Cisco MDS 9222i (DS-C9222i-K9) Full Product Description

1. Short Sales Title

2. Official Product Overview

Core Hardware Differentiators vs MDS 9216i-K9

1. Higher native port count: 18 integrated 4G FC ports + 4 built-in 1G GE IP ports (MDS 9216i only 14 FC + 2 GE), doubling native IP gateway bandwidth for FCIP / iSCSI cross-site replication.
2. Native 4Gbps FC auto-sensing baseline hardware (MDS 9216i limited to max 2G), larger VOQ virtual output queuing buffers optimized for flash array and virtualization burst I/O.
3. Supports both Generation 2 and Generation 3 MDS 9000 modules (MDS 9216i only Generation 2 compatible), enabling high-density 48-port FC switching modules and advanced SSM encryption/replication service cardsCisco.
4. Advanced IP acceleration ASIC: Built-in FCIP write acceleration and tape read/write pipelining, up to 16 concurrent FCIP tunnels across 4 GE ports (MDS 9216i lacks dedicated hardware acceleration for long-distance WAN links).
5. Dual independent hot-swappable fan trays (MDS 9216i also dual fans, but MDS 9216 single fan tray), multi-fan fault tolerance to survive one fan tray failure without SAN shutdown.
6. Massive 1.152 Tbps single-chassis non-blocking fabric capacity vs 512 Gbps hard cap on MDS 9216i, ideal for high-density multi-ISL trunk deployments.
7. Unified spare part commonality with MDS 9500 directors; power supplies, fan trays and all pluggable modules fully interchangeable to reduce enterprise inventory costs.

Core High-Availability Design

Model Suffix Breakdown

• DS-C: Cisco MDS storage switch part number prefix
• 9222i: MDS 9200 second-generation multiservice fabric series, 18 integrated 4G FC SFP ports + 4×1G GE native IP gateway ports, single universal expansion slot
• K9: Standard AC power SKU with full multilayer SAN enterprise/carrier feature license; DS-C9222i-HV-K9 is separate high-voltage DC telecom variant (power supplies/fans color-coded and non-interchangeable between AC/HV airflow SKUs)
• i = Integrated multiservice IP gateway hardware built into base supervisor chassis

3. Chassis Port & Hardware Layout Definition

1. Front Base Integrated Ports (hardwired to integrated supervisor backplane)
   • Ports 1–18: Hot-swappable SFP slots, autosensing 1/2/4 Gbps Fibre Channel, all ports full non-blocking line-rate bandwidth (mixed host, storage, ISL trunk use)
   • GE1–GE4: Four dedicated fixed RJ45 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet ports for FCIP WAN SAN extension and iSCSI IP storage gateway functions
2. Front Universal Expansion Bay: Single empty hot-swappable module slot supporting all MDS 9000 Generation 2 / Generation 3 pluggable hardware:
   • DS-X9248-256 48-port high-density 4G FC switching module to scale total fabric port count
   • SSM Storage Services Module for inline tape/media encryption and asynchronous cross-fabric replication
   • MPS-14/2 Multiprotocol Services Module for additional FC and IP gateway capacity
3. Out-of-Band Management Interfaces
   • RJ45 RS232 serial console port for local CLI access
   • Legacy DB-9 COM terminal port for industrial terminal equipment connectivity
   • Isolated 10/100BASE-T Ethernet out-of-band management port for remote SSH/Telnet/SNMP administration
   • Onboard flash storage partition for SAN-OS/NX-OS firmware images and running configuration archives
   • Physical reset button for factory default configuration recovery
4. Front Diagnostic LED Bank: Global system status, power supply A/B, fan tray, base FC port, GE IP port, expansion module port, link activity, hardware fault alarm, UID blue locator beacon indicator
5. Rear Compartment Layout: Dual independent hot-swappable 845W AC power supply bays supporting 1+1 redundant power operation
6. Front lower fan bays: Two separate hot-swappable multi-fan variable-speed fan assemblies
7. Airflow Specification: Fixed front-to-back cold air intake at port panel, hot air exhausted from rear power supply compartment (cold aisle rack standard only, no reversed hot-aisle airflow hardware variant)

Supported Transceivers & Expansion Hardware

1. Fibre Channel SFP transceivers (sold separately):
   • DS-SFP-FC4G-SW: 4Gbps short-wave multimode, 500m transmission reach
   • DS-SFP-FC4G-LW: 4Gbps long-wave single-mode, 10km transmission reach
   • Backward compatible with legacy 1G / 2G FC SFPs for existing storage array interoperation
2. Expansion module compatibility: All MDS 9000 Generation 2 / Generation 3 port and multi-protocol service modules interchangeable with MDS 9500 directors
3. Power supply compatibility: 845W AC PSUs exclusive to DS-C9222i-K9; high-voltage DC 845W PSUs manufactured for DS-C9222i-HV-K9 telecom variant, airflow-specific hardware cannot be mixed between SKUs
4. Native GE ports use copper RJ45 media (no SFP transceivers required for IP gateway functions)

4. Hardware & Physical Specifications

Core SAN Switching & Routing Performance

• Single-chassis non-blocking fabric maximum aggregate bandwidth: 1.152 Tbps full-duplex
• Wire-speed frame forwarding rate: Up to 1024 Mpps Fibre Channel frame switching at full 4G line rate
• Low-latency virtual output queuing (VOQ) shared packet buffer pool with dedicated buffer credit allocation for NVMe flash, OLTP database and multi-tenant VPN burst I/O
• FC N_Port address table capacity: 1,048,576 unique host identifiers, optimized for dense blade server rack deployments
• Maximum isolated VSAN virtual fabrics: 4094
• Maximum active zone sets: 256 zone sets, up to 2000 individual zone entries per VSAN
• Jumbo FC frame MTU support: Up to 9000 bytes
• Supported FC port operating modes: F (Fabric host), FL (Arbitrated Loop), TL (Extended Loop), E (ISL inter-switch trunk), TE (Extended ISL), NP (NPV edge host aggregation)
• Link aggregation: PortChannel multi-port FC ISL trunk bundling, maximum 16 FC ports per logical bundle with load balancing
• NPV/NPIV native hardware acceleration: Consolidate thousands of rack server host ports upstream to MDS core directors without core fabric control-plane overhead
• Native multi-protocol ASIC hardware offload: FICON, FCIP, iSCSI multi-stack processing + dedicated FCIP write acceleration and tape pipelining for long-distance WAN replication

Power & Cooling System

• Power supply bays: 2 hot-swappable redundant slots, each 845W AC PSU fully powers complete chassis independently (1+1 N+1 failover protection)
• AC input voltage range: 100–240V 50/60Hz universal auto-ranging alternating current
• Fan trays: Two separate hot-swappable multi-fan assemblies; minimum two functional fan trays required to avoid thermal shutdown, single fan tray failure triggers SNMP fault alert without SAN traffic interruption
• Real-time telemetry monitoring: Fan rotational speed, internal chassis ambient temperature, PSU input/output voltage, SFP optical transmit power, port error counters and module fault logging via console syslog and SNMP v1/v2c/v3 traps; major thermal alarm threshold at 55°C
• Typical full-load power draw: 225W fully populated with 18×4G SFPs + high-density 48-port expansion module under maximum storage traffic load
• MTBF: 275,000 hours under standard data center and service provider PoP operating conditions

Physical & Environmental Parameters

• Rack form factor: 3 RU standard 19-inch horizontal rack mount
• Dimensions (H × W × D): 13.34 cm × 44.45 cm × 57.82 cm (5.25 × 17.5 × 22.75 inches; extended depth 70.37cm with cable management guide installed)
• Bare chassis weight: 14.1 kg (31 lbs) without power supplies and fan trays; fully loaded maximum weight 20.8 kg (46 lbs) with dual PSUs, dual fan trays and populated expansion service module
• Operating ambient temperature range: 0°C to 40°C (32°F–104°F); certified altitude up to 2000 meters
• Storage temperature range: -40°C to 70°C (-40°F–158°F)
• Relative humidity: 10%–90% non-condensing operating; 5%–95% non-condensing storage
• Compliance Certifications: FCC Class A, UL 60950-1, CE, VCCI Class A, NEBS Level 3, RoHS compliant per regional environmental regulations

Control Plane Out-of-Band Management Interfaces

• Dual local CLI access: RJ45 RS232 serial console port + legacy DB-9 COM terminal port
• Dedicated isolated 10/100BASE-T out-of-band Ethernet management port for remote fabric administration
• Onboard flash storage for offline SAN-OS/NX-OS image and configuration archives
• Front panel multi-status LED bank providing real-time hardware health visualization

5. Full SAN-OS / NX-OS Multilayer Feature Set (Cisco SAN-OS 3.x / NX-OS 4.x / 5.x)

Layer 2 Fibre Channel Switching & Fabric Services

• VSAN Virtual Storage Area Network: Logical fabric segmentation for multi-application / multi-tenant storage environment isolation
• Dual zoning models: Hard port zoning and soft WWN Smart Zoning for granular host-storage access control
• Complete FICON protocol stack support for IBM mainframe disk and tape enterprise storage connectivity
• Inter-Switch Link (ISL) trunk PortChannel load balancing across mixed 1G/2G/4G FC port speeds (max 16-port bundles)
• DTP Fibre Channel trunk negotiation protocol, FSPF dynamic fabric domain ID routing
• Local SPAN, RSPAN, ESPAN enhanced remote SAN traffic mirroring for multi-session performance troubleshooting
• Per-port broadcast/multicast storm suppression to eliminate fabric-wide RSCN broadcast outages
• NPV N_Port Virtualizer edge switch mode for large-scale core-edge enterprise SAN architecture deployment
• Slow drain detection and congestion isolation hardware feature to mitigate buffer credit starvation

Multilayer Storage Routing & Multi-Protocol Features

• FSPF Fibre Channel Shortest Path First dynamic fabric routing for multi-switch distributed SAN topologies
• PIM-SM IP multicast for cross-fabric asynchronous synchronous backup replication traffic
• Static FC route configuration for controlled inter-VSAN storage data movement
• Licensed IVR Inter-VSAN Routing feature for secure data transfer between isolated VSANs
• Complete carrier-grade MPLS service suite: MPLS LDP, VPLS, VPWS, FCIP over MPLS, iSCSI multi-protocol gateway for IP WAN cross-site SAN extension
• FCIP tunnel compression, write acceleration and tape pipelining hardware offload for long-distance disaster recovery replication

Advanced SAN QoS & Traffic Prioritization

• Four hardware priority queues per Fibre Channel port for tiered classification of storage I/O traffic
• Ingress frame policing, egress bandwidth shaping to throttle low-priority tape backup and replication streams
• Pre-built QoS templates for production OLTP, NVMe flash storage, tape backup, and disaster recovery replication streams
• Dedicated high-priority traffic queue for low-latency real-time unified communications and database workloads
• Medianet media optimization for enterprise video and telepresence storage workflows

Enterprise & Service Provider SAN Security Suite

• Port security: Static WWN locking to block unauthorized physical server/storage device attachment
• RBAC Role-Based Access Control granular CLI user privilege partitioning, integrated with Cisco ISE
• SSHv2 encrypted remote CLI management, SNMPv3 secure monitoring, AES encrypted startup configuration files
• DH-CHAP mutual bidirectional authentication for ISL inter-switch link fabric authentication
• Port lockdown, VSAN read-only access permissions, full audit logging for all fabric configuration changes
• FIPS 140-2 validated security compliance for government and financial regulated environments
• Cisco TrustSec security group tagging for end-to-end policy segmentation across campus and data center domains
• IPv6 over Fibre Channel support for modern dual-stack management networks

Monitoring & SAN Management Tools

• Cisco DCNM-SAN centralized graphical SAN fabric monitoring, provisioning and REST API automation
• Isolated out-of-band Ethernet management port for offline device access during fabric outages
• External USB flash storage for offline NX-OS/SAN-OS image upgrades, configuration backup archives and syslog export
• Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) automatic MDS fabric neighbor device discovery
• Real-time storage telemetry: Port throughput, latency, frame error counters, SFP optical power diagnostics
• Event notification via email, syslog and SNMP traps for fabric fault alerting
• GOLD Generic Online Diagnostics continuous hardware health validation without traffic interruption

6. High Availability Capabilities (Core Differentiators vs MDS 9216i-K9 2G Model)

1. Dual hot-swappable high-efficiency 845W AC redundant power supplies (1+1 power failover protection, stable under fully populated high-density expansion module load)
2. Dual redundant variable-speed hot-swappable fan trays with multi-fan fault tolerance (survive one fan tray failure without SAN outage)
3. Full OIR Online Insertion and Removal support for fan tray, power supplies and SFP transceivers; live FRU replacement without chassis power cycle or SAN traffic drop
4. Native 4G full non-blocking per-port Fibre Channel bandwidth (MDS 9216i limited to maximum 2G line rate)
5. Expanded native IP gateway capacity: 4×1G GE ports vs only 2 GE ports on MDS 9216i, supporting up to 16 concurrent FCIP tunnels with dedicated hardware acceleration
6. Universal expansion slot compatible with Generation 2 + Generation 3 MDS 9000 family port/multi-protocol service modules (MDS 9216i restricted to Generation 2 modules only)
7. Massive 1.152 Tbps single-chassis non-blocking fabric capacity, doubling MDS 9216i’s 512 Gbps bandwidth limit
8. Modern dual-image SAN-OS/NX-OS software stack with native EVPN, POAP and REST API automation absent from MDS 9216i legacy SAN-OS-only firmware
9. Limitation: Fixed compact 3RU modular chassis with no redundant hot-swappable supervisor card, fixed front-to-back cold aisle airflow only, no native 8G/16G/32G Fibre Channel generation hardware support

7. Typical Deployment Scenarios

1. Medium-to-Large Virtualized Data Center Rack-Scale Edge SAN Switch
   3RU rack modular form factor deployed as departmental building core SAN gateway; 18 integrated base 4G FC ports connect primary production disk and flash storage arrays, four built-in GE ports provide multi-tunnel FCIP inter-building trunk links to central MDS 9500 core director without consuming the expansion slot, leaving the expansion bay free to add high-density 48-port FC switching modules or SSM encryption/replication services as storage capacity grows.
2. Large Regional Mission-Critical Headquarters SAN
   Financial, healthcare and government headquarters storage deployments require complete dual power + dual-fan hardware redundancy to avoid site-wide catastrophic database and tape backup storage outages; integrated FICON mainframe DR replication and MPLS multi-tenant VSAN isolation features support mixed enterprise and agency storage workloads in a single space-efficient chassis.
3. Medium Service Provider Multi-Tenant PoP Edge Storage Gateway
   Native full MPLS/VPLS/EVPN carrier-grade feature set and massive FC address table scale make DS-C9222i-K9 ideal for carrier PoP edge deployments, terminating hundreds of 4G enterprise customer access circuits and high-speed multi-port ISL core backbone trunks with logical VSAN multi-tenant isolation to separate independent customer storage fabrics.
4. Legacy MDS 9216 / MDS 9216i SAN Hardware Refresh Upgrade
   Drop-in performance upgrade for aging 2G MDS multiservice modular switches, fully backward compatible with existing 1G/2G Fibre Channel SFP transceivers while unlocking native 4G line-rate bandwidth, quadrupled IP gateway tunnel capacity, Generation 3 module compatibility and modern NX-OS automation workflows.
5. Centralized Enterprise Tape Library Backup Fabric Core
   Deployed as dedicated backup SAN aggregation core switch, utilizing multi-port FCIP tunnel links via built-in GE ports to create asynchronous off-site tape archive and disaster recovery replication links to secondary DR storage fabrics, with the expansion slot available for future storage encryption and compliance audit service module additions.

8. Standard Package Contents

Items Sold Separately (Not Included)

• Dual 845W AC hot-swappable redundant power supply units (airflow color-matched I/E variants non-interchangeable)
• Dual matching hot-swappable variable-speed fan trays
• Optional MDS 9000 family pluggable expansion service/port modules (48-port 4G FC switching module, SSM encryption/replication module, MPS-14/2 multi-protocol gateway module)
• DS-SFP-FC4G-SW / DS-SFP-FC4G-LW Fibre Channel SFP optical transceivers for all base FC ports (backward compatible with 1G/2G FC SFPs)
• Optional IVR Inter-VSAN Routing multilayer software license
• RS232 serial console rollover cable, DB-9 legacy COM terminal cable
• USB flash memory sticks for NX-OS/SAN-OS image and configuration storage
• Fibre channel patch cords, cable management accessories, rack cable guides

Short Commercial Catalog Version (For Quotation & Datasheet Use)