If one VSAN fails, redundant protection (to another VSAN in the same physical SAN) is configured using a backup path between the host and the device. Redundancy -Several VSANs created on the same physical SAN ensure redundancy.Per VSAN fabric services -Replication of fabric services on a per VSAN basis provides increased scalability and availability.The ability to create several logical VSAN layers increases the scalability of the SAN. Scalability -VSANs are overlaid on top of a single physical fabric.Traffic isolation -Traffic is contained within VSAN boundaries and devices reside only in one VSAN ensuring absolute separation between user groups, if desired.The following are few essential VSAN advantages: Within each VSAN, all members can talk to one another. No communication between VSANs is possible. The geographic location of the switches and the attached devices is independent of their segmentation into logical VSANs. You can group SwitchA and SwitchB on VSAN10 and the same switches can be grouped on VSAN20 and so on but remember each FC port can be on only one VSAN. The physical switches are grouped together while creating a VSAN. Application team’s servers can be on VSAN10, Database teams servers can be on VSAN20 & Print servers can be on VSAN30. Each classification may need to access storage and it can be on the separate VSAN on the switches. Hence do not use VSAN1 as your production SAN.įor example, in a company you may have Application servers, Database servers, Print servers, etc. VSAN 1 also known as default SAN is used for communication, management and testing purposes. Each VSAN can contain up to 239 switches and has an independent address space that allows identical Fibre channel ID’s (FC Ids) to be used simultaneously in different VSANs. VSAN is used to create a multiple logical SANs over a common physical infrastructure. You can design multiple SANs with different topologies. A set of protocols run over the SAN to handle routing, naming, and zoning. In SANs you use the physical links to make these interconnections. A SAN is a dedicated network that interconnects hosts and storage devices primarily to exchange SCSI traffic. VSAN BasicsĪ VSAN is a virtual storage area network (SAN). To obtain a list of available commands in either mode, type a question mark (?) at the system prompt. The commands available to you at anytime depends on the mode you are in. You can change to configuration mode using “config t” on the EXEC shell prompt. By default when you login to the switch, you will be in EXEC mode. Changes made in this mode are saved across system resets. Configuration mode – This mode is used to configure features that affect the system as a whole.Changes made in this mode are not saved across system reboot. User EXEC mode – To change the terminal settings, Display system information.Switches in the Cisco MDS 9000 family have two main command modes:
#Cisco switch 9000 series#
The cisco fabric commands explained in this article are used to perform administration of fibre channel fabric switches including managing VSANs, administration of zonesets using Cisco MDS 9000 series fabric switches.