HPE AG874A

(Cisco MDS 9134) 24‑Port Active Fibre Channel SAN Switch

The HPE AG874A (Cisco MDS 9134) is a compact 1U enterprise Fibre Channel SAN Switch offering 24 active 4 Gbps ports, with optional on-demand licensing for two additional 10 Gbps Inter‑Switch Links (ISLs). Designed for midrange to large-scale FC fabrics, it supports robust SAN features like VSANs, PortChannels, Smart Zoning, and advanced traffic segmentation through Cisco NX‑OS/SAN‑OS. Perfect for server-to-storage connectivity at the edge, or departmental storage fabrics, the switch can expand in 8‑port increments up to 32 active ports. It delivers high-availability features such as hot-swappable power supplies and fans, dual-supply redundancy, and nondisruptive software upgrades—making it ideal for environments requiring continuous uptime and secure fabric isolation.

Features

This SAN switch provides line-rate performance across all ports: 24 Fibre Channel ports capable of 1/2/4 Gbps speeds simultaneously—each delivering dedicated 4 Gb/s throughput—and optionally enables up to two 10 Gbps ISLs for uplink aggregation or stacking ([turn0search1]turn0search9). Its non‑blocking architecture supports seamless scaling up to 32 active ports using on-demand activation licenses. Firmware based on Cisco MDS 9000 NX-OS/SAN-OS offers enterprise-class SAN services such as persistent zoning, broadcast zone reduction, FICON support for IBM mainframes, and hardware‑enforced fabric segmentation using VSAN technology ([turn0search1]).

Advanced Options

Designed for high-availability deployment, the AG874A includes dual hot-swappable power supplies and fan modules, nondisruptive software upgrades (ISSU), and PortChannel support for link resilience. Smart Zoning optimizes hardware resource usage by dynamically allocating ACL entries to zone sets, enhancing switch scalability ([turn0search1]). Extensive diagnostics include Fibre Channel ping/traceroute, SPAN, Fabric Analyzer, and call-home features for proactive maintenance. Management is available via CLI, GUI-based Fiber Manager, or SNMP/SNIA SMI-S APIs for integration with third-party SAN orchestration tools ([turn0search1]). Engineered for mission-critical SAN environments, the AG874A ensures predictable throughput—each active port supports 4 Gbps line-rate simultaneously with full fabric scalability ([turn0search1]). Redundant, hot-swappable power and cooling modules support sustained high-reliability operations. Dynamic zoning and VSAN segmentation enable granular traffic isolation and multi-tenant support, reducing risk of fabric congestion or cross-site interference.