Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnect Product Overview
The Cisco Fabric Interconnect is a core part of Cisco UCS. Here’s an overview of Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnect:
- Provides the management and communication backbone
- Supports Unified Fabric:
- Provides LAN and SAN connectivity for all servers within the domain
- Includes unified ports with support for Ethernet, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), and Fibre Channel
- Comprises a fixed number of unified ports with optional expansion modules
The Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnects are now in their fourth generation. The Cisco UCS 6100 Fabric Interconnects were the first generation. They are no longer supported or sold.
The second generation is the Cisco UCS 6248UP and Cisco 6296UP Fabric Interconnects, which are shown in Figure 16-4.
Figure 16-4 Cisco UCS 6200 Fabric Interconnects
They offer line-rate, low-latency, lossless 10-Gigabit Ethernet, FCoE, and Fibre Channel functions. Cisco UCS 6200 Series Fabric Interconnects provide LAN and SAN connectivity for all blades within their domain. Cisco UCS 6200 Series uses a cut-through networking architecture, supporting deterministic, low-latency, line-rate 10-Gigabit Ethernet on all ports, a switching capacity of 2 terabits (Tb), and a bandwidth of 320-Gbps per chassis, independent of packet size and enabled services.
The Cisco UCS 6248UP 48-Port Fabric Interconnect is a one-rack-unit (1-RU) 10-Gigabit Ethernet, FCoE, and Fibre Channel switch offering up to 960-Gbps of throughput and up to 48 ports. The switch has 32 1Gbps and 10Gbps fixed Ethernet, FCoE, and Fibre Channel ports and one expansion slot.
The Cisco UCS 6296UP 96-Port Fabric Interconnect is a 2-RU 10-Gigabit Ethernet, FCoE, and native Fibre Channel switch offering up to 1920-Gbps of throughput and up to 96 ports. The switch has 48 1Gbps and 10Gbps fixed Ethernet, FCoE, and Fibre Channel ports and three expansion slots.
The third generation is the Cisco 6300 Fabric Interconnects, shown in Figure 16-5. They provide the following:
Figure 16-5 Cisco UCS 6300 Fabric Interconnects
- Support for Ethernet, FCoE, or FC
- Up to 2.56-Tbps throughput
- Up to 32× 40-Gbps ports
The Cisco UCS 6324 Fabric Interconnect extends the Cisco UCS architecture into environments with requirements for smaller domains. Providing the same unified server and networking capabilities as in the full-scale Cisco UCS solution, Cisco UCS 6324 Fabric Interconnect embeds the connectivity within the Cisco UCS 5108 blade server chassis to provide a smaller domain of up to 20 servers.
Cisco UCS 6324 Fabric Interconnect provides the management, LAN, and storage connectivity for the Cisco UCS 5108 blade server chassis and direct-connect rack-mount servers. It provides the same full-featured Cisco UCS management capabilities and XML application programming interface (API) as the full-scale Cisco UCS solution, in addition to integrating with Cisco UCS Central Software and Cisco UCS Director.
From a networking perspective, Cisco UCS 6324 Fabric Interconnect uses a cut-through architecture, supporting deterministic, low-latency, line-rate 10-Gigabit Ethernet on all ports, switching capacity of up to 500-Gbps, and 80-Gbps uplink bandwidth for each chassis, independent of packet size and enabled services. Sixteen 10Gbps links connect to the servers, providing a 20-Gbps link from each Cisco UCS 6324 Fabric Interconnect to each server. The product family supports Cisco low-latency, lossless 10-Gigabit Ethernet 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 blade through the Fabric Interconnect.
The Cisco UCS 6400 Fabric Interconnects, shown in Figure 16-6, comprise the fourth and latest generation:
Figure 16-6 Cisco UCS 6400 Fabric Interconnects
- 54 or 108 ports
- Up to 7.64-Tbps of throughput
- 1/10/25/40/100-Gbps Ethernet or FCoE
- 8 or 16 unified ports, which support either 10/25-Gbps Ethernet communication or can operate as native FC ports at speeds of 8/16/32-Gbps.
The Cisco UCS 6454 Fabric Interconnect is a core part of Cisco UCS, providing network connectivity and management capabilities for the system. Cisco UCS 6454 Fabric Interconnect offers line-rate, low-latency, lossless 10-, 25-, 40-, and 100-Gigabit Ethernet, FCoE, and Fibre Channel functions.
The Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnects provide the management and communication backbone for Cisco UCS B-series blade servers, Cisco UCS 5108 B-series server chassis, Cisco UCS Managed C-series rack-mount servers, and Cisco UCS S-series storage servers. All servers attached to the Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnect become part of a single, highly available management domain. In addition, by supporting a unified fabric, Cisco UCS provides LAN and SAN connectivity for all servers within its domain.
From a networking perspective, Cisco UCS 6454 Fabric Interconnect uses a cut-through architecture, supporting deterministic, low-latency, line-rate 10-, 25-, 40-, and 100-Gigabit Ethernet ports, a switching capacity of 3.82-Tbps (terabits per second), and 320-Gbps bandwidth between Cisco UCS 6454 Fabric Interconnect and the Cisco UCS 2208XP I/O module per Cisco UCS 5108 blade server chassis, independent of packet size and enabled services. The product family supports Cisco low-latency, lossless 10-, 25-, 40-, and 100-Gigabit Ethernet 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.
The Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnect comes with a fixed number of ports. You can optionally install expansion modules that allow you to have a greater number of unified ports.