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

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”    

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