RE: OT: FabricPath & CCIE DC

It would still work with FabricPath, it's just that the services would be part
of the Classical Ethernet domain. The problem then becomes trying to get all
the layer 2 traffic to switch through the services layer. If you have
multiple spines with separate services layers then you'll end up with
asymmetrical switching (layer 2 routing) and your services like FWSM will
break. There's a design document here that talks about N7K and Services
integration, but it doesn't talk about FabricPath:

Implementing Nexus 7000 in the Data Center Aggregation Layer with Services
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/solutions/Enterprise/Data_Center/nx_7000_dc.h
tml

As for your question on different Port Channelling and vPC designs, this is
covered extensively in the course. I actually spent two full days on vPC,
because there are tons of design considerations you need to take into account,
not to mention the possible failure and recovery scenarios. Here are some of
the diagrams that we used in class, this can give you a brief overview of the
type of topologies we covered: http://imgur.com/a/XenQt

A key point to mention also is that these topologies were covered *live on the
command line*. As we all know within the scope of the CCIE Lab Exam at the
end of the day it's all about getting it all to work on the CLI. As Brian
Dennis says, "everything works on PowerPoint" ;)

Brian McGahan, CCIE #8593 (R&S/SP/Security)
bmcgahan_at_INE.com<mailto:bmcgahan_at_INE.com>

Internetwork Expert, Inc.
http://www.INE.com

From: qospf qospf [mailto:cisco.qospf_at_gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, September 10, 2012 10:55 PM
To: Brian McGahan
Cc: Cisco certification
Subject: Re: OT: FabricPath & CCIE DC

Brian,

very nice!!

I was wondering, what are the design considerations when dealing with the
Services Layer (ACE/FW) and FabricPath? I know with vPC, it's easy to create
two VDCs for agg and sub-agg and sandwich the Services layer in a cat6k VSS
configuration. I'm assuming that would not work with FabricPath...correct?
Would the services layer be hanging off one of the FP N7K or N5k?

Any design considerations/issues we should be aware of? Is this already
covered in your course?

Also, another question...do you cover in your course the different kinds of
connectivity of the access layer, i.e, how nic teaming or port channeling is
done from Server to 2K and vPC b/w 2K and 5K? What are the different
variations this can be configured with...vPC or just plain Port Channel etc?

Thanks
On Wed, Sep 5, 2012 at 7:59 AM, Brian McGahan
<bmcgahan_at_ine.com<mailto:bmcgahan_at_ine.com>> wrote:
For those of you that are interested in the upcoming CCIE Data Center track,
or just new technologies in general, I have posted some excerpts from INE's
recent CCIE DC Nexus Switching Class regarding FabricPath.

FabricPath is a new alternative to running Spanning-Tree Protocol in the Layer
2 DC Core, and is a pre-standard version of the TRansparent Interconnection of
Lots of Links (TRILL) feature. The videos below cover the underlying theory of
FabricPath, it's basic configuration, it's more advanced configurations and
verifications, and its integration with Virtual Port Channels (vPCs) with the
vPC+ feature.

http://ine.co/fabricpath

Enjoy!

Brian McGahan, CCIE #8593 (R&S/SP/Security)
bmcgahan_at_INE.com<mailto:bmcgahan_at_INE.com>

Internetwork Expert, Inc.
http://www.INE.com

Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net
Received on Tue Sep 11 2012 - 10:21:12 ART