53-1004106-15 Installation Guide
Brocade
®
X6-4 Director Hardware Installation Guide
Device Overview
This device includes several key product features:
•
Redundant and hot-swappable SFP, SFP+, SFP28, QSFP+, and QSFP28 transceivers; port, extension, control
processor (CP) and core routing (CR) blades; power supply assemblies, fan assemblies, and WWN cards that enable
a high-availability platform and allow nondisruptive software upgrades for mission-critical SAN applications.
•
Support for the following features when using the FC32-64 blade:
–
Up to 16 QSFP ports on each FC32-64 port blade that provide 4x32G, 4x16G, 4x8G, 4x4G, 4x25GbE, or 40GbE
operation. Port speeds for 4x32G transceivers can auto-negotiate between 4x32G and 4x16G. Port speeds for
4x16G transceivers can auto-negotiate between 4x16G, 4x8G, and 4x4G.
–
Flexport technology that allows you to configure each of the 16 QSFP ports on a blade for FC operation or Ethernet
operation for FCoE connections.
–
Up to four blades and all FC transceivers installed, up to 256 32G external ports are possible in a single chassis,
enabling high-density SAN configurations with a reduced footprint.
–
Trunking technology that allows groups of up to eight ports to create high-performance 256G ISL trunks between
switches using 32G ports.
•
Support for the following features when using the FC32-48 blade:
–
Up to 192 32G external ports are possible in a single chassis, enabling high-density SAN configurations with
reduced footprint.
–
Support for 48 Fibre Channel ports on each FC32-48 port blade that provide 8, 10, 16, and 32G. The 10G
transceivers can be used for any port on the FC32-48 port blades.
–
Trunking technology groups up to eight ports to create high-performance 256G ISL trunks between switches using
32G ports.
•
Support for the following features when using the SX6 extension blade:
–
Sixteen Fibre Channel ports supporting 4, 8, 16, and 32G.
–
Sixteen Ethernet ports supporting 1GbE or 10GbE.
–
Two Ethernet ports supporting 40GbE.
NOTE
10GbE transceivers on the FC32-64 are not interchangeable with the Brocade SX6 Blade.
The SX6 extension blades perform as extension platforms to support Fibre Channel (FC) and FICON data flows and
IP-based storage data flows over an IP WAN.
•
Universal ports that self-configure as E_Ports, F_Ports, EX_Ports, M_Ports (mirror ports), and FICON ports. Note that
the 10G ports on the FC32-48 port blade can function as E_Ports only.
•
ClearLink
®
Diagnostic port (D_Port) functionality on Fibre Channel ports.
•
Data compression capabilities through the port blades when ports are configured as ISLs.
Hardware Components
The device has a modular and scalable mechanical construction that allows a wide range of flexibility in installation, fabric
design, and maintenance. The device can be mounted with the cables facing either the front or the rear of the equipment
rack. It consists of the following hardware components:
•
Up to four slots for hot-swappable port blade assemblies, providing up to 256 32G Fibre Channel ports if FC32-64 port
blades are installed. FlexPort technology allows QSFP+ and QSFP28 ports on this blade to be configured for FCoE
operation at 4x10GbE, 4x25GbE, and 40GbE speeds.
•
Two half-size slots for control processor (CP) blades:
53-1004106-15
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Summary of Contents for Brocade X6-4
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