cciedc

The Path to CCIE Data Center

It’s official!

If I can do this, so can you! Some of you may be just starting out, some of you may be on the homestretch with a lab right around the corner. Either way, this post may have some interest to you. I’d like to share my story, how I prepared, what study methods worked best for me, how I picked myself back up after defeat, and what I did to prepare once more for ultimate victory. (more…)

Configuring WWxN Pools in UCS

In UCS we can create these things called WWxN pools. The “x” in WWxN can stand for either “N” node, or “P” port. This is essentially a pool that you can use for all of your WWN assignments without having to create separate WWNN and WWPN pools. For people who don’t necessarily care about a schema to signify the difference between WWNN and WWPN, maybe the streamlined WWxN pool is for you. (more…)

UCS Boot from iSCSI

Follow these steps to boot from iSCSI in UCS

Create a pool of ISCSI Initiator IP Addresses

Lan > Pools > IP Pool iscsi-initiator-pool > Create Block of IP Addresses (more…)

Configuring iSLB for CCIE DC

I’ll be going through iSLB, explaining what it is, and showing how to configure it. A full template is at the bottom of this post.

Part 1 of the series, “Configuring iSCSI for CCIE DC” can be found here. (more…)

Configuring iSCSI for CCIE DC

First thing, credit where due:

Cisco.com iSCSI Configuration Guide (Please read first!)
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/mds9000/sw/5_0/configuration/guides/ipsvc/nxos/ipsvc/ciscsi.html (more…)

Multihop FCoE to Server in vPC + NPV/NPIV

If you’re like me and had a difficult time at first understanding how to present separate VSAN fabrics to a server in a single vPC, I hope this post helps you out. I’ll be covering this exact scenario, as well as multihop FCoE with Nexus 5K switches in two topologies – Without NPV/NPIV and with NPV/NPIV. (more…)

Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP) for CCIE DC

Fibre Channel over IP (FCIP) is a tunneling protocol used to connect FC networks across IP networks, such as a WAN. It uses TCP with the DF bit set. Being that this is IP storage, it is only supported on the MDS platform. The basic configuration is straight forward, but be aware that there are lots of configurable tweaks. In this blog post I’ll be going through the configuration of several FCIP topologies, feel free to follow along. At the end I’ll post a quick template. (more…)

FC Security for CCIE DC – Fabric Binding

Fabric binding ensures that switches configured in the fabric binding database are permitted to connect to the switch. If a switch tries to join the fabric, and that switch is not in the fabric binding database, access is denied. Fabric binding is configured on a per-VSAN basis. (more…)

FC Security for CCIE DC – FC Port Security

Fibre Channel port security prevents unauthorized Fibre Channel devices and switches from logging into the fabric. This protects the fabric from accidents, malicious intent or attacks such as WWN identity spoofing. It’s configured on a per-VSAN basis. (more…)

FC Security for CCIE DC – FC-SP / DHCHAP

Fibre Channel Security Protocol (FC-SP) provides the capabilities for Diffie-Hellman Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (DHCHAP) to authenticate switches and/or hosts attempting to enter the fabric. The terms FC-SP and DHCHAP are used interchangeably. Unlike most FC feature, DHCHAP is not configured on a per-VSAN basis. (more…)