Technical data

Brocade VDX 6720 Hardware Reference Manual 1

53-1002084-06

Chapter

Brocade VDX 6720 Introduction

In this chapter

•Brocade VDX 6720 overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

•Views of the Brocade VDX 6720-24 switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

•Views of the Brocade VDX 6720-60 switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Brocade VDX 6720

overview

The Brocade VDX 6720 switches are a pair of 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) line-rate, low latency,

lossless Data Center Bridging (DCB) switches: the Brocade VDX 6720-24 (a 24-port, single-height

switch) and the Brocade VDX 6720-60 (a 60-port, double-height switch).The Brocade VDX 6720

run on the Brocade Network Operating System (Network OS) v2.0.0 or later. For details about

Network OS, refer to the Brocade Network OS Administrator’s Guide.

The Brocade VDX 6720 switches offer Ports on Demand (POD) licensing. Base models of the

switches contain 16 Ethernet ports (for the Brocade VDX 6720-24) or 40 Ethernet ports (for the

Brocade VDX 6720-60). Additional ports can be licensed by way of POD. One POD license on the

Brocade VDX 6720-24 allows an additional 8 ports to be activated. For the Brocade VDX 6720-60,

two POD licenses (for 10 ports each) can be purchased.

A key feature of the Brocade VDX 6720 switches is Brocade VCS™ technology, which includes

virtual cluster switching, a new set of technologies that allows users to create flatter, virtualized,

and converged data center networks. VCS fabrics are scalable, permitting users to expand at their

own pace, and simplified, allowing users to manage the fabric as a single entity. VCS-based

Ethernet fabrics are convergence-capable, with technologies such as Fibre Channel over Ethernet

(FCoE) for storage.

Platform components and capabilities

The Brocade VDX 6720 switches offer the following features and capabilities:

• A system motherboard that features a Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) CPU running

at 1.3 GHz with integrated peripherals

• An RJ45 10/100/1000 Ethernet out-of-band management port

• An RJ45-fronted serial (RS-232) port for terminal access and debugging

• A USB port for firmware upgrades and system log downloads

• Support for long-range and short-range SFP+ GbE transceivers

• Support for optical cables and active twin axial (twinax) copper cables

• Support for direct-attach copper cables