Cisco MDS 9506 (DS-C9506) Full Product Description

1. Short Sales Title

2. Official Product Overview & Lifecycle

Core Hardware Differentiators vs Fixed MDS 92xx / MDS 93xx Switches

1. True modular director backplane architecture with dedicated redundant supervisor fabric slots (Slots 5/6) + four universal line card slots (Slots 1–4), supporting hot-swappable FC switching modules, MPS multi-protocol IP gateway cards, SSM encryption/replication service modules without chassis power cycleCisco. All MDS 91xx/9250i/93xx are fixed-port with limited or zero expansion slots.
2. Dual redundant Supervisor-1 / Supervisor-2 fabric modules with integrated crossbar switching, stateful failover and non-disruptive ISSU firmware upgrades (fixed switches have single non-replaceable integrated supervisor).
3. Scalable port density: Max 192×4G FC ports when populated with four 48-port DS-X9248-256 line cards, expandable from minimal 12-port base configurations; fixed MDS 9216 only max 30 ports, MDS 9396S/T/V single fixed 96-port ceilingCisco.
4. Native multi-protocol hardware offload via pluggable MPS-14/2 service cards: 2×1G Ethernet for FCIP cross-site SAN extension and iSCSI IP storage gateway (feature built-in only on dedicated service modules, unavailable on base fixed switches).
5. Full FICON mainframe tape/disk acceleration ASIC for IBM enterprise mainframe storage consolidation, a specialized feature missing from most fixed-port MDS switches.
6. Enterprise-grade redundant FRU design: Dual hot-swappable high-wattage power supplies, single 6-fan hot-swappable cooling tray, all field-replaceable units support OIR live replacement without SAN traffic interruptionManualsLib.
7. Unified spare part commonality with MDS 9509/9513 directors (supervisors, power supplies, fan trays, line cards interchangeable) to reduce enterprise maintenance inventory costs.

Core High-Availability Design

Model Suffix Breakdown

• DS-C: Cisco MDS storage director base chassis part number prefix
• 9506: MDS 9500 series 6-slot modular director chassis (4 line card slots + 2 supervisor slots)
• No suffix base chassis = DS-C9506 bare metal frame; complete bundled SKUs like DS-C9506-2K9 include dual Sup-2 + dual AC power supplies

3. Chassis Slot & Hardware Layout Definition

1. Slot Mapping (6 total internal slots on 7RU backplane)
   • Slots 1, 2, 3, 4: Universal hot-swappable line card slots (FC switching modules / MPS multi-protocol service modules / SSM storage service modules)
   • Slots 5, 6: Dedicated redundant supervisor/fabric module slots (only Supervisor-1 / Supervisor-2 fabric cards supported here; Slot5 defaults active, Slot6 standby)Cisco
2. Front Fan Tray: Single integrated hot-swappable multi-fan tray with six variable-speed cooling fans for full chassis airflow
3. Rear Power Compartment: Two independent hot-swappable power supply bays supporting AC or DC high-voltage power modules
4. Out-of-Band Management Interfaces (located on each supervisor module)
   • RJ45 RS232 serial console port for local CLI access
   • Legacy DB-9 RS232 COM terminal port
   • Isolated 10/100BASE-T out-of-band Ethernet management port for remote SSH/Telnet/SNMP administration
   • Onboard compact flash storage partition for SAN-OS firmware images and running configuration archives
5. Front Global Diagnostic LED Bank: Chassis system status, power supply A/B, fan tray, supervisor module, line card port link activity, hardware fault alarm, UID blue locator beacon indicator
6. Airflow Specification: Fixed front-to-back cold air intake (port/fan tray side), hot air exhausted from rear power supply compartment (cold aisle rack standard only; no reversed hot-aisle airflow variant available for MDS 9506)

Supported Transceivers & Pluggable Modules

1. Fibre Channel SFP transceivers (sold separately for all line card FC ports):
   • 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. Supported pluggable line/service modules for Slots 1–4:
   • DS-X9216: 16×4G FC switching module
   • DS-X9232: 32×4G FC high-density switching module
   • DS-X9248-256: 48×4G FC maximum-density line card (4×48-port = 192 total FC ports full chassis)
   • MPS-14/2 Multiprotocol Services Module: 14×2G FC + 2×1G copper GE ports for FCIP / iSCSI gateway
   • SSM Storage Services Module: Inline tape encryption, asynchronous cross-fabric replication, SAN performance analytics
3. Supervisor module compatibility: Supervisor-1 Gen1 fabric module, Supervisor-2 Gen2 upgraded fabric module (higher throughput, larger buffer pools)
4. Power supply compatibility: 1900W AC PEM modules (DS-PWR-1900AC), 1900W DC PEM telecom modules (DS-PWR-1900DC), non-interchangeable between AC/HV chassis variants

4. Hardware & Physical Specifications

Core SAN Switching & Routing Performance

• Single-chassis non-blocking fabric maximum aggregate bandwidth: 1.024 Tbps full-duplex (fully populated with four 48-port 4G line cards)
• Wire-speed frame forwarding rate: Up to 1024 Mpps Fibre Channel frame switching at full 4G line rate per port
• Low-latency virtual output queuing (VOQ) shared packet buffer pool with configurable buffer credit allocation for long-distance ISL trunk links
• 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 dynamic load balancing
• NPV/NPIV native hardware acceleration: Consolidate thousands of server host ports upstream to MDS core directors without core fabric control-plane overhead
• Native multi-protocol ASIC hardware offload: Full FICON tape/disk processing, FCIP tunnel compression, write acceleration, tape pipelining for cross-site disaster recovery replication

Power & Cooling System

• Power supply bays: 2 hot-swappable redundant slots, each 1900W PSU fully powers complete chassis independently (1+1 N+1 failover protection)
• AC input voltage range: 100–240V AC (10% tolerance), 50/60Hz universal auto-ranging alternating current
• Fan tray: Single integrated hot-swappable six-fan variable-speed assembly; minimum full tray functional to avoid thermal shutdown, single fan failure triggers SNMP fault alert
• 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; critical thermal alarm threshold at 55°C
• Typical full-load power draw: 320W fully populated with four 48-port 4G line cards + dual supervisor modules under maximum storage traffic load
• MTBF: 260,000 hours under standard enterprise data center operating conditions

Physical & Environmental Parameters

• Rack form factor: 7 RU standard 19-inch horizontal rack mount
• Dimensions (H × W × D): 13.34 cm × 44.45 cm × 57.82 cm (7 rack units, 17.5 × 22.75 inch depth; extended depth 70.37cm with cable management guide installed)
• Bare chassis weight: 14.1 kg (31 lbs) without power supplies/fan tray/line cards; fully loaded maximum weight 21.3 kg (47 lbs) with dual PSUs, fan tray and four 48-port line cards installed
• 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 per supervisor: RJ45 RS232 serial port + legacy DB-9 COM terminal port
• Dedicated isolated 10/100BASE-T out-of-band Ethernet management port per supervisor
• Onboard flash storage for offline SAN-OS firmware image and configuration archives
• Front panel multi-status LED bank providing real-time hardware health visualization

5. Full SAN-OS Multilayer Feature Set (Cisco SAN-OS Release 1.x / 2.x / 3.x)

Layer 2 Fibre Channel 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 2G/4G FC port speeds (max 16-port bundles)
• DTP Fibre Channel trunk negotiation protocol, FSPF dynamic fabric domain ID routing
• Local SPAN, RSPAN 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
• POAP Power On Auto Provisioning zero-touch switch deployment for mass access rack rollouts

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 VSAN fabrics
• FCIP + iSCSI multi-protocol gateway processing via MPS service modules for IP WAN cross-site SAN extension
• FCIP tunnel hardware acceleration: lossless compression, write acceleration, tape pipelining 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 and egress bandwidth shaping to throttle low-priority tape backup and replication streams
• Pre-built QoS templates for production OLTP database workloads, tape backup archives, and disaster recovery replication
• Dedicated high-priority traffic queue for low-latency virtual machine and enterprise database I/O workloads

Enterprise 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 with multi-tier administrator access
• 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
• VSAN read-only access permissions, port lockdown controls, complete audit logging for all fabric configuration changes
• Compatibility with MDS SSM encryption and remote replication service modules for data-at-rest tape security

Monitoring & SAN Management Tools

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

6. High Availability Capabilities (Core Differentiators vs MDS 9216i-K9 Fixed Modular Switch)

1. Dual redundant Supervisor-1/Supervisor-2 fabric modules with stateful failover and ISSU non-disruptive firmware upgrades (MDS 9216i single integrated supervisor non-hot-swappable)
2. Four universal line card expansion slots supporting up to 192 total FC ports (MDS 9216i only one expansion slot max 30 FC ports)
3. Dedicated integrated crossbar fabric on each supervisor for full non-blocking chassis throughput
4. Dual hot-swappable high-wattage 1900W AC redundant power supplies (MDS 9216i lower-wattage single-redundancy PSUs)
5. Full native FICON mainframe hardware acceleration built into supervisor ASICs (MDS 9216i requires separate service module for limited FICON support)
6. Unified spare part inventory shared with MDS 9509/9513 large directors to reduce enterprise maintenance costs
7. OIR hot-swap support for all major FRUs (supervisors, line cards, power supplies, fan tray) without chassis power cycle
8. Limitation: Legacy 4G Fibre Channel generation hardware only, no native 8G/16G/32G/64G FC support, fixed front-to-back single-direction airflow, legacy SAN-OS firmware stack lacking modern NX-OS automation, EVPN-FC and REST API features, end-of-support since April 30, 2022.

7. Typical Deployment Scenarios

1. Mid-to-Large Virtualized Multi-Building Enterprise Core SAN Director
   7RU modular rack form factor deployed as campus central SAN core director; four 48-port 4G line cards populate all line card slots for 192 total FC ports connecting distributed building MDS 92xx edge switches, production all-flash storage arrays and dense blade server racks, dual redundant supervisors provide zero-failover fabric control-plane redundancy, VSAN segmentation isolates independent departmental production, test and backup storage fabrics.
2. Large Regional Mission-Critical Headquarters SAN
   Financial, healthcare and government headquarters storage deployments require complete dual power + dual supervisor + redundant line card hardware redundancy to avoid site-wide catastrophic database and tape backup storage outages; integrated FICON mainframe support enables long-distance cross-site DR replication via FCIP IP WAN tunnels provisioned on MPS-14/2 multi-protocol expansion modules.
3. Medium Service Provider Multi-Tenant PoP Edge Storage Gateway
   VSAN multi-tenant isolation feature logically separates dozens of independent enterprise customer storage fabrics on a single physical MDS 9506 director chassis, scalable high-density 48-port line cards support growing customer port count demand, FCIP gateway modules provide metro WAN inter-PoP storage trunk links between geographically distributed customer sites.
4. Legacy MDS 9200 / MDS 9120 SAN Fabric Consolidation Migration Director
   Interoperable bridge director between older 1G/2G fixed MDS edge switches and modern MDS 9500 series core infrastructure, fully backward compatible with legacy 1G/2G FC SFPs while providing scalable 4G high-density port expansion and unified SAN-OS fabric management across mixed-generation MDS hardware fleets.
5. Centralized Enterprise Tape Library Backup Fabric Core
   Deployed as dedicated backup SAN aggregation core director, utilizing multi-port ISL PortChannel trunk links to primary production SAN fabrics via FCIP asynchronous off-site tape archive and disaster recovery replication workloads, with unused line card slots reserved for future encryption/replication SSM service module additions as compliance storage requirements expand.

8. Standard Package Contents (Bare Chassis DS-C9506 Base SKU)

Items Sold Separately (Not Included in Bare Chassis DS-C9506)

• Dual 1900W AC hot-swappable redundant power supply units (DC telecom PSUs sold separately)
• Single matching hot-swappable six-fan variable-speed fan tray
• Two redundant Supervisor-1 or Supervisor-2 fabric modules (mandatory for chassis operation)
• Optional MDS 9000 family pluggable line/service modules (16/32/48-port 4G FC switching modules, MPS-14/2 multi-protocol FCIP/iSCSI gateway module, SSM storage encryption/replication module)
• DS-SFP-FC4G-SW / DS-SFP-FC4G-LW Fibre Channel SFP optical transceivers for all line card FC ports (backward compatible with 1G/2G FC SFPs)
• Optional IVR Inter-VSAN Routing multilayer software license, FCIP SAN Extension Enabler license, Mainframe FICON Enabler license
• RS232 serial console rollover cable, DB-9 legacy COM terminal cable
• Fibre channel patch cords, copper Ethernet patch cords, cable management accessories, rack cable guides

Short Commercial Catalog Version (For Quotation & Datasheet Use)