Cisco MDS 9706 and 9710 Multilayer Directors are modular directors that provide greater scalability than the fixed SAN switches.

Both models deploy two supervisor modules for redundancy and three fabric modules for intradirector communication. The VxBlock System 1000 requires one additional fabric module for each Cisco MDS 9706 and 9710 Multilayer Director for N+1 redundancy and for full line rate support for all 16 Gbps FC ports in the directors. All six fabric modules for each Cisco MDS 9706 and 9710 Multilayer Director are required for 32 Gbps FC line cards.

The Cisco MDS 9706 and 9710 Multilayer Directors are director-class SAN switches with IOM expansion slots for 48-port 16 Gbps and 32 Gbps FC line cards. The Cisco MDS 9706 has four slots available for line cards and the Cisco MDS 9710 Multilayer Director has eight. Line cards are added to each director in pairs. A mixture of 16 Gbps and 32 Gbps line cards are supported in the same director to support a mixed Cisco UCS environment. Each line card must be ordered in pairs per director. For example, a Cisco MDS 9706 Multilayer Director can contain two 16 Gbps line cards and two 32 Gbps line cards, but not one of each. Port licenses are not required for the Cisco MDS 9706 and 9710 Multilayer Directors.

The following table provides core connectivity for the Cisco MDS 9706 and 9710 Multilayer Directors per fabric: