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Data Center Virtualization Fundamentals: Understanding Techniques and Designs for Highly Efficient Data Centers with Cisco Nexus, UCS, MDS, and Beyond

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Data Center Virtualization Fundamentals: Understanding Techniques and Designs for Highly Efficient Data Centers with Cisco Nexus, UCS, MDS, and Beyond

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Description

  • Copyright 2013
  • Dimensions: 7-3/8" x 9-1/8"
  • Pages: 960
  • Edition: 1st
  • eBook
  • ISBN-10: 0-13-309645-9
  • ISBN-13: 978-0-13-309645-3

Data Center Virtualization Fundamentals

For many IT organizations, today’s greatest challenge is to drive more value, efficiency, and utilization from data centers. Virtualization is the best way to meet this challenge. Data Center Virtualization Fundamentals brings together the comprehensive knowledge Cisco professionals need to apply virtualization throughout their data center environments. Leading data center expert Gustavo A. A. Santana thoroughly explores all components  of an end-to-end data center virtualization solution, including networking, storage, servers, operating systems, application optimization, and security. Rather than focusing on a single product or technology, he explores product capabilities as interoperable design tools that can be combined and integrated with other solutions, including VMware vSphere. With the author’s guidance, you’ll learn how to define and implement highly-efficient architectures for new, expanded, or retrofit data center projects. By doing so, you can deliver agile application provisioning without purchasing unnecessary infrastructure, and establish a strong foundation for new cloud computing and IT-as-a-service initiatives. Throughout, Santana illuminates key theoretical concepts through realistic use cases, real-world designs, illustrative configuration examples, and verification outputs. Appendixes provide valuable reference information, including relevant Cisco data center products and CLI principles for IOS and NX-OS. With this approach, Data Center Virtualization Fundamentals will be an indispensable resource for anyone preparing for the CCNA Data Center, CCNP Data Center, or CCIE Data Center
certification exams.

Gustavo A. A. Santana, CCIE® No. 8806, is a Cisco Technical Solutions Architect working in enterprise and service provider data center projects that require deep integration across technology areas such as networking, application optimization, storage, and servers. He has more than 15 years of data center experience, and has led and coordinated a team of specialized Cisco engineers in Brazil. He holds two CCIE certifications (Routing & Switching and Storage Networking), and is a VMware Certified Professional (VCP) and SNIA Certified Storage Networking Expert (SCSN-E).

  •  Learn how virtualization can transform and improve traditional data center network topologies
  •  Understand the key characteristics and value of each data center virtualization technology
  •  Walk through key decisions, and transform choices into architecture
  •  Smoothly migrate existing data centers toward greater virtualization
  •  Burst silos that have traditionally made data centers inefficient
  •  Master foundational technologies such as VLANs, VRF, and virtual contexts
  •  Use virtual PortChannel and FabricPath to overcome the limits of STP
  •  Optimize cabling and network management with fabric extender (FEX) virtualized chassis
  •  Extend Layer 2 domains to distant data center sites using MPLS and Overlay Transport Virtualization (OTV)
  •  Use VSANs to overcome Fibre Channel fabric challenges
  •  Improve SAN data protection, environment isolation, and scalability
  •  Consolidate I/O through Data Center Bridging and FCoE
  •  Use virtualization to radically simplify server environments
  •  Create server profiles that streamline “bare metal” server provisioning
  •  “Transcend the rack” through virtualized networking based on Nexus 1000V and VM-FEX
  •  Leverage opportunities to deploy virtual network services more efficiently
  •  Evolve data center virtualization toward full-fledged private clouds

-Reviews -

“The variety of material that Gustavo covers in this work would appeal to anyone responsible for Data Centers today. His grasp of virtualization technologies and ability to relate it in both technical and non-technical terms makes for compelling reading. This is not your ordinary tech manual. Through use of relatable visual cues, Gustavo provides information that is easily recalled on the subject of virtualization, reaching across Subject Matter Expertise domains. Whether you consider yourself well-versed or a novice on the topic, working in large or small environments, this work will provide a clear understanding of the diverse subject of virtualization.”

-- Bill Dufresne, CCIE 4375, Distinguished Systems Engineer, Cisco (Americas)

“..this book is an essential reference and will be valuable asset for potential candi¿dates pursuing their Cisco Data Center certifications. I am confident that in reading this book, individuals will inevitably gain extensive knowledge and hands-on experience dur¿ing their certification preparations. If you’re looking for a truly comprehensive guide to virtualization, this is the one!”

-- Yusuf Bhaiji, Senior Manager, Expert Certifications (CCIE, CCDE, CCAr),

Learning@Cisco

“When one first looks at those classic Cisco Data Center blueprints, it is very common to become distracted with the overwhelming number of pieces and linkages. By creating a solid theoretical foundation and providing rich sets of companion examples to illustrate each concept, Gustavo’s book brings hope back to IT Professionals from different areas of expertise. Apparently complex topics are demystified and the insertion of products, mechanisms, protocols and technologies in the overall Data Center Architecture is clearly explained, thus enabling you to achieve robust designs and successful deployments. A must read... Definitely!”

-- Alexandre M. S. P. Moraes, Consulting Systems Engineer – Author of “Cisco Firewalls”

Sample Content

Table of Contents

Foreword xxiii

Introduction xxv

Part I What Is Virtualization?

Chapter 1 Virtualization History and Definitions 1

Data Center Essential Definitions 2

    Data Center Evolution 3

    Operational Areas and Data Center Architecture 5

The Origins of Data Center Virtualization 8

    Virtual Memory 8

    Mainframe Virtualization 10

    Hot Standby Router Protocol 11

    Defining Virtualization 12

    Data Center Virtualization Timeline 12

Classifying Virtualization Technologies 14

    A Virtualization Taxonomy 15

    Virtualization Scalability 17

    Technology Areas 18

    Classification Examples 21

Summary 22

Further Reading 22

Part II Virtualization in Network Technologies

Chapter 2 Data Center Network Evolution 25

Ethernet Protocol: Then and Now 26

    Ethernet Media 27

    Coaxial Cable 27

    Twisted-Pair 28

    Optical Fiber 30

    Direct-Attach Twinaxial Cables 32

    Ethernet Data Rate Timeline 33

Data Center Network Topologies 34

    Data Center Network Layers 35

    Design Factors for Data Center Networks 36

    Physical Network Layout Considerations 39

    The ANSI/TIA-942 Standard 40

Network Virtualization Benefits 42

    Network Logical Partitioning 42

    Network Simplification and Traffic Load Balancing 43

    Management Consolidation and Cabling Optimization 44

    Network Extension 44

Summary 44

Further Reading 44

Chapter 3 The Humble Beginnings of Network Virtualization 45

Network Partitioning 47

Concepts from the Bridging World 47

Defining VLANs 49

    VLAN Trunks 52

Two Common Misconceptions About VLANs 56

    Misconception Number 1: A VLAN Must Be Associated to an IP Subnet 56

    Misconception Number 2: Layer 3 VLANs 58

Spanning Tree Protocol and VLANs 61

    Spanning Tree Protocol at Work 63

    Port States 70

    Spanning Tree Protocol Enhancements 72

    Spanning Tree Instances 74

Private VLANs 78

VLAN Specifics 83

    Native VLAN 84

    Reserved VLANs IDs 84

    Resource Sharing 85

    Control and Management Plane 85

Concepts from the Routing World 87

Overlapping Addresses in a Data Center 87

Defining and Configuring VRFs 90

VRFs and Routing Protocols 92

VRFs and the Management Plane 98

    VRF-Awareness 100

VRF Resource Allocation Control 101

Use Case: Data Center Network Segmentation 103

Summary 105

Further Reading 107

Chapter 4 An Army of One: ACE Virtual Contexts 109

Application Networking Services 111

The Use of Load Balancers 111

    Load-Balancing Concepts 115

    Layer 4 Switching Versus Layer 7 Switching 120

    Connection Management 122

    Address Translation and Load Balancing 124

        Server NAT 124

        Dual NAT 125

        Port Redirection 126

       Transparent Mode 126

    Other Load-Balancing Applications 127

        Firewall Load Balancing 127

        Reverse Proxy Load Balancing 128

    Offloading Servers 130

        SSL Offload 130

        TCP Offload 133

        HTTP Compression 134

Load Balancer Proliferation in the Data Center 135

    Load Balancer Performance 135

    Security Policies 136

    Suboptimal Traffic 137

    Application Environment Independency 138

ACE Virtual Contexts 139

    Application Control Engine Physical Connections 141

        Connecting an ACE Appliance 141

        Connecting an ACE Module 144

    Creating and Allocating Resources to Virtual Contexts 145

    Integrating ACE Virtual Contexts to the Data Center Network 156

        Routed Design 156

        Bridged Design 158

        One-Armed Design 160

    Managing and Configuring ACE Virtual Contexts 162

        Allowing Management Traffic to a Virtual Context 162

        Allowing Load Balancing Traffic Through a Virtual Context 163

    Controlling Management Access to Virtual Contexts 171

    ACE Virtual Context Additional Characteristics 176

        Sharing VLANs Among Contexts 177

        Virtual Context Fault Tolerance 177

Use Case: Multitenant Data Center 179

Summary 181

Further Reading 182

Chapter 5 Instant Switches: Virtual Device Contexts 183

Extending Device Virtualization 184

Why Use VDCs? 187

VDCs in Detail 188

Creating and Configuring VDCs 190

    VDC Names and CLI Prompts 198

    Virtualization Nesting 199

Allocating Resources to VDCs 202

Using Resource Templates 211

Managing VDCs 214

    VDC Operations 214

    Processes Failures and VDCs 216

    VDC Out-of-Band Management 217

    Role-Based Access Control and VDCs 222

Global Resources 225

Use Case: Data Center Security Zones 225

Summary 227

Further Reading 229

Chapter 6 Fooling Spanning Tree 231

Spanning Tree Protocol and Link Utilization 232

Link Aggregation 234

    Server Connectivity and NIC Teaming 238

Cross-Switch PortChannels 240

Virtual PortChannels 241

    Virtual PortChannel Definitions 242

    Configuring Virtual PortChannels 247

        Step 1: Defining the Domain 248

        Step 2: Establishing Peer Keepalive Connectivity 248

        Step 3: Creating the Peer Link 250

        Step 4: Creating the Virtual PortChannel 252

    Spanning Tree Protocol and Virtual PortChannels 254

        Peer Link Failure and Orphan Ports 258

    First-Hop Routing Protocols and Virtual PortChannels 259

Layer 2 Multipathing and vPC+ 265

    FabricPath Data Plane 266

    FabricPath Control Plane 269

    FabricPath and Spanning Tree Protocol 272

    Virtual PortChannel Plus 276

Use Case: Evolution of Network PODs 281

Summary 285

Further Reading 286

Chapter 7 Virtualized Chassis with Fabric Extenders 287

Server Access Models 288

Understanding Fabric Extenders 291

    Fabric Extender Options 295

    Connecting a Fabric Extender to a Parent Switch 296

    Fabric Extended Interfaces and Spanning Tree Protocol 299

    Fabric Interfaces Redundancy 301

Fabric Extender Topologies 305

    Straight-Through Topologies 305

    Dual-Homed Topologies 309

Use Case: Mixed Access Data Center 315

Summary 317

Further Reading 318

Chapter 8 A Tale of Two Data Centers 319

A Brief History of Distributed Data Centers 321

The Cold Age (Mid-1970s to 1980s) 321

The Hot Age (1990s to Mid-2000s) 322

The Active-Active Age (Mid-2000s to Today) 324

The Case for Layer 2 Extensions 324

    Challenges of Layer 2 Extensions 325

Ethernet Extensions over Optical Connections 327

    Virtual PortChannels 328

    FabricPath 330

Ethernet Extensions over MPLS 332

    MPLS Basic Concepts 333

    Ethernet over MPLS 338

    Virtual Private LAN Service 342

Ethernet Extensions over IP 352

    MPLS over GRE 352

    Overlay Transport Virtualization 354

        OTV Terminology 357

        OTV Basic Configuration 359

        OTV Loop Avoidance and Multihoming 365

        Migration to OTV 366

        OTV Site Designs 373

VLAN Identifiers and Layer 2 Extensions 377

Internal Routing in Connected Data Centers 380

Use Case: Active-Active Greenfield Data Centers 382

Summary 384

Further Reading 386

Part III Virtualization in Storage Technologies

Chapter 9 Storage Evolution 387

Data Center Storage Devices 387

    Hard Disk Drives 388

    Disk Arrays 389

    Tape Drives and Libraries 390

Accessing Data in Rest 391

    Block-Based Access 392

        Small Computer Systems Interface 392

        Mainframe Storage Access 396

        Advanced Technology Attachment 397

    File Access 397

        Network File System 398

        Common Internet File System 398

    Record Access 398

Storage Virtualization 399

    Virtualizing Storage Devices 402

    Virtualizing LUNs 404

    Virtualizing File Systems 406

    Virtualizing SANs 407

Summary 408

Further Reading 408

Chapter 10 Islands in the SAN 409

Some Fibre Channel Definitions 410

    Fibre Channel Layers 411

    Fibre Channel Topologies and Port Types 412

    Fibre Channel Addressing 413

    Frames, Sequences, and Exchanges 415

    Flow Control 417

    Classes of Service 420

Fabric Processes 420

    Fabric Initialization 422

    Fabric Shortest Path First 424

    Register State Change Notification 426

    Fibre Channel Logins 427

    Zoning 429

Defining and Exploring VSANs 430

    SAN Islands 430

    VSAN Creation 432

    VSAN Trunking 434

    Zoning and VSANs 439

    FSPF and VSANs 442

    VSAN Scoping 445

Use Case: SAN Consolidation 447

Summary 450

Further Reading 451

Chapter 11 Secret Identities 453

Fibre Channel over IP 454

    FCIP High Availability 460

    Use Case: SAN Extension with Traffic Engineering 462

Inter-VSAN Routing 464

    IVR Infrastructure 465

    IVR Zoning 467

    Use Case: Transit VSAN 472

N_Port Virtualization 473

    Configuring N_Port Virtualization 476

    NPV Traffic Management 482

    Deploying Port WWN Virtualization on NPV 486

    Use Case: Blade Server Hosting Data Center 488

Summary 490

Further Reading 491

Chapter 12 One Cable to Unite Us All 493

The Case for Data Center Networking Convergence 495

Data Center Bridging 497

    Priority-Based Flow Control 498

    Enhanced Transmission Selection 500

    Data Center Bridging eXchange Protocol 501

    Congestion Notification 503

Introducing Fibre Channel over Ethernet 504

    FCoE Elements 505

    FCoE Initialization Protocol 507

Deploying Unified Server Access 509

    Configuring Unified Server Access on Single-Context Switches 510

    Configuring Unified Server Access with Storage VDCs 519

Configuring Multihop FCoE 523

    Configuring Virtual Fibre Channel PortChannels 528

    FCoE N_Port Virtualization 532

Unified Fabric Designs 535

    Server Access Layer Unified Designs 536

        FCoE and Virtual PortChannels 538

        FCoE and Blade Servers 540

    Beyond the Access Layer 542

        Converged Access Model 542

        Converged Aggregation Model 543

FCoE and SAN Extension 545

Use Case: LAN and SAN Management Separation 546

Summary 556

Further Reading 557

Part IV Virtualization in Server Technologies

Chapter 13 Server Evolution 559

Server Architectures 560

    Mainframes 560

    RISC Servers 561

    x86 Servers 562

x86 Hardware Evolution 562

    CPU Evolution 564

    Memory Evolution 566

    Expansion Bus Evolution 569

    Physical Format Evolution 571

Introducing x86 Server Virtualization 572

    Virtualization Unleashed 574

Unified Computing 578

Summary 580

Further Reading 580

Chapter 14 Changing Personalities 581

Server Provisioning Challenges 583

    Server Domain Operations 584

    Infrastructure Domain Operations 585

Unified Computing and Service Profiles 586

Building Service Profiles 588

    Identifying a Service Profile 594

    Storage Definitions 595

    Network Definitions 599

    Virtual Interface Placement 602

    Server Boot Order 604

    Maintenance Policy 606

    Server Assignment 606

    Operational Policies 608

        Configuration 608

        External IPMI Management Configuration 609

        Management IP Address 610

        Additional Policies 611

    Associating a Service Profile to a Server 612

    Installing an Operating System 620

Verifying Stateless Computing 625

Using Policies 626

    BIOS Setting Policies 627

Firmware Policies 633

Industrializing Server Provisioning 637

    Cloning 638

    Pools 639

    Service Profile Templates 640

    Server Pools 649

Use Case: Seasonal Workloads 653

Summary 655

Further Reading 656

Chapter 15 Transcending the Rack 657

Introduction to Virtual Networking 658

    Virtual Switch Challenges 660

Cisco Nexus 1000V Architecture 661

Nexus 1000V Communication Modes 663

Port Profiles and Dynamic Interface Provisioning 664

Deploying Nexus 1000V 666

External Connectivity and Link Aggregation 684

NX-OS Features in the Virtual World 688

    MAC Address Table 691

    Access Lists 692

Online Migrations and Nexus 1000V 693

Virtual Extensible Local Area Networks 697

Introducing Virtual Machine Fabric Extender 705

Deploying VM-FEX 707

    Enabling Dynamic vNICs on a UCS Service Profile 707

    Preparing VMware vSphere Host to Deploy VM-FEX 709

    Using the UCS Manager VMware Integration Wizard 711

    Migrating Virtual Machines to VM-FEX 716

Online Migrations and VM-FEX 720

VM-FEX High-Performance Mode 723

Use Case: Data Center Merging 731

Summary 733

Further Reading 734

Chapter 16 Moving Targets 735

Virtual Network Services Definitions 736

Virtual Network Services Data Path 738

vPath-Enabled Virtual Network Services 740

    Cisco Virtual Security Gateway: Compute Virtual Firewall 742

        Installing Virtual Security Gateway 743

        Creating Security Policies 745

        Sending Data Traffic to VSG 747

        Virtual Machine Attributes and Virtual Zones 751

    Cisco ASA 1000V: Edge Virtual Firewall 754

        Installing ASA 1000V 755

        Sending Data Traffic to ASA 1000V 758

        Configuring Security Policies on ASA 1000V 761

    Application Acceleration 763

        WAN Acceleration and Online Migration 769

Routing in the Virtual World 771

Site Selection and Server Virtualization 775

    Route Health Injection 775

    Global Server Load Balancing 777

    Location/ID Separation Protocol 779

Use Case: Virtual Data Center 781

Summary 783

Further Reading 784

Part V End-to-End Virtualization

Chapter 17 The Virtual Data Center and Cloud Computing 785

The Virtual Data Center 786

Automation and Standardization 789

What Is Cloud Computing? 793

Cloud Implementation Example 797

Journey to the Cloud 799

Networking in the Clouds 800

Software-Defined Networks 800

OpenStack 801

Network Overlays 802

Cisco Open Network Environment 804

Before We Go... 805

Summary 806

Further Reading 807

Part VI: Appendixes

Appendix A Cisco Data Center Portfolio 809

Cisco Application Control Engine 809

Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances 5585-X 811

Cisco ASA 1000V Cloud Firewall 812

Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches 813

Cisco Cloud Portal 816

Cisco Intelligent Automation Solutions 817

Automation Software Components 817

Cisco Intelligent Automation for Cloud Solution 819

Cisco Intelligent Automation for SAP 820

Cisco MDS 9000 Series Multilayer Switches 820

Cisco Prime Network Analysis Module 823

Cisco Nexus Data Center Switches 823

Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Switches 824

Nexus 1010 and 1100 Virtual Services Appliances 824

Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders 825

Cisco Nexus 3000 Series Switches 827

Cisco Nexus 4000 Series Switches 828

Cisco Nexus 5000 and 5500 Series Switches 829

Cisco Nexus 6000 Series Switches 831

Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Switches 832

Cisco Unified Computing System 835

Cisco 6100 and 6200 Series Fabric Interconnects 836

Cisco UCS 5100 Series Blade Server Chassis 836

Cisco UCS 2100 and 2200 Series Fabric Extenders 837

Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers 837

Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers 838

Cisco UCS Virtual Interface Cards 839

Unified Management Solutions 840

Cisco Application Network Manager 840

Cisco Prime Data Center Network Manager 841

Cisco UCS Manager and UCS Central 842

Virtual Network Management Center 843

Virtual Security Gateway 843

Virtualization Techniques Mapping 844

Further Reading 844

Appendix B IOS, NX-OS, and Application Control Software Command-Line

Interface Basics 847

IOS Command-Line Interface Basics 847

Command Modes 848

Getting Context-Sensitive Help 850

Abbreviating Commands and Using Shortcuts 854

Managing Configuration Files 855

Using Debug Commands 858

NX-OS Command-Line Interface 859

NX-OS Access 860

NX-OS Modularity 861

NX-OS and Running Configuration Files 863

NX-OS Command-Line Interface Optimizations 866

Configuration Version Management, Batches, and Scripts 866

Application Control Software Command-Line Interface 870

Index 873

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