Hyperconverged Infrastructure Data Centers: Demystifying HCI(Networking Technology)

Improve Manageability, Flexibility, Scalability, and Control with Hyperconverged Infrastructure Hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) combines storage, compute, and networking in one unified system, managed locally or from the cloud. With HCI, you can leverage the cloud’s simplicity, flexibility, and scalability without losing control or compromising your ability to scale. In Hyperconverged Infrastructure Data Centers, best-selling author Sam Halabi demystifies HCI technology, outlines its use cases, and compares solutions from a vendor-neutral perspective. He guides you through evaluation, planning, implementation, and management, helping you decide where HCI makes sense, and how to migrate legacy data centers without disrupting production systems. The author brings together all the HCI knowledge technical professionals and IT managers need, whether their background is in storage, compute, virtualization, switching/routing, automation, or public cloud platforms. He explores leading solutions including the Cisco HyperFlex platform, VMware vSAN, Nutanix Enterprise Cloud, Cisco Application-Centric Infrastructure (ACI), VMware’s NSX, the open source OpenStack and Open vSwitch (OVS) / Open Virtual Network (OVN), and Cisco CloudCenter for multicloud management. As you explore discussions of automation, policy management, and other key HCI capabilities, you’ll discover powerful new opportunities to improve control, security, agility, and performance. Understand and overcome key limits of traditional data center designs Discover improvements made possible by advances in compute, bus interconnect, virtualization, and software-defined storage Simplify rollouts, management, and integration with converged infrastructure (CI) based on the Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) Explore HCI functionality, advanced capabilities, and benefits Evaluate key HCI applications, including DevOps, virtual desktops, ROBO, edge computing, Tier 1 enterprise applications, backup, and disaster recovery Simplify application deployment and policy setting by implementing a new model for provisioning, deployment, and management Plan, integrate, deploy, provision, manage, and optimize the Cisco HyperFlex hyperconverged infrastructure platform Assess alternatives such as VMware vSAN, Nutanix, open source OpenStack, and OVS/OVN, and compare architectural differences with HyperFlex Compare Cisco ACI (Application- Centric Infrastructure) and VMware NSX approaches to network automation, policies, and security This book is part of the Networking Technology Series from Cisco Press, which offers networking professionals valuable information for constructing efficient networks, understanding new technologies, and building successful careers.

Table of Contents:
Introduction     xxiv PART I:  BASICS OF DATA CENTER NETWORKING AND STORAGE     1 Chapter 1  Data Networks: Existing Designs     3 Information Technology Equipment of a Data Center     4     Network Equipment     4     Networking Services     4 Multitier Data Networking Architecture     6     Logical Server Grouping     8 Challenges of Existing Designs     9     Oversubscription Between the Tiers     9     Large Flat L2 Networks with Stretched VLANs     10     Traffic Hopping Between Tiers, Inducing Latency     11     Complexity of Mechanisms Used for IPv4 Address Scarcity     12     Flooding of Broadcast, Unknown Unicast, and Multicast (BUM) Traffic     15     Loop Prevention Via Spanning Tree     16     Firewall Overload     17 Chapter 2  Storage Networks: Existing Designs     19 The Storage View of Multitier Designs     20 Types of Disk Drives     21     Hard Disk Drives     22     Solid-State Drives     23 Disk Performance     23     Throughput or Transfer Speed     24     Access Time     24     Latency and IOPS     24 RAID     26     RAID 0     26     RAID 1     26     RAID 1+0     26     RAID 0+1     27     RAID 5     28     RAID 6     29 Storage Controllers     30 Logical Unit Numbers     31 Logical Volume Manager     33 Block-, File-, and Object-Level Storage     35     Block-Level Storage     35     File-Level Storage     35     Object-Based Storage     36 Storage-to-Server Connectivity     37     Direct-Attached Storage (DAS)     38     Network-Attached Storage     39     Storage Area Networks     40     iSCSI SANs     46     Fibre Channel over Ethernet SANs     49 Storage Efficiency Technologies     50     Thin Provisioning     50     Snapshots     51     Cloning     55     Replication     55     Deduplication     55     Data Compression     58     Disk Encryption     59     Storage Tiering     59     Caching Storage Arrays     60 PART II:  EVOLUTION IN HOST HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE     63 Chapter 3  Host Hardware Evolution     65 Advancements in Compute     65     x86 Standard Architecture     66     Single-, Multi-, and Many-Cores CPUs     66     Physical Cores Versus Virtual Cores Versus Logical Cores     67     Virtual CPU     68 Evolution in Host Bus Interconnect     70     Non-Volatile Memory Express     71 Emergence of Flash-Based Products     72     Enhancement in Flash Technology     73     New Breed of Storage Arrays Falls Short     73 Chapter 4  Server Virtualization     77 The Virtualization Layer     78     Type 1 Hypervisor     79     Type 2 Hypervisor     80     Docker Containers     80 Datastores     82     Virtual Machine Creation     84 Virtualization Services     86     Clusters of Servers or Nodes     86     VM Migration     87     High Availability     88     Fault Tolerance     89     Compute Load Balancing     89     Storage Migration     90     Storage Load Balancing     90     Provisioning and Management     90 Virtual Switching     90 Chapter 5  Software-Defined Storage     95 SDS Objectives     96 Preserving the Legacy and Offering New Features     97 vSphere APIs for Storage Awareness (VASA) and VVols     99     Creating More Granular Volumes with VVols     100     Learning Storage Array Capabilities Through VASA     102     Integration with Storage Policy-Based Management     103 PART III:  HYPERCONVERGED INFRASTRUCTURE     105 Chapter 6  Converged Infrastructure     107 Cisco UCS–The First Step in Convergence     108 The Converged Systems     112     Pros of Converged Systems     114     Converged Systems Cons     114 Chapter 7  HCI Functionality     117 Distributed DAS Architecture     118     Distributed Controllers     119     Scale-Out Architecture     120     HCI Performance     120     Resiliency Against Hardware Failures via Replication     121     File Systems     122     Change in the Provisioning Model     124     Hardware Acceleration     125     Networking Integration     125 Advanced Data Storage Functionality     127     Deduplication and Compression     128     Erasure Coding     128     Replication and Backup for Disaster Recovery     129     HCI Security     130     HCI Provisioning, Management, and Monitoring     131 Chapter 8  HCI Business Benefits and Use Cases     135 HCI Business Benefits     136     Fast Deployment     136     Easier-to-Scale Infrastructure     136     Enhanced IT Operational Model     137     Easier System Management     138     Public Cloud Agility in a Private Cloud     138     Higher Availability at Lower Costs     139     Low-Entry Cost Structure     139     Reduced Total Cost of Ownership     140 HCI Use Cases     140     Server Virtualization     140     DevOps     141     Virtual Desktop Infrastructure     141     Remote Office Business Office (ROBO)     144     Edge Computing     146     Tier-1 Enterprise Class Applications     146     Data Protection and Disaster Recovery     148 PART IV:  CISCO HYPERFLEX     151 Chapter 9  Cisco HyperFlex     153 HyperFlex Physical Components     154     Cisco HyperFlex Hybrid Nodes     156     Cisco HyperFlex All-Flash Nodes     156     Cisco HyperFlex Edge Nodes     157     Cisco HyperFlex Compute-Only Nodes     157     Cisco UCS 6200 and 6300 Fabric Interconnect     158     Cisco C220/C240 M4/M5 Rack Servers     158     Cisco VIC MLOM Interface Card     159     Cisco UCS 5108 Blade Chassis     159 HyperFlex Performance Benchmarks     160 Integration with UCS     162     Logical Network Design     162     Service Templates and Profiles     164     vNIC Templates     166     HyperFlex Integration with External Storage     167 Cisco’s HX Data Platform     168     HX Data Platform Controller     169     HyperFlex in VMware ESXi Environment     170     HyperFlex in Hyper-V Environment     171     Docker Containers Support and Volume Driver     172     HyperFlex Data Distribution     174     Details of Read and Write Operations     181 Advanced Data Services     187     Deduplication and Compression     187     Snapshots     188     Cloning     189     Asynchronous Native Replication for DR with Remote Clusters     189     Synchronous Native Replication for DR with Stretched Clusters     190     Integration with Third-Party Backup Tools     191     HyperFlex Security     192 Chapter 10  Deploying, Provisioning, and Managing HyperFlex     197 Installation Phase     197 HyperFlex Workload Profiler     199 HyperFlex Sizer     199 Management Provisioning and Monitoring     199     Cisco HyperFlex Connect HTML5 Management     200     VMware vSphere Management Plug-In     203     Cisco Intersight     204 Chapter 11  HyperFlex Workload Optimization and Efficiency     211 Enterprise Workload Issues     211 HyperFlex with Cisco Tetration     212     Data Collection     214     Tetration Analytics Cluster     214     Open Access     215     Using the Data     215 Cisco Workload Optimizer     216 Cisco AppDynamics     217 PART V:  ALTERNATIVE HCI IMPLEMENTATIONS     221 Chapter 12  VMware vSAN     223 vSAN Physical Components     224 vSAN Hyperconvergence Software     225     The Object File System     226     vSAN Datastore     228     vSAN Storage Policies     228     Caching     232     I/O Operation Details     232 vSAN Advanced Functionality     233     Data Integrity     234     Data Encryption     234     Deduplication and Compression     235     Erasure Coding     236     Snapshots     236     Cloning     236     vSAN Replication for Disaster Recovery via Stretched Clusters     238     vSAN Backup for Disaster Recovery     241 Integration with Legacy SAN and NAS     243     vSAN iSCSI Target     243     vSAN and VVols     243     SMB and NFS Support     244 Persistent Storage for Containers     244 vSAN Management     244     Graphical Interfaces     244     Ease of Installation     245     Cloud-Connected Health Checks     245     Performance Diagnostics     245     VMware Update Manager     245     vSAN vRealize Operations and Log Insight     245 Thoughts on vSAN Versus HyperFlex     246     Hardware Comparison     247     Scaling Up     247     vSAN In-Kernel Versus Controller-Based Solutions     248     Distributed Versus Not-So-Distributed File System     249     One-to-One Versus Many-to-Many Rebuild     250     Implementations of Compute-Only Nodes     250     Advanced Data Services     251     Management Software     252     Networking     252 Chapter 13  Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform     255 Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform     256 ECP Hyperconvergence Software     257     Distributed Storage Fabric     257     Nutanix Cluster Components     258     Physical Drive Breakdown     260 I/O Path     261     Write I/O     261     Read I/O     262 Data Protection     262     Metadata     263     Availability Domains     263     Data Path Resiliency     264 Nutanix Advanced Functionality     264     Deduplication     264     Data Compression     265     Erasure Coding     266     Disk Balancing     266     Storage Tiering     267 Snapshots and Clones     268     Shadow Clones     269     Era Database Services     269     Backup and Restore, Replication, and Disaster Recovery     270 Metro Availability: Stretch Clustering     271 Data At Rest Encryption     272 Nutanix Acropolis Block Services     272 Nutanix Acropolis File Services     273 Support for Hyper-V     274 Docker Containers     275 Provisioning, Managing, and Monitoring     275     Infrastructure Management     276     Operational Insight     277     Nutanix Tools     278     Calm Orchestration Tool     278 The Nutanix Competitive Landscape     279     Hardware Comparison     280     Distributed Architecture     281     Log-Structured Versus Write-in-Place File System     282     Data Tiering     282     Deduplication     283     Data Locality     285 Chapter 14  Open Source–Compute and Storage     289 OpenStack     290 Nova     294 Cinder Block Storage     296 Swift     297     Proxy Server     298 Ceph     300 PART VI:  HYPERCONVERGED NETWORKING     305 Chapter 15  Software-Defined Networking and Open Source     307 The SDN Background     308 The Overlay and Microsegmentation Edge     309     Host-Based Networking     310     Switch-Based Networking     312 The Switching Fabric     313 The Underlay Network     315 The Overlay Network     315 Microsegmentation in the Data Center     319 Networking Open Source Initiatives     320     Neutron     320     OVS Architecture     322 OVN–The Open Source SDN     324     Open vSwitch     325     OVN     326 State of Vendors with Open Source     331 Chapter 16  VMware NSX     335 Setting and Enforcing Policies in NSX     336     Security Groups     336     Security Policy     337     Policy Enforcement     338 The NSX Manager and Controller Cluster     339     NSX Manager     339     The NSX Controller Cluster     340 Enhancements for vDS     341 Flooding Avoidance     342 NSX L2 Switching and L3 Routing     343     NSX L2 Switching     343     NSX IP Routing     343 Handling of Multidestination Traffic     346 Chapter 17  Application-Centric Infrastructure     351 Cisco Application-Centric Infrastructure     352 ACI Microsegmentation Constructs     353     The Endpoint Groups     353     Application Network Profile     355     Service Graphs     358     ACI Tetration Model     360 Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller     360 ACI Domains     362     Virtual Machine Manager Domain     362     Physical and External Domains     364 The ACI Fabric Switching and Routing Constructs     365     Tenant     366     VRF     366     Bridge Domain     366     EPG     366 Virtual and Physical Connectivity to the ACI Fabric     367     Virtual Connectivity to the Fabric     367     Physical Connectivity to the Fabric     368 The ACI Switching and Routing Terminology     369 The ACI Underlay Network     371     Handling External Routes     372     ACI Fabric Load Balancing     373 The ACI Overlay and VXLAN     373     The VXLAN Instance ID     376     L2 Switching in the Overlay     378     L3 Switching/Routing in the Overlay     380 Multicast in the Overlay Versus Multicast in the Underlay     383 ACI Multi-PoD     383 ACI Multi-Site     384 ACI Anywhere     386 High-Level Comparison Between ACI and NSX     386     Policy Setting     387     Policy Enforcement     388     Performance Requirement for VXLAN     388     Control Plane     389     Performance of Data Forwarding     390     Automation and Visibility in the Fabric     390     Networking Learning Curve     391 PART VII:  PUBLIC, PRIVATE, HYBRID, AND MULTICLOUD     393 Chapter 18  The Public Cloud     395 The Cloud Services     395     Infrastructure as a Service     396     Platform as a Service     397     Software as a Service     397 Amazon Web Services     398     AWS Global Infrastructure with Regions and Availability Zones     399     Networking     401     Storage     404 Launching Multitier Applications in AWS     409     Compute Instances     409     Amazon Machine Images     410     Security Groups     410     Identity and Access Management     411     Launching an EC2 Instance     412     Cloud Monitoring     416 Cloud Automation     416     Infrastructure as a Code     417     Software Development Kits     420 Chapter 19  The Private Cloud     423 What Is a Private Cloud?     423     Convergence and Hyperconvergence     425     Automation and Orchestration     425 Cisco UCS Director     427     UCS Director Policies     427     Virtual Data Center     429     Orchestration Concepts     430     Catalogs     431 Integration Between UCSD and HyperFlex     431     UCSD Interfaces     433     APIs and Infrastructure as a Code     434 Chapter 20  Hybrid Cloud and Multicloud     439 Why Hybrid Cloud?     440 Why Multicloud?     442 Cisco CloudCenter     446 Looking Ahead     450 Glossary     451 Index     475

About the Author :
Sam Halabi is a well-known industry figure with many years of experience in the field of information technology, multicloud, hyperconvergence, enterprise software, and data networking. Sam is a trusted advisor, capable of establishing close relationships with customers at the executive level, linking complex technologies with business benefits. Sam has worked at major companies in the U.S. and international markets, where he led sales, presales, consulting, marketing, and business development efforts targeting enterprises building scalable data centers. Sam is the founder of VirtuService (www.virtuservice.com), a provider of customer service and IT consulting in the areas of private, hybrid, public cloud, and multicloud. Sam has authored many Cisco Press books, including the bestseller Internet Routing Architectures and Metro Ethernet. Follow Sam Halabi on Twitter @VirtuService.