CHAPTER
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22-1
Cisco MDS 9000 Family Fabric Manager Configuration Guide
OL-17256-03, Cisco MDS NX-OS Release 4.x
22
Configuring Generation 2 and Generation 3
Switching Modules
Cisco MDS 9000 Family hardware modules and switches are categorized into generations based on the
time of introduction, capabilities, features, and compatibilities:
• Generation 1—Modules and switches with a maximum port speed of 2 Gbps.
• Generation 2—Modules and switches with a maximum port speed of 4 Gbps.
• Generation 3—Modules and switches with a maximum port speed of 8 Gbps.
This chapter describes how to configure these modules and switches, including the following sections:
• About Generations of Modules and Switches, page 22-1
• Port Groups and Port Rate Modes, page 22-3
• Buffer Credit Allocation, page 22-10
• Combining Generation 1, Generation 2, and Generation 3 Modules, page 22-24
• Configuring Module Interface Shared Resources, page 22-28
• Displaying SFP Diagnostic Information, page 22-41
• Default Settings, page 22-43
About Generations of Modules and Switches
In addition to supporting Generation 2 modules, the Cisco MDS 9500 Series Switches and the Cisco
MDS 9222i Switch support another set of modules called Generation 3 modules. Similar to Generation
2, each Generation 3 module can have one or more ports in port groups that share common resources
such as bandwidth and buffer credits.
Generation 3 Fibre Channel modules are supported on the Cisco MDS 9506 and 9509 switches with
Supervisor-2 modules, and on the MDS 9513 Director with Fabric 2 modules. The MDS 9222i switch
supports the 4/44-port Host-Optimized Fibre Channel Switching module. MDS NX-OS Release 4.1(1)
is required to support the Generation 3 modules.