Cisco Data Center Storage

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Go to class

Provider

Coursera
Pricing

Paid Course
Languages

English
Certificate

Certificate Available
Effort

9 hours
Sessions

Self-Paced
Level

Beginner
Subtitles

English

Found in

NPV Courses

Part of

Understanding Cisco Data Center Foundations

Overview

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As organizations increasingly rely on scalable and flexible storage solutions, this course empowers learners to explore the essentials of modern data center storage connectivity. This course provides a comprehensive comparison of Fibre Channel and IP-based networking, highlighting the convergence of storage with Ethernet and IP networks to enhance manageability, interoperability, and cost-effectiveness. Learners will explore Cisco MDS switches, including the 9700, 9200, 9300, and 9100 Series, and gain hands-on knowledge of Fibre Channel zoning, NPV/NPIV modes, and the FLOGI process. What makes this course unique is its focus on the integration of Fibre Channel with Ethernet through Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) protocols, enabling efficient I/O consolidation and reliable communication. The course also covers advanced features such as flow control, fabric login mechanisms, and the configuration of Cisco Nexus 9000 Series switches for Fibre Channel SAN switching. By understanding these technologies, learners will be equipped to design, deploy, and manage high-performance, scalable storage networks that support both traditional SAN and converged IP storage environments.Completing this course prepares learners to optimize storage infrastructure, improve data center flexibility, and support evolving storage demands with Cisco’s industry-leading storage networking solutions.

Syllabus

Introducing Basic Data Center Storage Concepts

IP-based networking has become the global standard for communicating over vast distances, and it has become performant enough to rival SAN speeds and latencies in recent years. Both network types are commonly used in modern data centers, with more emphasis on Ethernet. Compared to the SAN, IP networks provide increasing levels of manageability, interoperability, and cost-effectiveness. By converging the storage with the current IP networks such as LANs, metropolitan-area networks (MANs), and WANs, immediate benefits appear through storage consolidation, virtualization, mirroring, backup, and management. The convergence also provides increased capacities, flexibility, expandability, and scalability. With the rise of Ethernet and IP networking, the need for a separate physical network infrastructure dedicated to storage disappeared. This change enabled protocols that utilize Ethernet networks to be used more commonly for transferring storage information to a remote system. Two approaches to network storage are commonly used in modern data centers. One is file-based storage, which uses a central server to share information across a network on a file-by-file basis. The other is block-based storage, where virtual hard drives called logical unit numbers (LUNs) are used to provide block-level storage to the remote device. File-based protocols can use only the Ethernet and IP stack for communication over the network. Block-based protocols can use the native Fibre Channel SAN network or the Ethernet network.

Describing the Cisco MDS Family

In this course, you will learn about the Cisco Multilayer Director Switch (MDS) family of Fibre Channel switches. This list includes the Cisco MDS 9700 Series, Cisco MDS 9700 Line Cards, Cisco MDS 9200 Multiservice Switches, Cisco 9300 Series Multilayer Fabric Switches, and Cisco MDS 9100 Series Multilayer Fabric Switches.

Describing Fibre Channel Communication Between the Initiator Server and the Target Storage

The serial connectivity of a Fibre Channel provides a mechanism for transporting Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) information across high-speed networks. Fibre Channel provides high-speed transport for the SCSI payload but overcomes the distance and limitations that come with parallel SCSI technology. An initiator is the consumer of storage, typically a server that includes an adapter card that is called a host bus adapter (HBA). The initiator “initiates” a connection over the fabric to one or more ports on the storage system, which are called target ports. Target ports are the ports on your storage system that deliver storage volumes that are called target devices or logical unit numbers (LUNs) to the initiators.

Describing Fibre Channel Zone Types and Their Uses

Fibre Channel zoning allows you to partition a Fibre Channel fabric into one or more zones. Each zone defines a set of Fibre Channel initiators and Fibre Channel targets that can communicate with each other in a VSAN. Zoning also enables you to set up access control between hosts and storage devices or user groups. You will discover how to configure the Fibre Channel SAN switching features on Cisco Nexus 9000 Series switches to support a design requirement that is based on Fibre Channel.

Describing Cisco NPV Mode and NPIV

By default, Cisco Multilayer Director Switch (Cisco MDS) devices operate in Fibre Channel switching mode, which provides standard Fibre Channel switching capability and features. In NPV mode, the edge switch relays the fabric login (FLOGI) process from server-side ports to the core switch. The core N-Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) switch provides F-Port functionality (such as login and port security) and all the Fibre Channel switching capabilities. The edge switch appears to the core switch as a Fibre Channel host and to its connected devices as a regular Fibre Channel switch. N-Port Virtualization (NPV) alleviates the domain ID limit by sharing the domain ID of the core switch among multiple edge switches. The edge switch will then convert the FLOGI login to a fabric discovery (FDISC) login and allow the login to proceed up the NPV uplink. You can connect several NPV uplinks to a single core switch or director or to several core directors. The Cisco implementation allows connectivity from each edge switch to multiple core directors. Core NPIV directors must be part of the same fabric. In this module, you will explore the Cisco MDS NPV and NPIV modes, review the devices that support this feature, and learn to configure NPV and NPIV modes.

Describing FCoE

Ethernet and Fibre Channel hardware and protocol requirements prevent several native protocols from existing on the same hardware physical links. The need for I/O consolidation of these protocols introduced a solution that uses encapsulation of one protocol in another to provide connectivity. In this course, you will learn about the Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) protocol functions and hardware adapters that support FCoE. You will also see the protocols that require support on the Converged Network Adapter (CNA). You will learn the FCoE encapsulation features and the supporting protocols that enable the reliable communication that the Fibre Channel Protocol requires.