Data Sheet
Data Sheet
Dell Connectrix Fibre
Channel Storage Networking
The Connectrix™ family of Fibre Channel directors and switches move your vital business information to where it’s
needed securely, with the highest performance, the highest availability and unsurpassed reliability.
Connectrix Enables Business Applications
Connectrix products can connect physical or virtual servers through Fibre
CloudIQ Channel Storage Area Networks (SAN) technology. Connectrix enables all
application environments from Oracle, Microsoft, and SAP to local
Provides cloud-based analytics backup/restore, and business continuity/disaster recovery solutions over
and monitoring for Connectrix distance. Connectrix offers Dell Technologies E-Lab™ interoperability testing.
switches and directors. All tested configurations can be accessed by E-Lab Navigator via a browser
or mobile app.
Connectivity Matters for Data Storage
All-flash storage environments require a network that is deterministic, and easy
to manage with low latencies. Connectrix has always delivered low latency,
deterministic behavior, scalability, and reliability. As you move to Solid State
Drives (SSD) make sure your storage network can keep pace. Today’s storage
networks deliver up to 64 Gigabit per second (Gb/s) Fibre Channel speeds.
The latest Connectrix systems include exclusive diagnostic and error-collection
capabilities, as well as the ability to monitor, analyze and identify specific data
to avoid errors, reduce bottlenecks and automate your networking resources.
CloudIQ combines proactive Seamlessly Transition to Non-Volatile Memory Express over
monitoring, machine learning Fibre Channel (NVMe/FC)
and predictive analytics so you Connectrix models allow seamless transition to NVMe/FC workloads without any
can take quick action from a hardware upgrade in the SAN. In addition, Connectrix platforms support the
browser or mobile app. concurrent use of both traditional SCSI-based Fibre Channel and NVMe/FC
traffic, allowing organizations to easily integrate Fibre Channel networks with
NVMe-based data storage.
High Performance, Availability, Scalability and Reliability
The Connectrix offering allows you to start small and scale as you grow—
whether you begin by implementing a small SAN for one department or a large
configuration for an enterprise-wide application. With Connectrix you can
concurrently support multiple hosts and operating systems as well as
accommodate storage environments from other suppliers. This extensible
connectivity frees you to consolidate more information onto fewer storage
systems.
Connectrix Data Sheet © 2024 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries.
Choice of SAN Solutions
onnectri ibre hannel SAN ortfolio To meet your storage networking requirements, we offer
nterprise odular irectors anagement Applications you two Connectrix product lines. The Connectrix B-Series
and Connectrix MDS product lines include enterprise
directors, switches, and multi-purpose switch offerings.
Enterprise directors are ready for the most demanding
mission-critical environments, providing immediate, non-
disruptive and automatic failover.
i ed Switches
Switches for SAN tension and I N Connectrix Management Offerings
Connectrix B-Series SANnav
opyright ell Inc. All ights eserved.
SANnav empowers IT administrators to be more efficient
and productive by providing comprehensive visibility into
the SAN environment. These tools transform information
Connectrix Director, Switch and Management Options
about SAN behavior and performance into actionable
insights, allowing administrators to quickly identify, isolate
Live Optics with SAN Health and correct problems before they impact the business.
If you’re thinking about upgrading your storage
environment, make sure your SAN isn’t a bottleneck by
[Image] Connectrix MDS Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller
running Live Optics with SAN Health. This is a free tool
3.6in x variable Data Center Network Manager has been the management
that creates comprehensive analysis
(w x h) about your storage program for years but today, DCNM customers on
network including performance graphs, detailed maintenance can migrate to a new, modern user interface
spreadsheets, and topology diagrams. Once you run SAN called Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (NDFC) for free.
Health, you can ask your Sales Rep for a free SAN For day-to-day operations, NFDC provides configurable
Modernization Assessment, which provides more detail at dashboards and dashlets that display an assortment of
no cost. information, including health scores, topology views,
utilization, alarms and events for links, switches and
Why Buy SAN from Dell Technologies? fabrics. Through SAN Insights, NDFC also provides
There are three main reasons customers choose Dell reports derived from the integrated MDS SAN Analytics
Connectrix for their Fibre Channel Storage Network: telemetry data.
Single-vendor support – eliminate multi-vendor
complexity with single-vendor support for your entire
environment including servers, storage, networking,
software and more.
Insights with CloudIQ - Dell provides access to a cloud-
based monitoring software to give IT administrators the
intel they need to easily manage your environment
allowing you to make better, faster decisions and save
time and costs.
Dell Technologies E-Lab proven interoperability - the
industry’s premier and trusted testing lab provides end-to-
end interoperability assurance across servers, HBAs,
storage networks, storage systems, solutions and more.
All tested solutions are found via the E-Lab Navigator Run Live Optics with SAN Health, then ask your Dell
which is available online or you can download the app to Sales Rep about the new no cost SAN Modernization
your smart phone. Assessment
[Image]
4.9in x variable
(w x h)
Connectrix Director and Switch Models
All Connectrix models listed in the tables below support auto-sensing speeds for backward compatibility, non-disruptive
code upgrades and redundant hot-swappable components for high availability. All Connectrix 16Gb/s, 32Gb/s and 64Gb/s
Fibre Channel switches and directors support NVMe/FC.
Table 1: Switch Models
Connectrix 64Gb/s Fibre Minimum - Maximum Ports
Channel Switch Models
DS-7720B 24 to 64 ports
DS-7730B 48 to 128 ports
MDS-9124V 24 ports
MDS-9148V 48 ports
MDS-9396V 96 ports
Connectrix 32Gb/s Fibre Minimum - Maximum Ports
Channel Switch Models
DS-6610B-L 8 to 24 ports
DS-6620B and DS-6620B-V2 24 to 64 ports
DS-6630B and DS-6630B-V2 48 to 128 ports
MDS-9132T 8 to 32 ports
MDS-9148T 24 to 48 ports
MDS-9396T 48 to 96 ports
Table 2: Multi-purpose SAN Extension Switch Models
Connectrix Multi-Purpose Port Count and Maximum Speeds Use Cases and Protocols
Switch Models
MP-7810B Twelve 32Gb capable Fibre Channel ports and six Distance Extension with FCiP, Fibre Channel Protocol
1/10GbE SFP+ ports (FCP) and IP Extension (IPEX)
MP-7850B Eight 64Gb/s SFP+ ports, plus eight 64Gb/s Double Distance Extension with FCiP, Fibre Channel Protocol
Density SFP ports which yields a total of twenty-four (FCP), IP Extension (IPEX)
64Gb/s ports. In addition, there are sixteen 25
Gigabit Ethernet SFP+ ports and two 100 Gigabit
Ethernet QSFP Ethernet ports. Base SKU includes
sixteen 64Gb SFP+ optics, four 10GigE optics, four
25GigE optics, two 100GigE optics and a rack mount
kit. Additional ports can be configured.
MDS-9220i Up to twelve 32-Gbps Fibre Channel ports, four 1/10-, Distance Extension with FCiP and Fibre Channel
two 25-, and one 40- Gigabit Ethernet IP storage support. Mainframe FICON support.
services ports
Table 3: Enterprise 64Gb/s Fibre Channel Director Models
Connectrix Director Models Maximum Ports 64G Switching Modules FICON Support
ED-DCX7-8B Up to 512 ports 48-port and 64-port √
ED-DCX7-4B Up to 256 ports √
MDS-9718-V3 Up to 768 ports x
MDS-9710-V2 Up to 384 ports 48-port √
MDS-9706-V2 Up to 192 ports √
Director Notes: The ED-DCX7 director models include the Enterprise Software Bundle which contains the optional features listed in Table 4. Please see
the MDS optional features described below in Table 5. The Connectrix MDS-9700 director models include updated internal components known as
Supervisors and Fabric Cards to support 64 Gigabit per second (Gb/s) Fibre Channel.
Table 4: Connectrix B-Series Optional Features
Feature Description
Fabric Vision Provides visibility and insight across storage networks through the Monitoring and Alerting Policy Suite
(MAPS), Fabric Performance Impact (FPI) Monitoring, ClearLink Diagnostics, Flow Vision and Single Bulk
Configurations.
ISL Trunking Provides the ability to aggregate multiple physical links to one logical link for enhanced network
performance and fault tolerance.
Extended Fabrics Provides greater than 10 kilometers of switched fabric connectivity at full bandwidth over long distances
depending on the platform this can be up to 3000 kilometers. Extended Fabric is required for any Inter-
Switch Link (ISL) that is greater than 10 kilometers.
Mainframe FICON CUP Includes FICON management features required for mainframe environments. FICON supports high speed
connectivity between mainframes and I/O devices. Control Unit Port (CUP) allows mainframe tools to
manage connectivity between ports, monitor fabric performance and collect critical diagnostic information
Enterprise Software Bundle Enterprise Bundle includes Fabric Vision, ISL Trunking, and Extended Fabrics.
Table 5: Connectrix MDS Series Optional Features
Standard features for the Connectrix MDS product line include Port Channel, VSAN, VSAN Trunking, Inter-VSAN Routing,
NPV, ISL and HBA Diagnostics, Port Monitoring, Slow Drain (Congestion) Detection, Virtual machine transparency,
hardware-enforced zoning, ACLs, per VSAN Role-based Access Control (RBAC), QoS policies, sophisticated diagnostics,
Dynamic Ingress Rate Limiting (D.I.R.L.) and much more.
The optional features described below provide a way to purchase the features you need.
Feature Description Features
Enterprise Package Includes advanced traffic engineering and advanced security Advanced traffic management includes Inter-VSAN
features for enterprise SANs Routing, Quality of Service (QoS) features, Extended
credits. Security features include switch-to-switch and
host-to-switch authentication, DH-CHAP, LUN zoning,
read-only zones, port security, VSAN based access
control, IP Sec for iSCSI and FCiP, IKE Digital
Certificates, Cisco TrustSec and fabric binding for Fibre
Channel
SAN Extension over IP Provides integrated, cost-effective and reliable business Supports SAN Extension Tuner, Inter-VSAN Routing
continuance solutions that use the existing IP infrastructure for FCiP and FCiP protocol support, FCiP compression,
FCiP Write Acceleration, FCiP Read/Write Tape
Acceleration
I/O Acceleration (IOA) IOA capability is available on MDS 9700 series directors from Transport and speed-independent acceleration that
NX-OS 8.2(1) release. It can be enabled using the I/O accelerates disk and tape traffic over any 2/4/8/16/32G
acceleration package license which is available to configure Fibre Channel port. Works over Metropolitan Area
separately on a module Networks (MANs) and WANs. Data compression in
conjunction with FCIP ISLs. High availability using Port-
Channels with acceleration over Fibre Channel and
FCIP ISLs. Transport Independent Write Acceleration
(WA) of Disk Replication traffic and Tape Acceleration
(TA) of Tape Replication Traffic.
Mainframe Package Includes features required for mainframe environments. VSAN for FICON and FCP Intermixing, FICON Control
FICON supports high-speed connectivity between mainframe Unit Port (CUP), Fabric Binding, Switch Cascading,
Note: Effective with the servers and I/O devices FICON Native Mode Channel-to channel operation,
release of NX-OS persistent FICON FCID assignment, Port Swapping for
9.4(1a), FICON capability host channel cable connections, FICON tape
is embedded in the OS. acceleration.
Previous NX-OS releases
that include FICON
support will still require a
separate license.
SAN Analytics The 32- and 64Gb director switching modules and switch SAN Insights was designed for customers that would
platforms support SAN Analytics like to leverage the data gathering, computation and
end-to-end visualization of data provided by the
analytics engine that resides on the MDS 32Gb/s
switching module through DCNM. SAN Telemetry
Streaming is for customers who use Virtual Instruments
(VI) or another 3rd party or custom solution to display
the data provided by the MDS analytics engine.
Smart Licensing: With the Dell introduction of Connectrix MDS NX-OS version 9.3(1), Dell has been working with our
partner Cisco to introduce Smart Licensing. Smart Licensing makes it easier for our joint customers to manage their MDS
software licenses. Smart Licensing is subscription-based and is available from Dell in 1-, 3-, or 5- year options. The
Premier subscription license includes the Enterprise Package, Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (NDFC) and SAN
Analytics. The Advantage subscription license includes the Enterprise Package and NDFC licenses.
Dell Technology Services for Connectrix
Technology presents infinite paths forward, each with distinct risks and rewards. Forrester found that 62% IT decision
makers surveyed felt they lacked the IT skills in house to realize the full potential of technology purchases. Customers rely
on ell Technologies Services’ deep e pertise to help them navigate their choices inside the world’s most powerful
technology and services ecosystem as follows:
• Consulting Services helps you define your corporate networking strategy by assessing your network environment
and building a transformation plan that achieves measurable and secure outcomes aligned to your corporate and
technology vision.
• Deployment Services helps your organization embrace new technologies by accelerating network deployment and
adoption so you can execute digital strategies and drive business outcomes.
• Support Services utilize our networking experts as well as AI, machine learning and deep learning to optimize
performance while predicting, preventing and proactively resolving issues.
• Managed and Residency Services helps you offload day to day networking IT operations by combining on-site and
remote end-to-end management and operation of your infrastructure allowing your resources to focus on driving
innovation.
• Education services to help you upskill your teams by identifying knowledge and skills gaps and define a continuous
learning strategy skills are up to date.
• Data Sanitization services helps your organization secure data on networking and infrastructure systems in the
data center—Protect IP, the environment and brand reputation.
Why Dell Technologies Services?
• Robust insights with CloudIQ and support services
• 96% technical support CSAT rating
• 58% fewer support calls in first 90 days from deployment
• Customers trust Dell Technologies
• Global reach and certified experts specially trained
• Experience and knowledge - done right the first time
• Single vendor support
• Multivendor integration expertise – We understand how to truly unify the Data Center
Services Central for Networking
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