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00:00:00 - We've been working very hard in this course as we master
00:00:04 - the technologies that would be utilized in a modern
00:00:06 - Cisco-biased data center. 00:00:09 - Well, we can take a little bit
of a breather in this Nugget, 00:00:12 - because all we're going to look
at is some various 00:00:15 - options that we would use to ensure
we can connect Fibre 00:00:19 - Channel over Ethernet in our data
center infrastructure. 00:00:23 - Let's jump in.
00:00:25 - I'm sure you're not surprised to see that we have more
00:00:27 - acronyms even in this particular chapter.
00:00:31 - One of the things that we'll be looking at is the Small
00:00:34 - Form Factor Pluggable modules that we can utilize throughout
00:00:40 - the data center infrastructure. 00:00:41 - This is so very powerful and cool.
00:00:45 - We call these mini-GBICs often because they're much like they
00:00:48 - gigabit interface converters we could insert inside of our
00:00:53 - Cisco equipment before, except that these are even smaller in
00:00:57 - form factor. 00:00:59 - So we'll take a look at some various
SFPs that you could 00:01:03 - have in your data center environment.
00:01:05 - What's more interesting, at least to me, in this chapter
00:01:08 - is a certain style of interface card that we'll look
00:01:12 - at called a VIC, a Virtual Interface Card.
00:01:16 - This is a converged network adapter for our environment
00:01:20 - that you're going to love. 00:01:21 - And you're going to be really fascinated
by its features. 00:01:25 - Then we'll go ahead and wrap up,
and we'll talk about a 00:01:27 - particular Nexus switch.
00:01:29 - And we'll talk about the 5500 UP. 00:01:32 - We'll see how it would be connected
to the northbound 00:01:37 - Local Area Network and the northbound
00:01:40 - Storage Area Network. 00:01:41 - Remember--
00:01:42 - and let me describe this to you right now, because we
00:01:46 - really haven't talked about yet-- 00:01:48 - you'll see as you advance in your
data center training here 00:01:53 - how we're going to have something
like the UCS chassis 00:01:57 - with all these server blades in
it. 00:01:59 - And it's going to make connections
up to fabric 00:02:02 - interconnects.
00:02:03 - Then those are going to make connections into maybe the
00:02:05 - 2000-series, and they're going to make connections into the
00:02:09 - 5000-series. 00:02:11 - Cisco refers to this as northbound.
00:02:14 - So when you hear them say we're talking about some
00:02:18 - northbound LAN or SAN, that is what you should envision.
00:02:22 - You should envision above in the hierarchy the actual
00:02:27 - server blades that are serving up your data.
00:02:31 - If you're not familiar with the concept of SFPs, you're
00:02:34 - going to be impressed that they are hot-swappable.
00:02:37 - Yeah, so that's going to be a great feature.
00:02:40 - We can go ahead and swap one out without powering down the
00:02:44 - communications device that we are utilizing with.
00:02:47 - As you can see from this partial list of SFPs that we
00:02:52 - might find in the data center, there's just an incredible
00:02:55 - variety of support here, from Sonet to SDH to gigabit
00:03:02 - ethernet to fiber channel. 00:03:04 - We've got fast ethernet support
as well, so a really, 00:03:08 - really robust variety that are
available. 00:03:11 - We even have the 1000 BASE-T SFP,
as you can see here, 00:03:16 - which would go ahead and support
our standard and 00:03:19 - rather ubiquitous CAT5 unshielded
00:03:23 - twisted pair cabling. 00:03:25 - We've got the SX model that's going
to be compatible with 00:03:29 - the 802.3Z, standard which, of
course, operates with our 00:03:34 - traditional 50-micrometer multi-mode
fiber links. 00:03:39 - And it also operates on a 62.5-micrometer
FDDI-grade 00:03:45 - multi-mode fibers that have a actually
shorter reach then 00:03:50 - the 50-micrometer.
00:03:51 - But again, no sense memorizing these exact models or
00:03:55 - anything like that. 00:03:57 - We just wanted to present to you
the tremendous variety 00:04:01 - that you have when it comes to
these SFPs. 00:04:08 - And notice there are plenty of
SFPs that are targeted 00:04:11 - specifically at 10-gigabit per
second Ethernet. 00:04:15 - You'll see 10G in the names of
these particular SFPs, and 00:04:21 - you'll also notice short-range
and long-range varieties that 00:04:26 - are available.
00:04:27 - So one of the things that you would want to do, obviously,
00:04:31 - is you'd want to make sure that your hardware platform
00:04:35 - and your software running on that particular hardware
00:04:39 - platform are capable of supporting the particular SFP
00:04:43 - that you want to utilize. 00:04:46 - That is something very, very important
to carry out. 00:04:50 - For example, here on the screen
you can see I've 00:04:53 - written the Fabric Extender Transceiver
10G. 00:04:59 - This is supported only on fabric
uplinks from a Nexus 00:05:04 - 2000 device to the parent device,
which obviously we 00:05:09 - know is going to be a 5000-series
device. 00:05:13 - OK?
00:05:13 - So this is specifically for the 2000 to the 5,000.
00:05:18 - It is a particular device that is very specific to that
00:05:22 - connectivity environment. 00:05:24 - And the FET 10G must be connected
to 00:05:28 - another exact FET 10G.
00:05:32 - So there are going to be very specific utilizations for
00:05:36 - specific SFPs. 00:05:39 - And now it's time for me to present
something to you that 00:05:41 - really is truly remarkable, this
UCS P81E Virtual 00:05:46 - Interface Card concept from Cisco
Systems. 00:05:50 - This is going to take this fabric
extension model and 00:05:54 - extend it right down to our servers.
00:05:57 - Think about it. 00:05:58 - We know that there is the 5000-series,
which then has 00:06:03 - the 2000-series.
00:06:05 - And that 2000-series is a child device-- it's acting
00:06:08 - like a line card-- 00:06:10 - to its parent 5000-series.
00:06:12 - And we know that they use technology to bind the port
00:06:16 - and the port's traffic to particular systems, and they
00:06:20 - can share that information with each other.
00:06:22 - Well, now what we do is we extend 00:06:24 - that down to our servers.
00:06:26 - So let's just say this is one of our C-Series rack-mounted
00:06:29 - servers, and it's got one of these nice Virtual Interface
00:06:33 - Cards inside it. 00:06:35 - OK?
00:06:35 - What happens here is there is a single physical PCI Express
00:06:41 - network card in that device that has the ability to
00:06:46 - virtualize itself and present itself to the VMs that are
00:06:52 - running on the server blade as particular
00:06:57 - Virtual Network Cards. 00:06:59 - Unbelievable.
00:07:00 - If we have an operating system that we want to present a
00:07:03 - virtual Ethernet card to, we present it with a Virtual
00:07:08 - Network Interface Card. 00:07:09 - If there's an operating system
that we want to present a 00:07:12 - fibre channel host bus adapter
to, we go ahead and we create 00:07:16 - a virtual host bus adapter for
that particular purpose. 00:07:21 - So notice we are segregating traffic
in hardware. 00:07:26 - We don't need software.
00:07:28 - We don't need VLANs in order to do that segregation.
00:07:32 - They're each able to achieve their own virtual Ethernet or
00:07:37 - virtual host bus adapter, and that particular virtual device
00:07:43 - is able to communicate that information upstream to these
00:07:47 - devices for excellent segregation. 00:07:51 - This is an end-to-end standards-based
architecture 00:07:55 - for virtualization, as defined
in 802.1Qbh by the IEEE. 00:08:02 - And Cisco made sure to attend to
these standards with their 00:08:06 - Virtual Interface Card technologies.
00:08:09 - Truly remarkable. 00:08:12 - So this is really it's an interesting
00:08:14 - development, isn't it? 00:08:16 - When we talk about being able to
identify and segregate the 00:08:21 - traffic of virtual machines flowing
through our data 00:08:24 - center environment, it used to
be that we would focus on a 00:08:28 - software hypervisor-based solution,
like the 1000V that 00:08:34 - we've talked about extensively
in this 00:08:35 - particular training course.
00:08:37 - But now that's no longer the only option, is it?
00:08:41 - We can do everything in hardware thanks to the Virtual
00:08:45 - Interface Card. 00:08:47 - We can identify and segregate the
traffic of multiple VMs 00:08:51 - right in a hardware-based Virtual
Interface Card 00:08:54 - solution as we send that traffic
up to 00:08:57 - the northbound switches.
00:08:59 - And by the way, you don't have to choose one
00:09:01 - approach or the other. 00:09:03 - We could certainly we have our
VICs and our 1000V 00:09:06 - implemented.
00:09:07 - It's just worth noting here that no longer do we have to
00:09:12 - rely on software-based solutions for the
00:09:15 - identification and tagging of particular VM traffic.
00:09:20 - Let's take a moment, shall we, and let's just contemplate the
00:09:25 - beauty of this unified communications capability.
00:09:30 - Here we have our C-Series rack-mount server with its
00:09:34 - fancy Virtual Interface Card. 00:09:37 - We have a virtual NIC leading this
way to our LAN traffic. 00:09:43 - We have a virtual host bus adapter
leading this way to 00:09:48 - our SAN traffic.
00:09:50 - How can we carry that traffic over those links?
00:09:54 - Yes, in both of these locations we are utilizing
00:09:59 - Fibre Channel over Ethernet, aren't we?
00:10:01 - Yeah. 00:10:02 - We can do Fibre Channel over Ethernet
in order to carry the 00:10:06 - unified traffic.
00:10:08 - Now over here we have the LAN side. 00:10:12 - So you can see we have 7000-series
upstream from our 00:10:16 - 5500 UP device, for example.
00:10:20 - Here's our ethernet LAN traffic. 00:10:23 - Over here we have our fibre channel
traffic. 00:10:26 - Notice the 5000, the exact same
model that we're using 00:10:30 - over on the left.
00:10:31 - This model on the right is tailored to the Storage Area
00:10:35 - Networking concerns. 00:10:38 - So this is the remarkable architecture
that we can 00:10:42 - easily accommodate for unified
I/O. That's unified 00:10:48 - input/output in our modern Cisco-biased
data center 00:10:53 - environment.
00:10:55 - So we got time. 00:10:56 - It's time for exam time.
00:10:58 - Let's jump in and take a look here. 00:11:00 - Which is not a benefit provided
by the 00:11:03 - Cisco Unified Fabric?
00:11:05 - Boy, Unified Fabric we've been talking
00:11:07 - about for a few Nuggets. 00:11:09 - I'm not surprised to see that's
the topic of this 00:11:11 - particular exam-time break.
00:11:14 - Reduced cabling. 00:11:16 - That sounds great to me.
00:11:17 - That's a true benefit provided by Unified Fabric.
00:11:21 - But we're looking for what is not a benefit.
00:11:24 - Be sure to read very carefully in your exam environment.
00:11:28 - Centralized management. 00:11:31 - That sounds good to me.
00:11:32 - That would be a benefit. 00:11:34 - Encryption at Layer 1.
00:11:36 - I don't think we've talked about that capability thanks
00:11:39 - to Unified Fabric. 00:11:40 - But let's check d, consolidation.
00:11:44 - Yeah, of course, specifically consolidation of LAN and SAN
00:11:49 - I/O in one unified infrastructure. 00:11:52 - So the correct answer, not a benefit
provided by the 00:11:56 - Unified Fabric, encryption at Layer
1. 00:12:00 - Great job.
00:12:01 - Awesome work on this exam-time break.
00:12:05 - Isn't it nice not to have to work so hard in the
00:12:07 - Nugget for a change? 00:12:08 - Yeah.
00:12:09 - This was fun, simple and fun. 00:12:11 - We took a look at Small Form Factor
Pluggable transceivers 00:12:15 - that are available for your equipment.
00:12:16 - They're hot-swappable. 00:12:18 - They give you a lot of flexibility
when it comes to 00:12:20 - configuring the particular Layer
1 infrastructure that 00:12:23 - you are interested in.
00:12:25 - We spent a bit more time, and I got all excited about, the
00:12:28 - Virtual Interface Card technology from Cisco,
00:12:31 - allowing you to carve up multiple virtual NICs and
00:12:35 - virtual host bus adapters for your needs and to identify the
00:12:40 - traffic of particular VMs and segregate it from other VMs
00:12:44 - and to do that right in hardware. 00:12:47 - Finally, we took a look at the
5500 UP Nexus switches in a 00:12:52 - sample infrastructure, and we saw
how they would be a 00:12:55 - unified access layer, allowing
us to communicate LAN and SAN 00:13:00 - traffic northbound with ease to
our 00:13:03 - rack-mounted server equipment.
00:13:06 - I hope you've found this Nugget informative, and I want
00:13:09 - to thank you for viewing.