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

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    Hi Lisa,
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    7:02
    JacquiBT: 
    Hello everyone.
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    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?
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    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?
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    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
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    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?
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    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: Cisco UCS B-Series Latest Version New Features

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    Chetan Parik is a customer support engineer from the Server Virtualization team at the Cisco Technical Assistance Center in Bangalore, India. He has seven years of total experience. He has worked on a wide range of Cisco data center products such as Cisco UCS and Cisco Nexus 1000V. He also has five years of experience on VMware virtualization products.
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    Hi Jackson,
    Yes its is possible.    Connect the storage array to the fabric interconnects using two 10GB links per storage processor.  Connect each SP to both fabric interconnects and configure the ports on the fabric interconnect as “Appliance” ports from UCSM
    For more information on how to connect Netapp storage using other protocols like iSCSI or FCOE  please check the url below.
    http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/servers-unified-computing/ucs-6100-series-fabric-interconnects/whitepaper_c11-702584.html
    Regards
    Teclus Dsouza

  • 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. 
    Because of the volume expected during this event, our experts might not be able to answer every question. Remember that you can continue the conversation in the Data Center, under subcommunity, Unified Computing, shortly after the event. This event lasts through May 23, 2014. Visit this forum often to view responses to your questions and the questions of other Cisco Support Community members.

    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

  • Ask the Expert: Cisco Nexus 2000, 5000, and 6000 Series Switches

    with Cisco Expert Vinayak Sudame
    Welcome to the Cisco Support Community Ask the Expert conversation. This is an opportunity to learn and ask questions how to configure and troubleshoot the Cisco Nexus 2000, 5000 and 6000 Series Switches with Cisco subject matter expert Vinayak Sudame. You can ask any question on configuration, troubleshooting, features, design and Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE).
    Vinayak Sudame is a Technical Lead in Data Center Switching Support Team within Cisco's Technical Services in RTP, North Carolina. His current responsibilities include but are not limited to Troubleshooting Technical support problems and Escalations in the areas of Nexus 5000, Nexus 2000, FCoE. Vinayak is also involved in developing technical content for Cisco Internal as well as external. eg, Nexus 5000 Troubleshooting Guide (CCO), Nexus 5000 portal (partners), etc. This involves cross team collaboration and working with multiple different teams within Cisco. Vinayak has also contributed to training account teams and partners in CAE (Customer Assurance Engineering) bootcamp dealing with Nexus 5000 technologies. In the past, Vinayak's responsibilities included supporting MDS platform (Fiber Channel Technologies) and work with EMC support on Escalated MDS cases. Vinayak was the Subject Matter Expert for Santap Technologies before moving to Nexus 5000 support. Vinayak holds a Masters in Electrical Engineering with Specialization in Networking from Wichita State University, Kansas. He also holds Cisco Certification CCIE (#20672) in Routing and Switching.
    Remember to use the rating system to let Vinayak know if you have received an adequate response.
    Vinayak 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, Other Data Center Topics discussion forum shortly after the event.
    This event last through Friday July 12, 2013. Visit the community often to view responses to youe questions of other community members.

    Hi Vinayak,
    Output of "show cfs internal ethernet-peer database"
    Switch 1
    ETH Fabric
    Switch WWN              logical-if_index
    20:00:54:7f:ee:b7:c2:80 [Local]
    20:00:54:7f:ee:b6:3f:80 16000005
    Total number of entries = 2
    Switch 2
    ETH Fabric
    Switch WWN              logical-if_index
    20:00:54:7f:ee:b6:3f:80 [Local]
    20:00:54:7f:ee:b7:c2:80 16000005
    Total number of entries = 2
    Output of "show system internal csm info trace"
    Switch 1 in which "show cfs peers" show proper output
    Mon Jul  1 05:46:19.145339  (CSM_T) csm_sp_buf_cmd_tbl_expand_range(8604): No range command in buf_cmd_tbl.
    Mon Jul  1 05:46:19.145280  (CSM_T) csm_set_sync_status(6257): Peer RT status PSSed
    Mon Jul  1 05:46:19.145188  (CSM_T) csm_sp_handle_local_verify_commit(4291):
    Mon Jul  1 05:46:19.145131  csm_continue_verify_ac[597]: peer is not reachable over CFS so continuing with local verify/commit
    Mon Jul  1 05:46:19.145071  csm_tl_lock(766): Peer information not found for IP address: '172.16.1.54'
    Mon Jul  1 05:46:19.145011  csm_tl_lock(737):
    Mon Jul  1 05:46:19.144955  (CSM_EV) csm_sp_build_tl_lock_req_n_send(941): sending lock-request for CONF_SYNC_TL_SESSION_TYPE_VERIFY subtype 0 to Peer ip = (172.16.1.54)
    Mon Jul  1 05:46:19.143819  (CSM_T) csm_copy_image_and_internal_versions(788): sw_img_ver: 5.2(1)N1(2a), int_rev: 1
    Mon Jul  1 05:46:19.143761  (CSM_T) csm_sp_get_peer_sync_rev(329): found the peer with address=172.16.1.54 and sync_rev=78
    Mon Jul  1 05:46:19.143699  (CSM_T) csm_sp_get_peer_sync_rev(315):
    Mon Jul  1 05:46:19.143641  (CSM_EV) csm_sp_build_tl_lock_req_n_send(838): Entered fn
    Mon Jul  1 05:46:19.143582  (CSM_T) csm_set_sync_status(6257): Peer RT status PSSed
    Switch 2 in which "show cfs peers" does not show proper output
    Mon Jul  1 06:13:11.885354  (CSM_ERR) csm_pss_cmd_tree_walk_cb(2057): Parent command not found for cmd switchport mode trunk, cmd pseq 77 seq 482
    Mon Jul  1 06:13:11.884992  (CSM_ERR) csm_pss_cmd_tree_walk_cb(2057): Parent command not found for cmd channel-group 51 mode active, cmd pseq 357 seq 369
    Mon Jul  1 06:13:11.884932  (CSM_ERR) csm_pss_cmd_tree_walk_cb(2057): Parent command not found for cmd switchport trunk allowed vlan 2, 11, cmd pseq 357 seq 368
    Mon Jul  1 06:13:11.884872  (CSM_ERR) csm_pss_cmd_tree_walk_cb(2057): Parent command not found for cmd switchport mode trunk, cmd pseq 357 seq 367
    Mon Jul  1 06:13:11.884811  (CSM_ERR) csm_pss_cmd_tree_walk_cb(2057): Parent command not found for cmd description process_vpc, cmd pseq 357 seq 366
    Mon Jul  1 06:13:11.884750  (CSM_ERR) csm_pss_cmd_tree_walk_cb(2057): Parent command not found for cmd channel-group 51 mode active, cmd pseq 352 seq 365
    Mon Jul  1 06:13:11.884690  (CSM_ERR) csm_pss_cmd_tree_walk_cb(2057): Parent command not found for cmd switchport trunk allowed vlan 2, 11, cmd pseq 352 seq 364
    Mon Jul  1 06:13:11.884630  (CSM_ERR) csm_pss_cmd_tree_walk_cb(2057): Parent command not found for cmd switchport mode trunk, cmd pseq 352 seq 363
    Mon Jul  1 06:13:11.884568  (CSM_ERR) csm_pss_cmd_tree_walk_cb(2057): Parent command not found for cmd description process_vpc, cmd pseq 352 seq 362
    Mon Jul  1 06:13:11.884207  (CSM_EV) csm_sp_acfg_gen_handler(3011):  Preparing config into /tmp/csm_sp_acfg_1733916569.txt
    Mon Jul  1 06:13:11.878695  csm_get_locked_ssn_ctxt[539]: Lock not yet taken.
    Mon Jul  1 06:13:11.878638  (CSM_EV) csm_sp_acfg_gen_handler(2937): Recieved sp acfg merge request for type: running cfg
    Mon Jul  1 06:12:29.527840  (CSM_T) csm_pss_del_seq_tbl(1989): Freeing seq tbl data
    Mon Jul  1 06:12:29.513255  (CSM_T) csm_sp_acfg_gen_handler(3106): Done acfg file write
    Mon Jul  1 06:12:29.513179  (CSM_EV) csm_sp_acfg_gen_handler(3011):  Preparing config into /tmp/csm_sp_acfg_1733911262.txt
    Mon Jul  1 06:12:29.508859  csm_get_locked_ssn_ctxt[539]: Lock not yet taken.
    Mon Jul  1 06:12:29.508803  (CSM_EV) csm_sp_acfg_gen_handler(2937): Recieved sp acfg merge request for type: running cfg
    Mon Jul  1 05:53:17.651236  Collecting peer info
    Mon Jul  1 05:53:17.651181  Failed to get the argumentvalue for 'ip-address'
    Mon Jul  1 05:40:59.262736  DB Unlocked Successfully
    Mon Jul  1 05:40:59.262654  Unlocking DB, Lock Owner Details:Client:1 ID:1
    Mon Jul  1 05:40:59.262570  (CSM_T) csm_sp_del_buf_cmd(1713): Deleting comand with Id = 1
    Mon Jul  1 05:40:59.262513  DB Lock Successful by Client:1 ID:1
    Mon Jul  1 05:40:59.262435  Recieved lock request by Client:1 ID:1
    Mon Jul  1 05:40:41.741224  ssnmgr_ssn_handle_create_get: Session FSM already present, ID:1
    Mon Jul  1 05:40:41.741167  ssnmgr_handle_mgmt_request: Create/Get request received for session[process_n5kprof]
    show cfs lock gives no output.
    Just to further clarify, we have 4 5548UP switches in the same management vlan. 2 switches are in one location lets say location A and they are CFS peers and are working fine.
    These two switches which are having problem are in location B. All the switches are in the same vlan. Essentially the all CFS multicast messages will be seen by all 5548 switches as they are in the same vlan. I am assuming that this might not create any problems as we specify the peers in the respective configurations. Or do we have to change the CFSoIPv4 multicast addresses in location B or may be configure a different region.
    Regards.

  • 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: Basic Introduction and Troubleshooting on Cisco Nexus 7000 NX-OS Virtual Device Context

    With Vignesh R. P.
    Welcome to the Cisco Support Community Ask the Expert conversation.This is an opportunity to learn and ask questions of Cisco expert Vignesh R. P. about the Cisco® Nexus 7000 Series Switches and support for the Cisco NX-OS Software platform .
    The Cisco® Nexus 7000 Series Switches introduce support for the Cisco NX-OS Software platform, a new class of operating system designed for data centers. Based on the Cisco MDS 9000 SAN-OS platform, Cisco NX-OS introduces support for virtual device contexts (VDCs), which allows the switches to be virtualized at the device level. Each configured VDC presents itself as a unique device to connected users within the framework of that physical switch. The VDC runs as a separate logical entity within the switch, maintaining its own unique set of running software processes, having its own configuration, and being managed by a separate administrator.
    Vignesh R. P. is a customer support engineer in the Cisco High Touch Technical Support center in Bangalore, India, supporting Cisco's major service provider customers in routing and MPLS technologies. His areas of expertise include routing, switching, and MPLS. Previously at Cisco he worked as a network consulting engineer for enterprise customers. He has been in the networking industry for 8 years and holds CCIE certification in the Routing & Switching and Service Provider tracks.
    Remember to use the rating system to let Vignesh know if you have received an adequate response. 
    Vignesh 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 discussion forum shortly after the event. This event lasts through through January 18, 2013. Visit this forum often to view responses to your questions and the questions of other community members.

    Hi Vignesh
    Is there is any limitation to connect a N2K directly to the N7K?
    if i have a an F2 card 10G and another F2 card 1G and i want to creat 3 VDC'S
    VDC1=DC-Core
    VDC2=Aggregation
    VDC3=Campus core
    do we need to add a link between the different VDC's
    thanks

  • Ask the Expert: Cisco UCS Troubleshooting Boot from SAN with FC and iSCSI

    Welcome to this Cisco Support Community Ask the Expert conversation. This is an opportunity to learn and ask questions about Cisco UCS Troubleshooting Boot from SAN with FC and iSCSI with Vishal Mehta and Manuel Velasco.
    The current industry trend is to use SAN (FC/FCoE/iSCSI) for booting operating systems instead of using local storage.
    Boot from SAN offers many benefits, including:
    Server without local storage can run cooler and use the extra space for other components.
    Redeployment of servers caused by hardware failures becomes easier with boot from SAN servers.
    SAN storage allows the administrator to use storage more efficiently.
    Boot from SAN offers reliability because the user can access the boot disk through multiple paths, which protects the disk from being a single point of failure.
    Cisco UCS takes away much of the complexity with its service profiles and associated boot policies to make boot from SAN deployment an easy task.
    Vishal Mehta 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 three years with a primary focus on data center technologies such as Cisco Nexus 5000, Cisco UCS, Cisco Nexus 1000v, and virtualization. He has 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 three 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 VMware VCP and CCNA certifications.
    Remember to use the rating system to let Vishal and Manuel know if you have received an adequate response. 
    Because of the volume expected during this event, our experts might not be able to answer every question. Remember that you can continue the conversation in the Data Center community, under subcommunity Unified Computing, 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.

    Hello Evan
    Thank you for asking this question. Most common TAC cases that we have seen on Boot-from-SAN failures are due to misconfiguration.
    So our methodology is to verify configuration and troubleshoot from server to storage switches to storage array.
    Before diving into troubleshooting, make sure there is clear understanding of this topology. This is very vital with any troubleshooting scenario. Know what devices you have and how they are connected, how many paths are connected, Switch/NPV mode and so on.
    Always try to troubleshoot one path at a time and verify that the setup is in complaint with the SW/HW interop matrix tested by Cisco.
    Step 1: Check at server
    a. make sure to have uniform firmware version across all components of UCS
    b. Verify if VSAN is created and FC uplinks are configured correctly. VSANs/FCoE-vlan should be unique per fabric
    c. Verify at service profile level for configuration of vHBAs - vHBA per Fabric should have unique VSAN number
    Note down the WWPN of your vhba. This will be needed in step 2 for zoning on the SAN switch and step 3 for LUN masking on the storage array.
    d. verify if Boot Policy of the service profile is configured to Boot From SAN - the Boot Order and its parameters such as Lun ID and WWN are extremely important
    e. finally at UCS CLI - verify the flogi of vHBAs (for NPV mode, command is (from nxos) – show npv flogi-table)
    Step 2: Check at Storage Switch
    a. Verify the mode (by default UCS is in FC end-host mode, so storage switch has to be in NPIV mode; unless UCS is in FC Switch mode)
    b. Verify the switch port connecting to UCS is UP as an F-Port and is configured for correct VSAN
    c. Check if both the initiator (Server) and the target (Storage) are logged into the fabric switch (command for MDS/N5k - show flogi database vsan X)
    d. Once confirmed that initiator and target devices are logged into the fabric, query the name server to see if they have registered themselves correctly. (command - show fcns database vsan X)
    e. Most important configuration to check on Storage Switch is the zoning
    Zoning is basically access control for our initiator to  targets. Most common design is to configure one zone per initiator and target.
    Zoning will require you to configure a zone, put that zone into your current zonset, then ACTIVATE it. (command - show zoneset active vsan X)
    Step 3: Check at Storage Array
    When the Storage array logs into the SAN fabric, it queries the name server to see which devices it can communicate.
    LUN masking is crucial step on Storage Array which gives particular host (server) access to specific LUN
    Assuming that both the storage and initiator have FLOGI’d into the fabric and the zoning is correct (as per Step 1 & 2)
    Following needs to be verified at Storage Array level
    a. Are the wwpn of the initiators (vhba of the hosts) visible on the storage array?
    b. If above is yes then Is LUN Masking applied?
    c. What LUN number is presented to the host - this is the number that we see in Lun ID on the 'Boot Order' of Step 1
    Below document has details and troubleshooting outputs:
    http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/servers-unified-computing/ucs-b-series-blade-servers/115764-ucs-san-tshoot-00.html
    Hope this answers your question.
    Thanks,
    Vishal 

  • Ask the Expert: Configuration and Troubleshooting the Cisco Application Control Engine (ACE) load balancer

    With Ajay Kumar and Telmo Pereira 
    Welcome to the Cisco Support Community Ask the Expert conversation. This is an opportunity to learn and ask questions about configuration and troubleshooting the Cisco Application Control Engine (ACE) load balancer with Cisco expert Ajay Kumar and Telmo Pereira. The Cisco ACE Application Control Engine Module for Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches and Cisco 7600 Series Routers is a next-generation load-balancing and application-delivery solution. A member of the Cisco family of Data Center 3.0 solutions, the module: Helps ensure business continuity by increasing application availability Improves business productivity by accelerating application and server performance Reduces data center power, space, and cooling needs through a virtualized architecture Helps lower operational costs associated with application provisioning and scaling
    Ajay Kumar  is a customer support engineer in the Cisco Technical Assistance Center in Brussels, covering content delivery network technologies including Cisco Application Control Engine, Cisco Wide Area Application Services, Cisco Content Switching Module, Cisco Content Services Switches, and others. He has been with Cisco for more than four years, working with major customers to help resolve their issues related to content products. He holds DCASI and VCP certifications. 
    Telmo Pereira is a customer support engineer in the Cisco Technical Assistance Center in Brussels, where he covers all Cisco content delivery network technologies including Cisco Application Control Engine (ACE), Cisco Wide Area Application Services (WAAS), and Digital Media Suite. He has worked with multiple customers around the globe, helping them solve interesting and often highly complex issues. Pereira has worked in the networking field for more than 7 years. He holds a computer science degree as well as multiple certifications including CCNP, DCASI, DCUCI, and VCP
    Remember to use the rating system to let Ajay know if you have received an adequate response.
    Ajay and Telmo 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 discussion forum Application Networking shortly after the event.
    This event lasts through July 26, 2013. Visit this forum often to view responses to your questions and the questions of other community members.

    Hello Krzysztof,
    Another set of good/interesting questions posted. Thanks! 
    I will try to clarify your doubts.
    In the output below both resources (proxy-connections and ssl-connections rate) are configured with a min percentage of resources (column Min), while 'Max' is set to equal to the min.
    ACE/Context# show resource usage
                                                         Allocation
            Resource         Current       Peak        Min        Max       Denied
    -- outputs omitted for brevity --
      proxy-connections             0      16358      16358      16358      17872
      ssl-connections rate          0        626        626        626      23204
    Most columns are self explanatory, 'Current' is current usage, 'Peak' is the maximum value reached, and the most important counter to monitor 'Denied' represents the amount of packets denied/dropped due to exceeding the configured limits.
    On the resources themselves, Proxy-connections is simply the amount of proxied connections, in other words all connections handled at layer 7 (SSL connections are proxied, as are any connections with layer 7 load balance policies, or inspection).
    So in this particular case for the proxy-connections we see that Peak is equal to the Max allocated, and as we have denies we can conclude that you have surpassed the limits for this resource. We see there were 17872 connections dropped due to that.
    ssl-connections rate should be read in the same manner, however all values for this resource are in bytes/s, except for Denied counter, that is simply the amount of packets that were dropped due to exceeding this resource. 
    For your particular tests you have allocated a min percentage and set max equal to min, this way you make sure that this context will not use any other additional resources.
    If you had set the max to unlimited during resource allocation, ACE would be allowed to use additional resources on top of those guaranteed, if those resources were available.
    This might sound a great idea, but resource planning on ACE should be done carefully to avoid any sort of oversubscription, specially if you have business critical contexts.
    We have a good reference for ACE resource planning that contains also description of all resources (this will help to understand the output better):
    http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/interfaces_modules/services_modules/ace/v3.00_A2/configuration/virtualization/guide/config.html#wp1008224
    1) When a resource is utilized to its maximum limit, the ACE denies additional requests made by any context for that resource. In other words, the action is to Drop. ACE  should in theory silently drop (No RST is sent back to the client). So unless we changed something on the code, this is what you should see.
    To give more context, seeing resets with SSL connections is not necessarily synonym of drops. As it is usual to see them during normal transactions.
    For instance Microsoft servers are usually ungracefully terminating SSL connections with RESET. Also when there is renegotiation during an SSL transaction you may see RESETS, but this will pass unnoticed for end users. 
    2)  ACE will simply drop/ignore new connections when we reach the maximum amount of proxied connections for that context. Exisiting connections will continue there.
    As ACE doesn't respond back, client would simply retransmit, and if he is lucky maybe in the next attempt he will be able to establish the connection.
    To overcome the denies, you will definitely have to increase the resource allocation. This of course, assuming you are not reaching any physical limit of the box.
    As mentioned setting max as unlimited might work for you, assuming there are a lot of unused resources on the box.
    3)  If a new connection comes in with a sticky value, that matches the sticky entry of a real server, which is already in MAXCONNS state, then both the ACE module/appliance should reject the connection and that sticky entry would be removed.
    The client would at that point reestablish a new connection and ACE would associate a new sticky entry with the flow for a new RSERVER after the loadbalancing decision.
    I hope this makes things clearer! Uff...
    Regards,
    Telmo

  • 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

  • Ask the Expert: Overview of Cisco Prime Service Catalog and Process Orchestrator Solutions

    Welcome to this Cisco Support Community Ask the Expert conversation. This is an opportunity to learn and ask questions about the Cisco Prime Service Catalog and Process Orchestrator solutions.
    Cisco expert Jason Davis will discuss Cisco’s network management products offered under the Cisco Prime framework. If you have questions about Cisco Prime infrastructure or data center automation with our Cisco Prime Service Catalog and Process Orchestrator solutions, join us on the Cisco Support Community.
    Jason Davis is a distinguished services engineer in the Intelligent Infrastructure Practice team of Cisco Advanced Services. His role is to provide strategic and tactical consulting for hundreds of Advanced Services customers, lead service innovation, and assess new services and technologies. Jason's primary expertise areas are in network management systems, intelligent automation, virtualization, data center operations, software-defined networking, and network programmability.
    Based out of the Research Triangle Park (RTP) campus, Jason is also responsible for administering the Research Triangle Park Network Management Lab, Cisco's largest network management lab.
    Since joining Cisco in 1998, Jason has been a frequent speaker at Cisco's Networkers and CiscoLive conferences in the United States and Europe. In the past five years he has also been involved in the conference network setup and monitoring. He is a much sought-after resource by the field sales teams to assist with presales solutions and executive briefings. He has provided strategic and tactical network management consulting for several hundred customers.
    Jason is a subject matter expert with the following products and features:
    Cisco Prime LAN management solution
    Cisco Prime infrastructure
    CiscoSecure ACS
    Cisco Prime Network Registrar
    Cisco Process Orchestrator
    Cisco Prime Service Catalog
    Cisco IP SLA
    Embedded Event Manager
    SNMPv3
    onePK and OpenFlow
    Cisco UCS
    Device instrumentation
    VMware ESX, ESXi, and vCenter
    ITIL
    Jason received his bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Miami (FL). He has been married for 20 years and has 4 children. His interests include providing audiovisual technical support for churches and conference venues, camping and biking with his family, remote-control helicopter piloting, paintball, and recreational shooting.
    Remember to use the rating system to let Jason know if you have received an adequate response.
    Because of the volume expected during this event, Jason might not be able to answer every question. Remember that you can continue the conversation in Data Center > Intelligent Automation under the subcommunity Cisco Prime Service Catalog shortly after the event. This event lasts through September 12, 2014. Visit this forum often to view responses to your questions and the questions of other Cisco Support Community members.

    Hello Jason,
    Thank you very much for welcoming me to your expert discussion :) I feel to be in the right place, at the right time. Thank you also for answering question beyond your scope here, much appreciated. The information received will help me to go further as such I have submitted a 5 start rating for your first reply.
    That sounds promising about the LMS part so yes, I stay tuned and wait patiently.
    Ok, now let’s revert to the actual topic discussed here. Cisco Prime Service Catalog and Process Orchestrator solutions I have briefly read up on this on CCO (where elseJ) and picked out the following quote
    ---- Quote from the Cisco Prime Service Catalog Data Sheet
     Today’s end users want self-service and easy access to IT tools and services.
    Simultaneously, organizations are seeking ways to extend their cloud management
    platforms beyond self-service delivery of virtual machines and infrastructure resources
    while increasing their use of cloud-based solutions to enhance business agility and effectiveness.
    Cisco Prime™ Service Catalog offers tremendous benefits to organizations that want to unify the ways in
    which all types of IT services are ordered and fulfilled, not just infrastructure requests
    ---- un quote ---
    I try to understand what (at high level of course) happens in the back ground when an order is raised and which vendor solution your product can interact with.
    As mentioned in the quoted text, this service catalogue goes beyond the standard infrastructure.
    Let’s say, a user wants to deploy a new email services, or in your example,  extends or create a new web-portal (i.e. for HR to view and manage holiday, staff absence and benefits).
    Your solution will need to interact somehow with the 3rd party vendor application that is capable building such portal I believe.
    Without disclosing to many information, I assume the portal is linked to backend VM,s that spin up requested resources (and more magic of course). Perhaps I am mixing this up with another cisco product where a user can go on the portal and spin up virtual Firewalls, virtual Routers can be provisioned in now time.
    Out if interest; Is this product also known as Mozart? (project code within Cisco?)
    I hope query is ok.
    Best wishes
    Markus

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