HPE C8S71B Getting Started Guide

QuickSpecs

HPE

StoreFabric SN8500C Director Switch

(MDS 9700), HPE C-series Family

Overview

Page 1

HPE StoreFabric SN8500C Director Switch

For a converged and virtualized environment to exist, there is pressure on the IT organization to manage fewer devices, utilize less

ports in an SN8500C 8-Slot Director) and high availability to lower TCO and enable integrated SAN infrastructures. HPE delivers

energy and resources, and transfer data faster, all while handling similar or higher volumes of work than a traditional environment.
When large amounts of data need to be transferred between data centers, arrays, or sites, a faster link can allow the same tasks to
be completed in less time.
With virtualization taking a strong hold in the datacenter, and the resulting increase in the storage networking traffic, customers
want high performance, high capacity, and a reliable storage area network (SAN) enabling them to deploy enterprise class
applications. This high density virtualization combined with new storage technologies is driving even higher I/O and bandwidth
requirements in the SAN and this problem is solved with 32Gb Fibre channel switching products and solutions from HPE Storage.
The HPE StoreFabric C-series SN8500C Director delivers many unique innovations for constructing powerful, large scale storage
networks. With these innovations, users can build highly scalable, always available, high performance storage network solutions
with comprehensive security and unified management. The HPE StoreFabric SN8500C 8-slot 16/32Gb FC Director delivers
industry-leading scalability and performance (up to 24-Tbps front panel FC switching bandwidth), high port density (up to 384-

QuickSpecs

HPE StoreFabric SN8500C Director S

witch (MDS 9700),

HPE C-series Family

Overview

Page 2

the StoreFabric SN8500C 8-slot 16/32Gb FC Director with high availability features inherent in the design. The base units include

Key Features and Benefits

• Reduced Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for SAN Infrastructure

disruptive software upgrades, stateful process restart and failover, and full redundancy of all major

Protocol Version 3 (SNMPv3). Please note that the SN8500C Enterprise Package License may be required.

an 8-slot modular chassis with 2 hot swappable redundant Supervisor 1 Modules, and 6 hot swappable redundant 3000W Power
Supplies to help ensure smooth, continuous operation and non-disruptive upgrade capability. The HPE StoreFabric SN8500C 8­slot and 4-slot 16/32Gb FC Directors also include 3 hot swappable Fabric 1 Modules which provides full line rate performance
across a full chassis of 384 and 192 ports, respectively. The open expansion slots of the SN8500C Directors can be filled by HPE
StoreFabric C-series Family Modules, which include a 48-port 32Gb FC Module, a 48-port 16Gb FC Module and a 48-port FCoE
Module.
Layered, intelligent features also include integration with fabric-based applications to fabric-wide services for a wide range of
solutions for business continuance, storage virtualization, network assisted backup and information life cycle management.

- Enables storage consolidation, simplified management of SAN environment

• High Port Density

- Up to 384 Fibre Channel ports (auto-sensing 32/16/8/4 or 10Gbps) in single chassis

 Up to 1152 4/8/16/32-Gbps Fibre Channel ports in a standard rack

- Up to 384 FCoE Channel ports (autosensing 10Gbps) in single chassis

 Up to 1152 10-Gbps FCoE ports in a standard rack

• Scalable

- Supports throughput up to 256Gb in a single PortChannel 'ISL Trunk'

 Offers 48 to 384 Fibre Channel ports in a single chassis
 Offers 48 to 384 FCoE Channel ports in a single chassis

• Highly Available

- Grid Redundancy on Power Supply and 1+1 redundant Supervisors

- Combines non-

components

- Provides full 32Gbps line rate performance (1536 Gbps each direction) for each slot in the chassis

• Interoperable

- Broad range of Hewlett Packard Enterprise servers and operating systems

- Disk and tape storage devices

- Common architectural platform across all SN8500C and MDS9700 family products

• Integrated Management

- Unified SAN management: includes built-in storage network management with all features available through a

command-line interface (CLI)

- Provides intelligent diagnostics, protocol decoding, and network analysis tools

- Embedded Device Manager

- Integration with Cisco Works Resource Manager Essentials (RME)

• Hardware Assisted Encryption Security

• Comprehensive network security framework

- Comprehensive security framework consisting of RADIUS and TACACS+, Fibre Channel Security Protocol (FC-

SP), Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP), Secure Shell (SSH) Protocol, and Simple Network Management

QuickSpecs

HPE

StoreFabric SN8500C Director Switch (MDS 9700),

HPE C-series Family

Product Highlights

Page 3

SN8500C Director

Supports up to 384 ports capable of 32/16/8/4 Gbps (with the use of the SN8500C 48 port FC

Modules).

Network-based

• Integrated hardware-based VSANs and Inter-VSAN Routing (IVR) (with optional SN8500C

• Smart Zoning

Security

Supports role-based access control, VSANs, hardware-enforced Zoning, FC-SP, ACLs,

Enterprise Package license may be required.

High Performance

• Up to 24 Terabits/sec front-panel Fibre-Channel switching bandwidth and 21 Tbps of FCoE

in the chassis)

Intelligent network

Please note that some services require the optional SN8500C Enterprise Package license to be

• Embedded Diagnostics

High Availability

• Online non-disruptive software upgrades

• Hot swappable components including switch fabric modules

Embedded Diagnostics

Provides intelligent diagnostics, protocol decoding and network analysis tools including Fibre Channel
ping and trace route, SPAN, Zone and VSAN merge analysis.

Port Channels

Allows users to aggregate up to 16 physical links into one logical bundle. The bundle can consist of any

FC equal cost paths and, in the event of a switch failure, to dynamically reroute traffic.

Access Control

• Hardware-based intelligent frame processing

• Hardware-enforced zoning

Modules).
Supports up to 384 FCoE ports capable of 10-Gbps (with the use of the SN8500C 48 port FCoE

Intelligent Storage
Applications

services

Enterprise Package license activated)

• Data replication and backup

RADIUS authentication and TACACS+, SNMPv3, SSH, SFTP, and IPsec. Please note that the SN8500C

bandwidth

• Port Channel: Up to 16 ports (the channel can span any speed-matched port on any module

activated.

• Integrated hardware-based VSANs and Inter-VSAN Routing (IVR):

• SAN devicevirtualization

• Data replication

• Network-Assisted Back-up IP and FC network acceleration Virtual SANs (VSANs and Inter-

VSAN routing)

• Quality of Service (QoS)

• Management Security

• Stateful process restart/failover

• Redundancy of all major components

port in the chassis, ensuring that the bundle remains active in the event of a port, ASIC, or module
failure. The bundle can sustain the failure of any physical link without causing a reset. Additionally,
Fabric Shortest Path First (FSPF) multipath provides the intelligence to load balance across up to 16

• Role based access control within VSANs

QuickSpecs

HPE StoreFabric SN8500C D

irector Switch (MDS 9700),

HPE C-series Family

Product Highlights

Page 4

Traffic management

• Virtual Output Queue (VOQ)

• Fabric Shortest Path (FSPF) based multipathing

Management modes

• Cisco MDS 9000 Family Command Line Interface (CLI)

• Cisco Data Center Network Manager

Interoperability

Offers compatibility with a broad range of Hewlett Packard Enterprise servers and operating systems,
as well as disk and tape storage devices.

Product Family Models

• HPE StoreFabric SN8500C 8-slot 16/32Gb FC Director (MDS 9710)

1152 FCoE ports in a single rack with the use of the SN8500C FCoE module. In either

rate

ports, two fixed 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet FCIP ports, and eight fixed 10 Gigabit Ethernet

- "Pay as you grow" scalability starting at 8 ports

Software Components, Standard

NX-OS

New MDS 9000 NX-OS provides deterministic hardware performance and a comprehensive feature set

or later.

• Buffer credits: 48-port line-rate 32Gbps advanced Fibre Channel modules:

- Up to 500 per port (dedicated-mode ports) standard

- Up to 4095 on an individual port (dedicated-mode ports with optional SN8500C

Enterprise Package license activated)

• Port Channels (up to 16 ISLs)

• Cisco Device Manager

• Integration with third-party management tools

- Intelligent, multi-protocol 8-slot Director with up to 384 32/16/8/4 Gb Fibre Channel

ports in a single chassis. Also, the HPE StoreFabric SN8500C 48-port 16Gb or 32Gb
FC Module (2 separate modules) provide up to 384 ports of full 16/32Gbps line-rate
performance across all ports or 384 10GbE FCoE ports in a single chassis or up to

case, the appropriate number of Fabric 1 modules must be configured to support full
line rate across all ports.

-

• HPE StoreFabric SN8500C 4-slot 16/32Gb FC Director (MDS 9706)

- Intelligent, multi-protocol 4-slot Director with up to 192 32/16/8/4 Gb Fibre Channel

ports in a single chassis. Also, the HPE StoreFabric SN8500C 48-port 16Gb or 32Gb
FC Module (2 separate modules) provide up to 192 ports of full 16/32 Gbps line­performance across all ports or 192 10GbE FCoE ports in a single chassis. In either
case, the appropriate number of Fabric 1 modules must be configured to support full
line rate across all ports.

• HPE SN6500C 16Gb Multi-service Switch (MDS 9250i)

- Intelligent multi-protocol Fabric Switch with twenty active fixed 16Gb Fibre Channel

FCoE ports. Provides up to forty active 16/8/4 Gb Fibre Channel ports through a port
upgrade license.

• HPE SN6010C 16Gb Fabric Switch (MDS 9148S)

- With up to 48 Auto-Sensing 16/8/4 Gb Fibre Channel ports

- "Pay as you grow" scalability starting at 12 ports

• HPE SN6610C 16Gb Fabric Switch (MDS 9132T)

- With up to 32 Auto-Sensing 32/16/8 Gb Fibre Channel ports

that allows virtual machines to have the same SAN attributes as a physical server. The SN8500C
Director with 2 Supervisor 1 modules supports NX-OS 6.2(1) or later. The SN8500C 48port FCoE
Module requires NX-OS 6.2(7) or later. The SN8500C 48port 32Gb FC Module requires NX-OS 8.2(1)

QuickSpecs

HPE StoreFabric SN8500C D

irector Switch (MDS 9700),

HPE C-series Family

Product Highlights

Page 5

Cisco Data Center

Cisco Data Center Network Manager is a responsive, easy-to-use Java application that simplifies

extensive API for integration with third-party and user developed management tools.

Software Components, Optional

HPE StoreFabric

Cisco MDS switches have a set of advanced traffic engineering and advanced security features that are

software-licensing/product_data_sheet09186a00801ca6ac.html.

HPE StoreFabric

The "Standard" Cisco Data Center Network Manager software that is included at no charge with the

analysis, centralized management services and advanced application integration.

HPE StoreFabric

The HPE StoreFabric SN8500C Mainframe FICON License is required for using the SN8500C 8-slot

in mainframe storage

intermixing. Please check Spock for the required firmware version for FICON support for your director.

Network Manager

SN8500C Enterprise
Package E-LTU

SN8500C Data Center
Network Manager E-LTU

SN8500C Mainframe
FICON E-LTU

management across multiple switches and fabrics. Cisco Data Center Network Manager enables
administrators to perform vital tasks such as topology discovery, fabric configuration and verification,
LUN security, monitoring, and fault resolution. All functions are available through a secure interface,
which enables remote management from any location. Cisco Data Center Network Manager may be
used independently or in conjunction with third-party management applications. Cisco provides an

recommended for all Enterprise SANs. These features are bundled together in a management
application called the HPE StoreFabric SN8500C Enterprise Package E-LTU. Please refer to Cisco’s
MDS Enterprise Package Data Sheet for more
information:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/storage-networking/mds-9000-

SN8500C Director provides basic switch configuration and troubleshooting capabilities. HPE's C-series
StoreFabric SN8500C Data Center Network Manager (DCNM) License extends Cisco Data Center
Network Manager by providing historical performance data collection for network traffic hot-spot

16Gb Directors (MDS 9710) or the SN8500C 4-slot 16Gb Directors (MDS 9706)
networks, including FICON protocol and CUP management, switch cascading, fabric binding, and