Cisco MDS 16-Port Storage Services Node

The Cisco MDS 9000 Family 16-Port Storage Services Node (SSN-16) hosts four independent service engines which can be individually and incrementally enabled to scale as business requirements grow. The SSN-16 configuration is based on the single service engine of the Cisco MDS 9000 Family 18/4-Port Multiservice module and the four-to-one consolidation provides hardware savings and frees up slots in the MDS 9500 series chassis.

The SSN-16 seamlessly integrates into the Cisco MDS 9500 Series Multilayer directors and the Cisco MDS 9222i Multiservice Modular switch. Each of the four service engines supports four Gigabit Ethernet IP storage services ports for a total of 16 ports of Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP) connectivity. The traffic can be switched between an IP port and any Fibre Channel port on Cisco MDS 9000 Family switches.

The SSN-16 supports the full range of services available on other Cisco MDS 9000 Family modules including VSAN, security, and traffic management. Features such as I/O Accelerator (IOA), SME Disk and Tape, and FCIP can be configured in different octeons in a single SSN-16 module.

By running four separate, concurrent applications on one module, SSN-16 provides the following functions:

• Provides better disaster recovery and continuity solutions for mission critical applications.

• Minimizes the number of devices required, which improves the reliability.

• Consolidates the management with a single module, which provides end-to-end visibility.

• Facilitates solution-level performance optimization.

The SSN-16 module provides transparent services to any port in a fabric and does not require additional SAN reconfiguration and rewiring. The module does not require the host or target to be directly attached and is available with multimodule clustering and balancing.

The SSN-16 module supports up to four SME interfaces per module and provides higher scalability and improved performance of up to 20 percent on the MSM-18/4 module and 9222i switches.

Note Cisco MDS 9500 Series switches running Cisco NX-OS Release 4.2(1) or later support the SSN-16.

For additional information, refer to the Cisco MDS 9500 Series Hardware Installation Guide.