Cisco MDS 9000 Family Release Notes for Cisco MDS NX-OS Release 4.1(1b) (OL-17675-02, October 2008)

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Cisco MDS 9000 Family Release Notes for Cisco MDS NX-OS Release 4.1(1b)
OL-17675-02
New Features in Cisco MDS NX-OS Release 4.1(1b)
The SANTap protocol allows appliances to get an I/O copy for data replication, continuous data
protection, and data migration without affecting the integrity, availability, and performance of the
primary I/O between servers and storage. Cisco MDS 9000 family network-assisted storage applications
with SANTap provide highly scalable solutions that allow efficient workload distribution to multiple
appliances based on the application and source-and-target combinations.
In NX-OS Release 4.1(1b), further enhancements have been made to RAM ARL and AVT. There are two
key enhancements to the RAM ARL. The DPP limit is increased from 2 MB to 4 MB and there is a new
SCP primitive to dynamically resize bitmap sizes. For an existing session, the new SCP primitive can be
used to specify a new region size, which would trigger SANTap to recalculate the new bitmap size and
re-allocate for the new size without deleting the SANTap session.
IPv6 Support
Beginning with NX-OS Release 4.1(1b), IPv6 is supported on the MSM-18/4 module and the MDS 9222i
switch.
NPV Traffic Management
Cisco NX-OS Software supports industry-standard N-port identifier virtualization (NPIV), which allows
multiple N-port fabric logins concurrently on a single physical Fibre Channel link. HBAs that support
NPIV can help improve SAN security by enabling zoning and port security to be configured
independently for each virtual machine (OS partition) on a host. In addition to being useful for server
connections, NPIV is beneficial for connectivity between core and edge SAN switches.
Cisco NX-OS Release 4.1(1b) includes a new MIB for N-Port Virtualization (NPV) traffic management
that allows Cisco Fabric Manager to specify which NP-ports can be utilized by particular F-ports
(servers) for connections to NPV core switches. The NPV traffic management feature allows end-users
to manage available bandwidth to core switches by reserving NP-ports to carry traffic for specific
servers.
Control over the switch-wide load balancing mode has also been included in the MIB. When load
balancing is enabled for switches operating in the NPV mode, the assignments of F-ports to NP-ports is
updated (rebalanced). If a new NP-port is added while in the load balancing mode, the load balancing is
evaluated and updated automatically. It is a disruptive process when rebalancing occurs on affected
ports.
CFS Distribution Using Static List
Cisco NX-OS Release 4.1(1b) combines the Cisco Fabric Services (CFS) static list feature with the
Fabric Manager NPV device discovery feature and provides a near-seamless user experience of
managing NPV devices using CFS.
The Cisco NX-OS software uses the CFS infrastructure to enable efficient database distribution and to
foster device flexibility. It simplifies SAN provisioning by automatically distributing configuration
information to all switches in a fabric.