The Cisco® MDS 9222i Multiservice Modular Switch, the next generation of the highly flexible, industry‑leading, proven Cisco MDS 9200 Series Multilayer Switches, is an optimized platform for deploying high‑performance SAN extension solutions, distributed intelligent fabric services, and cost-effective multiprotocol connectivity for both open systems and mainframe environments. With a compact form factor, modularity, and advanced capabilities normally available only on director-class switches, the Cisco MDS 9222i is an ideal solution for departmental and remote branch-office SANs.

Sharing a consistent architecture with the Cisco MDS 9500 Series Multilayer Directors, the Cisco MDS 9222i offers 18 4-Gbps Fibre Channel ports and 4 1-Gigabit Ethernet IP storage services ports as standard in a fixed slot plus a modular expansion slot to host optional Cisco MDS 9000 Family switching and services modules. The SAN Extension over IP application package license is enabled as standard on the 4 fixed Gigabit Ethernet IP storage services ports, enabling features such as Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP) and compression on the switch without the need for additional licenses.

As the storage network continues to expand, the Cisco MDS 9000 Family switching or service module installed in the expansion slot can be removed from the Cisco MDS 9222i modular switch and migrated to Cisco MDS 9500 Series Multilayer Directors, providing high flexibility, smooth migration, common sparing, and outstanding investment protection.

Description:

CISCO MDS 9222i DS-C9222I-K9 V01 18Port Multiservice Modular Switch + DS-X9124

Features:

The Cisco MDS 9222i provides unique multilayer and multiprotocol functions in a compact three-rack-unit (3RU) form factor:

●   SAN Consolidation with integrated multiprotocol support: The Cisco MDS 9222i provides as standard 18 fixed 4-Gbps Fibre Channel ports for high-performance SAN connectivity and 4 fixed Gigabit Ethernet ports for Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP) and Small Computer System Interface over IP (iSCSI) storage services.

●   High-density Fibre Channel switch with 8-Gbps connectivity: The Cisco MDS 9222i supports the Cisco MDS 9000 4/44-Port 8-Gbps Host-Optimized Fibre Channel Switching Module in the expansion slot, with four of the Fibre Channel ports capable of running at 8 Gbps. Thus, the Cisco MDS 9222i cost-effectively scales up to 66 ports for both open systems and IBM Fiber Connection (FICON) mainframe environments. The Cisco MDS 9222i also supports a Cisco MDS 9000 4-Port 10-Gbps Fibre Channel Switching Module in the expansion slot.

●   Intelligent application services engines: The Cisco MDS 9222i includes as standard a single application services engine in the fixed slot that enables the included SAN Extension over IP software solution package to run on the four fixed 1 Gigabit Ethernet storage services ports. The Cisco MDS 9222i can add a second services engine when a Cisco MDS 9000 18/4-Port Multiservice Module (MSM) is installed in the expansion slot. This additional engine can run a second advanced software application solution package such as Cisco MDS 9000 I/O Accelerator (IOA) to further improve the SAN Extension over IP performance and throughput running on the standard services engine. If even more intelligent services applications need to be deployed, the Cisco MDS 9000 16-Port Storage Services Node (SSN) can be installed in the expansion slot to provide four additional services engines for simultaneously running application software solution packages such as Cisco Storage Media Encryption (SME). Thus, the Cisco MDS 9222i switch platform scales from a single application service solution in the standard offering to a maximum of five heterogeneous or homogeneous application services, depending on the choice of optional service module that is installed in the expansion slot.

●   Hardware-based virtual fabric isolation with virtual SANs (VSANs) and Fibre Channel routing with Inter-VSAN Routing (IVR): VSANs and IVR enable deployment of large-scale multisite and heterogeneous SAN topologies. Integration into port-level hardware allows any port in a system or in a fabric to be partitioned into any VSAN. Included in the optional Cisco MDS 9000 Enterprise advanced software package, IVR provides line-rate routing between any of the ports in a system or in a fabric without the need for external routing appliances.

●   Remote SAN extension with high-performance FCIP:

◦     Simplifies data protection and business continuance strategies by enabling backup, remote replication, and other disaster-recovery services over WAN distances using open-standards FCIP tunneling.

◦     Optimizes utilization of WAN resources for backup and replication by enabling hardware-based compression, hardware-based encryption, FCIP write acceleration, and FCIP tape read and write acceleration; up to 16 virtual Inter-Switch Link (ISL) connections are provided on the 4 Gigabit Ethernet port through tunneling.

◦     Preserves Cisco MDS 9000 Family enhanced capabilities, including VSANs, IVR, advanced traffic management, and network security across remote connections.

●   Cost-effective iSCSI connectivity to Ethernet-attached servers:

◦     Extends the benefits of Fibre Channel SAN-based storage to Ethernet-attached servers at a lower cost than is possible using Fibre Channel interconnect alone.

◦     Increases storage utilization and availability through consolidation of IP and Fibre Channel block storage.

◦     Through transparent operation, preserves the capability of existing storage management applications.

●   Advanced FICON services: The Cisco MDS 9222i supports FICON environments, including cascaded FICON fabrics, VSAN-enabled intermix of mainframe and open systems environments, and N-port ID virtualization (NPIV) for mainframe Linux partitions. IBM Control Unit Port (CUP) support enables in-band management of Cisco MDS 9200 Series switches from the mainframe management console. FICON tape acceleration reduces latency effects for FICON channel extension over FCIP for FICON tape read and write operations to mainframe physical or virtual tape. This feature is sometimes referred to as tape pipelining. The Cisco MDS 9000 XRC Acceleration feature enables acceleration of dynamic updates for IBM z/OS Global Mirror, formerly known as XRC.

●   Cisco Storage Media Encryption (SME) as distributed fabric service: Cisco SME encrypts data at rest on heterogeneous tape drives, virtual tape libraries (VTLs), and disk storage arrays in a SAN environment using secure IEEE standard Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 256-bit algorithms. Cisco MDS 9222i helps ensure ease of deployment, scalability, and high availability by using innovative technology to transparently offer Cisco SME capabilities to any device connected to the fabric without the need for reconfiguration or rewiring. Cisco SME provisioning and key management are both integrated into the Cisco Data Center Network Manager (DCNM) for SAN Essentials Edition (formerly Cisco Fabric Manager); no additional software is required.

●   Cisco Data Mobility Manager (DMM) as a distributed fabric service: Cisco DMM is a fabric-based data migration solution that transfers block data nondisruptively across heterogeneous storage volumes and across distances, whether the host is online or offline.

●   Platform for intelligent fabric applications: The Cisco MDS 9222i provides an open platform that delivers the intelligence and advanced features required to make multilayer intelligent SANs a reality, including hardware-enabled innovations to host or accelerate applications for data migration, storage backup, data replication, and storage media encryption. Hosting or accelerating these applications in the network can dramatically improve scalability, availability, security, and manageability of the storage environment, resulting in increased utility and lower total cost of ownership (TCO).

●   In Service Software Upgrade (ISSU) for Fibre Channel interfaces: Cisco MDS 9222i promotes high serviceability by allowing Cisco MDS 9000 NX-OS Software to be upgraded while the Fibre Channel ports are carrying traffic.

●   Intelligent network services: Cisco MDS 9222i uses VSAN technology for hardware-enforced, isolated environments within a single physical fabric, access control lists (ACLs) for hardware-based intelligent frame processing, and advanced traffic management features such as fabric-wide quality of service (QoS) to facilitate migration from SAN islands to enterprise-wide storage networks.

●   High-performance ISLs: Cisco MDS 9222i supports up to 16 Fibre Channel inter-switch links (ISLs) in a single PortChannel. Links can span any port on any module in a chassis for added scalability and resilience. Up to 4095 buffer-to-buffer credits can be assigned to a single Fibre Channel port to extend storage networks over very long distances.

●   Comprehensive network security framework: The Cisco MDS 9222i supports RADIUS and TACACS+, Fibre Channel Security Protocol (FC-SP), Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP), Secure Shell (SSH) Protocol, Simple Network Management Protocol Version 3 (SNMPv3) implementing AES, VSANs, hardware-enforced zoning, ACLs, and per-VSAN role-based access control (RBAC). Additionally, the Gigabit Ethernet ports offer IP Security (IPsec) authentication, data integrity, and hardware-assisted data encryption for FCIP and iSCSI.

●   IP Version 6 (IPv6) capable: The Cisco MDS 9222i supports IPv6 as mandated by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), Japan, and China. IPv6 support is provided for FCIP, iSCSI, and management traffic routed in-band and out-of-band.

●   Sophisticated diagnostics: The Cisco MDS 9222i provides intelligent diagnostics, protocol decoding, and network analysis tools as well as integrated call-home capability for added reliability, faster problem resolution, and reduced service costs.