Somit Maloo, CCIE No. 28603, CCDE No. 20170002, is a content architect from the data center team in the Learning & Certifications organization. He holds a masters degree in telecommunication networks and a bachelors degree in electronics and telecommunication engineering. He is also a penta CCIE in routing and switching, service provider, wireless, security, and data center technologies. Somit holds various industry-leading certifications, including CCDE, PMP, RHCSA, and VMware VCIX6 in Data Center and Network Virtualization. Somit has extensive experience in designing and developing various data center courses for the official Cisco curriculum. He started his career as a Cisco TAC engineer. Somit has more than 13 years of experience in the networking industry, working mostly with data center networks. You can reach Somit on Twitter: [...]

Iskren Nikolov, CCIE No. 20164, CCSI No. 32481, MCT Alumni, content architect, engineer, and developer with the Cisco Learning & Certifications Data Center & Cloud team. He is responsible for designing, developing, and reviewing Data Center Official Learning Cisco courses, including lab infrastructures and exercises. He holds a masters degree in computer systems and management from the Technical University-Sofia, Bulgaria. Iskren has more than 26 years of experience in designing, implementing, and supporting solutions based on the data center, security, storage, wide area networks, software-defined networks, cloud, hybrid, and multi-cloud technologies, including 11 years of teaching, and developing Cisco Data Center & Cloud and Microsoft Azure courses. The huge experience across technologies from multiple vendors such as Cisco Systems, VMware, Microsoft, and Barracuda, combined with the different perspectives gained from the different roles in his work and experience with customers from different industries, allow Iskren to have a unique view of the current data center technologies and the future trends. You can reach Iskren on LinkedIn: [...]

Firas Ahmed, CCIE No. 14967, is a solution architect on the data center technologies team at Nile. He completed a masters degree in systems and control engineering following a bachelors degree in computer engineering. Firas holds CCIE certificates in routing and switching, collaboration, wireless, security, and data center technologies in addition to industry-based certifications, including CISSP, PMP, VMware VCP6.5-DCV, ITIL, and GICSP. Firas has more than 18 years of experience in designing, developing, and supporting various data centers for enterprise and IoT customers. Firas has additional experience as a seasonal instructor in a number of community colleges in Toronto, where he taught various computer networking courses. You can reach Firas on Twitter: [...]

Introduction xxxv
Part I Networking
Chapter 1 Implementing Routing in the Data Center 2
Do I Know This Already? Quiz 2
Foundation Topics 5
Routing Protocols Support on Cisco Nexus Devices 5
OSPF 6
OSPF Link-State Advertisements 7
OSPF Authentication 13
OSPF Configurations and Verifications 13
Border Gateway Protocol 24
BGP Peering 25
BGP Path Selection 26
Multiprotocol BGP 29
BGP Configurations and Verifications 30
Bidirectional Forwarding Detection 37
Rapid Detection of Failures 38
BFD Configurations and Verifications 38
Multicast 42
Internet Group Management Protocol 43
Switch IGMP Snooping 46
Multicast Listener Discovery 46
Multicast Distribution Trees 47
Protocol Independent Multicast 49
Multicast Forwarding 55
Multicast Configurations and Verifications 56
Hot Standby Router Protocol 69
Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol 73
VRRP Operation 73
VRRP Groups 75
VRRP Router Priority and Preemption 76
VRRP Authentication 77
VRRP Tracking 77
IPv6 First Hop Redundancy 77
HSRP/VRRP Configurations and Verifications 79
Exam Preparation Tasks 87
Chapter 2 Implementing Data Center Switching Protocols 90
Do I Know This Already? Quiz 90
Foundation Topics 93
Spanning Tree Protocols 93
STP Topology 93
STP Port Types 94
STP Extensions 94
Unidirectional Link Detection 97
Rapid PVST+ 98
Spanning Tree Configurations and Verifications 102
Port Channels 117
Port Channel Load Balance 120
Virtual Port Channel 122
vPC Traffic Flows 125
vPC Dual-Control Plane 126
vPC Primary and Secondary Roles 127
vPC Configuration Consistency 128
vPC Duplicate Frames Prevention Mechanism 129
vPC HSRP Gateway Considerations 131
vPC ARP Synchronization 131
vPC Peer Gateway 131
Port Channel Configurations and Verifications 132
Exam Preparation Tasks 146
Chapter 3 Implementing Data Center Overlay Protocols 150
Do I Know This Already? Quiz 150
Foundation Topics 151
Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN) Overview 151
VXLAN Encapsulation and Packet Format 152
VXLAN Tunnel Endpoint 152
Virtual Network Identifier 153
VXLAN Control Plane 154
VXLAN Gateways 157
VXLAN High Availability 157
VXLAN Tenant Routed Multicast 159
VXLAN Configurations and Verifications 159
Exam Preparation Tasks 169
Chapter 4 Describe Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure 172
Do I Know This Already? Quiz 172
Foundation Topics 174
Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) Overview 174
Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller 176
Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Spine and Leaf Switches for Cisco ACI 179
Cisco ACI Initial Setup, Fabric Discovery, Fabric Upgrade, and Fabric Access Policies 182
Cisco ACI Initial Setup 182
Cisco ACI Fabric Discovery 187
Startup with Cisco ACI Fabric Discovery and Configuration 188
Fabric Upgrade 189
Cisco ACI Fabric Access Policies 190
Cisco ACI Fabric Building Blocks, Policy Model, and VMM Domains 195
ACI Policy Model 197
Cisco ACI Tenants 198
Taboo Contracts 209
vzAny Rule 210
Filters and Subjects 213
Management Tenant 213
In-Band Management Access 214
ACI VXLAN 215
ACI Intersubnet Tenant Traffic 217
Policy Identification and Enforcement 218
ACI Fabric Traffic Storm Control 219
ACI Fabric Traffic Load Balance 219
ACI Fabric Loop Detection 220
ACI Design Best Practices 221
ACI LAB Configurations Example 221
Building ACI Fabric 224
Creating Tenant 227
Creating Contract and Filter 230
Deploying a Three-Tier Application 233
Integrating with vCenter 235
Exam Preparation Tasks 238
Chapter 5 Cisco Cloud Services and Deployment Models 240
Do I Know This Already? Quiz 240
Foundation Topics 242
What Is Cloud Computing? 242
Cloud Service Models 245
Software as a Service 245
Platform as a Service 246
Infrastructure as a Service 246
Cloud Deployment Models 248
Private Cloud 248
Public Cloud 248
Hybrid Cloud 249
Community Cloud 250
Exam Preparation Tasks 250
Chapter 6 Data Center Network Management and Monitoring 252
Do I Know This Already? Quiz 252
Foundation Topics 254
Cisco Nexus NX-OS Software Installation, Updates, and Their Impacts 254
PowerOn Auto Provisioning (POAP) 259
Data Center Infrastructure Software Lifecycle Management 263
Nexus Nondisruptive In-Service Software Upgrade 263
Nexus Disruptive and Nondisruptive Upgrade/Downgrade Procedure 265
Programmable Logical Devices Upgrade 269
Nexus Configuration Management 271
NX-OS Configuration Save and Backup 272
Nexus Config Rollback and Checkpoint 272
Network Time Management 274
Network Time Protocol 275
Precision Time Protocol 280
Network Infrastructure Monitoring 284
NX-OS System Message Logging 284
NX-OS Simple Network Management Protocol 286
Nexus Smart Call Home 292
Nexus NetFlow 293
Switched Port Analyzer 298
Streaming Telemetry 306
Network Assurance Concept 310
Exam Preparation Tasks 312
Chapter 7 Describe Cisco Nexus Dashboard 314
Do I Know This Already? Quiz 314
Foundation Topics 316
Cisco Nexus Dashboard 316
Cisco Nexus Dashboard Insights 318
Cisco Nexus Dashboard Orchestrator 323
Cisco Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller 325
Cisco Nexus Dashboard Data Broker 335
Cisco Nexus Dashboard Platforms 337
Cisco Nexus Dashboard Cluster Nodes 339
Cisco Nexus Dashboard External Networks 341
Cisco Nexus Dashboard GUI Overview 342
One View Page 343
Admin Console Page 343
Exam Preparation Tasks 348
Part II Storage
Chapter 8 Implement Fibre Channel 352
Do I Know This Already? Quiz 353
Foundation Topics 356
Cisco MDS 9000 Series Hardware 356
Cisco MDS 9700 Series Multilayer Directors 356
Cisco MDS 9300 Series Multilayer Fabric Switches 360
Cisco MDS 9200 Series Multiservice Switches 361
Cisco MDS 9100 Series Multilayer Fabric Switches 362
Fibre Channel Basics 365
Fibre Channel Topologies 365
Fibre Channel Port Types 368
Fibre Channel Addressing 371
Flow Control 372
Switched Fabric Initialization 373
Device Registration: FLOGI, PLOGI, PRLI 378
FLOGI and FCNS Databases 378
CFS 380
CFS Features 381
CFS Fabric Lock 382
CFSoIP and CFSoFC 382
CFS Merge 384
CFS Regions 384
VSAN 386
VSAN Features 386
VSAN Attributes 387
VSAN Advantages 388
Dynamic Port VSAN Membership (DPVM) 388
VSAN Trunking 389
SAN Port Channels 396
Types of SAN Port Channels 396
Port Channel Load Balancing 398
Port Channel Modes 399
Zoning 404
Zoning Features 404
Zone Enforcement 406
Full and Active Zone Set 407
Autozone 410
Zone Merge 410
Smart Zoning 411
Enhanced Zoning 412
Device Alias 418
Device Alias Features 419
Device Alias Modes 419
Device Alias Distribution 420
Zone Aliases (FC Aliases) Versus Device Aliases 421
NPIV and NPV 424
Exam Preparation Tasks 431
Chapter 9 Implement FCoE Unified Fabric 434
Do I Know This Already? Quiz 434
Foundation Topics 436
FCoE Overview 436
Ethernet Enhancements 438
FCoE Frame Format 442
Virtual Fibre Channel (VFC) 444
FCoE Elements and Port Types 445
FCoE Addressing and Forwarding 447
FCoE Initialization Protocol (FIP) 448
Benefits of FCoE 451
FCoE Topology Options 451
FCoE Single-Hop Topology 451
FCoE Multi-Hop Topology 454
FCoE Implementations 455
FCoE Configuration on Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Switches 456
FCoE Configuration on Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switches 458
FCoE Configuration on Cisco Nexus 9000 Series Switches 459
FCoE over FEX 461
FCoE NPV 463
FCoE Verification 466
Exam Preparation Tasks 475
Chapter 10 Describe NFS and NAS Concepts 478
Do I Know This Already? Quiz 478
Foundation Topics 479
Describe NFS Concepts 479
Describe NAS Concepts 481
NAS Benefits 483
Cisco UCS S-Series Storage Servers 483
Exam Preparation Tasks 485
Chapter 11 Describe Software Management and Infrastructure Monitoring 488
Do I Know This Already? Quiz 488
Foundation Topics 490
Cisco MDS NX-OS Setup Utility 490
Cisco MDS NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade 498
Nondisruptive Upgrade on a Cisco MDS Fabric Switch 500
Disruptive Upgrade on a Cisco MDS Fabric Switch 505
Nondisruptive Downgrade on a Cisco MDS Fabric Switch 508
Disruptive Downgrade on a Cisco MDS Fabric Switch 513
EPLD Upgrade on Cisco MDS 9000 Series Switches 515
Infrastructure Monitoring 521
System Messages 521
Call Home 521
Embedded Event Manager 522
RMON 523
SPAN 523
Exam Preparation Tasks 528
Part III Compute
Chapter 12 Cisco Unified Computing Systems Overview 530
Do I Know This Already? Quiz 530
Foundation Topics 532
Cisco UCS Architecture 532
Cisco UCS Components and Connectivity 534
Cisco UCS 5108 Blade Server Chassis 536
UCS Blade Servers 536
Cisco UCS Rack Servers 537
Cisco UCS Storage Servers 537
Cisco UCS Mini 539
Cisco UCS Fabric Infrastructure 539
Cisco UCS 6536 Fabric Interconnect 540
Cisco UCS 6454 Fabric Interconnect 541
Cisco UCS 6300 Series Fabric Interconnects 543
Fabric Interconnect and Fabric Extender Connectivity 544
Cisco UCS Virtualization Infrastructure 550
Cisco UCS-X System 555
Cisco UCS Initial Setup and Management 557
Fabric Interconnect Connectivity and Configurations...