Brocade Communications Systems SilkWorm 3900 User Manual

The Brocade®SilkWorm®3900
32-port, auto-sensing Fibre Channel
switch provides an intelligent and
cost-effective solution to meet a
wide range of Storage Area
Network (SAN) requirements.
As the latest addition to the Brocade
2 Gbit/sec fabric switch family,
the SilkWorm 3900 is ideal for
organizations that face rapidly
changing storage requirements.

With the performance capabilities
of an enterprise switch and the
cost-effectiveness of a modular
switch solution, the SilkWorm 3900
enables a flexible SAN infrastructure.
Designed for midsize to large storage
networks, the SilkWorm 3900
enables organizations to implement a

SAN infrastructure that best meets
their current needs and expands
seamlessly as their storage requirements
evolve.The SilkWorm 3900 provides a
complete solution for a departmental
SAN fabric, as a small core, or an
edge switch extending the reach of
an enterprise core-to-edge SAN
built around Brocade SilkWorm
Directors (see Figure 1).

Based on a third-generation
Brocade intelligent architecture,
the SilkWorm 3900 provides a
highly available, scalable, and secure
foundation for SAN applications
such as high-speed data backup,
server and storage consolidation,
remote mirroring, and long-distance
data replication.

Increased Flexibility for Evolving
SAN Requirements

Highlights

• Provides 32 ports in a 1.5U enclosure
along with auto-sensing 1 and
2 Gbit/sec interfaces for seamless
integration with existing fabrics

• Leverages Brocade Advanced Fabric
Services to provide the highest
levels of SAN performance, security,
and manageability

• Meets mission-critical availability
requirements with network resiliency,
automatic data path rerouting, hot
code activation, and redundant,
hot-pluggable components

• Increases performance by employing
Brocade Inter-Switch Link (ISL) Trunking
to create a data path with up to
8 Gbit/sec throughput per trunk

• Provides substantial cost savings by
supporting a SAN infrastructure that
increases productivity, maximizes IT
resource utilization, and reduces
capital expenditures

• Supports FICON

®

and FICON in-band

management (CUP)

SILKWORM 3900

The 2 Gbit/sec Brocade SilkWorm 3900

Enterprise Fabric Switch provides an entry

point to enterprise SANs, improving availability,

performance, and manageability at an

attractive price.

SILKWORM SWITCH FAMILY

HIGH AVAILABILITY FOR
BUSINESS CONTINUANCE

By combining the proven reliability of
the SilkWorm switch family with a wide
range of hardware and software availability
features—such as non-disruptive upgrades
of switch software—the SilkWorm 3900
supports a SAN fabric capable of delivering
overall system availability greater than

99.999 percent.

The core-to-edge SAN model uses
redundant fabrics, hot-pluggable
components, and multiple data paths to
help ensure high availability across the
fabric. In addition, Brocade Fabric Shortest
Path First (FSPF) enables the fabric to
automatically isolate problems and reroute
traffic around failed links onto alternate
paths. As a result, the SilkWorm 3900
provides a SAN infrastructure solution that
is designed to meet the most demanding
business continuance requirements.

INDUSTRY-LEADING PERFORMANCE

The SilkWorm 3900 provides numerous
business advantages for organizations that
want to increase application performance
and operational productivity. It can deliver
up to 128 Gbit/sec of aggregated through­put, with 32 ports capable of 2 Gbit/sec
full-duplex performance.To achieve even
higher performance, organizations can use

Brocade ISL Trunking, which combines as
many as four ISLs into a single logical ISL
with up to 8 Gbit/sec throughput.

Fibre Channel speed is also possible at
longer distances for remote operations.
By leveraging the Brocade Extended
Fabrics feature and Dense Wave Division
Multiplexing (DWDM) technology, storage
networks can span up to 100 km over
Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs) at
high speed—significantly enhancing
disaster recovery operations.

A DESIGN TO LEVERAGE INTELLIGENCE IN
THE FABRIC

To help maximize IT investments and
reduce costs, the SilkWorm 3900 is
designed to leverage the industry’s only
intelligent fabric services architecture.
The proven intelligence in the Brocade
Fabric OS®and third-generation Brocade
ASIC technology enables the high levels
of security, management, and performance
required by the most demanding
SAN environments.

Organizations can utilize leading capabilities
such as frame filtering and Brocade
Advanced Fabric Services to unlock the
intelligence of the Brocade SAN fabric
for a variety of applications. For instance,
Brocade Advanced Zoning enables
organizations to implement robust,

SILKWORM 3900

Figure 1. The SilkWorm 3900
provides a reliable building block
for departmental SANs and a
high-performance edge switch for
enterprise core-to-edge SANs.

1 Gbit/sec

SilkWorm Family

3900

3200

Small Core

3900

8 Gbit/sec

Trunk

SilkWorm Family

3800

2 Gbit/sec