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Cisco SFS 3012R Multifabric Server Switch Hardware Installation Guide
OL-11187-01
Chapter 1 Cisco SFS 3012R Server Switch Overview
Features
Features
The Cisco SFS 3012R Server Switch provides unprecedented levels of availability, scalability, and
manageability for deploying server clusters and on-demand computing. Server switch modules provide
up to one terabit of internal bandwidth, and Ethernet or Fibre Channel field-replaceable interface
modules enable up to 72 Ethernet ports or up to 24 Fibre Channel ports and up to 24 InfiniBand ports in
a single chassis.
Performance
Expressly designed to apply networking principles to computing problems, the Cisco SFS 3012R Server
Switch uses a switched InfiniBand fabric to interconnect server resources at 10 Gbps. The combination
of high bandwidth and low latency allows resources to be disaggregated and dynamically reassembled
without the limits of the shared PCI bus.
Unified Fabric
The Cisco SFS 3012R Server Switch integrates storage, server, and networking I/O into one unified
fabric. With only one interface module in each host, you can manage all resources on one fabric and
eliminate the need to install and manage multiple Ethernet, Fibre Channel, and inter-process
communications (IPC) modules. The Cisco SFS 3012R Server Switch aggregates and load balances all
types of I/O, significantly reducing the number of managed ports in your environment and increasing
availability.
Transparent Topology
Based on the Transparent Topology architecture, the Cisco SFS 3012R Server Switch creates virtual IP
and Fibre Channel interfaces on every server, allowing existing IP and storage area network (SAN)
resources to seamlessly extend to server clusters. Using Fibre Channel gateways, SAN management
technologies can access each individual node, enabling critical storage management and security
models, such as Fibre Channel fabric zoning and storage-based logical unit number (LUN) zoning. By
adding Ethernet gateways, IT managers can also enable full Internet Protocol (IP) connectivity,
extending the value of server clusters to the rest of the enterprise.
Redundancy and High-Availability
The Cisco SFS 3012R Server Switch is architected for full redundancy within a single box. Every
component in the data path can be dual-connected from end to end. For example, a server with a 2-port
Host Channel Adaptor (HCA) can be dual-attached to the two InfiniBand switch modules on the
Cisco SFS 3012R Server Switch. Each gateway is also dual attached to the dual switch module. In turn,
the gateway modules are dual attached to Ethernet or Fibre Channel networks in pairs. With the addition
of centralized load balancing and port aggregation, Ethernet and Fibre Channel uplink connections can
be trunked and load balanced, allowing the Cisco SFS 3012R Server Switch to reroute around failures.
Each independently removable component is hot-swappable.
Figure 1-2
shows the internal Cisco SFS 3012R Server Switch architecture. Components within the
dotted line reside within the Cisco SFS 3012R Server Switch chassis.
