Cisco MDS 9000 Family Storage Media Encryption Configuration Guide - Release 4.x (OL-18091-01, February 2009)

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Cisco MDS 9000 Family Storage Media Encryption Configuration Guide
OL-18091-01, Cisco MDS NX-OS Release 4.x
Chapter 1 Product Overview
About Cisco Storage Media Encryption
Supported Topologies
Cisco SME supports a single-fabric topology. The Cisco MSM-18/4 module and the MDS 9222i switch
provides the Cisco SME engines used by Cisco SME to encrypt and compress data-at-rest. Multiple
modules can be deployed in a Fibre Channel fabric to easily scale-up performance, to enable simplified
load balancing, and to increase availability. In a typical configuration, one MSM-18/4 is required in each
Cisco SME cluster.
Cisco SME clusters include designated backup servers, tape libraries, and one or more MDS switches
running Cisco SAN-OS Release 3.2(2c) or later or NX-OS 4.x. One cluster switch must include an
MSM-18/4 module. With easy-to-use provisioning, traffic between any host and tape on the fabric can
utilize the Cisco SME services.
Required Cisco SME engines are included in the following Cisco products:
• Cisco MDS 9000 Family 18/4-port Multiservice Module (MSM-18/4)
• Cisco MDS 9222i Multiservice Module Switch
Single-Fabric Topology
Figure 1-3 shows a single-fabric topology in which the data from the HR server is forwarded to the Cisco
MSM-18/4. The Cisco MSM-18/4 can be anywhere in the fabric. Cisco SME does a one-to-one mapping
of the information from the host to the target and forwards the encrypted data to the dedicated HR tape.
Cisco SME also tracks the barcodes on each encrypted tape and associates the barcodes with the host
servers.
Figure 1-3 shows encrypted data from the HR server is compressed and stored in the HR tape library.
Data from the Email server is not encrypted when backed up to the dedicated Email tape library.