Posts from ‘CCIE DC’
Our new “CCIE Data Center – Implementing Nexus” course is now available in AAP and members site accounts. The course is just under 18 hours in length and covers the Nexus 7k, 5k and 2k platforms. It’ll be available for direct purchase in the next few hours.
http://www.ine.com/all-access-pass/training/playlist/ccie-dc-implementing-nexus
Tags: CCIE Data Center, ccie dc videos, ccie nexus
Cisco Nexus, Cisco Unified Computing Systemn (UCS), Cisco MDS 9000 Series Multilayer Switches, and Cisco 1000 Series Connected Grid Routers (CGR) are all based on the Cisco NX-OS operating system. These products are affected by one or more of the following vulnerabilities:
Multiple Cisco Discovery Protocol Vulnerabilities in Cisco NX-OS-Based Products
Cisco NX-OS Software SNMP and License Manager Buffer Overflow Vulnerability
Cisco NX-OS Software SNMP Buffer Overflow Vulnerability
Cisco NX-OS Software Jumbo Packet Denial of Service Vulnerability
Cisco has released free software updates that address these vulnerabilities.
This advisory is available at the following link:
http://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-20130424-nxosmulti
Last week we quietly snuck into the All Access Pass the recordings of the live UC on UCS and Nexus 1000v on UCS classes that I ran just a few weeks back. If you have never run Unified Communications in a virtual environment or have never worked with a distributed virtual switch in a VMware environment, these classes will certainly aid you in preparing for that first deployment. If you have worked with either product for a little while, these classes will deepen your understanding of what’s needed and what’s really going on behind the scenes. The Nexus 1000v class is also very useful for the Unified Communications engineer, as most deployments these days are virtual machines, and the Nexus 1000v is the recommended L2 switch to run them on, since the UCS can only match/mark at L2 CoS, whereas the Nexus 1000v allows you to match the L3 DSCP that the UC servers are natively sending and map them to a L2 CoS value, which is currently the only value seen and honored by any of your UCS or Nexus switches in your modern data centers.
I will be furthering this series with classes on the VSG with VNMC, the ASA 1000v, and later with the InterCloud 1000v as well as possibly more virtual devices in the weeks to come.
Tags: Nexus 1000v, UC, UCS, unified communications, Unified Computing System
Once you have ESXi 5.1 up and running download the CSR1000v OVA (Open Virtualization Archive) file here. Note that you will need to use your Cisco CCO login to download. Once the download is complete you need to open your vSphere Client and connect to your ESXi server. Once connected select the Deploy OVF Template option from the file menu.
Select the source of the OVA file you downloaded from your local machine.
The Cloud Services Router, CSR1000v, which was first announced at Cisco Live in San Diego last year is now available for download. For those who have never heard of the CSR1000v, in a nutshell it’s an IOS XE image running in a virtualized environment (VMWare support now, Citrix XEN, Amazon, Windows Hypervisor and OpenStack in the near future). The CSR1000v is designed as a virtual router (think Quagga but IOS from Cisco) that resides on the hypervisor server as a client instance and provides any services a normal ASR1000 would provide between the other hypervisor’s client instances (Linux servers, Windows servers, etc) and the network infrastructure. This could be something as simple as basic routing or NAT all the way up to advanced technologies like MPLS VPNs or LISP. Basically anything that a real ASR1000 could provide you can do in the CSR1000v with a small exception. This early release only supports 50Mbps throughput due to licensing restrictions. This being the case the specifications from Cisco shows the CSR1000v being capable of pushing 1.17Gpbs max and 438Mbps throughput with an IMIX traffic flow. With the 50Mbps limit it means the CSR1000v at this stage would be deployed more for proof-of-concept as opposed to real production. At this time the throughput is limited by the licensing but I’m sure there are plans to allow for higher throughput licensing in the near future.
If you’re interested in a presentation from Cisco covering the CSR1000v you can view the Cisco Live session from London: Cisco’s Cloud Services Router (CSR 1000V): Extending the Enterprise Network to the Cloud (2013 London) Note that you will need to create an account if you don’t already have an account to view the session.
Tags: ccie, csr1000v, virtual router
Update: The CCIE Data Center Technology Lab Workbook is now available here
After a long and highly anticipated wait, INE’s CCIE Data Center Workbook and Rack Rentals are (almost 
) finally here! This post covers three items of business, the state of the DC Workbook & Rack Rentals release, and the Implementing Nexus 5-Day Bootcamp that I am running online next week. This post ran a little longer than I had initially anticipated, so below are some quick links to the particular sections that you may be interested in:
Implementing Nexus 5-Day Bootcamp
DC Workbook Delivery
DC Rack Rental Topology
DC Workbook and Rack Rental Pricing
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Our new CCIE Data Center Written course has been released. For the All Access Pass members it’s already available in your members site account. Below are some sample from the new course.
Nexus 5000 & 2000 Hardware Architecture:
NX-OS Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
UCS :: LAN Modes and Behaviors :: Part 1
Here is the playlist:
Tags: CCIE DC, cisco data center, data center ccie
This weekend Mark Snow and I delivered a vSeminar on CCIE Data Center, and INE’s plans for our CCIE DC training product lines. The vSeminar, which is broken down into two sections of about an hour apiece, is now available in its recorded form below for those of you that weren’t able to join us live this weekend.
The first portion of the vSeminar deals with the hardware and software blueprint for the upcoming CCIE DC Written Exam and CCIE DC Lab Exam. Specifically this includes the following:
- Nexus 7009 v6.0(2) w/ SUP1, 10GE F1, 10GE M1
- Nexus 5548 v5.1(3)
- Nexus 2232
- Nexus 1000v v4.2(1)
- UCS 5108 Blade Chassis
- B200 M2 Blade Servers
- 6248UP Fabric Interconnects v2.0(1x)
- 6204 FEX
- UCS C200 Series Server
- Application Control Engine (ACE) 4710 vA5(1.0)
- MDS 9222i v5.2(2)
- JBODs
- Cisco Data Center Manager software v5.2(2)
- 2511 Router & Catalyst 3750 for mgmt access
The next section deals with the technical topics that are within the scope of the exam, and goes through a high level design overview of the hardware platforms and where their software features fit into the modern Data Center design. Specifically we have subdivided the topics into three main topic domains, which are:
- Nexus Switching
- Storage
- Computing
Beyond this we talk more about our plans for delivery methods for CCIE Data Center training, the expected release schedule, and additional training domains moving forward. Specifically the four main delivery methods we will be offering are:
- Online & Live Onsite Classes
- Streaming & Downloadable Videos
- DRM free & cross platform support
- Self-Paced Labs
- Rack Rentals
- CCIE DC Nexus Online Bootcamp - (Aug 27th – 31st 2012)
- CCIE DC Storage Online Bootcamp - (Sept 24th – 28th 2012)
- CCIE DC Computing Online Bootcamp - (Oct 29th – Nov 2nd 2012)
More details about other products such as the primer, deep dive, & troubleshooting video series, self-paced labs, rack rentals, and live onsite classes will be available within the next coming days and weeks and will be posted here on our blog.
Let us know what questions you have going forward with CCIE Data Center training, and Data Center focused training in general, as we are as excited about this brand new track addition as you are!
Tags: data center, dc, MDS, nexus, UCS
We are very proud to announce the industry’s very first CCIE Data Center lab-focused bootcamps. We will teach our initial bootcamps based on a three-pronged approach, Nexus, Storage and Unified Computing (which will include smaller topics such as HA and SLB with ACE and N1Kv). Each bootcamp has a introductory price of $499 and all three can be purchased for $1299.
We have recently purchased the hardware needed to teach bootcamps along with starting to build out Data Center racks for rental. Our hardware specification is based on the three focal points list above, including two Nexus 7010 switches with F1 and M1 blades, two Nexus 5548UP switches, Nexus 2232 10GE FEXs, multiple MDS SAN Switches, ACE, and various storage arrays along with the UCS 5108 blade chassis, fabric interconnects and servers. Additionally we will be launching our CCIE Storage product line after Brian McGahan completes the CCIE Storage Lab exam. We currently have a two full storage racks already built out and Brian McGahan is scheduling the CCIE Storage lab within the next 60 to 90 days.
You can read more about our specific outlines for the CCIE Data Center bootcamps and sign up here.
We will also be hosting a CCIE Data Center and CCIE Storage Online vSeminar on July 22nd, 2012 at 10am PDT (-7 GMT). We will be going over our strategy for the CCIE Data Center and CCIE Storage product lines (bootcamps, workbooks, rack rentals, etc). This will be a great time to ask any specific questions you may have about our offerings so be sure to sign up. Signup Today
