Product Overview

The Cisco ® UCS 6100 Series Fabric Interconnects are a core part of the Cisco Unified Computing System, providing both network connectivity and management capabilities for the system . The Cisco UCS 6100 Series offers line-rate, low-latency, lossless 10 Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) functions.
The Cisco UCS 6100 Series provides the management and communication backbone for the Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers and UCS 5100 Series Blade Server Chassis. All chassis, and therefore all blades, attached to the Cisco UCS 6100 Series Fabric Interconnects become part of a single, highly available management domain. In addition, by supporting unified fabric, the Cisco UCS 6100 Series provides both the LAN and SAN connectivity for all blades within its domain.
From a networking perspective, the Cisco UCS 6100 Series uses a cut-through architecture, supporting deterministic, low-latency, line-rate 10 Gigabit Ethernet on all ports, 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.



The Cisco UCS 6100 Series is built to consolidate LAN and SAN traffic onto a single unified fabric, saving the capital and operating expenses associated with multiple parallel networks, different types of adapter cards, switching infrastructure, and cabling within racks. Fibre Channel expansion modules in the interconnect support direct connections from the Cisco Unified Computing System 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.
Cisco UCS Manager

The Cisco 6100 Series hosts and runs the Cisco UCS Manager in a highly available configuration, enabling the fabric interconnects to fully manage all Cisco Unified Computing System elements. Connectivity to the Cisco UCS 5100 Series blade chassis is maintained through the Cisco UCS 2100 Series Fabric Extenders in each blade chassis. The Cisco 6100 Series interconnects support out-of-band management through a dedicated 10/100/1000-Mbps Ethernet management port as well as in-band management.
Cisco UCS Manager typically is deployed in a clustered active-passive configuration on redundant fabric interconnects connected through dual 10/100/1000 Ethernet clustering ports.
Optimization for Virtualization

For virtualized environments, the Cisco 6100 Series supports Cisco VM-FEX architecture. Cisco VM-FEX architecture allows the interconnects to provide policy-based virtual machine connectivity, mobility of network properties with the virtual machine, and a consistent operational model for both physical and virtual environments.
Cisco UCS 6120XP 20-Port and UCS 6140XP 40-Port Fabric Interconnects

Expansion Module Options for Cisco UCS 6100 Series Fabric Interconnects

The Cisco UCS 6100 Series is equipped to support a number of expansion module options (Figure 4). Ports on any UCS Expansion Modules cannot be used for server facing connections.
• Ethernet module that provides 6 ports of 10 Gigabit Ethernet using the SFP+ interface

• Fibre Channel plus Ethernet module that provides 4 ports of 10 Gigabit Ethernet using the SFP+ interface; and 4 ports of 1/2/4-Gbps native Fibre Channel connectivity using the SFP interface

• Fibre Channel module that provides 8 ports of 1/2/4-Gbps native Fibre Channel using the SFP interface for transparent connectivity with existing Fibre Channel networks

• Fibre Channel module that provides 6 ports of 1/2/4/8-Gbps native Fibre Channel using the SFP or SFP+2 interface for transparent connectivity with existing Fibre Channel networks