What port configuration does the HPE AK860A provide?

The AK860A features 48 SFP+ ports supporting 8Gb/s Fibre Channel, designed as a blade for the DC SAN Director chassis. Each port handles up to 8Gbps full-duplex, enabling aggregate bandwidth exceeding 384Gbps per blade for dense SAN deployments.

Is the AK860A suitable for large-scale SAN fabrics?

Yes, it scales to full director configurations supporting up to 3072 ports total. Provides non-blocking switching with ISL trunking for 10Gb FC, ideal for enterprise fabrics handling petabyte-scale storage in data centers.

What are the key performance specs of this FC blade?

Offers 8Gb/s per port with low-latency cut-through switching. Supports F_Port, E_Port, and NPIV for virtualization, ensuring wire-speed performance across all 48 ports simultaneously in Brocade-compatible fabrics.

How does AK860A integrate with existing HPE SAN infrastructure?

Hot-pluggable into HP StorageWorks DC SAN Director chassis. Fully interoperable with HPE B-series and Brocade FC switches, maintaining fabric integrity via principal switch selection and zoning enforcement.

What management features are available on the AK860A?

Managed via Web Tools, CLI, or HPE SAN management software. Includes fabric-wide zoning, performance monitoring, and diagnostics for proactive troubleshooting in multi-blade director setups.

Can the AK860A handle high-availability storage workloads?

Yes, with redundant fabric design support, hitless failover, and RAS features. Ensures 99.999% availability for critical apps like databases and ERP systems in consolidated SAN environments.

AK860A - HPE 48-Port 8Gb FC Blade Switch

Name: AK860A - HPE 48-Port 8Gb FC Blade Switch
Brand: HPE
SKU: AK860A
Price: 115 USD
Availability: InStock

AK860A - HPE 48-Port 8Gb FC Blade Switch | US IT Hardware

Product overview

The HPE AK860A is a high-density 48-port Fibre Channel blade designed for the HP StorageWorks DC SAN Director chassis, delivering 8Gb/s port speeds for enterprise SAN environments. It supports scalable fabric architectures with up to 3072 ports in a full director configuration, ensuring non-blocking performance for intensive storage workloads. Key features include hot-pluggable design for seamless expansion, advanced zoning and security via Fibre Channel protocols, and interoperability with Brocade-based fabrics. Ideal for consolidating storage traffic in data centers, it reduces latency and maximizes throughput for virtualization, backup, and replication use cases. Built for reliability in 24/7 operations, the blade integrates with HPE's modular director platform to support growing storage demands without downtime.

48 ports at 8Gb/s Fibre Channel speeds.
Hot-pluggable blade for director chassis.
Supports scalable SAN fabrics up to 3072 ports.
Non-blocking architecture for full throughput.
Advanced zoning and fabric security features.
Interoperable with Brocade FC ecosystems.

Expedited and overnight shipping options are available at checkout, priced by destination and service.
Purchase orders accepted from qualified institutions.
Refunds within 14 days and replacements within 30 days of delivery with an RMA (25% restocking fee on customer-initiated returns), and every part carries our Standard 30-Day Warranty - see our return policy or contact US IT Hardware.

Featuring

Manufacturer part #	AK860A
Brand	HPE
Condition	Refurbished
Model	48-Port 8Gb FC Blade
Technical	Zoning, NPIV, fabric management via FOS
Reliability	Hot-swap; redundant fabric support; RAS features
Product Line	StorageWorks DC SAN Director
Product Type	Fibre Channel Director Blade

Network & Communication

Network	Fibre Channel 8Gb/s; optical fiber media

Compatible systems

Optimized for HPE DC SAN Director chassis with Brocade FC ecosystem compatibility.

HPE StorageWorks
Model: DC SAN Director
Form factor: Chassis Blade
Generation: 8Gb
Requires compatible director chassis for operation.

Best for

Data Center SAN
Core fabric switching for large-scale storage consolidation with 48x8Gb/s ports.
Enterprise Storage
High-density blade expansion in director chassis for mission-critical SANs.
Cloud Backup
Low-latency replication and backup traffic handling in hybrid cloud setups.
Virtualization
Non-blocking connectivity for VM storage I/O in vSphere or Hyper-V clusters.
Disaster Recovery
ISL trunking support for remote site mirroring over 10Gb FC uplinks.
HPC Storage
High-throughput fabric for parallel file systems in compute-intensive environments.

Details

Shipping, warranty & returns

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Ports	48 x SFP+ 8Gb/s FC
Connectivity	F_Port/E_Port/ISL trunking; Brocade compatible

HPE 48-Port 8Gb FC Blade Switch