SAN Fabric Technology

Brocade Fabric OS (FOS) runs on the Brocade family of Fibre Channel and FICON backbones and switches—providing transparent interoperability between 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 Gbps devices for superior investment protection. Brocade FOS also provides the reliable, high-performance data transport that is critical for interconnecting thousands of servers and storage devices. The integration of innovative core Brocade FOS and SAN fabric technology uniquely enables Brocade products to provide the building blocks that solve today’s challenges and act as a strategic foundation for next-generation data centers. Through delivering industry-leading technologies that help improve performance, efficiency, RAS, and optimization at an affordable cost, Brocade continues to lead the development of Fibre Channel standards and offer breakthrough products.

Brocade FOS features include:

Simplified deployment and scalability

• Brocade UltraScale chassis connectivity provides dedicated, high-bandwidth optical Inter-Chassis Links (ICLs) that connect multiple Brocade DCX 8510 Backbone switches without consuming server and storage ports for simplified, scale-out network design
• ClearLink Diagnostics—part of Brocade Fabric Vision technology-- leverages Brocade ClearLink Diagnostic Ports (D_Ports) to help identify and isolate optic and cable problems, reducing fabric deployment and diagnostic times
• Brocade Access Gateway mode support seamlessly connects to any SAN fabric with improved scalability and no additional switch domains
• Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP) connectivity enables long-distance applications such as disk mirroring and remote tape solutions
• Integration of third-party storage management solutions with Brocade management solutions
• Dynamic Fabric Provisioning reduces or eliminates the need to reconfigure zoning and Logical Unit Number (LUN) masking when adding or replacing servers
• Integrated ISL compression and encryption optimize data center connectivity over distance

Improved management

• Brocade Fabric Vision technology provides innovative diagnostic, monitoring, and management capabilities to help administrators avoid networking issues, maximize application performance, and reduce operational costs
• Frame-based trunking provides full bandwidth utilization while reducing congestion
• Non-intrusive and non-disruptive monitoring on every port provides a comprehensive end-to-end view of the entire fabric
• Critical diagnostic and monitoring capabilities help ensure early problem detection and recovery
• Forward Error Correction (FEC) recovers from bit errors in ISLs, enhancing transmission reliability and performance
• Virtual Channel-level buffers credit loss detection and recovery for improved resiliency and application performance
• Real-time bandwidth consumption by hosts/applications on ISLs easily identifies hot spots and potential network congestion
• Virtual Fabrics enables consolidation and better resource utilization while isolating traffic between different environments
• FICON and FICON CUP support for IBM System z environments
• Proactive fabric health and performance monitoring with threshold-based alerting capabilities helps ensure network availability

• Brochures

  • Brocade Fabric OS Product Line Guide (2.2 MB)

• Data Sheets

  • Brocade 1860 Fabric Adapter (1.2 MB)

  • Brocade 300 Switch (858.7 KB)

  • Brocade 415, 425, 815, and 825 Fibre Channel HBAs (1.3 MB)

  • Brocade 5300 Switch (654.5 KB)

  • Brocade 6505 Switch (870 KB)

  • Brocade 6510 Switch (682.1 KB)

  • Brocade 6520 Switch (1022.3 KB)

  • Brocade 7800 Extension Switch (983 KB)

  • Brocade DCX 8510 Backbone Family (790.7 KB)

  • Brocade DCX Backbone Family (976.5 KB)

  • Brocade Encryption Switch (1.1 MB)

  • Brocade FS8-18 Encryption Blade (872.4 KB)

  • Brocade FX8-24 Extension Blade (918.9 KB)

• FAQs

  • Brocade Fabric Vision Technology FAQs (94 KB)

• Matrices

  • Brocade Fabric OS 7.x Compatibility Matrix (437.8 KB)

• Technical Briefs

  • Metro Cloud Connectivity: Integrated Metro SAN Connectivity in 16 Gbps Switches (146.2 KB)

  • Operational Simplicity: Automating and Simplifying SAN Provisioning (645.1 KB)

  • SAN Design and Best Practices (3.1 MB)

  • Scale-Out Architectures with Brocade DCX 8510 Inter-Chassis Links (920.4 KB)

  • The Benefits of Brocade Gen 5 Fibre Channel (202.1 KB)