Brocade VDX 6940-144S Switch
64-Port and 96-Port 10 Gigabit Ethernet QSFP+ Data Center Switch with up to 12 40GbE QSFP+ ports or up to 4 100GbE QSFP28 ports

Features:

Optimizes Scale-Out Architecture

Brocade VDX switches are designed to help organizations stay ahead of application-driven network change by enabling agile growth through a scaleout architecture. This approach offers three key benefits. First, it enables network expansion as a business grows over time. Data center administrators can horizontally scale spine switches as the number of leaf switches increases. Second, scale-out architecture also enables the creation of resilient network fabrics, eliminating a single point of failure and potential downtime. Third, and most important, scale-out network architecture delivers a compelling economic benefit. Unlike scale-up, a scale-out model reduces upfront investment. And by using high-density fixed switches, it lowers the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), reducing power, cooling, and data center space.

Transforms Networks to Deliver New Levels of Scale, Agility, and Operational Efficiency

Brocade VDX switches enable organizations to evolve their data center networks at their own pace, with full investment protection. As the foundation for several data center architectures, Brocade VDX switches support Brocade IP fabrics, Brocade VCS fabrics, as well as network virtualization, including controller-based network virtualization architectures, such as VMware NSX, and standards-based (BGP-EVPN) controller-less architectures with Brocade BGP-EVPN Network Virtualization for architectural flexibility.

For organizations seeking automated provisioning capabilities to improve IT agility, Brocade VDX switches, together with Brocade VCS Fabric technology, accelerate time to value through automated provisioning of network devices and network virtualization. Automated service and resource upgrades further reduce ongoing maintenance time and costs. High availability is achieved through non-disruptive In-Service Software Upgrade (ISSU) and self-healing fabrics.

Organizations that aim to automate the entire network lifecycle and integrate with cross-domain technologies to improve business agility—but lack sufficient engineering resources or training—can transform their networks with Brocade Workflow Composer. Brocade Workflow Composer supports the Brocade VDX platform, enabling enterprise and cloud service provider IT organizations to bring network automation to IT operations. Unlike other network automation solutions that require proprietary hardware platforms and focus solely on configuration management, Brocade Workflow Composer provides turnkey, customizable, or do-it-yourself network workflow automation for provisioning, validation, troubleshooting, and remediation of the entire Brocade VDX platform—while integrating with tool chains and processes from other IT domains. Brocade Workflow Composer is powered by StackStorm, an open, extensible, and microservices-based framework that leverages the power of proven DevOps methodologies; popular open source technologies such as Puppet, Python, and Mistral; and a thriving technical community for peer collaboration and innovation to provide event-driven, cross-domain workflow automation.

Additionally, Brocade VDX switches offer programmability and interoperability options through a PyNOS Library and YANG model-based REST and Netconf APIs. Cloud orchestration and control through OpenStack and OpenDaylightbased SDN controller support enable full network integration with compute and storage resource provisioning and management.

Meets Today’s Application Demands with High Performance and Low Latency

As data centers virtualize more of their servers and VM density per server increases, organizations will require higher bandwidth connectivity to support the explosion of data and application processing. With 1/10 GbE and 40 GbE options, Brocade VDX 6940 Switches deliver the high-performance computing needed to keep up with the demands of a virtualized data center, allowing organizations to reduce network congestion, improve application performance, and meet the capacity required by 10 GbE servers. The 40 GbE and 100 GbE uplinks can easily aggregate high-bandwidth traffic and reduce bottlenecks that occur when aggregating multiple 10 GbE or 40 GbE connections, keeping data center networks working at peak performance.

In a Brocade VCS fabric, Brocade VDX 6940 Switches also help maximize network utilization with hardware-based Brocade ISL Trunking. Organizations can create a 120 GbE Brocade ISL trunk by utilizing three 40 GbE ports or 12 10 GbE ports between Brocade VDX 6940 Switches. The Brocade ISL trunk is automatically formed between two Brocade VDX switches when they are linked together, allowing traffic to be equally distributed among all ports. This increases link efficiency and limits traffic disruptions, especially during high-traffic times. Also, 40 GbE and 10 GbE trunking is supported between Brocade VDX 6940, 6740, and 8770 Switches. Refer to the Brocade VDX 6940 Hardware Reference Manual for details.

Brocade VDX 6940 Switches offer a unique balance between two conflicting attributes—buffer and latency. Niche products with very high buffer often suffer from high latency, and products with ultra-low latency are not a good fit for data centers with bursty traffic. Brocade VDX 6940 Switches, with a purpose-built data center chip, excel in optimizing buffer and latency to deliver better application performance. These switches deliver 800 ns any-port-to-any-port latency. In addition, they offer an industry-leading 24 MB deep buffer. This provides the buffering capacity to handle increases in traffic, especially during peak times when ports are congested, allowing traffic to be distributed across the ports. Brocade VDX 6940 Switches also feature a single ASIC design, instead of multiple ASIC designs commonly found in other switches. This improves performance since all ports communicate via the one ASIC.

Cloud and Big Data Environments
Brocade VDX 6940 Switches deliver optimized buffer and latency and high performance to enable greater crosssectional bandwidth for east-west traffic— exactly what cloud workloads demand. These switches offer the flexibility needed to scale out networks, deliver intelligence to more effectively manage VM mobility, as well as provide an SDN-enabled and programmable infrastructure. In addition, Brocade VDX 6940 Switches offer an advanced feature set that non-virtual and Big Data environments require. With 10, 40, and 100 GbE options for designing oversubscribed or non-oversubscribed networks, high throughput, and optimized buffer and latency, the Brocade VDX 6940 is an ideal switch for Big Data applications. Together with Brocade data center fabrics, Brocade VDX 6940 Switches can simplify network design and operations for both cloud and Big Data network fabrics.

Fits into Any Data Center Design

Brocade VDX 6940-36Q and 6940-144S front access ports are positioned to enable easy server or switch connectivity and to simplify cabling. With a choice of front-to-back or backto-front airflow, these switches are ideal for deployments connecting servers, storage, and other switches, as well as for providing compatibility for either hot aisle or cold aisle data center designs. For the 40 GbE ports that also support 10 GbE connections with breakout cables, the switches offer the flexibility needed to support a mixed environment as data centers or service providers transition to higher bandwidth.

Brocade VDX 6940 Switches are designed to connect data centers in multiple ways to meet individual design requirements. This flexible design provides investment protection, giving organizations a single switch that can support varying data center requirements. The following features help organizations meet their evolving needs:

• 10/40/100 GbE uplinks: The 40 GbE QSFP+ ports offer the flexibility to expand and interconnect the network infrastructure intelligently and efficiently while reducing bottlenecks. Brocade VDX 6940 Switches offer the option to separate each 40 GbE uplink into four 10 GbE uplinks via breakout cables. As capacity and need increase, organizations can revert to 40 GbE when ready.
• Ports on Demand: Ports on Demand (PoD) enables organizations to activate additional ports. They can purchase the number of ports that they currently need and seamlessly scale up later by simply applying a software license. This flexible and cost-efficient “pay as you grow” licensing model solves scalability challenges by allocating IT resources as needed.

Maximizes Network Availability with Efficiency and Resiliency

Brocade data center fabrics create a more efficient and resilient network, and deliver the high performance and high reliability required by modern data centers, including cloud and highly virtualized environments.

Optimizing East-West Traffic
Traditional data centers are architected with a rigid, three-tier tree topology optimized for the north-south traffic flow of client-server computing environments, compromising performance, increasing latency, and creating bottlenecks. With the increased prevalence of virtualization and distributed applications, data center network traffic is now predominantly east-west, or server-server. Brocade data center fabrics were designed and optimized to address these traffic patterns by moving traffic through any of the active paths and avoiding the multiple hops required in other tiered topologies.

In-Service Software Upgrade
The Brocade VDX 6940 delivers a highly efficient In-Service Software Upgrade (ISSU) by leveraging a software model that uses a dual-OS infrastructure on a multi-core CPU. This enables data center administrators to deliver enterprise-class business continuity on fixed switches during a software upgrade/downgrade process. This software change process is non-disruptive to Layer 2, Layer 3, Fibre Channel, and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) traffic. Moreover, the ISSU implementation is hardware-optimized, thus reducing the time it takes to complete the upgrade/downgrade process.

Advanced Storage Support
Brocade VDX 6940 Switches provide advanced storage support with multiple storage connectivity options, including FCoE, iSCSI, and NAS. They also feature Data Center Bridging (DCB), which enables the reliable exchange of storage traffic over the LAN, eliminating packet loss when network congestion occurs and allocating bandwidth as needed to keep the network running efficiently. Moreover, Brocade VDX 6940 Switches offer NAS Auto QoS intelligence to prioritize delay-sensitive IP storage traffic within the fabric and to help ensure consistent performance while decreasing latency.

Brocade Global Services

Brocade Global Services has the expertise to help organizations build scalable, efficient cloud infrastructures. Leveraging 20 years of expertise in storage, networking, and virtualization, Brocade Global Services delivers world-class professional services, technical support, and education services, enabling organizations to maximize their Brocade investments, accelerate new technology deployments, and optimize the performance of networking infrastructures.

Acquisition Options That Match Balance Sheet Objectives

Successful network deployments drive business forward, providing technical and financial agility. Brocade offers the broadest financing models, from traditional leasing to Brocade Network Subscription. Network-as-a-Service allows organizations to subscribe to network assets today then upgrade on demand, scale up or down, or return them with 60-day notification. Brocade Network Subscription plans can be structured to meet IASC guidelines for OpEx or CapEx treatment to align with financial goals.

Maximizing Investments

To help optimize technology investments, Brocade and its partners offer complete solutions that include professional services, technical support, and education.

Architectures:

Brocade Data Center Fabrics and Network Virtualization Options

Multiple network architectures offer the flexibility that can help organizations rapidly adapt to changing business conditions and traffic patterns.

Brocade Workflow Composer

Brocade Workflow Composer brings workflow-centric, cross-domain network automation to IT operations.

Specifications:

	VDX 6940-36Q	VDX 6940-144S
Form factor	1U	1U
Switching bandwidth (data rate, full duplex)	2.88 Tbps	2.88 Tbps
Switch performance	2.16 Bpps	2.16 Bpps
Port-to-port latency	800 ns	800 ns
Dimensions and Weight	Width: 44 cm (17.32 in.) Height: 4.4 cm (1.73 in.) Depth: 43.8 cm (17.22 in.) Weight: 8.9 kg (19.6 lb) without media; 10.1 kg (22.3 lb) with media	Width: 44 cm (17.32 in.) Height: 8.7 cm (3.41 in.) Depth: 48.5 cm (19.1 in.) Weight: 15.46 kg (34.1 lb) empty; 17.32 kg (38.2 lb) with media
10 GbE SFP+ ports	144 10 GbE ports using breakout cables	96 fixed 10 GbE ports and additional 48 10 GbE ports with breakout cables
1 GbE SFP	0	96
1/10 GBASE-T	0	0
40 GbE QSFP+	36	12
100 GbE QSFP28	0	4
40 GbE Ports on Demand (PoD)	24, 36	6, 12
10 GbE Ports on Demand (PoD)	N/A	64, 80, 96
Power supplies	Two internal, redundant, field-replaceable, load-sharing AC/DC power supplies	Two internal, redundant, field-replaceable, loadsharing AC/DC power supplies
Cooling fans	5 field-replaceable fans (FRUs); each fan FRU has 2 fans	4 field-replaceable fans (FRUs); each fan FRU has 1 fan
Airflow	Rear-to-front or front-to-rear airflow	Rear-to-front or front-to-rear airflow
Scalability Information*
Connector options	Out-of-band Ethernet management: RJ45 (fixed) Console management: RJ45 to RS-232 (fixed) Firmware and diagnostic: USB
Maximum VLANs	4,096
Maximum MAC addresses	112,000 (L2 MACs); fabric-wide 256,000 (CML)
Maximum port profiles (AMPP)	512
Maximum members in a standard LAG	16
Maximum per-port priority pause level	8
Maximum switches that a vLAG can span	8
Maximum members in a vLAG	64
Maximum jumbo frame size	9,216 bytes
Queues per port	8
DCB Priority Flow Control (PFC) classes	8
Maximum ACLs	10,000
Maximum ARP entries	84,000
Maximum IPv4 unicast routes	12,000
Maximum IPv6 unicast routes	3,000
DCB Priority Flow Control (PFC) classes	8
HA/ISSU	ISSU fully supported
Mechanical
Enclosure	Front-to-rear, rear-to-front airflow; 1U (6940-36Q) and 2U (6940-144S), 19-inch EIA-compliant; power from non-port side
Environmental	VDX 8770-4	VDX 8770-8
Temperature	Operating: 0°C to 40°C (32°F to 104°F) Non-operating and storage: −25°C to 70°C (−13°F to 158°F)
Humidity	Operating: 5% to 93% at 50°C (122°F) Non-operating and storage: 10% to 95% at 60°C (140°F)
Altitude	Operating: 0 to 3,000 m (9,842 ft.) Non-operating and storage: 0 to 12,000 m (39,370 ft.)
Shock	Operating: 15 G, 11 ms, half-sine wave Non-operating and storage: 33 G, 11 ms, half-sine wave, 5/ea axis, and 33 G 6 ms, trapezoidal, 1/ea axis
Vibration	Operating: 1 G sine, 0.5 gms random, 5 to 500 Hz Non-operating and storage: 2.4 G sine, 1.1 gms random, 5 to 500 Hz
Airflow	Maximum: 159 CMH (94 CFM) Minimum: 65 CMH (38 CFM)	Maximum: 370 CMH (218 CFM) Minimum: 95 CMH (56 CFM)
Power	VDX 6940-36Q	VDX 6940-144S
Power supplies	Two internal, redundant, field-replaceable, loadsharing power supplies	Two internal, redundant, field-replaceable, loadsharing power supplies
Power inlet	C13	C13
Input voltage	100 to 240 V or 48 V DC	100 to 240 V or 48 V DC
Input line frequency	50 to 60 Hz	50 to 60 Hz
Inrush current	30 A peak at cold start and 50 A peak at warm start for <10 ms, 10 A peak for cycles 10 ms to 150 ms, <7 A peak for >150 ms	40 A peak at either cold or warm start <10 ms, 10 A peak for cycles 10 ms to 150 ms, <7 A peak for >150 ms
Maximum current	6 A at 100 VAC 7 A at 90 VAC	6 A at 100 VAC 7 A at 85 VAC
Typical power consumption	At 100 VAC 2.18 A, 215 W, 733.81 BTU/hr At 200 VAC 1.12 A, 212 W, 723.57 BTU/hr Input current calculated with 1 PSU; watts and BTU/hour with 2 PSUs	At 100 VAC 3.288 A, 327 W, 1,116 BTU/hr At 200 VAC 1.639 A, 321 W, 1,095 BTU/hr Input current calculated with 1 PSU; watts and BTU/hour with 2 PSUs
Maximum power consumption	At 100 VAC 2.84 A, 282 W, 962.5 BTU/hr At 200 VAC 1.44 A, 276 W, 942 BTU/hr Input current calculated with 1 PSU; watts and BTU/hour with 2 PSUs	At 100 VAC 2.706 A, 512 W, 1,747 BTU/hr At 200 VAC 1.375 A, 500 W, 1,706 BTU/hr Input current calculated with 1 PSU; watts and BTU/hour with 2 PSUs
Compliance
Safety Compliance	CAN/CSA C22.2 No. 60950-1-07 including A1 / UL 60950-1-07, Ed. 2 including A1 CAN/CSA-C22.2 No. 60950-1 Second Edition EN 60950-1 Second Edition +A1/A12 IEC 60950-1 Second Edition +A1 GB 4943.1-2011 and GB9254-2008 CNS14336-1(99) CSA/NRTL Certification
EMC	FCC Class A ICES-003 Class A VCCI-Class A CE C-Tick BSMI KCC Class A
Immunity	EN55024
Environmental Regulatory Compliance	RoHS-6 (with lead exemption) Directive 2002/95/EC NEBS-Compliant
Standards Compliance	Brocade VDX 6940 products conform to the following Ethernet standards: IEEE 802.1D Spanning Tree Protocol IEEE 802.1s Multiple Spanning Tree IEEE 802.1w Rapid Reconfiguration of Spanning Tree Protocol IEEE 802.3 Ethernet IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation with LACP IEEE 802.3ae 10G Ethernet IEEE 802.1Q VLAN Tagging IEEE 802.1p Class of Service Prioritization and Tagging IEEE 802.1v VLAN Classification by Protocol and Port IEEE 802.1AB Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) IEEE 802.3x Flow Control (Pause Frames) IEEE 802.3ab 1000BASE-T IEEE 802.3z 1000BASE-X The following draft versions of the Data Center Bridging (DCB) and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) standards are also supported on the Brocade VDX 6740: IEEE 802.1Qbb Priority-based Flow Control IEEE 802.1Qaz Enhanced Transmission Selection IEEE 802.1 DCB Capability Exchange Protocol (Proposed under the DCB Task Group of IEEE 802.1 Working Group) FC-BB-5 FCoE (Rev 2.0)

* Please refer to the latest version of the release notes for the most up-to-date scalability numbers.
† Hardware supported.

RFC Support

RFC Support RFC 768 User Datagram Protocol (UDP) RFC 783 TFTP Protocol (revision 2) RFC 791 Internet Protocol (IP) RFC 792 Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) RFC 793 Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) RFC 826 ARP RFC 854 Telnet Protocol Specification RFC 894 A Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagram over Ethernet Networks RFC 959 FTP RFC 1027 Using ARP to Implement Transparent Subnet Gateways (Proxy ARP) RFC 1112 IGMP v1 RFC 1157 Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) v1 and v2 RFC 1305 Network Time Protocol (NTP) Version 3 RFC 1492 TACACS+ RFC 1519 Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) RFC 1584 Multicast Extensions to OSPF RFC 1765 OSPF Database Overflow RFC 1812 Requirements for IP Version 4 Routers RFC 1997 BGP Communities Attribute RFC 2068 HTTP Server RFC 2131 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) RFC 2154 OSPF with Digital Signatures (Password, MD-5) RFC 2236 IGMP v2 RFC 2267 Network Ingress Filtering RFC 2328 OSPF v2 RFC 2370 OSPF Opaque Link-State Advertisement (LSA) Option—Partial Support RFC 2375 IPv6 Multicast Address Assignments RFC 2385 Protection of BGP Sessions with the TCP MD5 Signature Option RFC 2439 BGP Route Flap Damping RFC 2460 Internet Protocol, Version 6 (v6) Specification (on management interface ) RFC 2462 IPv6 Stateless Address Auto-Configuration RFC 2464 Transmission of IPv6 Packets over Ethernet Networks (on management interface) RFC 2474 Definition of the Differentiated Services Field in the IPv4 and IPv6 Headers RFC 2571 An Architecture for Describing SNMP Management Frameworks RFC 2711 IPv6 Router Alert Option RFC 2865 Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) RFC 3101 The OSPF Not-So-Stubby Area (NSSA) Option

RFC 3176 sFlow RFC 3392 Capabilities Advertisement with BGPv4 RFC 3411 An Architecture for Describing SNMP Frameworks RFC 3412 Message Processing and Dispatching for the SNMP RFC 3413 Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) Applications RFC 3587 IPv6 Global Unicast Address Format RFC 3623 Graceful OSPF Restart - IETF Tools RFC 3768 VRRP RFC 4271 BGPv4 RFC 4291 IPv6 Addressing Architecture RFC 4292 IP Forwarding MIB RFC 4293 Management Information Base for the Internet Protocol (IP) RFC 4443 ICMPv6 (replaces 2463) RFC 4456 BGP Route Reflection RFC 4510 Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP): Technical Specification Road Map RFC 4601 Protocol Independent Multicast—Sparse Mode (PIM-SM): Protocol Specification (Revised) RFC 4724 Graceful Restart Mechanism for BGP RFC 4861 IPv6 Neighbor Discovery RFC 4893 BGP Support for Four-Octet AS Number Space RFC 5082 Generalized TTL Security Mechanism (GTSM) RFC 5880 Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) RFC 5881 Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) for IPv4 and IPv6 (Single Hop) RFC 5882 Generic Application of Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) RFC 5883 Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) for Multihop Paths RFC 5942 IPv6 Neighbor Discovery RFC 7432 BGP-EVPN—Network Virtualization Using VXLAN Data Plane IPv6 Routing RFC 2545 Use of BGP-MP Extensions for IPv6 RFC 2740 OSPFv3 for IPv6 IPv6 Multicast RFC 2710 Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) for IPv6 VRRP/VRRPe RFC 5798 VRRP Version 3 for IPv4 and IPv6

Brocade Network OS Software Capabilities:

	VCS Fabrics	IP Fabrics
Software Scalability
Maximum switches in a fabric	48	Unlimited
Maximum ECMP paths in a fabric	32	32
Maximum LAGs in a fabric	2000	144
Layer 2 Switching
Service Node Load Balancing BFD/ARP Optimizations
Conversational MAC Learning
Virtual Link Aggregation Group (vLAG) spanning
Layer 2 Access Control Lists (ACLs
Edge Loop Detection (ELD)
Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) RFC 826
Private VLANs
Maintenance Mode/Graceful Traffic Diversion
Distributed VXLAN Gateway
Diagnostic Ports
IP Maps Support
L2 Loop prevention in an overlay environment
High availability/In-Service Software Upgrade—hardware-enabled
IGMP v1/v2 Snooping
MAC Learning and Aging
Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) IEEE 802.3ad/802.1AX
Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs)
VLAN Encapsulation 802.1Q
Per-VLAN Spanning Tree (PVST+/PVRST+)
Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP) 802.1w
Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol (MSTP) 802.1s
STP PortFast, BPDU Guard, BPDU Filter
STP Root Guard
Pause Frames 802.3x
Static MAC Configuration
Uni-Directional Link Detection (UDLD)
Transparent LAN Services
Layer 3 Switching
Border Gateway Protocol (BGP4+)
DHCP Helper
Layer 3 ACLs
Multicast: PIM-SM, IGMPv2
OSPF v2/v3
Static routes
IPv4/v6 ACL
Policy-Based Routing (PBR)
Bidirectional Fault Detection (BFD)
32-WAY ECMP
VRF Lite
VRF-aware OSPF, BGP, VRRP, static routes
VRRP v2 and v3
Fabric Virtual Gateway
IPv4/IPv6 dual stack
IPv6 ACL packet filtering
BGP Additional-Path
BGP-Allow AS
BGP Generalized TTL Security Mechanism (GTSM)
BGP Peer Auto Shutdown
Multicast Refactoring
IPv6 routing
OSPF Type-3 LSA Filter
Wire-speed routing for IPv4 and IPv6 using any routing protocol
BGP-EVPN Control Plane Signaling RFC 7432
BGP-EVPN VXLAN Standard-based Overlay
Multi-VRF
IP Unnumbered Interface
Intersubnet Routing (Symmetric and Assymetric)
IP over Port Channel
VRRP-E
Static Anycast Gateway
ARP Suppression
Automation and Programmability
OpenFlow 1.3
REST API with YANG data model
Puppet
Python
PyNOS libraries
Ansible
VMware vRealize plugins
DHCP automatic fabric provisioning
Netconf API
Multitenancy and Virtualization
TRILL FGL-based VCS Virtual Fabric feature
Virtual fabric extension
VM-Aware Network Automation
BFD for virtual fabric extension
Brocade VCS Gateway for NSX
Brocade IP Fabric Gateway for NSX
VMware NSX-v Certification
Automatic Migration of Port Profiles (AMPP)
DCB
Priority-based Flow Control (PFC) 802.1Qbb
Enhanced Transmission Selection (ETS) 802.1Qaz
Manual configuration of lossless queues for protocols other than FCoE and iSCSI
Data Center Bridging eXchange (DCBX)
DCBX Application Type-Length-Value (TLV) for FCoE and iSCSI
Fibre Channel/FCoE
Multi-hop Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE); requires Brocade VCS Fabric technology
FC-BB5 compliant Fibre Channel Forwarder (FCF)
Native FCoE forwarding
FCoE to Fibre Channel Bridging
FCoE on Brocade VDX 6740 and Brocade VDX 6740T
FCoE on QSFP+ port
Flex Ports, allowing direct and SAN connectivity of Fibre Channel targets
Multi-hop Access Gateway Support
End-to-end FCoE (initiator to target)
FCoE Initialization Protocol (FIP) v1 support for FCoE device login and initialization
Name Server-based zoning
Supports connectivity to FIP Snooping Bridge (FSB) device
FCoE traffic over standard LAG
Interface Binding
10 GbE CoD license needs to be activated in order to support FCoE on the Brocade VDX 6740T-1G
Dual Personality Ports
Logical SANs
High Availability
ISSU L2 and L3
BFD
OSPF3-NSR
BGP4-GR
Quality of Service (QoS)
ACL-based QoS
Eight priority levels for QoS
Class of Service (CoS) IEEE 802.1p
DSCP Trust
DSCP to Traffic Class Mutation
DSCP to CoS Mutation
DSCP to DSCP Mutation
Random Early Discard
Per-port QoS configuration
ACL-based Rate Limit
Dual-rate, three-color token bucket
ACL-based remarking of CoS/DSCP/Precedence
ACL-based sFlow
Scheduling: Strict Priority (SP), Deficit Weighted Round-Robin (DWRR), Hybrid Scheduling (Hybrid)
Queue-based Shaping
Flow-based QoS
Management and Monitoring
Logical chassis management
Switch Beaconing
IPv4/IPv6 management
Industry-standard Command Line Interface (CLI)
Netconf API
REST API with YANG data model
Brocade VDX Plugin for OpenStack
Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) IEEE 802.1AB
MIB II RFC 1213 MIB
Management VRF
Switched Port Analyzer (SPAN)
Telnet
SNMP v1, v2C, v3
sFlow RFC 3176
Out-of-band management
Remote SPAN (RSPAN)
RMON-1, RMON-2
NTP
Management Access Control Lists (ACLs)
Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
Range CLI support
UDLD
OpenStack Neutron ML2 plugin
Python
Puppet
Distributed Configuration Management
Maps switch health monitoring
Security
Port-based Network Access Control 802.1X
RADIUS (AAA)
TACACS+
Secure Shell (SSHv2)
BPDU Drop
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)
Secure Copy Protoco
Port Security

Premier and Premier-Plus Support:

Personalized, Preferential, Proactive Support to Maximize the Network's Value

Brocade understands that every network is unique and requires a different level of technical support to meet the customer's business requirements. Brocade Direct Support offers different levels of support to meet each customer's specific needs. To help customers with large, complex environments maximize the value of their networks, Brocade Premier and PremierPlus Support provide personalized, preferential, and proactive support.

A Personalized Support Experience

Premier and Premier-Plus Support are designed to provide a higher level of support for larger, more complex environments. At the same time, these support options help customers realize the full potential of their networks through advanced features, including:

• Support Account Manager
• Onsite Support Engineer
• Premier account profile
• Choice of hardware Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
• MySupport online portal

Support Account Manager
Premier and Premier-Plus Support include a Brocade Support Account Manager (SAM) who acts as a single point of contact into Brocade Technical Support. The Brocade SAM monitors support activities, streamlining the delivery of Brocade Technical Support to accelerate problem resolution. Within the first few days of contract activation, the Brocade SAM will meet with the customer to review Brocade Technical Support processes, share contact information, determine the customer's reporting requirements, and establish a regular meeting schedule to review the status of support activities.

Thereafter, the Brocade SAM is the focal point for coordination of all support activities, including:

• Problem escalation and critical situation management
• Proactive support reviews and health checks
• Upcoming product implementations and change activities
• Software release and upgrade planning
• Coordination of firmware upgrades

Onsite Support Engineer
In today's business climate, IT organizations with growing and complex networking infrastructures often find themselves short on time and/or resources—making it difficult to meet the needs of the business while performing daily support and management activities. Yet adding headcount is not always an option. To address this issue, Premier-Plus Support includes a Brocade Onsite Support Engineer (OSE) in addition to the features in a Premier Support agreement. Brocade OSEs work side by side with a customer's IT staff, providing onsite technical expertise to keep Brocade Storage Area Network (SAN) and IP networking environments running smoothly.

Brocade OSEs are senior technical professionals who have in-depth expertise in Brocade hardware and software products, and provide half- or full-time onsite support. As focused support contacts for all Brocade solutions, Brocade OSEs facilitate communication and provide proactive coordination of problem escalation and change activities, accelerating resolution and improving operational efficiency. These engineers have access to a vast Brocade knowledge base and leverage strategic Brocade partnerships to quickly troubleshoot and resolve issues in multivendor environments.

Premier Account Profile
As an extended member of the customer team, the Brocade SAM will create a Premier account profile, detailing pertinent information about a customer's environment. When a service request is opened by phone, e-mail, or online using MySupport, the Brocade Technical Support Engineer addressing the problem can access this profile to gain full insight into the customer's Brocade environment and expedite problem resolution. The Premier account profile facilitates faster time to resolution by including details such as:

• Customer contact information
• Secure remote access instructions
• Network diagrams
• Device list, software version, and configuration files
• Quarterly support review and annual health check reports

Service Level Options
No two customers or networks are identical. To meet the specific needs of a customer's network and business requirements, Premier and Premier-Plus Support offer several SLA options, providing customers increased flexibility and choice:

• 2 Hour, 4-Hour, NextBusiness-Day Onsite
• 2 Hour, 4-Hour, Next-Business-Day Parts
• Return to Factory
• Remote Support
• Software Technical Support (24X7)

Onsite Support
Available in most major metropolitan areas worldwide, 2-Hour, 4-Hour, and next-Business-Day Onsite support provide 24X7 telephone support and electronic access to software updates, plus remote support and two-hour, four-hour, or next-business-day advanced hardware replacement response on parts delivery. (As available. Contact Brocade for more information.)

Parts Support
Available in most major metropolitan areas worldwide, 2-Hour, 4-Hour, and NextBusiness-Day Parts support provide 24X7 telephone support and electronic access to software updates, plus two-hour, fourhour, or next-business-day advanced hardware replacement response on parts delivery. (As available. Contact Brocade for more information.)

Return to Factory
Available worldwide, Return to Factory support provides 24X7 telephone support and electronic access to software updates, plus no-charge return-to-factory hardware repair. The repaired or replacement unit is shipped within five business days after the day the failed unit is received.

Remote Support
Available on certain products, Remote Support provides 24X7 telephone support and electronic access to software updates. Any required hardware repairs would be performed under warranty or on a time-andmaterial basis.

Software Technical Support (24X7)
Available on software applications, Software Technical Support provides 24X7 telephone support and electronic access to software updates.

MySupport Online Portal
Brocade Technical Support customers with a valid Technical Support agreement have access to MySupport, an online portal for 24X7 technical support. A customizable module within MyBrocade™, MySupport gives customers access to a Case and Asset Management tool to open, update, and track service requests in real time. Through MySupport, customers can also access a knowledge base for solutions to technical issues, product documentation, and software downloads for firmware upgrades and new releases.

Priority Access to Brocade Technical Support

Large SAN and IP networking organizations require maximum network uptime to meet their business requirements. To address the business challenges facing these customers, Premier and PremierPlus Support provide priority access to Brocade Technical Support and accelerated escalation management.

Available Service Options	2-Hour Onsite	2-Hour Parts	4-Hour Onsite	4-Hour Parts	Next-Business-Day Onsite
Telephone Support	24X7 access	24X7 access	24X7 access	24X7 access	24X7 access
Online Support and Trouble Ticketing	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Secure Remote Access	Included	Included	Included	Included	Included
Software Releases	Bug fixes and maintenance updates	Bug fixes and maintenance updates	Bug fixes and maintenance updates	Bug fixes and maintenance updates	Bug fixes and maintenance updates
Hardware Replacement/Repair	2-hour onsite hardware replacement	2-hour advanced hardware replacement	4-hour onsite hardware replacement	4-hour advanced hardware replacement	Next-Business-Day onsite hardware replacement
Available Service Options	Next-Business-Day Parts	Return to Factory	Remote Support	Software Technical Support 24X7
Telephone Support	24X7 access	24X7 access	24X7 access	24X7 access
Online Support and Trouble Ticketing	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Secure Remote Access	Included	Included	Included	Included
Software Releases	Bug fixes and maintenance updates	Bug fixes and maintenance updates	Bug fixes and maintenance updates	Bug fixes and maintenance updates
Hardware Replacement/Repair	Next-Business-Day advanced hardware replacement	Repaired hardware shipped within 5 business days	None	None

Priority Access
Premier and Premier-Plus Support customers can bypass the support queue and move to the front of the line for more immediate problem resolution.

Accelerated Escalation Management
The Brocade Technical Support escalation policy offers rapid response and more frequent communication with Premier and Premier-Plus Support customers. Severity 1 and Severity 2 issues receive management attention faster and at a higher level within Brocade for faster problem resolution. Premier and Premier-Plus customers also receive frequent updates on the status of outstanding service requests.

Moreover, the Brocade SAM acts as the customer's advocate within Brocade and serves as a single point of contact for all Brocade hardware and software escalations and critical situation management. The Brocade SAM streamlines support while working on the customer's behalf for timely issue escalation and problem resolution.

Proactive Problem Identification and Faster Time to Resolution

Brocade recognizes that network downtime can be costly, and took this into consideration when designing Premier and Premier-Plus Support. These support options proactively address issues before a customer's network is impacted by providing:

• Fault management and proactive monitoring
• Quarterly support reviews
• Annual Brocade SAN Health and Brocade NET Health™ checks

Fault Management and Proactive Monitoring
Utilizing a secure Virtual Private Network (VPN) infrastructure to conduct fault management and proactive monitoring, Brocade Technical Support Engineers can view customers' Brocade network devices and proactively identify problems before their networks are impacted. Fault management gives Brocade Technical Support Engineers the ability to respond proactively to problems or faults within customers' network devices. Proactive monitoring—which is provided for all devices included in a Premier or Premier-Plus Support agreement—allows Brocade Technical Support Engineers to anticipate potential problems and thereby avoid issues that could lead to network downtime. If a problem is identified, tight integration with Brocade Technical Support expedites the creation of service requests and reduces time to resolution. Together, fault management and proactive monitoring can reduce network downtime by as much as one hour per event.

Quarterly Support Reviews
Brocade SAMs conduct quarterly support reviews to communicate the overall support status of Brocade networking infrastructures and to discuss ways to improve uptime and operational efficiency. These reviews include:

• Metrics on the number of open and closed service requests
• A list of open requests and their status
• An in-depth analysis of the reported problems
• Recommendations to address these issues

Annual Health Checks
Brocade offers annual Brocade SAN Health and Brocade NET Health checks for efficient networking infrastructure operations. The Brocade SAM coordinates the annual health check, working with Brocade experts to collect and analyze critical operational data such as the logical and physical topology, device inventory, zoning, bandwidth utilization, and monitoring capabilities.

World-Class Support Infrastructure

Brocade Technical Support is designed to provide optimum support for Premier and Premier-Plus Support customers. Premier and Premier-Plus Support customers can leverage the Brocade worldwide support infrastructure, expertise, best-practice guidance, and commitment to quality to maximize their network uptime.

Worldwide Coverage
With multiple Brocade Technical Assistance Centers and more than 170 parts depots in over 40 countries, Brocade is capable of delivering support wherever it is needed. Through this worldwide support infrastructure, Premier and Premier-Plus Support customers have access to a strong partner ecosystem capable of performing onsite repair and/or replacement. In addition, toll-free numbers and local language support enable easy, trouble-free communication with Brocade Technical Support.

Brocade Expertise
Brocade Technical Support Engineers have deep networking expertise and are trained to resolve network problems as quickly as possible with minimal downtime. Moreover, Brocade Technical Support Engineers receive ongoing training and certification to provide customers with the most skilled team to address their issues.

Best-Practice Guidance
Brocade SAMs are knowledgeable about Brocade hardware and software products, and offer best-practice guidance to optimize Brocade networking infrastructures. Brocade SAMs can help Premier and Premier-Plus Support customers understand the features available in each product release as well as the differences between Brocade and Brocade OEM Partner release levels. In addition, they can provide recommendations for software and hardware upgrades.

Commitment to Quality
Leveraging best practices and fostering a culture of continuous improvement, Brocade offers high-quality technical support for its networking solutions by investing in quality processes, people, and partnerships. Brocade Technical Support invests in quality processes by gathering customer feedback on delivery quality, processes, systems, products, and offerings, and leverages a third party to gather unbiased customer feedback, satisfaction ratings, and statistics that help drive ongoing improvement. Brocade Technical Support also invests in its people through ongoing training and certification, providing customers with the most skilled team to address their issues. Furthermore, Brocade invests in its partnerships through quarterly business reviews with partners to identify areas for improvement.

Documentation:

Download the Brocade VDX 6940 Switch Datasheet (PDF).