Ask the Expert: C-Series Integration with Cisco Unified Computing System Manager

Welcome to the Cisco Support Community Ask the Expert conversation. This conversation is an opportunity to learn and ask questions about Cisco C-Series Integration with Cisco Unified Computing System® Manager (Cisco UCS® Manager) with Cisco experts Vishal Mehta and Manuel Velasco.
Cisco UCS C-Series Rack-Mount Servers are managed by the built-in standalone software, Cisco Integrated Management Controller (Cisco IMC). When a C-Series rack-mount server is integrated with Cisco UCS Manager, the IMC no longer manages the server. Instead you will manage the server using the Cisco UCS Manager GUI or Cisco UCS Manager command-line interface (CLI).
Cisco UCS Manager 2.2 provides three connectivity modes for Cisco UCS C-Series Rack-Mount Server management. The following are the connectivity modes:
Dual-wire management (shared LAN On Motherboard [LOM]): Shared LOM ports on the rack server are used exclusively for carrying management traffic.A separate cable connected to one of the ports on the Payment Card Industry Express (PCIe) card carries the data traffic.
SingleConnect (Sideband): Using Network Controller Sideband Interface (NC-SI), the Cisco UCS Virtual Interface Card 1225 (VIC1225) connects one cable that can carry both data and management traffic.
Direct Connect Mode: Cisco UCS Manager Version 2.2 introduces an additional rack server management mode using direct connection to the Fabric Interconnect.
Vishal Mehta is a customer support engineer for Cisco’s Data Center Server Virtualization Technical Assistance Center (TAC) team based in San Jose, California. He has been working in the TAC for the past 3 years with a primary focus on data center technologies such as Cisco Nexus® 5000, Cisco UCS, Cisco Nexus 1000V, and virtualization. He presented at Cisco Live in Orlando 2013 and will present at Cisco Live Milan 2014 (BRKCOM-3003, BRKDCT-3444, and LABDCT-2333). He holds a master’s degree from Rutgers University in electrical and computer engineering and has CCIE® certification (number 37139) in routing and switching and service provider.
Manuel Velasco is a customer support engineer for Cisco’s Data Center Server Virtualization TAC team based in San Jose, California.  He has been working in the TAC for the past 3 years with a primary focus on data center technologies such as Cisco UCS, Cisco Nexus 1000V, and virtualization.  Manuel holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering from California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) and CCNA® and VMware VCP certifications. Remember to use the rating system to let Vishal and Manuel know if you have received an adequate response. 
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Hello Sebastian,
The different modes of connecting C-Series with UCSM come into play depending on the type of infrastructure you already have along with C-Series and NIC model.
Cisco UCS C-Series Rack-Mount Servers are managed by the built-in standalone software, Cisco Integrated Management Controller (CIMC) .
Powerful features provided by Cisco UCS Manager can be leveraged to manage C-Series server by integrating  C-Series Rack-Mount Server with UCSM.
This not only gives you rich-feature set but also one management plane to operate UCS-B Series Chassis and UCS-C Series Rack Server.
You will manage the server using the Cisco UCS Manager GUI or Cisco UCS Manager CLI.
Cisco UCS Manager 2.2 provides three connectivity modes for Cisco UCS C-Series Rack-Mount Server management.
The following are the connectivity modes:
•  Dual-wire Management (Shared LOM):
Shared LAN on Motherboard (LOM) ports on the rack server are used exclusively for carrying management traffic. A separate cable connected to one of the ports on the PCIe card carries the data traffic. Using two separate cables for managing data traffic and management traffic is also referred to as dual-wire management.
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/c-series_integration/ucsm2-2/b_C-Series-Integration_UCSM2-2/b_C-Series-Integration_UCSM2-2_chapter_0100.html
This mode is recommended when you have C-Server which does not  have or cannot support VIC 1225 card (such C-200 server)
•  SingleConnect (Sideband):
Using Network Controller Sideband Interface (NC-SI), Cisco UCS VIC1225 Virtual Interface Card (VIC) connects one cable that can carry both data traffic and management traffic.
This feature is referred to as SingleConnect.
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/c-series_integration/ucsm2-2/b_C-Series-Integration_UCSM2-2/b_C-Series-Integration_UCSM2-2_chapter_011.html
This most recommended Integration model when using FEX and VIC 1225 card
•  Direct Connect Mode:
Cisco UCS Manager release version 2.2 introduces an additional rack server management mode using direct connection to the Fabric Interconnect.
This mode will eliminate the need for FEX module as Servers are directly plugged into the base ports of Fabric Interconnect
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/unified_computing/ucs/c-series_integration/ucsm2-2/b_C-Series-Integration_UCSM2-2/b_C-Series-Integration_UCSM2-2_chapter_0110.html
Please let us know if you need more information. Thank you!
Thanks,
Vishal

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    Hi Ramses,
    I have dozen questions but will try to restrain myself and start with the most important ones :)
    1. Can cables between IOM and FI be configured in a port-channel? Let me clarify what I"m trying to achieve: if I have only one chassis with only one B200M3 blade inside, will the 2208 IOM and FI6296 allow me to achieve more than 10Gbps throughput between the blade and the Nexus 5k? Of course, we are talking here about clean ethernet environment.
         B200M3 --- IOM2208 --- 4 links --- FI6296 --- port-channel (4 links) --- Nexus5548
    2. Is it possible to view/measure throughput for Fibre Channel interfaces?
    3. Here is one about FlexPod: I know that in case of vBlock there is the company that delivers fully preconfigured system and offers one universal support point so customer don't have to call Cisco or VMware or storage supports separately. What I don't know is how it works for FlexPod. Before you answer that you are not sales guy, let me ask you more technical questions: Is FlexPod Cisco product or is NetApp product or this is just a concept developed by two companies that should be embraced by various Cisco/NetApp partners? As you obviously support Datacenter solutions, if customer/partner calls you with are FlexPod related problem, does it matter for you, from support side, if you are troubleshooting fully compliant FlexPod system or you'll provide same level of support even is the system is customized (not 100% FlexPod environment)?
    4. When talking about vCenter, can you share your opinion about following: what is the most important reason to create the cluster and what will be the most important limitation?
    5. I know that NetApp has feature called Rapid Clones that allows faster cloning than what vCenter offers. Any chance you can compare the two? I remember that NetApp option should be much faster but didn't understand what is actually happening during the cloning process and I'm hoping you can clarify this? Maybe a quick hint here: seems to me it will be helpful if I could understand the traffic path that is used in each case. Also, it will be nice to know if Vblock (i.e. EMC) offers similar feature and how it is called.
    6. Can I connect Nexus 2000 to the FI6xxx?
    7. Is vBlock utilizing Fabric Failover? Seems to me not and would like to hear your opinion why.
    Thanks for providing us this opportunity to talk about this great topic.
    Regards,
    Tenaro

  • Ask The Expert: Understanding, Implementing, and Troubleshooting Cisco Prime Network

    Ask questions and learn about Cisco Prime Network with Cisco experts Vignesh Rajendran Praveen and Jaminder Singh Bali.
    Cisco Prime Network is and  Cisco Prime Network provides cost-effective device operation, administration and network fault management for today’s complex and evolved programmable networks (EPNs). It is a single solution to support both the traditional physical network components, as well as compute infrastructure, and the virtual elements found in data centers. Automated configuration and change management combined with advanced troubleshooting and diagnostics greatly help service providers enable proactive service assurance. Additionally, the flexible and extensible architecture is designed to support the multivendor environment, helping to lower operational costs.
    This event runs January 5 through January 16, 2015.
    Vignesh Rajendran Praveen is a High Touch Engineer with the Focused Technical Services team supporting Cisco's major Service Provider customers in Routing, Switching, Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) technologies and Cisco Prime Network related issues. Previously at Cisco he has worked as a Network Consulting Engineer for Enterprise Customers and as a Customer Support Engineer for Service Provider customers. He has been in the networking industry for ten years and holds CCIE certification (#34503) in the Routing and Switching as well as Service Provider tracks.
    Jaminder Singh Bali is a Customer Support Engineer working in SP-NMS TAC team, supporting Cisco's major service provider customers in Cisco Prime Network, Performance and Prime Central related issues. His areas of expertise include Oracle, Linux and NMS applications. He has been in the industry for past six years.
    Remember to use the rating system to let the experts know if you have received an adequate response. 
    The Experts might not be able to answer each question due to the volume expected during this event. Remember that you can continue the conversation in Network Infrastructure community, sub-community, LAN, Switching and Routing discussion forum shortly after the event. This event lasts through January 16, 2015. Visit this forum often to view responses to your questions and the questions of other community members.

    Hello Jerome,
    A variety of Cisco devices are supported by the the Cisco Prime Network. I would encourage you to go through the below links on the user guide depending the version of Cisco Prime Network being used.
    "Cisco Prime Network Supported Cisco Virtual Network Elements (VNEs)"
    "Cisco Prime Network Supported Cisco VNEs - Addendum"
    Below is the link for the user guide.
    http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/cloud-systems-management/prime-network/products-user-guide-list.html
    Hope this would help in providing you more clarity.
    ***********Plz do rate this post if you found it helpful*************************
    Thanks & Regards,
    Vignesh R P

  • Ask the Expert: Different Flavors and Design with vPC on Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switches

    Welcome to the Cisco® Support Community Ask the Expert conversation.  This is an opportunity to learn and ask questions about Cisco® NX-OS.
    The biggest limitation to a classic port channel communication is that the port channel operates only between two devices. To overcome this limitation, Cisco NX-OS has a technology called virtual port channel (vPC). A pair of switches acting as a vPC peer endpoint looks like a single logical entity to port channel attached devices. The two devices that act as the logical port channel endpoint are actually two separate devices. This setup has the benefits of hardware redundancy combined with the benefits offered by a port channel, for example, loop management.
    vPC technology is the main factor for success of Cisco Nexus® data center switches such as the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series, Nexus 7000 Series, and Nexus 2000 Series Switches.
    This event is focused on discussing all possible types of vPC along-with best practices, failure scenarios, Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) recommendations and troubleshooting
    Vishal Mehta is a customer support engineer for the Cisco Data Center Server Virtualization Technical Assistance Center (TAC) team based in San Jose, California. He has been working in TAC for the past 3 years with a primary focus on data center technologies, such as the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switches, Cisco Unified Computing System™ (Cisco UCS®), Cisco Nexus 1000V Switch, and virtualization. He presented at Cisco Live in Orlando 2013 and will present at Cisco Live Milan 2014 (BRKCOM-3003, BRKDCT-3444, and LABDCT-2333). He holds a master’s degree from Rutgers University in electrical and computer engineering and has CCIE® certification (number 37139) in routing and switching, and service provider.
    Nimit Pathak is a customer support engineer for the Cisco Data Center Server Virtualization TAC team based in San Jose, California, with primary focus on data center technologies, such as Cisco UCS, the Cisco Nexus 1000v Switch, and virtualization. Nimit holds a master's degree in electrical engineering from Bridgeport University, has CCNA® and CCNP® Nimit is also working on a Cisco data center CCIE® certification While also pursuing an MBA degree from Santa Clara University.
    Remember to use the rating system to let Vishal and Nimit know if you have received an adequate response. 
    Because of the volume expected during this event, Vishal and Nimit might not be able to answer every question. Remember that you can continue the conversation in the Network Infrastructure Community, under the subcommunity LAN, Switching & Routing, shortly after the event. This event lasts through August 29, 2014. Visit this forum often to view responses to your questions and the questions of other Cisco Support Community members.

    Hello Gustavo
    Please see my responses to your questions:
    Yes almost all routing protocols use Multicast to establish adjacencies. We are dealing with two different type of traffic –Control Plane and Data Plane.
    Control Plane: To establish Routing adjacency, the first packet (hello) is punted to CPU. So in the case of triangle routed VPC topology as specified on the Operations Guide Link, multicast for routing adjacencies will work. The hellos packets will be exchanged across all 3 routers and adjacency will be formed over VPC links
    http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/nexus5000/sw/operations/n5k_L3_w_vpc_5500platform.html#wp999181
    Now for Data Plane we have two types of traffic – Unicast and Multicast.
    The Unicast traffic will not have any forwarding issues, but because the Layer 3 ECMP and port channel run independent hash calculations there is a possibility that when the Layer 3 ECMP chooses N5k-1 as the Layer 3 next hop for a destination address while the port channel hashing chooses the physical link toward N5k-2. In this scenario,N5k-2 receives packets from R with the N5k-1 MAC as the destination MAC.
    Sending traffic over the peer-link to the correct gateway is acceptable for data forwarding, but it is suboptimal because it makes traffic cross the peer link when the traffic could be routed directly.
    For that topology, Multicast Traffic might have complete traffic loss due to the fact that when a PIM router is connected to Cisco Nexus 5500 Platform switches in a vPC topology, the PIM join messages are received only by one switch. The multicast data might be received by the other switch.
    The Loop avoidance works little different across Nexus 5000 and Nexus 7000.
    Similarity: For both products, loop avoidance is possible due to VSL bit
    The VSL bit is set in the DBUS header internal to the Nexus.
    It is not something that is set in the ethernet packet that can be identified. The VSL bit is set on the port asic for the port used for the vPC peer link, so if you have Nexus A and Nexus B configured for vPC and a packet leaves Nexus A towards Nexus B, Nexus B will set the VSL bit on the ingress port ASIC. This is not something that would traverse the peer link.
    This mechanism is used for loop prevention within the chassis.
    The idea being that if the port came in the peer link from the vPC peer, the system makes the assumption that the vPC peer would have forwarded this packet out the vPC-enabled port-channels towards the end device, so the egress vpc interface's port-asic will filter the packet on egress.
    Differences:  In Nexus 5000 when it has to do L3-to-L2 lookup for forwarding traffic, the VSL bit is cleared and so the traffic is not dropped as compared to Nexus 7000 and Nexus 3000.
    It still does loop prevention but the L3-to-L2 lookup is different in Nexus 5000 and Nexus 7000.
    For more details please see below presentation:
    https://supportforums.cisco.com/sites/default/files/session_14-_nexus.pdf
    DCI Scenario:  If 2 pairs are of Nexus 5000 then separation of L3/L2 links is not needed.
    But in most scenarios I have seen pair of Nexus 5000 with pair of Nexus 7000 over DCI or 2 pairs of Nexus 7000 over DCI. If Nexus 7000 are used then L3 and L2 links are required for sure as mentioned on above presentation link.
    Let us know if you have further questions.
    Thanks,
    Vishal

  • Ask the Expert: Single-Site and Multisite FlexPod Infrastructure

    With Haseeb Niazi and Chris O'Brien 
    Welcome to the Cisco Support Community Ask the Expert conversation. This is an opportunity to learn and ask questions about Single-Site and Multisite FlexPod Infrastructure with experts Haseeb Niazi and Chris O'Brien.
    This is a continuation of the live webcast.
    FlexPod is a predesigned and prevalidated base data center configuration built on Cisco Unified Computing System, Cisco Nexus data center switches, NetApp FAS storage components, and a number of software infrastructure options supporting a range of IT initiatives. FlexPod is the result of deep technology collaboration between Cisco and NetApp, leading to the creation of an integrated, tested, and validated data center platform that has been thoroughly documented in a best practices design guide. In many cases, the availability of Cisco Validated Design guides has reduced the time to deployment of mission-critical applications by 30 percent.
    The FlexPod portfolio includes a number of validated design options that can be deployed in a single site to support both physical and virtual workloads or across metro sites for supporting high availability and disaster avoidance. This session covers various design options available to customers and partners, including the latest MetroCluster FlexPod design to support a VMware Metro Storage Cluster (vMSC) configuration.
    Haseeb Niazi is a technical marketing engineer in the Data Center Group specializing in security and data center technologies. His areas of expertise also include VPN and security, the Cisco Nexus product line, and FlexPod. Prior to joining the Data Center Group, he worked as a technical leader in the Solution Development Unit and as a solutions architect in Advanced Services. Haseeb holds a master of science degree in computer engineering from the University of Southern California. He’s CCIE certified (number 7848) and has 14 years of industry experience.   
    Chris O'Brien is a technical marketing manager with Cisco’s Computing Systems Product Group.  He is currently focused on developing infrastructure best practices and solutions that are designed, tested, and documented to facilitate and improve customer deployments. Previously, O'Brien was an application developer and has worked in the IT industry for more than 20 years.
    Remember to use the rating system to let Haseeb and Chris know if you have received an adequate response. 
    Because of the volume expected during this event, Haseeb and Chris might not be able to answer every question. Remember that you can continue the conversation in the Data Center community, subcommunity Unified Computing shortly after the event. This event lasts through September 27, 2013. Visit this forum often to view responses to your questions and the questions of other Cisco Support Community members.
    Webcast related links:
    Single-Site and Multisite FlexPod Infrastructure - Slides from live webcast
    Single-Site and Multisite FlexPod Infrastructure: FAQ from live webcast
    Single-Site and Multisite FlexPod Infrastructure - Video from live webcast

    I would suggest you read this white paper which details the pros and cons of direct connect storage. 
    http://www.cisco.com/en/US/partner/prod/collateral/ps10265/ps10276/whitepaper_c11-702584.html   This paper captures all the major design points for Ethernet and FC  protocols.
    I would only add that in FlexPod we are trying to create a highly  available solution and "flexible" solution; Nexus switching helps us  deliver on both with vPC and unified ports.
    NPV equats  to end-host mode which allows the system to present all of the servers  as N ports to the external fabric.  In this mode, the vHBAs are pinned  to the egress interfaces of the fabric interconnects.  This pinning  removes the potential of loops in the SAN fabric.  Host based multipathing of the  vHBAs account for potential uplink failures.  The NPV mode (end-host  mode) simplifies the attachment of UCS into the SAN fabric and that is  why it is in NPV mode by default.
    So for your last question, I will have to put my  Product Manager hat on so bear with me.   First off there is no drawback  to enabling the NPIV feature (none that I am aware of) the Nexus 5000  platform simply offers you a choice to design and support multiple FC  initiators (N-Ports) per F-Port via NPIV.  This allows for the  integration of the FI end-host mode described above.  I  imagine being a  unfied access layer switch, the Nexus team enabled standard Fibre  Channel switching capability and features first.  The implementatin of  NPIV is a customer choice based on their specific access layer  requirements.
    /Chris

  • Ask the Expert: Integrating Cisco Identity Service Engine (ISE) 1.2 for BYOD

    With Eric Yu and Todd Pula 
    Welcome to the Cisco Support Community Ask the Expert conversation. This is an opportunity to learn and ask questions  about integrating Cisco ISE 1.2 for BYOD with experts Eric Yu and Todd Pula.
    Cisco Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is an end-to-end architecture that orchestrates the integration of Cisco's mobile and security architectures to various third-party components. The session takes a deep dive into the available tools and methodologies for troubleshooting the Cisco BYOD solution to identify root causes for problems that stem from mobile device manager integration, Microsoft Active Directory and certificate authority services, and Cisco Enterprise Mobility integration to the Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE). 
    Todd and Eric recently delivered a technical workshop that helps network designers and network engineers understand integration of the various Cisco BYOD components by taking a deep dive to analyze best practice configurations and time-saving troubleshooting methodologies. The content consisted of common troubleshooting scenarios in which TAC engineers help customers address operational challenges as seen in real Cisco BYOD deployments.
    Eric Yu is a technical leader at Cisco responsible for supporting our leading-edge borderless network solutions. He has 10 years of experience in the telecommunications industry designing data and voice networks. Previous to his current role, he worked as a network consulting engineer for Cisco Advance Services, responsible for designing and implementing Cisco Unified Communications for Fortune 500 enterprises. Before joining Cisco, he worked at Verizon Business as an integration engineer responsible for developing a managed services solution for Cisco Unified Communications. Eric holds CCIE certification in routing and switching no. 14590 and has two patents pending related to Cisco's medianet.   
    Todd Pula is a member of the TAC Security and NMS Technical Leadership team supporting the ISE and intrusion prevention system (IPS) product lines. Todd has 15 years of experience in the networking and information security industries, with 6 years of experience working in Cisco's TAC organization. Previous to his current role, Todd was a TAC team lead providing focused technical support on Cisco's wide array of VPN products. Before joining Cisco, he worked at Stanley Black & Decker as a network engineer responsible for the design, configuration, and support of an expansive global network infrastructure. Todd holds his CCIE in routing and switching no. 19383 and an MS degree in IT from Capella University.
    Remember to use the rating system to let Eric and Todd know if you have received an adequate response.
    Because of the volume expected during this event, Eric and Todd might not be able to answer every question. Remember that you can continue the conversation in the Security community, subcommunity AAA, Identity and NAC, shortly after the event. This event lasts through November 15, 2013. Visit this forum often to view responses to your questions and the questions of other Cisco Support Community members.

    Hi Antonio,
    Many great questions to start this series.  For the situation that you are observing with your FlexConnect configuration, is the problem 100% reproducible or is it intermittent?  Does the problem happen for one WLAN but not another?  As it stands today, the CoA-Ack needs to be initiated by the management interface.  This limitation is documented in bug CSCuj42870.  I have provided a link for your reference below.  If the problem happens 100% of the time, the two configuration areas that I would check first include:
    On the WLC, navigate to Security > RADIUS > Authentication.  Click on the server index number for the associated ISE node.  On the edit screen, verify that the Support for RFC 3576 option is enabled.
    On the WLC, navigate to the WLANs tab and click on the WLAN ID for the WLAN in question.  On the edit screen, navigate to Security > AAA and make sure the Radius Server Overwrite interface is unchecked.  When this option is checked, the WLC will attemp to send client authentication requests and the CoA-Ack/Nak via the dynamic interface assigned to the WLAN vs. the management interface.  Because of the below referenced bug, all RADIUS packets except the CoA-Ack/Nak will actually be transmitted via the dynamic interface.  As a general rule of thumb, if using the Radius NAC option on a WLAN, you should not configure the Radius Server Overwrite interface feature.
    Bug Info:  https://tools.cisco.com/bugsearch/bug/CSCuj42870
    For your second question, you raise a very valid point which I am going to turn into a documentation enhancement request.  We don't currently have a document that lists the possible supplicant provisioning wizard errors that may be encountered.  Please feel free to post specific errors that you have questions about in this chat and we will try to get you answers.  For most Android devices, the wizard log file can be found at /sdcards/downloads/spw.log.
    As for product roadmap questions, we won't be able to discuss this here due to NDA.  Both are popular asks from the field so it will be interesting to see what the product marketing team comes up with for the next iterration of ISE.
    Related Info:
    Wireless BYOD for FlexConnect Deployment Guide

  • Ask the Expert: Cisco BYOD Wireless Solution: ISE and WLC Integration

    With Jacob Ideji, Richard Hamby  and Raphael Ohaemenyi   
    Welcome to the Cisco Support Community Ask the Expert conversation. This is an opportunity to learn and ask questions about  the new Identity Solutions Engine (ISE) and Wireless LAN Controller (WLC) hardware/software, integration, features, specifications, client details, or just questions about  Cisco's Bring-your-own device (BYOD) solution with cisco Experts Richard Hamby, Jacob Ideji, and Raphael Ohaemenyi. The interest in BYOD (Bring You Own Device) solutions in the enterprise has grown exponentially as guests and company users increasingly desire to use personal devices to access .  Cisco BYOD enhances user experience and productivity while providing security, ease-of-administration, and performance. The heart of the Cisco wireless BYOD solution is Identity Solutions Engine (ISE) utilizing the Cisco Unified Wireless portfolio.  Starting with ISE v1.1.1MR and WLC (Wireless LAN Controller) code v7.2.110.0 and higher, end-to-end wireless BYOD integration is reality. 
    Jacob Ideji is the technical team lead in the Cisco authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA) security team in Richardson, Texas. During his four years of experience at Cisco he has worked with Cisco VPN products, Cisco Network Admission Control (NAC) Appliance, Cisco Secure Access Control Server, and Dot1x technology as well as the current Cisco Identity Services Engine. He has a total of more than 12 years experience in the networking industry. Ideji holds CCNA, CCNP, CCSP, CCDA, CCDP, and CISM certifications from Cisco plus other industry certifications.
    Richard Hamby  works on the Cisco BYOD Plan, Design, Implement (PDI) Help Desk for Borderless Networks, where he is the subject matter expert on wireless, supporting partners in the deployment of Cisco Unified Wireless and Identity Services Engine solutions. Prior to his current position, Hamby was a customer support engineer with the Cisco Technical Assistance Center for 3 years on the authentication, authorization, accounting (AAA) and wireless technology teams. 
    Raphael Ohaemenyi  Raphael Ohaemenyi is a customer support engineer with the authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA) team in the Technical Assistance Center in Richardson, Texas, where he supports Cisco customers in identity management technologies. His areas of expertise include Cisco Access Control Server, Cisco Network Admission Control (NAC) Appliance, Cisco Identity Services Engine, and IEEE 802.1X technologies. He has been at Cisco for more than 2 years and has worked in the networking industry for 8 years. He holds CCNP, CCDP, and CCSP certification.
    Remember to use the rating system to let Jacob, Richard and Raphael know if you have received an adequate response.  
    Jacob, Richard and Raphael might not be able to answer each question due to the volume expected during this event. Remember that you can continue the conversation on the wireless mobility sub community forum shortly after the event. This event lasts through Oct 5th, 2012. Visit this forum often to view responses to your questions and the questions of other community members.

    OOPS !!
    I will repost the whole messaqge with the correct external URL's:
    In  general, the Trustsec design and deployment guides address the specific  support for the various features of the 'whole' Cisco TS (and other  security) solution frameworks.  And then a drill-down (usually the  proper links are embedded) to the specifc feature, and then that feature  on a given device.  TS 2.1 defines the use of ISE or ACS5 as the policy  server, and confiugration examples for the platforms will include and  refer to them.
    TrustSec Home Page
    http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns1051/index.html
    http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns170/ns896/ns1051/product_bulletin_c25-712066.html
    http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/vpndevc/ps5712/ps11637/ps11195/at_a_glance_c45-654884.pdf
    I find this page very helpful as a top-level start to what features and capabilities exist per device:
    http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/ns170/ns896/ns1051/trustsec_matrix.html
    The TS 2.1 Design Guides
    http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/ns340/ns414/ns742/ns744/landing_DesignZone_TrustSec.html
    DesignZone has some updated docs as well
    http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns982/networking_solutions_program_home.html#~bng
    As  the SGT functionality (at this point) is really more of a  router/LAN/client solution, the most detailed information will be in the  IOS TS guides like :
    http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/datacenter/sw/6_x/nx-os/security/configuration/guide/b_Cisco_Nexus_7000_NX-OS_Security_Configuration_Guide__Release_6.x.html
    http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios-xml/ios/sec_usr_cts/configuration/xe-3s/asr1000/sec-usr-cts-xe-3s-asr1000-book.html
    http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/lan/trustsec/configuration/guide/trustsec.html

  • Ask the Expert: Scaling Data Center Networks with Cisco FabricPath

    With Hatim Badr and Iqbal Syed
    Welcome to the Cisco Support Community Ask the Expert conversation. This is an opportunity to learn and ask questions about the Cisco FabricPath with Cisco technical support experts Hatim Badr and Iqbal Syed. Cisco FabricPath is a Cisco NX-OS Software innovation combining the plug-and-play simplicity of Ethernet with the reliability and scalability of Layer 3 routing. Cisco FabricPath uses many of the best characteristics of traditional Layer 2 and Layer 3 technologies, combining them into a new control-plane and data-plane implementation that combines the immediately operational "plug-and-play" deployment model of a bridged spanning-tree environment with the stability, re-convergence characteristics, and ability to use multiple parallel paths typical of a Layer 3 routed environment. The result is a scalable, flexible, and highly available Ethernet fabric suitable for even the most demanding data center environments. Using FabricPath, you can build highly scalable Layer 2 multipath networks without the Spanning Tree Protocol. Such networks are particularly suitable for large virtualization deployments, private clouds, and high-performance computing (HPC) environments.
    This event will focus on technical support questions related to the benefits of Cisco FabricPath over STP or VPC based architectures, design options with FabricPath, migration to FabricPath from STP/VPC based networks and FabricPath design and implementation best practices.
    Hatim Badr is a Solutions Architect for Cisco Advanced Services in Toronto, where he supports Cisco customers across Canada as a specialist in Data Center architecture, design, and optimization projects. He has more than 12 years of experience in the networking industry. He holds CCIE (#14847) in Routing & Switching, CCDP and Cisco Data Center certifications.
    Iqbal Syed is a Technical Marketing Engineer for the Cisco Nexus 7000 Series of switches. He is responsible for product road-mapping and marketing the Nexus 7000 line of products with a focus on L2 technologies such as VPC & Cisco FabricPath and also helps customers with DC design and training. He also focuses on SP customers worldwide and helps promote N7K business within different SP segments. Syed has been with Cisco for more than 10 years, which includes experience in Cisco Advanced Services and the Cisco Technical Assistance Center. His experience ranges from reactive technical support to proactive engineering, design, and optimization. He holds CCIE (#24192) in Routing & Switching, CCDP, Cisco Data Center, and TOGAF (v9) certifications.
    Remember to use the rating system to let Hatim and Iqbal know if you have received an adequate response.  
    They might not be able to answer each question due to the volume expected during this event. Remember that you can continue the conversation on the Data Center sub-community Unified Computing discussion forum shortly after the event. This event lasts through Dec 7, 2012.. Visit this support forum often to view responses to your questions and the questions of other Cisco Support Community members.

    Hi Sarah,
    Thank you for your question.
    Spanning Tree Protocol is used to build a loop-free topology. Although Spanning Tree Protocol serves a critical function in these Layer 2 networks, it is also frequently the cause of a variety of problems, both operational and architectural.
    One important aspect of Spanning Tree Protocol behavior is its inability to use parallel forwarding paths. Spanning Tree Protocol forms a forwarding tree, rooted at a single device, along which all data-plane traffic must flow. The addition of parallel paths serves as a redundancy mechanism, but adding more than one such path has little benefit because Spanning Tree Protocol blocks any additional paths
    In addition, rooting the forwarding path at a single device results in suboptimal forwarding paths, as shown below, Although a direct connection may exist, it cannot be used because only one active forwarding path is allowed.
    Virtual PortChannel (vPC) technology partially mitigates the limitations of Spanning Tree Protocol. vPC allows a single Ethernet device to connect simultaneously to two discrete Cisco Nexus switches while treating these parallel connections as a single logical PortChannel interface. The result is active-active forwarding paths and the removal of Spanning Tree Protocol blocked links, delivering an effective way to use two parallel paths in the typical Layer 2 topologies used with Spanning Tree Protocol.
    vPC provides several benefits over a standard Spanning Tree Protocol such as elimination of blocker ports and both vPC switches can behave as active default gateway for first-hop redundancy protocols such as Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP): that is, traffic can be routed by either vPC peer switch.
    At the same time, however, many of the overall design constraints of a Spanning Tree Protocol network remain even when you deploy vPC such as
    1.     Although vPC provides active-active forwarding, only two active parallel paths are possible.
    2.     vPC offers no means by which VLANs can be extended, a critical limitation of traditional Spanning Tree Protocol designs.
    With Cisco FabricPath, you can create a flexible Ethernet fabric that eliminates many of the constraints of Spanning Tree Protocol. At the control plane, Cisco FabricPath uses a Shortest-Path First (SPF) routing protocol to determine reachability and selects the best path or paths to any given destination in the Cisco FabricPath domain. In addition, the Cisco FabricPath data plane introduces capabilities that help ensure that the network remains stable, and it provides scalable, hardware-based learning and forwarding capabilities not bound by software or CPU capacity.
    Benefits of deploying an Ethernet fabric based on Cisco FabricPath include:
    • Simplicity, reducing operating expenses
    – Cisco FabricPath is extremely simple to configure. In fact, the only necessary configuration consists of distinguishing the core ports, which link the switches, from the edge ports, where end devices are attached. There is no need to tune any parameter to get an optimal configuration, and switch addresses are assigned automatically.
    – A single control protocol is used for unicast forwarding, multicast forwarding, and VLAN pruning. The Cisco FabricPath solution requires less combined configuration than an equivalent Spanning Tree Protocol-based network, further reducing the overall management cost.
    – A device that does not support Cisco FabricPath can be attached redundantly to two separate Cisco FabricPath bridges with enhanced virtual PortChannel (vPC+) technology, providing an easy migration path. Just like vPC, vPC+ relies on PortChannel technology to provide multipathing and redundancy without resorting to Spanning Tree Protocol.
    Scalability based on proven technology
    – Cisco FabricPath uses a control protocol built on top of the powerful Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System (IS-IS) routing protocol, an industry standard that provides fast convergence and that has been proven to scale up to the largest service provider environments. Nevertheless, no specific knowledge of IS-IS is required in order to operate a Cisco FabricPath network.
    – Loop prevention and mitigation is available in the data plane, helping ensure safe forwarding that cannot be matched by any transparent bridging technology. The Cisco FabricPath frames include a time-to-live (TTL) field similar to the one used in IP, and a Reverse Path Forwarding (RPF) check is also applied.
    • Efficiency and high performance
    – Because equal-cost multipath (ECMP) can be used the data plane, the network can use all the links available between any two devices. The first-generation hardware supporting Cisco FabricPath can perform 16-way ECMP, which, when combined with 16-port 10-Gbps port channels, represents a potential bandwidth of 2.56 terabits per second (Tbps) between switches.
    – Frames are forwarded along the shortest path to their destination, reducing the latency of the exchanges between end stations compared to a spanning tree-based solution.
        – MAC addresses are learned selectively at the edge, allowing to scale the network beyond the limits of the MAC addr

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