Cisco UCS 6300 Series Fabric Interconnects Data Sheet

 

Cisco Unified Computing System Overview

The Cisco Unified Computing System^™ (Cisco UCS^™) is a next-generation data center platform that unites computing, networking, storage access, and virtualization resources into a cohesive system designed to reduce Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and increase business agility. The system integrates a low-latency, lossless a 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet unified network fabric with enterprise-class, x86-architecture servers. The system is an integrated, scalable, multichassis platform in which all resources participate in a unified management domain (Figure 1).

The Cisco Unified Computing System Is a Highly Available Cohesive Architecture

Product overview

The Cisco UCS 6300 Series Fabric Interconnects are a core part of Cisco UCS, providing both network connectivity and management capabilities for the system (Figure 2). The Cisco UCS 6300 Series offers line-rate, low-latency, lossless 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), and Fibre Channel functions.

The Cisco UCS 6300 Series provides the management and communication backbone for the Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers, 5100 Series Blade Server Chassis, and C-Series Rack Servers managed by Cisco UCS. All servers attached to the fabric interconnects become part of a single, highly available management domain. In addition, by supporting unified fabric, the Cisco UCS 6300 Series provides both LAN and SAN connectivity for all servers within its domain.

From a networking perspective, the Cisco UCS 6300 Series uses a cut-through architecture, supporting deterministic, low-latency, line-rate 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet ports, switching capacity of 2.56 Terabits per second (Tbps), and 320 Gbps of bandwidth per chassis, independent of packet size and enabled services. The product family supports Cisco^® low-latency, lossless 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet^[1] unified network fabric capabilities, which increase the reliability, efficiency, and scalability of Ethernet networks. The fabric interconnect supports multiple traffic classes over a lossless Ethernet fabric from the server through the fabric interconnect. Significant TCO savings can be achieved with an FCoE optimized server design in which Network Interface Cards (NICs), Host Bus Adapters (HBAs), cables, and switches can be consolidated.

Cisco UCS 6300 Series Fabric Interconnects and 2304 Fabric Extender

Unified Fabric with FCoE: I/O Consolidation

The Cisco UCS 6300 Series is built to consolidate LAN and SAN traffic onto a single unified fabric, saving the Capital Expenditures (CapEx) and Operating Expenses (OpEx) associated with multiple parallel networks, different types of adapter cards, switching infrastructure, and cabling within racks. The capability to connect FCoE to native Fibre Channel protects existing storage system investments while dramatically simplifying in-rack cabling.

Cisco UCS Manager

The Cisco UCS 6300 Series hosts and runs Cisco UCS Manager in a highly available configuration, enabling the fabric interconnects to fully manage all Cisco UCS elements. Connectivity to the Cisco UCS 5100 Series blade chassis is maintained through the Cisco UCS 2200 Series or 2304 Fabric Extenders in each blade chassis. The Cisco UCS 6300 Series interconnects support out-of-band management through a dedicated 10/100/1000-Mbps Ethernet management port as well as in-band management. Cisco UCS Manager typically is deployed in a clustered active-passive configuration on redundant fabric interconnects connected through dual 10/100/1000 Ethernet clustering ports.

Optimization for Virtualization

For virtualized environments, the Cisco UCS 6300 Series supports Cisco virtualization-aware networking and Cisco Data Center Virtual Machine Fabric Extender (VM-FEX) architecture. Data Center VM-FEX allows the interconnects to provide policy-based virtual machine connectivity, with network properties moving with the virtual machine, and a consistent operational model for both physical and virtual environments.

Cisco UCS 6332 32-Port Fabric Interconnect

The Cisco UCS 6332 32-Port Fabric Interconnect (Figure 3) is a 1-Rack-Unit (1RU) Gigabit Ethernet, and FCoE switch offering up to 2.56 Tbps throughput and up to 32 ports. The switch has 32 fixed 40-Gbps Ethernet and FCoE ports.

Both the Cisco UCS 6332UP 32-Port Fabric Interconnect and the Cisco UCS 6332 16-UP 40-Port Fabric Interconnect have ports that can be configured for the breakout feature that supports connectivity between 40 Gigabit Ethernet ports and 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports. This feature provides backward compatibility to existing hardware that supports 10 Gigabit Ethernet. A 40 Gigabit Ethernet port can be used as four 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports. Using a 40 Gigabit Ethernet SFP, these ports on a Cisco UCS 6300 Series Fabric Interconnect can connect to another fabric interconnect that has four 10 Gigabit Ethernet SFPs. The breakout feature can be configured on ports 1 to 12 and ports 15 to 26 on the Cisco UCS 6332UP fabric interconnect. Ports 17 to 34 on the Cisco UCS 6332 16-UP fabric interconnect support the breakout feature.

Cisco UCS 6332UP 32-Port Fabric Interconnect

Cisco UCS 6332-16UP 40-Port Fabric Interconnect

The Cisco UCS 6332-16UP 40-Port Fabric Interconnect (Figure 4) is a 1RU 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet, FCoE, and native 4-, 8, and 16-Gbps Fibre Channel switch offering up to 2.43 Tbps throughput and up to 40 ports. The switch has 24 fixed 40-Gbps Ethernet and FCoE ports and sixteen 1 and 10 Gigabit Ethernet or 4-, 8-, and 16-Gbps Fibre Channel ports.

The unified ports in the Cisco UCS 6332-16UP support direct connections from Cisco UCS to existing native Fibre Channel SANs.

Cisco UCS 6332-16UP 40-Port Fabric Interconnect

Table 1 summarizes the characteristics of the Cisco UCS 6300 Series Fabric interconnects.

Table 1.        Characteristics of Cisco UCS 6300 Series Fabric Interconnects^[2]

Features and benefits

Table 2 summarizes the features and benefits of the Cisco UCS 6300 Series.

Table 2.        Features and benefits

Product specifications

Transceivers

The Cisco UCS 6300 Series supports a wide variety of a10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity options using Cisco 40GBASE and 10GBASE SFP+ modules. Unified ports on the Cisco UCS 6332-16UP support 1 and 10 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity options, and QSFP+ ports support 40 Gigabit Ethernet. Alternatively, 4-, 8-, and 16‑Gbps Fibre Channel SFP+ are supported on the Cisco UCS 6332-16UP on 16 ports. Cisco UCS 6332 supports only 40-Gbps QSFP+ connectivity options.

Table 3 lists the supported transceiver options.

Table 3.        Cisco UCS 6300 Series Transceiver Support Matrix

Note:       

1.     The Cisco UCS 6332 requires a QSA module to support 1- and 10-Gbps optics and cables.

2.     QSFP-40/100-SRBD is qualified at 40G rate for the uplink and for the server ports towards IOM-2304.

Cabling

Table 4 provides 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet cabling specifications for the Cisco UCS 6300 Series.

Table 4.        10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet Cabling Specifications

Performance

●      Cisco UCS 6332: Layer 2 hardware forwarding at 2.56 Tbps or 720 million packets per second (mpps)

●      Cisco UCS 6332-16UP: Layer 2 hardware forwarding at 2.43 Tbps or 683 million packets per second (mpps)

●      MAC address table entries: 32,000

●      Low-latency cut-through design: Provides predictable, consistent traffic latency regardless of packet size, traffic pattern, or enabled features

Layer 2

●      Layer 2 interconnect ports and 2000 VLAN

●      IEEE 802.1Q VLAN encapsulation

●      Support for up to 1024 VLANs and Virtual SANs (VSANs) per interconnect

●      Rapid Per-VLAN Spanning Tree Plus (PVRST+)

●      Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) Versions 1, 2, and 3 snooping

●      Cisco EtherChannel technology

●      Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP): IEEE 802.3ad

●      Advanced EtherChannel hashing based on Layer 2, 3, and 4 information

●      Jumbo frames on all ports (up to 9216 bytes)

●      Pause frames (IEEE 802.3x)

QoS

●      Layer 2 IEEE 802.1p (Class of Service [CoS])

●      Eight hardware queues per port

●      Per-port QoS configuration

●      CoS trust

●      Per-port virtual output queuing

●      CoS-based egress queuing

●      Egress strict-priority queuing

●      Egress port-based scheduling: Weighted Round-Robin (WRR)

High Availability

●      Hot-swappable field-replaceable power supplies, fan modules, and expansion modules

●      1+1 power redundancy

●      N+1 fan module redundancy

Management

●      Interconnect management using redundant 10/100/1000-Mbps management or console ports

●      All management provided through Cisco UCS Manager; please refer to the Cisco UCS Manager data sheet for more information about management interfaces

Low-Latency, Lossless 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet Unified Network Fabric

●      PFC (per-priority pause frame support)

●      Data Center Bridging Exchange (DCBX) Protocol

●      IEEE 802.1Qaz: Bandwidth management

Unified Ports

●      UCS 6332-16UP can be configurable as 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet or 4/8/16-Gbps Fibre Channel

Industry Standards

●      IEEE 802.1p: CoS prioritization

●      IEEE 802.1Q: VLAN tagging

●      IEEE 802.1s: Multiple VLAN instances of Spanning Tree Protocol

●      IEEE 802.1w: Rapid reconfiguration of Spanning Tree Protocol

●      IEEE 802.3: Ethernet

●      IEEE 802.3ad: LACP

●      IEEE 802.3ae: 10 Gigabit Ethernet

●      IEEE 802.3bg: 40 Gigabit Ethernet

●      SFP+ support

●      Remote Monitor (RMON)

Physical specifications

QSFP+ Optics

Cisco UCS products support 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet SFP+ and QSFP+ copper Twinax cables for short distances, and SFP+ and QSFP + optics for longer distances. SFP+ and QSFP+ have several advantages compared to other 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity options:

●      10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet form factor

●      Optical interoperability with XENPAK, X2, and 10 Gigabit Small Form-Factor Pluggable (XFP) interface types

●      Low power consumption

●      Hot-swappable device

Power Supply

Tables 5 and 6 summarize the power supply properties for the Cisco UCS 6300 Series.

Table 5.        AC Power Supply

Table 6.        DC Power Supply

Cisco UCS 6300 Series physical and environmental specifications

Table 7 summarizes the physical and environmental specifications for the Cisco UCS 6300 Series.

Table 7.        Physical and environmental specifications

Weight

Table 8 summarizes the weights for the Cisco UCS 6300 Series.

Table 8.        Weight

Regulatory standards compliance: Safety and EMC

Table 9 summarizes Cisco UCS 6300 Series regulatory compliance.

Table 9.        Regulatory standards compliance

Ordering information

Table 10 presents ordering information for the Cisco UCS 6300 Series Fabric Interconnects.

Table 10.     Ordering information

Warranty information

Warranty information is provided at Cisco.com on the Product Warranties page.

Cisco Unified Computing Services

Using a unified view of data center resources, Cisco and our industry-leading partners deliver services that accelerate your transition to a unified computing environment. Cisco Unified Computing Services helps you quickly deploy your data center resources and optimize ongoing operations to better meet your business needs. For more information about these and other Cisco Data Center Services, visit https://www.cisco.com/go/dcservices.

Why Cisco?

Cisco has significant experience in listening to customer requirements and providing solid technology innovation for the enterprise data center. Cisco delivers standards-based solutions backed by a broad partner ecosystem of industry leaders to provide end-to-end customer solutions. Unified computing elevates the traditional product classification of network, server, storage, operating systems, and applications to a vision that encompasses the whole data center. Cisco, as one of the largest technology providers in the world, has the resources, expertise, and customer focus to deliver on this vision.

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For more information

For more information about the Cisco UCS 6300 Series Fabric Interconnects, visit https://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ or contact your local account representative.