Cisco Data Center Fundamentals

Get ready to configure and operate modern data centers—and move up to high-value CCNP Data Center (DC) certification

Cisco Data Center Fundamentals is the complete guide for network engineers and other professionals who need a solid understanding of modern data center technologies. Especially useful for those preparing for the Cisco DCCOR exam and Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) Data Center certification, it fully addresses the essentials of networking, storage, compute, and automation in today's data center environments.

Authored by two long-time experts in operating Cisco data centers and developing official Learning@Cisco training for them, this guide explains each concept step by step, balancing depth and breadth, and maximizing clarity throughout. The authors go far beyond introducing relevant products, protocols, and features. They illuminate underlying technologies, identify key interdependencies, walk through configuring working solutions, and truly help prepare you to set up and operate a modern data center.

• Gain a holistic, unified understanding of the data center and its core components
• Walk through installation and deployment of key data center technologies
• Explore potential applications to see what's possible in your environment
• Learn how Cisco switches and software implement data center networking and virtualization
• Discover and apply data center network design and security best practices
• Review Cisco data center storage technologies and concepts, including Fibre Channel, VSANs, storage virtualization, and FCoE
• Explore the building blocks of the Cisco UCS data center compute solution, and how UCS uses hardware abstraction and server virtualization
• Use automation and APIs to improve data center productivity and agility
• Create and customize scripts for rapid troubleshooting
• Understand cloud computing for the data center: services, deployment models, and the Cisco Intersight hybrid cloud operations platform

Somit Maloo, CCIE No. 28603, CCDE No. 20170002, is a content architect from the data center team at Learning@Cisco. He holds a master’s degree in telecommunication networks and a bachelor’s degree in electronics and telecommunication engineering. He is also a penta-CCIE in enterprise infrastructure, service provider, enterprise wireless, security, and data center technologies. Somit holds various industry-leading certifications, including CCDE, PMP, RHCSA, and VMware VCIX6 in Data Center and Network Virtualization. Somit has extensive experience in designing and developing various data center courses for the official Cisco curriculum. He started his career as a Cisco TAC engineer. Somit has more than 12 years of experience in the networking industry, working mostly with data center networks. You can reach Somit on Twitter: @somitmaloo.

Iskren Nikolov, CCIE No.20164, CCSI No.32481, MCT Alumni, Content architect, engineer, and developer with the Cisco Learning & Certifications Data Center and Cloud team. He is responsible for designing, developing, reviewing Data Center Official Learning Cisco courses, including lab infrastructures and exercises. He holds a master’s degree in computer systems and management from the Technical University-Sofia, Bulgaria. Iskren has more than 26 years of experience in designing, implementing, and supporting solutions based on technologies such as data center, security, storage, wide area network, software-defined network, cloud, hybrid, and multicloud, including 11 years of teaching and developing Cisco Data Center and Cloud courses and Microsoft Azure courses. Because of his vast experience across technologies from multiple vendors, such as Cisco Systems, VMware, Microsoft, and Barracuda, combined with the different perspectives he has gained from his different work roles and working with customers from different industries, Iskren has a unique view of the current data center technologies and future trends. You can reach Iskren on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iskrennikolov.

    Introduction xxiv

Part I Networking

Chapter 1 Data Center Architectures 1

    Data Center Basics 1

    Cisco Unified Data Center Platform 4

    Data Center Network Infrastructure 6

    Data Center Storage Infrastructure 10

        Data Center Computing Infrastructure 12

    Summary 19

    References 20

Chapter 2 Describing the Cisco Nexus Family and Cisco NX-OS Software 21

    Cisco Nexus Data Center Product Overview 21

    Cisco FEX Overview 35

    Cisco NX-OS Software Architecture 44

    Exploring Cisco NX-OS CLI 48

    Summary 61

    References 62

Chapter 3 Describing Layer 3 First-Hop Redundancy 65

    Default Gateway Redundancy 65

    Hot Standby Router Protocol 68

    Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol 78

    Gateway Load Balancing Protocol 82

    Summary 86

    References 86

Chapter 4 Port Channels and vPCs 87

    Ethernet Port Channels 88

    Virtual Port Channels 93

    Summary 124

    References 125

Chapter 5 Switch Virtualization 127

    Cisco Nexus Switch Functional Planes 127

    Cisco Nexus Switch Process Separation and Restartability 132

    Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF) 134

    Cisco Nexus 7000 VDCs 144

    Summary 177

    References 177

Chapter 6 Nexus Switch Routing 179

    Routing Fundamentals 179

    RIPv2 on NX-OS 190

    EIGRP on NX-OS 198

    OSPFv2 on NX-OS 210

    Multicast Fundamentals 227

    Multicast Configuration on NX-OS 240

    Summary 254

    References 255

Chapter 7 Network Virtualization 257

    Overlay Network Protocols 257

    Network Interface Virtualization Using FEX 286

    VMware vSphere Virtual Switches 287

    Summary 291

    References 292

    Contents xv

Chapter 8 Describing Cisco ACI 295

    Cisco ACI Overview 295

    Cisco ACI Building Blocks 299

    Cisco ACI Deployment Models 303

    Cisco ACI Hardware 307

    ACI Startup Discovery 313

    Cisco ACI Policy Model 314

    Packet Forwarding within the ACI Fabric 327

    Summary 328

    References 330

Chapter 9 Operating Cisco ACI 333

    Cisco ACI External Connectivity Options 333

    Cisco ACI and VMM Integration 339

    Cisco ACI and L4–L7 Integration 342

    Cisco ACI Management and Automation 343

    Cisco ACI Anywhere 352

    Cisco Nexus Dashboard 356

    Summary 358

    References 359

Part II Storage

Chapter 10 Data Center Storage Concepts 361

    Storage Connectivity Options in the Data Center 361

    Fibre Channel Storage Networking 376

    Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) 383

    NVM Express and NVM Express over Fabrics 385

    Cisco MDS Product Overview 389

    Summary 401

    Reference 402

Chapter 11 Fibre Channel Protocol Fundamentals 403

    Fibre Channel Layered Model 403

    Building the Switched Fabric 412

    Fibre Channel Flow Control 419

    Fabric Shortest Path First 421

    Summary 423

    Reference 424

Chapter 12 Describing VSANs and Fibre Channel Zoning 425

    VSAN Overview 425

    VSAN Configuration 430

    Fibre Channel Zoning 439

    Zoning Configuration 441

    Zoning Management 448

    Summary 451

    Reference 453

Chapter 13 Storage Virtualization 455

    Cisco Fibre Channel NPIV Feature 456

    Cisco Fibre Channel NPV Mode 460

    Summary 469

    Reference 470

Chapter 14 Describing Data Center Ethernet Enhancements 471

    IEEE Data Center Bridging 472

    Priority Flow Control 472

    Enhanced Transmission Selection 475

    DCBX Protocol 476

    Summary 478

    References 478

Chapter 15 Describing FCoE 479

    Cisco Unified Fabric 479

    FCoE Architecture 482

    FCoE Initialization Protocol 488

    FCoE Configuration 490

    Summary 495

    References 496

Part III Compute

Chapter 16 Describing Cisco UCS Components 497

    Cisco UCS Components 497

    Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnect Product Overview 503

    Cisco UCS Blade Chassis 506

    Cisco IOM Product Overview 509

    Cisco UCS B-Series Servers 510

    Cisco UCS C-Series Servers and the Cisco IMC Supervisor 514

    Cisco UCS S-Series Storage Server 521

    Cisco HyperFlex Data Platform 524

    Cisco UCS X-Series Modular System 527

    Summary 529

    References 530

Chapter 17 Describing Cisco UCS Abstraction 531

    Cisco UCS Manager Overview 532

    Exploring the Cisco UCS Server Environment 543

    Identity and Resource Pools for Hardware Abstraction 548

    Service Profiles and Service Profile Templates 552

    Cisco UCS Polices for Use in Service Profiles 555

    Cisco UCS Service Profile Configuration 556

    Cisco UCS Central Overview 564

    Summary 566

    References 568

Chapter 18 Server Virtualization 569

    Virtual Machine 569

    Hypervisor 574

    Virtual Switch 575

    VMware vSphere 576

    VMware ESXi Installation 582

    VMware vCenter Installation 592

    Summary 611

    References 612

Part IV Automation

Chapter 19 Using APIs 613

    Common Programmability Protocols and Methods 613

    Configuring Cisco NX-OS with APIs 624

    Exploring the Cisco UCS Manager XML API Management Information Tree 626

    Summary 629

    Reference 629

Chapter 20 Automating the Data Center 631

    Automation Basics 631

    Automation and Orchestration Technologies 634

    Choosing the Automation Toolset 642

    Summary 643

    Reference 644

Part V Cloud

Chapter 21 Cloud Computing 645

    Cloud Computing Overview 645

    Cloud Computing Services 653

    Cloud Deployment Models 660

    Cisco Intersight 666

    Summary 669

    References 671

9780137638246, TOC, 8/29/2022

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.