Connect. Secure. Manage.
Cisco MDS SAN Design
Assess and design supported Cisco MDS storage fabrics, considering host and storage connectivity, isolation, bandwidth and independent failure domains.
Devices supported
across the UK
Client locations
supported
Traffic handled
at peak time
Average
response time
Average response is not a resolution time or a contractual guarantee. Support scope and response commitments are agreed for each engagement.
Cisco MDS SAN design creates a Fibre Channel fabric around the hosts, storage systems and availability requirements it must support. The objective is not simply to provide enough ports, but to make connectivity, zoning, capacity and fault recovery predictable. MCI Network Services works with storage and server specialists to design supported MDS environments with clear operational records and a realistic migration or deployment plan.
Workload-led design
Start with application, compute and storage dependencies rather than the switch model.
Clear failure domains
Understand which links, devices and sites can fail together.
Operational clarity
Make fabrics, external routing and management responsibilities supportable.
Start with the supported endpoint estate
We inventory host adapters, storage target ports, operating systems and relevant software versions. Their supported combinations influence switch selection, link speeds and fabric features. A device being able to establish a physical link does not establish that the complete host-to-storage arrangement is supported by the vendors involved.
The requirements record also captures growth and maintenance constraints. New hosts, additional storage systems and changes in application demand can consume ports and interconnect capacity differently. We distinguish confirmed expansion plans from speculative headroom so the customer can understand the cost and operational reasons behind the design.
Standards & partnerships
Confidence in the team behind your network.
Cisco Partner
Cisco Meraki
Cyber Essentials
Cyber Essentials PlusMCI Network Services is operated by Proxar Ltd. Certifications apply to the certified legal entity and the scope of its certificates. View accreditation information
Establish independent paths where required
Dual-fabric designs can provide separate paths, but their independence must extend beyond names on a diagram. We assess switches, power sources, cable routes, host adapters and storage ports. A shared physical dependency can undermine resilience even when each fabric has a separate configuration and management address.
Host multipathing is essential to the resulting service and remains a joint responsibility. We agree how the host is expected to use the available paths and what happens when one is lost. The design does not promise uninterrupted application operation without confirming the behaviour of the supported host and storage stack.
A useful starting point
Not sure where to start?
Bring the requirement. We will help you define the engineering work.
Choose fabric topology and interconnect capacity
The appropriate topology depends on scale, physical layout, port density and traffic movement. We review where hosts and targets connect and how much traffic may traverse inter-switch links. A topology that is adequate for local access can become constrained when a workload or storage target moves to another part of the fabric.
We also consider maintenance and failure conditions. Remaining interconnects should be assessed against the expected degraded-state workload, not just average normal utilisation. The design records any oversubscription and explains which assumptions must be revisited when the estate grows.
Different environments. The same care.
Built around the work
your network supports.
Finance, banking and the wider private sector. We start with the systems and people that depend on your connections.
Finance & banking
Market-data paths, routing and provider coordination on clients’ behalf.
Financial-market services ↗Offices & multi-site teams
Reliable access between people, workplaces and business applications.
Office network design ↗Data centres & cloud
Network boundaries, workload connections and operational ownership.
Data centre networks ↗Define zoning and naming standards
A clear zoning scheme maps authorised initiators to the appropriate targets. We agree the supported zoning method with the storage vendor and customer, using consistent naming and accurate port identifiers. The aim is a policy that can be reviewed and maintained without relying on the memory of the engineer who created it.
Logical fabric separation and zoning have different purposes. Where VSANs or other features are used, the design explains their role and how they interact with the wider topology. Storage-side resource presentation remains a separate control and must be validated by its owner before host access is accepted.
Include management and monitoring
The MDS management path needs protected administrative access, reliable time information, logging and configuration records. We identify how engineers will investigate a fabric fault if the normal management route is unavailable. Access to the storage network should follow agreed roles rather than being shared broadly because it is considered an internal system.
Monitoring should expose interface faults, fabric changes and relevant performance symptoms. Loss of one path matters even when applications continue operating through another. We define the alerts and escalation ownership needed to restore resilience before a second fault becomes a service outage.
Plan implementation and acceptance
The implementation sequence covers staging, physical verification, configuration review and controlled connection of endpoints. Existing zoning or fabric information is assessed before any interconnection that could affect production. Migration work includes explicit coexistence and rollback arrangements, with storage and application owners participating at the required stages.
Acceptance combines switch evidence with host and storage checks. We confirm expected paths, approved connectivity and selected failure behaviour where safe. Untested scenarios are recorded as limitations rather than counted as demonstrated resilience. This gives the operating team a trustworthy basis for later maintenance.
Deliver a maintainable design package
The final documents can include fabric diagrams, port maps, zoning standards, capacity assumptions, supported versions and a handover checklist. Each open dependency has a named owner. A design should remain useful when a host is replaced or a storage array is expanded, not merely describe the equipment delivered on day one.
MCI provides Cisco storage networking expertise across the UK. We can design a new SAN or review an inherited MDS estate, with the scope and responsibilities agreed before changes are made to a network carrying critical application data.
Talk to a specialist
What does your network need next?
Tell us what you are planning, changing or trying to improve. We will help define a practical next step and the engineering scope.
+44 203 196 6566Choose option 1
sales@proxar.co.ukUK-wide service.
Most of our engineers are based in Kent, with a focus on London, Sussex, Essex and Berkshire.
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