IBM Storage Networking SAN96C-7 Switch

High-speed Fibre Channel connectivity

Read the data sheet
A sleek, rectangular network switch featuring multiple ports on the front panel. The device is set against a clean, white background, emphasizing its modern design and functionality. Ideal for enterprise or data center use, the switch showcases advanced connectivity options.

Overview

IBM Storage Networking SAN96C-7 SAN switch provides up to 96 Fibre Channel ports at 64 Gbps. It is part of IBM’s range of storage area network switches hardware.

The next-generation IBM SAN96C-7 64-Gbps 96-port two rack unit (2 RU) Fibre Channel switch provides high-speed Fibre Channel connectivity for all-flash arrays and high-performance hosts, and state-of-the-art analytics and telemetry capabilities—all built into its ASIC chipset. It allows you to seamlessly transition to non-volatile memory express FC (NVMe/FC) workloads without needing to upgrade any SAN hardware. This setup is ideal for enterprises that rapidly deploy cloud-scale applications with dense, virtualized servers as it provides the benefits of greater bandwidth, scale and consolidation.

IBM SAN96C-7 switch has 96 x 8/16/32/64-Gbps multispeed ports which provide an aggregate bandwidth of 6 Tbps per switch for highly scalable designs in hyperscale environments that drive several thousands of virtual machine instances within a rack.
Benefits
High performance

Improve performance with centralized nonblocking arbitration that provides consistent 64-Gbps low-latency performance across all traffic conditions for every Fibre Channel port on the switch.
Attain high availabililty

Achieve near continuous availability and reliability by providing redundancy on all major components such as the power supply and cooling subsystems.
Enhance reliability

Make use of Forward Error Correction (FEC) between switch ports and HBA ports on all 64-Gbps Fibre Channel fixed switches to enhance reliability.
Features Secure-boot and anti-counterfeiting technology

Uses onboard hardware that protects the entire system from malicious attacks by securing access to critical components such as the bootloader, system image loader and Joint Test Action Group (JTAG) interface.

 Fully integrated SAN analytics

Offers state-of-the-art data traffic analytics that calculates performance data on board the switch in real-time and streamed to any analytics visualization platform.

 Buffer-to-Buffer State Change Notification (BBSCN)

Offers Buffer-to-Buffer State Change Notification (BBSCN) feature to help correct any error that is introduced in-flight at the receiver end.

 Intelligent services

Provides services like Auto-zone, Smart Zoning, slow-drain detection and isolation, Virtual SAN (VSAN) and Inter-VSAN Routing (IVR) and fabric-wide Quality of Service (QoS) to enable migration from SAN islands to enterprise-wide storage networks.

 Sophisticated diagnostics tools

Includes Inter-Switch Link (ISL) diagnostics, Host Bus Adapter (HBA) diagnostics, remote SFP-error collection (Small Form-factor Pluggable-error collection), Switched Port Analyzer (SPAN), Slow Drain Monitoring and an Online Health Management System for greater reliability, faster problem resolution and reduced service costs.

 Dynamic Ingress Rate Limiting (DIRL)

Detects automatically any symptoms of congestion and dynamically applies rate limits to congested and slow-drain devices so that adverse effects do not spread to other devices.

Related products

SAN96C-6

SAN96C-6 is the predecessor of this switch that operates at a 32Gbps max speed.

 SAN48C-7

The next-generation IBM SAN48C-7 64-Gbps 48-port Fibre Channel switch provides high-speed Fibre Channel connectivity for all-flash arrays and high-performance hosts.

 SAN24C-7

Use high performance and low latency with the latest Gen 7 Fibre Channel technology that uses a 64-Gbps, 24-port SAN Switch.

 Storage area network (SAN) solutions

Explore all Storage Area Network (SAN) solutions
Take the next step

Learn how SAN96C-7 switch rapidly deploys cloud-scale applications for greater bandwidth, scale and consolidation.  Schedule a no-cost 30-minute meeting with an IBM Storage representative.
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