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Product Overview
The Cisco UCS 6200 Series Fabric Interconnects are a core part of the Cisco Unified Computing System,
providing both network connectivity and management capabilities for the system (Figure 2). The Cisco UCS 6200
Series offers line-rate, low-latency, lossless 10 Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), and Fibre
Channel functions.
The Cisco UCS 6200 Series provides the management and communication backbone for the Cisco UCS B-Series
Blade Servers and 5100 Series Blade Server Chassis. All chassis, and therefore all blades, attached to the Cisco
UCS 6200 Series Fabric Interconnects become part of a single, highly available management domain. In addition,
by supporting unified fabric, the Cisco UCS 6200 Series provides both the LAN and SAN connectivity for all blades
within its domain.
From a networking perspective, the Cisco UCS 6200 Series uses a cut-through architecture, supporting
deterministic, low-latency, line-rate 10 Gigabit Ethernet on all ports, switching capacity of 2 terabits (Tb), and
320-Gbps bandwidth per chassis, independent of packet size and enabled services. The product family supports
Cisco
®
low-latency, lossless 10 Gigabit Ethernet
1
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 interconnect. Significant TCO savings come from an
FCoE-optimized server design in which network interface cards (NICs), host bus adapters (HBAs), cables, and
switches can be consolidated.
Figure 2. Cisco UCS 6200 Series Fabric Interconnects
Unified Fabric with FCoE: I/O Consolidation
The Cisco UCS 6200 Series is built to consolidate LAN and SAN traffic onto a single unified fabric, saving the
capital expenditures (CapEx) and operating expenses (OpEx) associated with multiple parallel networks, different
types of adapter cards, switching infrastructure, and cabling within racks. The unified ports support allows either
base or expansion module ports in the interconnect to support direct connections from Cisco UCS to existing
native Fibre Channel SANs. The capability to connect FCoE to native Fibre Channel protects existing storage
system investments while dramatically simplifying in-rack cabling.
1
All Cisco UCS 6200 Series ports can alternatively be configured for 1 Gigabit Ethernet (see Table 2).
