Cisco Systems 270, 7008 manual System Architecture, Hot Standby

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Features Overview

The Topspin 270/Cisco SFS 7008 Server Switch provides data center managers with a high-performance, low-latency interconnect.

•“System Architecture” on page 11.

•“About the Topspin 270/Cisco SFS 7008 Chassis” on page 13.

•“Administrative Features” on page 20.

System Architecture

Hot Standby

On the Topspin 270/Cisco SFS 7008, the inactive controller card remains on hot standby so that it can assume control in the event that the active controller card fails over. The hot standby feature lets the Server Switch fail over without rebooting or resetting any cards in the chassis.

You can access the hot standby controller card with a connection to the serial console port. A CLI session to the standby controller provides read-only access to the controller. You can view but not configure the card.

Because the hot standby features keeps both controller cards up, the show card command identifies the card on which your CLI session runs. In the command output, an asterisk identifies the controller card to which you are connected. In the example that follows, the CLI session applies to the controller card in slot 11 (the active card), as identified by the asterisk next to the slot number (line 10).