advanced business continuity capabilities. Fabric connectivity capabilities can be the basis for infrastructure simplification solutions for IBM System i, System p and System x server and storage consolidation and high-availability server clustering with IBM System Storage disk storage arrays. Business continuity capabilities can help businesses protect valuable data with IBM System Storage tape libraries and devices and IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) data protection software.

A single Cisco MDS 9124 switch can serve as an initial building block for a SAN for those who want to obtain the benefits of storage consolidation and are just beginning to implement Fibre Channel (FC) storage systems. An entry-level configuration, for example, could consist of one or two FC links to a disk storage array, or to an Linear Tape Open (LTO) tape drive. An entry-level, eight-port storage consolidation solution could support up to seven servers with a single path to either disk or tape. The On-Demand Port Activation feature is designed to enable a base switch to grow from 8 to 24 ports, in 8 port increments, to support more servers and more storage devices without taking the switch offline.

Higher availability solutions can be created using multiple Cisco MDS 9124 switches. Such implementations would be well-suited to server clustering environments. Such a configuration could support from six to 22 servers, each with dual FC adapters cross-connected to redundant 9124 switches, which are cross-connected to a dual-controller storage system.

While the focus of the Cisco MDS 9124 is as the foundation of medium-sized SMB SANs, it can also be configured to participate as a component of a tiered enterprise SAN with other members of the Cisco MDS 9000 for IBM System Storage family. Cisco MDS 9000 SAN-OS firmware provides enterprise-class capabilities such as virtual SANs (VSANs), Port Channels, quality of service (QoS) and security for deployment in core-edge enterprise SAN solutions. These capabilities help provide investment protection as SAN requirements evolve and grow over time.