IBM FAQ's for Cisco MDS 9710 Multilayer Director

8/9/2019 IBM FAQ's for Cisco MDS 9710 Multilayer Director

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Q&A for Cisco MDS 9710 Multilayer Director for IBM System Networking Ju l y 2 0 13

Q&A for Cisco MDS 9710 for IBM System Networking

IBM System Networking IBM Systems and Technology Group

FOR IBM AND IBM BUSINESS PARTNER USE ONLY


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Q&A for Cisco MDS 9710 Multilayer Director for IBM System Networking Ju l y 2 0 1 3

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Q1. What is new in the MDS 9710?

A. The new Cisco MDS 9710 Multilayer Director for IBM System Networking establishes a new

benchmark for performance – delivering three times the backplane bandwidth of previous CiscoMDS and other Directors – future-proofing storage connectivity for mission-critical applications,massive amounts of data: Flash and Solid State Drives (SSD) environments; and cloud-basedenvironments, while preserving current IT operations and knowledge.

The new MDS 9710 Director delivers a platform for high density Fibre Channel.

a. With the new line rate 48 port 16Gbps Fibre Channel (FC) line card, MDS 9710 Director supports up to 384 line rate 16 Gbps Fibre Channel ports in a single 14 RU. It alsosupports the port speeds of 2/4/8Gbps and 10Gbps FC.

b. The MDS 9710 provides 24 Tbps of backplane bandwidth Fibre Channel switchingcapability and up to 1.5 Tbps switching capability per slot.

The new MDS 9710 brings the most efficient airflow of front-to-back, enabling ease of data center planning and layout. It has 3 fan trays in the back.

MDS 9710 48-port FC line card will support Slow Drain resolution functionality implemented inhardware.

Q2. How is MDS 9710 different from MDS 9513?

A. MDS 9710 Multilayer Director builds on the architecture and features of the existing MDS9513. It shares the same ASICs with higher performance, scale and integration. It runs the sameNX-OS and can be managed by DCNM. The management interface remains the same withlimited changes.

The table below lists the differences between the MDS 9513 and MDS 9710:

MDS 9513 MDS 9710Airflow Side to Side Front to Back

Depth 28” 34”

Power Connections in back Connections in front

Cables 2 Cables per power supply 1 Cable per power supply

Fabrics 2 fabrics mandatory

No redundancy

6 Fabric Slots, 3 fabric cards provided in chassisin standard config., N+1 redundancy with 4fabric cards

Front Door None Optional

Fans Front Fans and Rear Fans 3 Fan trays in the back

Each power supply has its own fan

Oversubscription On some modules

Line Rate - No oversubscription with the 48-port

16Gbps line card

Services Fixed fabric switch as well as

Services modules Delivered by MDS 95xx and MDS 92xx

Backplane FC

Bandwidth Max 256Gbps per line card

Depends on number of fabric cards deployed3 fabric cards provide 768Gbps per line card

6 fabric cards will provide 1.5Tbps per line card

Supervisor Details

Memory 2G 8G


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# of Cores 1 4

Clock Speed 1.4 GHz 2.1 GHz

Instruction 32-bit 64-bit

Q3. Are the components backwards or forwards compatible?

A. MDS 9710 chassis is designed to support next generation of high performance speedconnectivity across backplane for the decade ahead, so the components are not backwardscompatible with MDS 9500 Series. Additionally, MDS 9500 Series components cannot beinstalled in the MDS 9710.

Q4. Can I connect MDS 9513 to MDS 9710 ports?

A. Yes, using 8/4/2-Gbps FC or 10-Gbps FC optics.

Q5. What optics will be supported on the Line Card?A. The MDS 9710 FC line card will support the following optics at GA:

Feature Code Description Rate

5602 16 Gbps Fibre Channel SW SFP+, LC

5611 16 Gbps Fibre Channel LW SFP+, LC16/8/4-Gbps FC S


5022 10 Gbps Fibre Channel LW SFP+, LC10-Gbps FC SFP


5850 8 Gbps Fibre Channel LW SFP+, LC

5855 8 Gbps Fibre Channel ER SFP+, LC

8/4/2-Gbps FC SF

5410 10GBASE-SR SFP Module

5420 10GBASE-LR SFP Module

5480 10GBASE-ER SFP Module

10GE SFP+

Q6. Will the SFPs from MDS 9513 director work in MDS 9710?A. Yes, customers can use 8Gbps FC and 10Gbps FC optics from MDS 9500 family.

Q7. How many fabric cards are needed to support N+1 FabricRedundancy?A. Four fabric cards are required to provided N+1 fabric redundancy while delivering 768Mbpsbandwidth to each slot.

Q8. Are all fabrics active in N+1 fabric protection mode?A. Yes.


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Q9. Can I run MDS 9710 at line rate?A. MDS 9710 runs the 16Gbps FC ports at line rates as long as at least 3 fabric cards areinstalled.

Q10. How many power supplies are needed? Why does thechassis have 8 power bays?

A. Fully populated, the MDS 9710 needs 3 power supplies. The system ships with 6 power supplies to provide grid redundancy (3+3). There are two additional slots for future growth ashigher speed line cards are introduced.

Q11. Does MDS 9710 support FCoE?A. MDS 9710 is a multiprotocol Director switch and is designed to support multiprotocolenvironments.

Q12. Will the ports between two directors auto-negotiate at

correct speed?A. Yes

Q13. Can I upgrade MDS 9710 NX-OS without disruption?A. Yes, the 9710 can load and activate NX-OS without disruption.

Q14. Why do I need so many power supplies and do I have touse them all?A. MDS 9710 provides more power supply bays than needed at GA for future growth, as nextgeneration of high-density higher speed line cards are supported. MDS 9710 needs 3 power supplies to support a fully loaded chassis. 4 power supplies provide N+1 redundancy; 6 power

supplies provide grid redundancy.

Q15. What type of rack do I need to deploy MDS 9710?A. MDS 9710 can be installed in both 2 port and 4 port racks in the same way as MDS 9513.Note that the MDS 9710 features front to back airflow, making it compatible with many datacenter environments, while the MDS 9500 Series requires side to side airflow. Because of theseairflow differences, the MDS 9710 and MDS 9500 Series typically must be installed in separateracks delivering different airflows.

Q16. What licenses are available on MDS 9710?A. The MDS 9700 Enterprise Package and DCNM SAN Advanced Edition MDS 9700 licensesare available on MDS 9710.

Q17. Does the MDS 9710 support FICON?A. The MDS 9710 does not currently support FICON attachments.


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F o r M o r e I n f o r m a t i o n

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IBM FAQ's for Cisco MDS 9710 Multilayer Director