Ask The Experts How to Improve Your PC's Performance on June 1st at 3:30 pm PDT

Learn how to improve your PC 's performance on June 1st from 3:30 -4:30 pm PDT. We'll have a team of experts available to answer your questions.
When it comes to performance, your PC is similar to your car. Both need to be cared for to keep them running run well. But unlike your car, you don’t need to bring your PC into a shop for a tune up. You can easily do it yourself if you know the right steps to take. Our experts will answer your questions and provide tips on how to make your PC run better. Topics that may be covered in this real-time chat event include the following:
How to customize your PC to increase performance;
How to prolong your notebook’s battery life;
How to choose the right video card, power supply, or add the right amount of memory; or
How to use the tools built into your PC that can make it run better and fix common problems.
While you can attend this real-time chat event without signing up in advance, you must be a member of the HP Support Forums to ask questions. Signing up is easy and only takes a few moments, plus it will allow you to post questions or give answers on the Forums.
And it is all free!
So, come and learn how to get the most out of your PC. Please be sure to come on time as space is limited!
Message Edited by timhsu on 05-12-2009 05:33 PM
I work for HP, supporting the HP Experts who volunteer their time and technical knowledge to help others.
This question was solved.
View Solution.

Here is the transcript of the chat event on improving PC performance.
Please note that I have altered the transcript so that follow up questions are included in the logical order.
I am in the process of planning the next chat event. I would love to hear what topics would interest you, what day of the week and time is best for you, and if you think an hour is too long.
So, if you get a minute, please let me know.
I work for HP, supporting the HP Experts who volunteer their time and technical knowledge to help others.

Similar Messages

Cannot Register for "Ask The Experts How to Improve Your PC's Performance"

I'm trying to register for this event, but everytime I click the Signing Up link it takes me to "HP Passport New User Registration". I enter my information, then it says I am already a user, try signing in. I am signed in, obviously since I'm posting this. Can anyone help as I would like to register for this event.
Thanks!
Susan
HP Pavilion a6300f PC
Windows Vista - Home Premium

Hi Susan,
You don't have to do anything to sign up for the event. Since you already are a member of the Forum, you wil be able to ask questions. Just be sure to sign into the Forum before you click on the link that will appear right before the chat event is going to start.
Let me know if you have any more questions.
Look forward to seeing you on June 1st.
Siobhan
I work for HP, supporting the HP Experts who volunteer their time and technical knowledge to help others.

Ask the Expert: Architecting your Collaboration Solution with Social and Video

With Gebran Chahrouri
Welcome to the Cisco Support Community Ask the Expert conversation. This is an opportunity to learn and ask questions about ways that Enterprise Social and Video are woven into traditional Voice solutions and Architectures with Cisco expert Gebran Chahrouri. Extend your Cisco collaboration architecture to reach into Cloud and/or on premise Cisco WebEx Social and TelePresence offerings. Gebran will be answering any questions about architecting a current solution or devising a roadmap to take your collaboration deployment to the next level.
Gebran Chahrouri is a principal engineer and architect for the WebEx Social product with a focus on scalability. Since joining Cisco in 1998 he has held engineering leadership and software management positions on products including Customer Contact, Cisco IPICS, and the Cisco TelePresence Exchange service. Chahrouri has nearly 30 years of experience in architecting, managing, and developing software products at Cisco, ROLM, IBM, Siemens, and Aspect. He holds a master's degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Michigan and has over 20 patents filed by the U.S. Patent Office.
Remember to use the rating system to let Gebran know if you have received an adequate response.
Gebran 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 Collaboration, Voice and Video sub-community discussion forum shortly after the event.This event lasts through February 22, 2013. Visit this forum often to view responses to your questions and the questions of other community members.

Hi Jason,
Thanks for your question.
WebEx Social combines the power of social networking, content creation, and real-time communications. Employees can quickly connect with people, communities and information they need to get work done.
The product tour video (http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/ps10680/vds_cQuad_prodTour.html) featured at http://www.cisco.com/web/products/quad/index.html gives a really good overview of the product.
If you prefer a document to read I recommend http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/voicesw/ps6788/vcallcon/ps556/case_study_c36-706800_ps10668_Products_Case_Study.html
I would be happy to answer any further questions.
- Gebran

How to manage the ATE_SEARCH_IDX-index in Ask the expert-application?

I'm currently looking at the Ask the expert(=Tom Kyte) application and I cannot figure out how to manage the Oracle Text-index "ATE_SEARCH_IDX" ON "ATE_SUBMITTED_QUESTIONS" ("ANSWER")
INDEXTYPE IS "CTXSYS"."CONTEXT".
In the Readme-file can be read:
"To customize search functionality, view the Oracle Text Index installation
script. You can change the interval that the index is synched and change
the fields that are used in the search."
I don't see the Oracle Text Index installation-script.
Can anyone give me the contents of the script or come up with an alternative?
Thanks,
Jan Willem

Thank you, Marco. I found it.
Still, the reason why I was looking for it was the fact that I asked myself a question, answered it and then tried to Search for it. I couldn't find my own question (and answer).
The only way I found to make it work was to manually rebuild the index on the answer-column in ATE_SUBMITTED_QUESTIONS. But I'm sure there's another way, because these are not the kind of things you'd like a customer (or myself) to do on a regular basis.
Can you give me another way to synchronize this index preferably managed from inside the database?

Ask the Expert Live Discussion – YouView from BT

Hi All
I’m pleased to announce our next live discussion with some BT experts! It's about our latest new product, YouView from BT, and we thought this would be a great chance to get our YouView experts onto the community to tell you a bit more about that and answer any YouView from BT-related questions you may have.
Our experts Sam, Rob and Francesca will be chatting with you on Thursday 06/12 at 7pm.
For anyone who wasn't able to join us for the chat, we have included the chat transcript below
6:58
Nigel Elliott:
Hi Everyone, let’s get this chat started! Welcome to our live discussion with our experts about YouView from BT
6:58
Nigel Elliott:
Today we are joined by Rob, Sam, Francesca and Gary. Welcome everyone! Today’s chat is tech focused on YouView from BT, so if you have any individual service queries we can’t answer them during the chat, but do raise them in the forum as normal.
6:58
Nigel Elliott:
This chat is about the YouView from BT service itself, all comments will be moderated and the usual forum terms apply.
7:03
Comment From Phil
Hi guys I'm interested in getting this but wondered what the connection options are - does the box support HDMI, Scart and Component?
7:03
Nigel Elliott:
Hi Phil, good question our experts are typing up a reply right now
7:07
Gary:
Hi Phil, the box supports HDMI and SCART but not Component.
7:08
Comment From Guilbo
Hi folks. We have heard much about live channels launching on Vision at some point. Will these be available on YouView Vision player at the same time and will they be recordable?
7:10
Nigel Elliott:
Thanks for the question Guilbo - keep them coming guys!
7:11
Gary:
Hi, we are launching live channels on our Vision+ box soon and are also working on live channels on the YouView box. These will be available later in 2013
7:12
Gary:
You will be able to record them when they become available
7:13
Comment From Guilbo
Thanks, Gary. Will Sky Sports become available on YouView when you launch the linear channels?
7:14
Comment From Dee
Hi guys, will YouView usage count towards my broadband usage?
7:16
Gary:
We will release the full channel line up next year
7:16
Nigel Elliott:
Thanks Gary, does that answer your questions Guilbo?
7:18
Comment From Guilbo
Yes, mostly.
7:21
Comment From Dee
OK thanks. If I have BT Vision can I still have YouView?
7:21
Sam:
Hi Dee, Yes, with a BT Vision subscription, all your on-demand viewing (including all Vision on-demand, all catch-up as well as players such as NowTV) is exempt from any broadband usage allowance. So you don't need to worry how much you watch.
7:22
Francesca Mahoney:
Hi Dee, thanks for your question. If you have had your BT Vision+ box for more than 12 months then you can get YouView for £49.
7:24
Comment From b-1
Any word on when manual padding will become available on YouView?
7:25
Francesca Mahoney:
Hi Dee again - just to add - when you take YouView for £49 you will recontract your TV and broadband subscriptions. Thanks!
7:27
Comment From Guilbo
Some people have been experimenting with running a Vision and a YouView box simultaneously. Can they coexist? Also are their any plans for multiroom with YouView.
7:28
Nigel Elliott:
Thanks for the questions b-1 and Guilbo, your replies are on their way shortly.
7:30
Sam:
Hi Guilbo The use of two or more YouView/ Vision boxes on the same broadband line is not supported. If you plug in a YouView box from BT, your old BT Vision+ box may stop working and so you should watch the recordings on your old box before plugging in your new one. We hope to introduce a multiroom offering in 2013
7:31
Nigel Elliott:
Out of interest, do the people watching this chat already have YouView or are you thinking about signing up?
7:33
Sam:
also see FAQ's www.bt.com/help/youview
7:34
Comment From Dee
Hi me again OK so, if I sign up to YouView with BT, what happens when my contract with BT ends? Will the box still work?
7:35
Rob:
Hi b-1, Are you having problems with clipped recordings? YouView are looking at why this is sometimes happens and are working with broadcasters to improve the accuracy of their recording signals but they are not planning to add padding at the moment.
7:37
Comment From Guilbo
Thanks, Sam, that's interesting stuff. I don't have YouView (yet) but it is something that I will most likely move on to at some point. To follow on from a previous question, if I am in contract for Broadband, but out of contract for Vision, can I still get YouView for 49 squids by taking out a contract to Vision Player?
7:38
Nigel Elliott:
Just typing up your replies now guys
7:39
Sam:
Hi Guilbo, yes you can get the Box for £49 if you are in contract on your BB but out of contract on your Vision, taking the Youview box for £49 will recontract your Vision for another 12 months.
7:39
Francesca Mahoney:
Hi Dee again
At the end of your contract the YouView box will still function but we hope you'll want to stay with your BT Vision subscription so you'll have access to all of our On Demand content and none of your YouView usage will count towards your broadband allowance.
7:42
Comment From Guilbo
Thanks folks. This is really helping to firm up on some things which up to now have been sketchy.
7:42
Francesca Mahoney:
No probs Guilbo
7:44
Nigel Elliott:
No problem Guilbo, if you have any other questions keep them coming!
7:44
Rob:
Hi All, Did you hear that YouView have just launched a free iPhone app to let you set a recording on your box while you're on the move? It's not yet available for Android phones. If you have an iPhone 3GS or later, an iPod touch or iPad, it's well worth downloading.
7:47
Comment From Steph
Hi Rob, if I have YouView from BT will I still be able to get BT Player programs via the app?
7:47
Comment From MikeC
Are there any plans to offer boxes with large hard-drives and can I get 3D content via BT Vision on YouView?
7:48
Comment From Guilbo
Interesting about the app. Will the services on it ever be able to stream to mobile devices, I wonder?
7:49
Nigel Elliott:
Thanks folks, you'll get your replies very soon
7:53
Rob:
Hi Steph & Guilbo, The YouView app is just for setting recordings at the moment. It will get better over time I'm sure, but streaming to mobile devices won't be possible for a while I expect.
7:56
Nigel Elliott:
Just a couple of minutes left guys, if you have any other questions now's the time to submit them!
7:56
Sam:
Hi Mike, we are looking into the possibility of bringing 3D content on Youview from BT in the future. The Youview Box from BT is 500GB but the High Street Retailers have both 500GB and 1TB.
7:57
Comment From Linz
Just purchased bt freestyle 750 duo and one of the handsets constantly says searching please help
7:58
Nigel Elliott:
Hi Linz, have a look over at the Phones board - one of our community members will be able to offer advice with this
7:59
Comment From James
On the mobile app - any plans to support windows phones?
8:00
Comment From MikeC
ok cheers thx guys
8:00
Comment From Guilbo
You were originally going to use a Pace box. Is the Humax a stopgap or is this now the permanent offering. Will there ever be a choice of boxes from BT?
8:00
Sam:
Hi James, sorry no not at the moment but it may be something Youview do in the future
8:01
Nigel Elliott:
No problem Mike
8:03
Nigel Elliott:
Thanks Guilbo, the experts are typing up your answer.
8:05
Rob:
Hi Guilbo, The YouView from BT box is a Humax box and as soon as any other other box types are announced we will let you know.
8:06
Comment From Guilbo
Cheers, Rob. Think that's me out of questions now, so thanks very much for your time. It has been useful.
8:07
Nigel Elliott:
Cheers Guilbo, glad you found it useful.
8:07
Nigel Elliott:
Hi folks, thank you very much, that was our last question.
8:07
Nigel Elliott:
Big thanks to Rob, Francesca, Sam and Gary for joining the chat and all you guys for posting some very interesting questions. It’s been a great session, I hope you’ve found it useful. I will close the chat now, but it will be available on the replay if you want to re-read any of the comments.
8:07
Nigel Elliott:
If anyone has got any further YouView from BT queries do raise them on the forum as normal.
See you all on the next chat
Here's some info on our experts:
Francesca
Francesca has been working in telecommunications for over 8 years and joined the BT TV team this summer. In her previous job, she was responsible for leading all commercial and P&L activities. Francesca is Head of Acquisition for BT TV and is responsible for delivering all TV sales, and most recently delivered the go to market strategy for the launch of YouView from BT.
Rob
Rob joined BT about 6 years ago and has been working on YouView almost since it was conceived around 4 years ago. Initially seconded to YouView when it was called Project Canvas, Rob came back to BT to work in BT Vision operations. Rob is currently the Product Manager for YouView from BT within BT Retail’s consumer division.
Sam
Sam has worked in telecommunications for 16 years and joined the BT TV Customer Service team 3 years ago. Sam is responsible for ensuring New Products and Service deliver the best possible customer experience and works closely with the operational units to improve customer satisfaction.
We do ask that this chat is not used to bring up BT service or YouView service queries – this is an information chat to help learn about YouView from BT and any individual billing/order/service issues and complaints will not be included in the chat. These should be raised in the forum as normal.
Check out our FAQs for taking part in a Live event
Chat to you soon!
Stephanie
Stephanie
BTCare Community Manager
If you like a post, or want to say thanks for a helpful answer, please click on the Ratings star on the left-hand side of the post. If someone answers your question correctly please let other members know by clicking on ’Mark as Accepted Solution’.

Hi everyone,
The chat is now available on replay, so you can now check out the transcript by clicking on the “play” button in my post above
Stephanie
Stephanie
BTCare Community Manager
If you like a post, or want to say thanks for a helpful answer, please click on the Ratings star on the left-hand side of the post. If someone answers your question correctly please let other members know by clicking on ’Mark as Accepted Solution’.

Ask the Experts Live Chat - Home Hub 4

Hello,
Stephanie and I are pleased to announce our next live discussion with some of our BT experts! It's about one of our latest new products, the Hub 4. This will be a great chance to get our Hub 4 experts onto the community to tell you a bit more about that and answer any questions you may have.
We have added the Chat transcript below for any of you guys who missed this event.
7:02
JacquiBT:
Hello everyone.
Thank for you joining our ‘Ask the Experts’ Live chat. I would like to introduce Dave, Sam and Emma who are our hub 4 experts and will be answering your questions tonight. I would like to invite you to ask your questions now.
7:03
[Comment From imjolly imjolly : ]
why are there no adsl stats available on the HH4
7:04
[Comment From DS DS : ]
evening all. Are the antennae omni directional?
7:05
Sean Donnelly:
Thanks for the question, Emma will respond
to that question Imjolly
7:05
JacquiBT:
Thanks DS, Dave will respond to your question now
7:05
Dave:
Hi DS, yes they are
7:05
[Comment From Steve Steve : ]
Are there any plans for new firmware on the hub 4 to bring new features?
7:06
JacquiBT:
Thanks Steve, Dave is answering that question for you
7:07
Dave:
Hi Steve - yes there are. There will be more information available about this - and any new features - before each firmware drop.
7:07
[Comment From Steve Steve : ]
why can you not opt out of BT WIFI on the home hub 4?
7:07
Dave:
Hi Steve - you should have no problem doing this through the Hub Manager
7:09
JacquiBT:
Some great questions coming through, the experts are typing up responses now
7:09
[Comment From DS DS : ]
Personal testing - Why is the 2.4GHz range less than the HH3 when at a distance from the hub, but better close up than the HH3?
7:10
JacquiBT:
Thanks DS, Dave is answering this now for you
7:10
[Comment From George George : ]
Will the 'Home Network' page show a HH4 instead of the Current image of the HH3?
7:11
JacquiBT:
Thanks George, Sam will answer that for you
7:11
Sam:
Hi George, the HH4 image will be displayed in place of the HH3 in the next firmware release
7:12
Dave:
Thanks again DS - you shouldn't find that, but this can depend on a lot of different factors in the home. I've found mine to be a bit better actually! But it should be pretty much the same for most customers.
7:12
Sean Donnelly:
Did you know the Hub 4 has Smart Setup?
Easy set up in just a few minutes. No CD or computer needed, it's all online and works on any device. Set up your Hub 4 router and access all your free extras like BT Cloud and BT Family Protection in just a few clicks.
7:12
[Comment From DS DS : ]
Is it possible for BT to allow us to move the BTWifi SSID's to another channel, leaving our own SSID on a less congested channel?
7:12
Dave:
Hi imjolly, sorry for the delay, Emma asked me to reply on her behalf. We have made the stats in the Hub manager simpler for customers to understand, we were reacting to feedback that it was too general for the wide range of customers and tech understandings.
7:12
JacquiBT:
Hi DS, Sam is replying to you now
7:14
[Comment From JamesS JamesS : ]
What speeds can I achieve over wifi, assuming I'm connected to 5ghz? Thanks.
7:14
Sean Donnelly:
Did you know the hub offers Easy Wireless?
Connect wirelessly by selecting your BT Home Hub connection on any compatible device and just push a button on the Hub and you're connected. It's that simple. No passwords needed.
7:14
JacquiBT:
Hi JamesS. Dave will reply to your question
7:14
Emma:
Hi imjolly, we have made the stats in the Hub manager simpler for customers to understand, we were reacting to feedback that it was too general for the wide range of customers and tech understandings.
7:15
Sam:
Hi DS, moving BT Wifi SSID's to another channel is not possible on the HH4. However, we are looking closely at the wi-fi SSID's the hub broadcasts to see whether we can improve this experience.
7:15
Dave:
Hi James, 5GHz maximum data transfer rate of 300Mb/s; this will tend to translate as an optimal actual speeds of up to 100 Mb/s - depending on lots of factors in your home
7:15
[Comment From George George : ]
Why did you remove the built in plastic wireless info tab with a card?
7:15
JacquiBT:
Hi George, Dave is going to reply to that question
7:16
Dave:
Hi George - this was part of the design process, we've tried to make it even easier for customers to find their wireless information. Now it's not integrated it's a little bit more accessible.
7:16
[Comment From thebennyboy thebennyboy : ]
I currently have the HH3 and would like to know what noticable difference it will make having a HH4 over a HH3? We use the ethernet ports and the wireless.
7:17
JacquiBT:
Hi Bennyboy. Emma is going to reply to that question.
7:17
[Comment From Paul Paul : ]
How much faster is the processor in the home hub 4, compared to previous versions? how will this effect my online experience?
7:18
JacquiBT:
Hi Paul. Sam will answer that for you
7:18
Sam:
Hi Paul, the processor is a staggering 3x faster compared to the HH3
7:19
[Comment From Guest Guest : ]
Although opted out of BT wifi the hub still shows as being active
7:19
JacquiBT:
Hi Guest, could we ask that you post this on the community so the moderators can pick this up
7:19
Sean Donnelly:
Did you know that the hub 4 offers Dual band frequency which makes for a more reliable wireless connection?
Smart dual-band technology reduces wireless interference and drop out’s giving you a reliable connection for all your devices.
7:20
[Comment From Guest Guest : ]
When you opt out of BT WIFI it appears to only opt out on the 2.4ghz channel and not the 5ghz channel. Are you looking into this?
7:20
JacquiBT:
Hi Guest. Dave will reply to your question
7:21
Dave:
Hi - thanks for this feedback, we'll definitely look in to it for you
7:21
Sean Donnelly:
Excellent questions coming through folks
7:21
Sean Donnelly:
Our experts are typing answers so please keep them coming
7:22
[Comment From Josh Josh : ]
Is it a known issue that the HomeHub 4 has problems identify the Xbox 360 as a media center extender when connected through a wired connection?
7:23
JacquiBT:
Hi Josh. Sam is replying to your question
7:23
[Comment From Winston Winston : ]
How much power does the home hub 4 use?
7:24
JacquiBT:
Hi Winston. Dave will respond to your question
7:24
Sam:
Hi Josh, we are aware of this issue. This is a problem with the Xbox rather than the HH4 but something we are reviewing together.
7:24
Emma:
Hi the bennyboy, the main advantages of the hub 4 are the faster processor (3 x faster) and 5 GHz wifi. There is no interference with 5GHz so you get better performance and as the range isn't as wide you dont have to share the bandwidth with neighbours etc. the hub still has 2.4 GHz so you still have the range you have withhub 3 too!
7:24
Dave:
Hi Winston, I am afraid there's no simple answer as it really depends on what features are in use. But the Hub 4 meets the latest Broadband Equipment Energy Code of Conduct targets for energy consumption.
7:25
[Comment From Mel Mel : ]
Why did you ignore your existing customers loyalty by charging them for a new hub, don't they pay enough already in their monthly fees?
7:25
JacquiBT:
Hi Mel, Dave will reply to your question
7:25
[Comment From Winston Winston : ]
How long did it take you to design and develop the home hub 4?
7:26
JacquiBT:
Hi Winston, Emma will reply to your question
7:27
[Comment From George George : ]
Will we get manual power save back?
7:27
JacquiBT:
Hi Gerorge. Sam will answer your question
7:28
[Comment From Jade Jade : ]
Does the home hub 4 support ip6 through a future upgrade?
7:28
Emma:
Hi Winston, It was about 2 years when we first started the project with the first ideas and concepts
7:29
JacquiBT:
Hi Jade. Emma will reply to your question.
7:29
Emma:
Hi Jade, thats something we are working on so yes something for the future
7:30
Sam:
Hi George. With regards to the manual power save feature, we have looked to make this automatic for all of our customers. However, you are able to change the brightness of the lights as an additional step.
7:30
Dave:
Hi Mel - we've made a lot of changes for our existing customers since the launch of the Hub 3 a couple of years ago. Our customer offer for the Hub 4 only £35 - a really big discount compared to the full price of £109! We've also created a range of recontracting deals that contain a Hub 4 for only the cost of delivery. If you're out of contract or in the last 3 months, you could take advantage of those offers as well. We really want all of our customers to be able to take advantage of these options!
7:31
Sean Donnelly:
Did you know the Hub 4 has a faster processor? Inside the BT Home Hub 4 router is our latest Broadband processor – the brains of your Hub. It allows you to pass information between connected devices quicker than ever. So if you are transferring files from one computer to another or watching a film streamed from another device, the BT Home Hub 4 won't slow you down.
7:31
[Comment From thebennyboy thebennyboy : ]
Our house has very thick stone walls and the wireless is weak in certain rooms. We have a few devices in our house that support 5Ghz Wi-Fi. Does the HH4 also work ok with home plugs that use your power cables to provide network connectivity?
7:32
JacquiBT:
Hi thebennyboy. Sam will respond to your question
7:32
[Comment From Calvin Calvin : ]
What future developments are in the works for home hub 4?
7:33

DS wrote:
Not many of my Q's are showing either. Could be busy I guess......
yeah I can tell, I know your quesitons are pretty good but if you notice that JacquiBT is deliberately choosing the questions she wants to go through. The whole chat is based around the fact that they have added 5ghz. I am appauled as I was hoping to at least ask one question.

Ask the Expert: Global Site Selector Configuration and Troubleshooting

Welcome to this Cisco Support Community Ask the Expert conversation. This is an opportunity to learn and ask questions about configuring and troubleshooting the Global Site Selector (GSS) with expert Swati Chopra.
GSS devices represent the next generation of application switches and global server load balancing (GSLB) appliances. Working together with the Cisco ACE Module and Cisco ACE 4710 appliance, these devices form an application-fluent networking solution that improves availability, acceleration, and security for data center applications.
The primary role of Cisco GSS is to implement the business continuance and disaster recovery policies of a business by optimizing and securing the Domain Name System (DNS) infrastructure of the data center. It does this by integrating with the DNS infrastructure and responding to the client DNS requests, thereby directing the client to the site that is best able to serve its needs.
Swati Chopra is a CCNA, CCNP, and VCP certified customer support engineer for content switching, covering technologies such as Cisco Application Control Engine, Cisco Wide Area Application Services, Global Site Selector, Cisco Content Services Switches, and Digital Media Suite. She has been with Cisco for more than three years and has worked with most of the high-end customers on content-related complex cases. She completed her master’s degree in finance, was heading an online education project in collaboration with e-Sylvan, and later moved to technical services because of her love for technology. She is actively involved with diverse Cisco initiatives such as Connected Women, WISE, and Cisco Career Connections and recently hosted a “Birds of Feather” table at Cisco’s Women of Impact conference.
Remember to use the rating system to let Swati know if you have received an adequate response.
Because of the volume expected during this event, Swati might not be able to answer every question. Remember that you can continue the conversation in the Data Center community under subcommunity Application Networking shortly after the event. This event lasts through April 25, 2014. Visit this forum often to view responses to your questions and the questions of other Cisco Support Community members.

Hi Sarah,
The load balancing mechanism for GSS requests is done via different methods. We can use these methods to define how the load is shared for different balance clauses within the same rule. The 6 methods we use are:
–round-robin—The GSS cycles through the list of answers that are available as requests are received. Each resource within an answer group is tried in turn. The GSS cycles through the list of answers, selecting the next answer in line for each request. This is the default.
eg: if we have 2 answers in answer group then GSS will provide them alternatively.
–least-loaded—The GSS selects an answer based on the load reported by each VIP in the answer group. The answer reporting the lightest load is chosen to respond to the request.The least-loaded option is available only for VIP-type answer groups that use a KAL-AP or Scripted keepalive, as they provide the GSS with detailed information on the SLB load and availability.
eg: if one answer has higher load than the other, than first answer will not be provided until its load goes down the other answers
–ordered—The GSS selects an answer from the list based on precedence; answers with a lower order number are tried first, while answers further down the list are tried only if preceding answers are unavailable to respond to the request.
for eg: answer with ordered number 1 will be provided first till it becomes unavailable. Once it is unavailable then answer with ordered list number 2 will be provided
–weighted-round-robin—The GSS cycles through the list of answers that are available as the requests are received, but sends requests to favored answers in a ratio determined by the weight value assigned to that resource.
eg: if one answer has more weight(80%) than the other answer(20%), then it will be used 8 times out of 10.
–hashed— When the GSS uses the hashed balance method, elements of the client's DNS proxy IP address and the requesting client's domain are extracted to create a unique value, referred to as a hash value. The unique hash value is attached to and used to identify a VIP that is chosen to serve the DNS query.
The use of hash values makes it possible to "stick" traffic from a particular requesting client to a specific VIP, ensuring that future requests from that client are routed to the same VIP. This type of continuity can be used to facilitate features, such as online shopping baskets, in which client-specific data is expected to persist even when client connectivity to a site is terminated or interrupted.
The GSS supports the following two hashed balance methods. You can apply one or both hashed balance methods to the specified answer group.
• By Source Address—The GSS selects the answer based on a hash value created from the source address of the request.
• By Domain Name—The GSS selects the answer based on a hash value created from the requested domain name.
for eg: a user using same source ip will get the same answer from GSS if we do source address hashing.
-DNS Race (Boomerang) Method-The GSS supports the DNS race (boomerang) method of proximity routing, which is a type of DNS resolution initiated by the GSS to load balance 2 to 20 sites.
The boomerang method is based on the concept that instantaneous proximity can be determined if a CRA within each data center sends an A-record (IP address) at the exact same time to the client's D-proxy. The DNS race method of DNS resolution gives all CRAs (Cisco content engines or content services switches) a chance at resolving a client request and allows for proximity to be determined without probing the client's D-proxy. The first A-record received by the D-proxy is, by default, considered to be the most proximate.
Use case is mainly with CRA's.
Hope this helps. Please feel free to revert if you have follow-up questions.
Thanks,
Swati

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 Experts: Understanding Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers Platform Architecture and Packet Forwarding Troubleshooting

With Xander Thuijs
Welcome to the Cisco Support Community Ask the Expert conversation. This is an opportunity to learn how to Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers with Cisco expert Xander Thuijs. The Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers product family offers a significant added value compared to the prior generations of carrier Ethernet routing offerings. The Cisco ASR 9000 Series is an operationally simple, future-optimized platform using next-generation hardware and software. The ASR 9000 platform family is composed of the Cisco ASR 9010 Router, the Cisco ASR 9006 Router, the Cisco ASR 9922 Router, Cisco ASR 9001 Router and the Cisco ASR 9000v Router.
This is a continuation of the live Webcast.
Xander Thuijs is a principal engineer for the Cisco ASR 9000 Series and Cisco IOS-XR product family at Cisco. He is an expert and advisor in many technology areas, including IP routing, WAN, WAN switching, MPLS, multicast, BNG, ISDN, VoIP, Carrier Ethernet, System Architecture, network design and many others. He has more than 20 years of industry experience in carrier Ethernet, carrier routing, and network access technologies. Xander holds a dual CCIE certification (number 6775) in service provider and voice technologies. He has a master of science degree in electrical engineering from Hogeschool van University in Amsterdam.
Remember to use the rating system to let Xander know if you have received an adequate response.
Xander might not be able to answer each question because of the volume expected during this event. Remember that you can continue the conversation on the Service Providers community XR OS And Platforms shortly after the event. This event lasts through Friday, May 24, 2013. Visit this forum often to view responses to your questions and the questions of other Cisco Support Community members.
Webcast related links:
Slides
Webcast Video Recording
FAQ

Is there a Cisco lab available for ASR 9000
we have "XR4U" stations coming available soon when XR 511 comes alive. The plan is for a downloadable play image like that. In the interim we have 2 demo systems available, and they can be booked via your account manager representative.
How will MOD160 perform with multiple 9000NVS?
very well. the mod 160 has 4 NPU's, 2 per bay. So if you have a 4x10 MPA to serve a satellite, you effectively have a single NPU per 20 1Gigs from the satellite. The pps performance will be stellar. However it might be price technically more ideal to connect satellite with a 36x10. Since the MOD-x has native MPA's with 1G also.
2. Is there a shortcut for a Bundle-EthernetX interface, such as port-channel interface (poX), in Cisco IOS® ?.
usability enhancement is there, we are trying to push this into a new reasonable release. follow CSCuh04526
3. What is the revolutions per minute (RPM) on these hard disk drives (HDDs) compared to the solid state drives (SDDs)? Will the spinning drives be slow?
depends on the type we had avaialble at time of production, you will see different sizes and disks on the RSP2. the rpm of the HD is not so much an issue as much as the buffered writing we used to do in XR. This is fixed up with XR43 where the disk writing performance is much better. the HD/SDD is used for logging storage only (and maybe your pictures) but other then that we're not that concerned with write perf of the HD.
regards
xander

ASK THE EXPERTS : High Density Wireless Deployments and CleanAir Technology

with
Welcome to the Cisco Support Community Ask the Expert conversation. This is an opportunity to get an update on High Density Wireless Deployments and CleanAir technology with Cisco expert Fred Niehaus. Fred is a technical marketing engineer for the Wireless Networking Business Unit at Cisco, where he is responsible for developing and marketing enterprise wireless solutions using Cisco wireless LAN products. In addition to his participation in major deployments, Fred has served as technical editor for several Cisco Press books including the "Cisco 802.11 Wireless Networking Reference Guide" and "The Business Case for Enterprise-Class Wireless LANs." Prior to joining Cisco with the acquisition of Aironet, Fred was a support engineer for Telxon Corporation, supporting some of the very first wireless implementations for major corporate customers. Fred has been in the data communications and networking industry for more than 20 years and holds a Radio Amateur (Ham) License "N8CPI."
Remember to use the rating system to let Fred know if you have received an adequate response.
Fred 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 shortly after the event. This event lasts through June 3, 2011. Visit this forum often to view responses to your questions and the questions of other community members.

You are correct, between the higher numbers of users with multiple devices the bandwidth requirements keep increasing.
The limitation of three non-overlapping channels in the 2.4 GHz space is driving more customers to 5 GHz, it is important to have both bands when high density deployments are needed. While many older devices only support 2.4 GHz, we are now seeing far more devices with 5 GHz as well.
The recomendation of 20-25 clients and 8 voice calls on a given 2.4 GHz channel is still a good "rule of thumb" with actual customer data requirements driving those numbers higher or lower. You are right when you say "throwing Access Points" at the problem can degrade the wireless quality as co-channel interference and overall noise floor can rise with multiple Access Points that can all hear each other.
A better approach to the problem is to throw more spectrum at this issue (using 5 GHz channels) and elements of 802.11n (20 MHz) bandwidth on 2.4 GHz.
What we have been doing in high density deployments is to try to minimize the propagation of a cell and focus it in a given direction. This can be done by
1. Managing the RF power of the radios (Access Points) and in some cases the client's power (using elements of CCX).
2. Using the right antennas to shape both Tx and Rx cell size to help isolate, we have recently introduced a new high gain antenna for stadiums that does this well.
3. Limit supported rates, obviously the higher the data rate the less sensitive the receiver is and the smaller the cell size becomes.
4. Enable 5 GHz (that adds far more channels for data throughput)
5. Limit the number of SSIDs in use as each requires a separate beacon (adding to RF utilization)
6. Co-locating access points with non-overlapping channels
There are some challenges, for example; many dual -band clients prefer to connect to 2.4 GHz, and 2.4 GHz is more likely to be busier and subject to interference, so we also enable Cisco "Band-Select" which basically "nudges" those clients off 2.4 GHz and pushes them to 5 GHz so as to free up the 2.4 GHz band when we can determine the client has 5 GHz capability.
So how is this done? well, we do this by listening to the clients and if we detect that the client is sending out probe requests on both bands we know the client can use 5 GHz so we essentially make the 5 GHz band "appear more attractive" to that client.
Note: Client load balancing and Band select are features in the Cisco Unified controller menu.
Also enabling client link (intelligent beam forming) helps direct the signal directly at the client and reduces same channel interference.

ASK THE EXPERTS:Branch Office Wireless Strategies

With Jeevan Patil
Welcome to the Cisco Support Community Ask the Expert conversation. This is an opportunity to ask how to consolidate your Wireless Branch Network Cisco subject matter expert Jeevan Patil. Mr. Jeevan Patil is a product manager for the Cisco Wireless Controller product portfolio. He has been involved with the wireless industry for over 12 years - since the first days of 802.11 becoming a standard through the evolution to 802.11n. Mr. Patil has been with Cisco for over 12 years. For the first 5 years he was a software engineer working on security, network management and wireless. In the past 7 years he has been the product manager on various initiatives such 802.11n standards, Access Points hardware, Client hardware, CCX, standalone (Autonomous) software, WLSE hardware and software and currently the product line manager on Wireless LAN Controllers.
Remember to use the rating system to let Jeevan know if you have received an adequate response.
Jeevan 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 Other Wireless – Mobility Subjects discussion forum shortly after the event. This event lasts through August 12, 2011. Visit this forum often to view responses to your questions and the questions of other community members.

Hi Nigel,
Please take a look at the "WAN Requirements" section from the following Flex7500 deployment guide:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps11635/products_tech_note09186a0080b7f141.shtml
It is highly recommended that the minimum bandwidth restriction remains 128 kbps with the round trip latency no greater than 300 ms for data deployments and 100 ms for data + voice deployments. The maximum transmission unit (MTU) must be at least 500 bytes.
Deployment Type
WAN Bandwidth (Min)
WAN RTT Latency (Max)
Max APs per Branch
Max Clients per Branch
Data
128 kbps
300 ms
5
25
Data + Voice
128 kbps
100 ms
5
25
Data
128 kbps
1 sec
1
1
Monitor
128 kbps
2 sec
5
N/A
Data
1.44 Mbps
300 ms
50
1000
Data + Voice
1.44 Mbps
100 ms
50
1000
Data
1.44 Mbps
1 sec
50
1000
Monitor
1.44 Mbps
2 sec
50
N/A
Best Regards,
Jeevan

ASK THE EXPERTS - WI-FI NETWORKS

Welcome to the Cisco Networking Professionals Ask the Expert conversation. This is an opportunity to get an update on different aspects of wireless network design and installation with Fred Niehaus. Fred is a Technical Marketing Engineer for the Wireless Networking Business Unit at Cisco, where he is responsible for developing and marketing enterprise wireless solutions using Cisco Aironet and Airespace wireless LAN products. In addition to his participation in major deployments, Niehaus has served as technical editor for several Cisco Press books including the "Cisco 802.11 Wireless Networking Reference Guide" and "The Business Case for Enterprise-Class Wireless LANs." Prior to joining Cisco with the acquisition of Aironet, Niehaus was a support engineer for Telxon Corporation, supporting some of the very first wireless implementations for major corporate customers. Fred has been in the data communications and networking industry for more than 20 years and holds a Radio Amateur (Ham) License "N8CPI."
Remember to use the rating system to let Fred know if you have received an adequate response.
Fred might not be able to answer each question due to the volume expected during this event. Our moderators will post many of the unanswered questions in other discussion forums shortly after the event. This event lasts through July 16, 2010. Visit this forum often to view responses to your questions and the questions of other community members.

Hi Expert,
                 Before all, thank you for your great advice and helps. I've decided to implement a few of them. However, during preliminary test , i run into some issues. Hopefully, you will be able to help one last time.
During my test, I implemented a few SSID wich worked fine in my lab with WEP encryption. And i decided to change the encryption, some of the SSID did work with wpa2. However, two remains my attention, the guess SSID which uses wpa with tkip and one of the test SSID. The guess SSID worked fine untill I decided to reload the AP. When the AP came back it could not grabs an ip, but sho commands shows that it is associate with the AP. See below. I am 100% certain that the config is correct as it was working fine before the reload.
a) Show commands
#sh dot11 associations
802.11 Client Stations on Dot11Radio0:
SSID [SAVY_GUESS] :
MAC Address    IP address      Device        Name            Parent         State
000e.9b6e.XXXX 169.254.97.66   ccx-client    -               self           Assoc
Address           : 000e.9b6e.XXX     Name             : NONE
IP Address        : 169.254.97.66      Interface        : Dot11Radio 0
Device            : ccx-client         Software Version : NONE
CCX Version       : 2
State             : Assoc              Parent           : self
SSID              : SAVY_GUESS
VLAN              : 9
Hops to Infra     : 1                  Association Id   : 13
Clients Associated: 0                  Repeaters associated: 0
Tunnel Address    : 0.0.0.0
Key Mgmt type     : WPA PSK            Encryption       : TKIP
Current Rate      : 54.0               Capability       : ShortHdr ShortSlot
Supported Rates   : 1.0 2.0 5.5 6.0 9.0 11.0 12.0 18.0 24.0 36.0 48.0 54.0
Voice Rates       : disabled
Signal Strength   : -31 dBm           Connected for    : 11592 seconds
Signal to Noise   : 61 dBm            Activity Timeout : 57 seconds
Power-save        : Off                Last Activity    : 3 seconds ago
Apsd DE AC(s)     : NONE
Packets Input     : 8830               Packets Output   : 9
Bytes Input       : 435094             Bytes Output     : 1154
Duplicates Rcvd   : 15                 Data Retries     : 0
Decrypt Failed    : 0                  RTS Retries      : 0
MIC Failed        : 0                  MIC Missing      : 0
Packets Redirected: 0                  Redirect Filtered: 0
Session timeout   : 0 seconds
Reauthenticate in : never
b) SSID config
   dot11 ssid SAVY_GUESS
   vlan 9
   authentication open
   authentication key-management wpa
   mbssid guest-mode
   wpa-psk ascii 7 1240321A241F5B367B29281F6200133524422D325C
interface Dot11Radio0
no ip address
no ip route-cache
encryption vlan 9 mode ciphers tkip
encryption vlan 16 mode ciphers aes-ccm
ssid SAVY_GUESS
ssid Wireless-Test
interface Dot11Radio0.9
encapsulation dot1Q 164
no ip route-cache
bridge-group 9
bridge-group 9 subscriber-loop-control
bridge-group 164 block-unknown-source
no bridge-group 9 source-learning
no bridge-group 9 unicast-flooding
bridge-group 9 spanning-disabled
interface FastEthernet0.9
encapsulation dot1Q 9
ip helper-address 10.XXX.ZZZ.254
no ip route-cache
bridge-group 255
no bridge-group 255 source-learning
bridge-group 255 spanning-disabled
ps. Wired Device connected on the vlan did grab an IP.
2. Wireless_Test
This SSID was working fine until I change the vlan associate to it.
SSID [Wireless-Test] :
MAC Address    IP address      Device        Name            Parent         State
001f.3b51.XXXX 169.254.90.253 ccx-client    00C00070        self           EAP-Assoc
Address           : 001f.3b51.XXXX     Name             : I00000070
IP Address        : 169.254.90.253     Interface        : Dot11Radio 0
Device            : ccx-client         Software Version : NONE
CCX Version       : 4
State             : EAP-Assoc          Parent           : self
SSID              : Wireless-Test
VLAN              : 16
Hops to Infra     : 1                  Association Id   : 12
Clients Associated: 0                  Repeaters associated: 0
Tunnel Address    : 0.0.0.0
Key Mgmt type     : WPAv2              Encryption       : AES-CCMP
Current Rate      : 54.0               Capability       : WMM ShortHdr ShortSlot
Supported Rates   : 1.0 2.0 5.5 11.0 6.0 9.0 12.0 18.0 24.0 36.0 48.0 54.0
Voice Rates       : disabled
Signal Strength   : -43 dBm           Connected for    : 14298 seconds
Signal to Noise   : 52 dBm            Activity Timeout : 14 seconds
Power-save        : On                 Last Activity    : 6 seconds ago
Apsd DE AC(s)     : NONE
Packets Input     : 15322              Packets Output   : 256
Bytes Input       : 913707             Bytes Output     : 19866
Duplicates Rcvd   : 249                Data Retries     : 14
Decrypt Failed    : 0                  RTS Retries      : 0
MIC Failed        : 0                  MIC Missing      : 0
Packets Redirected: 0                  Redirect Filtered: 0
Session timeout   : 0 seconds
Reauthenticate in : never
b) config
dot11 ssid Wireless-Test
   vlan 16
   authentication open eap eap_methods2
   authentication network-eap eap_methods2
   authentication key-management wpa
   accounting acct_methods3
   mbssid guest-mode
interface Dot11Radio0.16
encapsulation dot1Q 16
no ip route-cache
bridge-group 16
bridge-group 16 subscriber-loop-control
bridge-group 16 block-unknown-source
no bridge-group 16 source-learning
no bridge-group 16 unicast-flooding
bridge-group 16 spanning-disabled
interface FastEthernet0.16
encapsulation dot1Q 16
ip helper-address 10.zzz.xxx.254
no ip route-cache
bridge-group 16
no bridge-group 16 source-learning
bridge-group 16 spanning-disabled
Can the radio interface get mess by the reload? How can I verify theradio? Debug did not show Client asking for IP...
3. My last question, my ACLs to limit guess access. Should i implement them in my firewall or in my distribution router? The distribution router has a sub_interface for each SSID. Would it be better to block traffic right from the distribution router rather let unecessary traffic flow to the network?
Thanks a lot for great advice and guidance,
---Jean Paul.

ASK THE EXPERTS - Update on 802.11n with Fred Niehaus

Welcome to the Cisco Support Community Ask the Expert conversation. This is an opportunity to get an update on 802.11n with Cisco expert Fred Niehaus. Fred is a Technical Marketing Engineer for the Wireless Networking Business Unit at Cisco, where he is responsible for developing and marketing enterprise wireless solutions using Cisco Aironet and Airespace wireless LAN products. In addition to his participation in major deployments, Fred has served as technical editor for several Cisco Press books including the "Cisco 802.11 Wireless Networking Reference Guide" and "The Business Case for Enterprise-Class Wireless LANs." Prior to joining Cisco with the acquisition of Aironet, Fred was a support engineer for Telxon Corporation, supporting some of the very first wireless implementations for major corporate customers. Fred has been in the data communications and networking industry for more than 20 years and holds a Radio Amateur (Ham) License "N8CPI."
Remember to use the rating system to let Fred know if you have received an adequate response.
Fred 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 Other Mobility Subjects discussion forum shortly after the event. This event lasts through March 25, 2011. Visit this forum often to view responses to your questions and the questions of other community members.

So there are two parts of this question, the latter part I cannot address as it is a future question. Cisco does not comment on products that have not been released or on the strategy of next generation products.
That said, Cisco was first to market with an 802.11n Access Point and well (we didn't all go on vacation after we did that)
So let's talk a little about spatial streams in general and how it relates to what customers are doing today.
The Cisco 1040, 1140, 1250, 1260 and 3500 Series Access Points are all two spatial streams (2SS).
As of the time of this writing, a critical mass of 3SS and 4SS compatible clients have yet to be deployed, and the vast majority of WiFi clients that will be deployed over the next 18 months will be 1SS and 2SS clients.
The higher SS clients are likely only show up in some higher end notebooks -- Why? well it is a given that smartphones and tablets are likely to continue to be 1SS and in some rare cases 2SS.
This is because additional radios used in this technology consume battery life, add to the physical size of the device and increase the cost. Also many devices leverage the same single antenna for cellular as well as WiFi. Therefore, it is my opinion that 3SS Access Points provide little if any performance benefit for smartphones or tablets in the enterprise today, and any real throughput gain is likely to occur with high end notebooks in close proximity to the Access Point and those are rolling out very slowly and we are monitoring this.
Now we get to my favorite part of this.. I get to ask myself a question and then answer it..
So Fred are you saying that there is no value in 3SS and 4SS?
Of course not, 3SS performs similar to 2SS beyond a short distance, and with any multi-SS product RF interference must be addressed to capture the performance benefits of higher SS Access Points. Actual throughput in any WiFi environment is highly dependent on the presence of interferers and obstacles.
Without the ability to mitigate the impact of interference, 3SS solutions will "downshift" to 2SS of 1SS and lose all the performance benefits anyway IMHO.
I don't want to sound like a commercial, but you really do need Cisco cleanair technology in the AP and Cisco innovations deliver more and will go beyond the simple 3SS aspects of the 802.11n standard.
IMHO it's more about CleanAir, good RF system design, and what we put into the AP with regard to performance "in the environment" and not what is on some spec sheet today.
For more on Cisco CleanAir see the following URL http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns1070/index.html
Fred

Ask the Expert: Cisco Unified Computing System Director

With Andrew Nam
Welcome to the Cisco Support Community Ask the Expert conversation. This is an opportunity to learn and ask questions about Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) Director with Cisco expert Andrew Nam.
Cisco UCS Director was designed to operationally integrate bare-metal and virtual data center infrastructure resources to address complex, time-consuming, manual, and compartmentalized management processes. These processes burden IT organizations, preventing them from achieving business agility and efficiency. Cisco expert Andrew Nam will provide an update on installation, configuration, and troubleshooting VM provisioning process using Cisco UCS Director.
Andrew Nam is a data center solution engineer in the DC Solution team in Sydney, Australia, responsible for orchestrating the end-to-end solution support of Cisco Data Centre solutions, including Cisco UCS, Cisco Nexus architecture, VBlock/FlexPod, VDI/VXI, and cloud solutions. His areas of expertise include routing and switching, load balancer, WAN optimization, VPN, and firewalls. Andrew has worked for Cisco for more than 13 years and has 15 years of experience in the networking industry. He graduated from New South Wales University in Australia with a mechanical/manufacturing engineering degree and holds R&S CCIE 9586, VMware VPC5, and Citrix CCA - Xendesktop5 certifications.
Remember to use the rating system to let Andrew know if you have received an adequate response.
Andrew might not be able to answer each question due to the volume expected during this event. Remember that you can continue the conversation in Data Center community, sub-community, Unified Computing discussion forum shortly after the event. This event lasts through January 17, 2014. Visit this forum often to view responses to your questions and the questions of other community members.

Hi James
This Ask the Expert session may not be the right place to show you all the essential steps for how the workflow can be related to task library to achieve your initial setup flow chart, and onboarding a new client.
However, I can briefly walktthrough "Client blade Provisioning" task so it might give some idea and how you can go about.
Assumption : the infrastructure used in the following examples consists of:
- Vmware VCenter
- Cisco UCS
- NetApp ONTAP controlled storage
To be able to provision Cisco UCS blade server in automated fashion, you need to create and define the below UCS entities beforehand.
- Create UCS Organisation
- Create UUID Pool
- Create MAC Address Pool
- Create WWNN Pool
- Create WWPN Pool
- Create vHBA Templates
- Create vNIC Templates
- Create UCS Policy vHBAs
- Create UCS Policy vNICs
- Create Storage Policy
- Create Network Policy
- Create SAN Boot Policy
- Create LAN Boot Policy
Once you create all the policy above, you are good to set up a workflow container for the client blade provisoining.
1. Create UCS Service Profile
- Add a ‘Create UCS Service Profile’ workflow task and select ‘Map to User Input’ for ‘Service Profile Name’. Select the ‘Service Profile Name’ dropdown as created when the workflow container was created.
- ‘Create UCS Service Profile’ inputs. Ensure that Storage_Policy, Network_Policy, Boot_Policy_LAN and Boot_Policy_SAN entries are correct.
- Once this is done , you can move to SAN zoning.
2. Configure SAN Zoning
- In this step, a new workflow task will be created in order to configure SAN zoning. Rather than use a specific user input for this task, output variables from the previous ‘Create UCS Service Profile’ workflow task will be used as input items for this task.
- Open the workflow and search for the workflow task ‘configure san zoning’. Drag the storage workflow task into the work area and map the following user inputs.
Create Flexible Volume
- Create a ‘Create Flexible Volume’ workflow task in order to build a NetApp flexible volume and provision it for the required size.
- Once again, reconfigure the workflow such that the success criteria from the ‘Configure SAN Zoning’ workflow task proceeds to ‘Create Flexible Volume’.
Create LUN
- Using the NetApp ONTAP ‘Create LUN’ workflow task, create a LUN located within the volume created during the previous step. In order to do this, map the Volume Name user input to the output from the previous ‘Create Flexible Volume’ workflow task.
- Next, enter the LUN details, ensuring that the configured size is less than that of the volume created in the previous step.
- As before, re-map the workflow designer flow so that the successful output of the Create Flexible Volume workflow task flows into this task.
3. Create Initiator Group
- Create a ‘Create Initiator Group’ workflow task in order to build a NetApp ONTAP Initiator Group. Map the ‘Filer Identity Name’ attribute to the OUTPUT_FILER_IDENTITY output variable as supplied by the ‘Create NetApp Flexible Volume’ workflow task as created earlier in this workflow.
- Once again, modify the the workflow designer flow so that the successful output from ‘Create LUN’ flows into ‘Create Initiator Group’
4. Add Initiator to Initiator Group
- Create an ‘Add Initiator to Initiator Group’ workflow task and map the ‘Initiator Group Name’ entry to the OUTPUT_IGROUP_IDENTITY output variable from the ‘Create NetApp Initiator Group’ workflow task and map the ‘Initiator Name’ entry to the SP_VHBA1 output variable from the ‘Create UCS Service Profile’ workflow task created earlier in this flow.
- Repeat this task for in order to add initiator name entry for SP_VHBA2. Once done, re-map the successful output from the two Create Initiator Group workflow tasks so that they flow into each other as follows:
- Move onto the next step in order to map the created LUN to the initiator group.
And the rest of steps are fairly similar to above. Create a Workflow and map the User Input Mappings".
5. Map LUN to Initiator Group
6. Modify UCS Boot Policy LUN ID
7. Select UCS Server
8. Associate UCS Service Profile
9. Power On UCS Server
10. Modify UCS Service Profile Boot Policy
11. Add VLAN to Service Policy
12. Disassociate UCS Service Profile
13. Wait for Specified Duration
14. Associate UCS Service Profile
15. Power On UCS Server
16. Register Host with VCenter
regards
Andrew

Ask the Expert: Hierarchical Network Design, Includes Core, Distribution, and Access

Welcome to the Cisco® Support Community Ask the Expert conversation. This is an opportunity to learn and ask questions about hierarchical network design.
Recommending a network topology is required for meeting a customer's corporate network design needs in their business and technical goals and often consists of many interrelated components. The hierarchical design made this easier like "divide and conquer" the job and develop the design in layers.
Network design experts have developed the hierarchical network design model to help to develop a topology in discrete layers. Each layer can be focused on specific functions, to select the right systems and features for the layer.
A typical hierarchical topology is
A core layer of high-end routers and switches that are optimized for availability and performance.
A distribution layer of routers and switches that implement policies.
An access layer that connects users via lower-end switches and wireless access points.
Ahmad Manzoor is a Senior Pre-Sales Engineer at AGCN, Pakistan. He has more than 10 years of experience in first-rate management, commercial and technical skills in the field of data communication and services lifecycle—from solution design through sales pitch, designing RFPs, architecture, and solution—all with the goal toward winning projects (creating win/win situations) of obsolete solutions. Ahmad also has vast experience in designing end-to-end data centers, from building infrastructure design to data communication and network Infrastructure design. He has worked for several large companies in Pakistan and United Arab Emirates markets; for example, National Engineer, WATEEN Telecom, Emircom, Infotech, Global Solutions, NETS International, Al-Aberah, and AGCN, also known as Getronics, Pakistan.
Remember to use the rating system to let Ahmad know if he has given you an adequate response.
Because of the volume expected during this event, Ahmad might not be able to answer every question. Remember that you can continue the conversation in the Solutions and Architectures under the sub-community Data Center & Virtualization, shortly after the event. This event lasts through August 15, 2014. Visit this forum often to view responses to your questions and the questions of other Cisco Support Community members.

Dear Leo,
We are discussing the following without any product line, discussing the concept of hierarchical design, which will help you to take decision which model is better for you Two Layer or Three Layer hierarchical model.
Two-Layer Hierarchy
In many networks, you need only two layers to fulfill all of the layer functions—core and aggregation
Only one zone exists within the core, and many zones are in the aggregation layer. Examine each of the layer functions to see where it occurs in a two-layer design:
Traffic forwarding—Ideally, all interzone traffic forwarding occurs in the core. Traffic flows from each zone within the aggregation layer up the hierarchy into the network core and then back down the hierarchy into other aggregation zones.
Aggregation—Aggregation occurs along the core/aggregation layer border, allowing only interzone traffic to pass between the aggregation and core layers. This also provides an edge for traffic engineering services to be deployed along.
Routing policy—Routing policy is deployed along the edge of the core and the aggregation layers, generally as routes are advertised from the aggregation layer into the core.
User attachment—User devices and servers are attached to zones within the aggregation layer. This separation of end devices into the aggregation permits the separation of traffic between traffic through a link and traffic to a link, or device. Typically, it is best not to mix transit and destination traffic in the same area of the network.
Controlling traffic admittance—Traffic admittance control always occurs where user and server devices are attached to the network, which is in the aggregation layer. You can also place traffic admittance controls at the aggregation points exiting from the aggregation layer into the core of the network, but this is not common.
You can see, then, how dividing the network into layers enables you to make each layer specialized and to hide information between the layers. For instance, the traffic admittance policy implemented along the edge of the aggregation layer is entirely hidden from the network core.
You also use the core/aggregation layer edge to hide information about the topology of routing zones from each other, through summarization. Each zone within the aggregation layer should have minimal routing information, possibly just how to make it to the network core through a default route, and no information about the topology of the network core. At the same time, the zones within the aggregation layer should summarize their reachability information into as few routing advertisements as possible at their edge with the core and hide their topology information from the network core.
Three-Layer Hierarchy
A three-layer hierarchy divides these same responsibilities through zones in three vertical network layers,
Traffic Forwarding—As with a two-layer hierarchy, all interzone traffic within a three- layer hierarchy should flow up the hierarchy, through the layers, and back down the hierarchy.
Aggregation—A three-layer hierarchy has two aggregation points:
At the edge of the access layer going into the distribution layer
At the edge of the distribution layer going into the core
At the edge of the access layer, you aggregate traffic in two places: within each access zone and flowing into the distribution layer. In the same way, you aggregate interzone traffic at the distribution layer and traffic leaving the distribution layer toward the network core. The distribution layer and core are ideal places to deploy traffic engineering within a network.
Routing policy—The routing policy is deployed within the distribution layer in a three- layer design and along the distribution/core edge. You can also deploy routing policies along the access/distribution edge, particularly route and topology summarization, to hide information from other zones that are attached to the same distribution layer zone.
User attachment—User devices and servers are attached to zones within the access layer. This separation of end devices into the access layer permits the separation of traffic between traffic through a link and traffic to a link, or device. Typically, you do not want to mix transit and destination traffic in the same area of the network.
Controlling traffic admittance—Traffic admittance control always occurs where user and server devices are attached to the network, which is in the access layer. You can also place traffic admittance controls at the aggregation points along the aggregation/core edge.
As you can see, the concepts that are applied to two- and three-layer designs are similar, but you have more application points in a three-layer design.
Now the confusion takes place in our minds where do we use Two Layer and where the Three layer hierarchical model.
Now we are discussing that How Many Layers to Use in Network Design?
Which network design is better: two layers or three layers? As with almost all things in network design, it all depends. Examine some of the following factors involved in deciding whether to build a two- or three-layer network:
Network geography—Networks that cover a smaller geographic space, such as a single campus or a small number of interconnected campuses, tend to work well as two-layer designs. Networks spanning large geographic areas, such as a country, continent, or even the entire globe, often work better as three layer designs.
Network topology depth—Networks with a compressed, or flattened, topology tend to work better as two-layer hierarchies. For instance, service provider networks cover large geographic areas, but reducing number of hops through the network is critical in providing the services they sell; therefore, they are often built on a two-layer design. Networks with substantial depth in their topologies, however, tend to work better as three-layer designs.
Network topology design—Highly meshed networks, with many requirements for interzone traffic flows, tend to work better as two-layer designs. Simplifying the hierarchy to two levels tends to focus the design elements into meshier zones. Networks that focus traffic flows on well-placed distributed resources, or centralized resources, such as a network with a large number of remote sites connecting to a number of centralized Data Centers, tend to work better as three-layer designs.
Policy implementation—If policies of a network tend to focus on traffic engineering, two-layer designs tend to work better. Networks that attempt to limit access to resources attached to the network and other types of policies tend to work better as three-layer designs.
Again, however, these are simple rules of thumb. No definitive way exists to decide whether a network should have two or three layers. Likewise, you cannot point to a single factor and say, “Because of this, the network we are working on should have three layers instead of two.”
I hope that this helps you to understand the purposes of Two Layer & Three layer Hierarchical Model.
Best regards,
Ahmad Manzoor

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