Virtual SANs (VSANs) are a proprietary feature of Cisco MDS 9000 switches that allows a single SAN fabric to be partitioned into multiple logical SANs. This implementation is well-suited to Cisco’s large enterprise customers, who typically deploy large SAN fabrics and invest in director-class switches with high port counts. VSANs allow redundant fabrics to be configured on a single physical infrastructure, eliminating the need to physically partition the SAN. VSANs enable more robust security, availability, and scalability in FC fabrics.
The preceding graphic shows an example of a single physical SAN fabric divided into two VSANs.