CISCO FLEX FABRIC COMPETITIVE OVERVIEW

Victor Sanavia Solutions Architect Venezuela vsanavia@hp.com August 2012

2012 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice

Agenda

Cisco Strategy for the Datacenter Competitive review of Ciscos Datacenter networking platforms
Nexus Nexus Nexus

7000 (N7k) 5000/2000 (N5k/N2k) 3000 (N3k) 49xx

Catalyst

Catalyst
Catalyst

2360
6500*

HPN tools overview

Conclusion
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*Due to time constraints we wont go into this platform details

CISCO STRATEGY FOR THE DATACENTER

Cisco Strategy for the Datacenter

Increase footprint on Datacenter hardware

Servers

-> UCS

Leverage large Cat6500 installed base for Nexus migration

and use Nexus as a Trojan horse to position UCS

Introduction of new propietary lock-in features

Fabric

Path, FCoE, VXLAN, OTV

Aggressive monetization of switches software features

L3

features, dynamic routing (even EIGRP!!), storage features, etc.

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Cisco Strategy for the Datacenter (2)

What to attack

NX-OS is definitely NOT legacy IOS

Different Legacy IOS

commands

proprietary protocols are being obsoleted: ISL, PAgP, VTP

packaging was replaced by Licensing scheme ($$$)

Datacenter focused switches are complicated to maintain and manage

Two NX-OS

27 has code trains with 81 15 code trains with 39 different versions!

different OS: NX-OS and legacy IOS. No guarantee about interoperability

different OS

legacy legacy
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IOS has 4 code trains (Sup-dependent) and 31 different versions for just the Cat6500 platform!!

versions

IOS has 8 code trains and 11 different versions for just TOR switches (49xx and 2360)!!

Cisco Strategy for the Datacenter (3)

What to attack

UCS seems to be a viable solution to traditional DC servers but.

UCS

architecture forces customers to grow according to Cisco scaling and not on customers needs is dependent on many third parties (VMWare, BMC, etc.) to properly function has experienced high rate of hardware failures

UCS UCS

Isnt Cloud supposed to abstract customers apps from vendor-specific features?

Does Do

Cisco UCS play nicely with other vendor switches?

Cisco proprietary features ever become fully supported standards? customers really happy with Cisco?

Are
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COMPETITIVE REVIEW OF CISCO DATACENTER NETWORKING PLATFORMS

Nexus 7000 (N7k)

Number of slots Bandwidth per slot 9, 10, and 18 550 Gbps Max switching capacity 17.6 Tbps Max packets per second 11.5 billion 1 GE density Up to 768 ports

1 GE density with Cisco Nexus 2000 Up to 1536 ports Line-rate 10 GE density Up to 768 ports 40GE and 100GE Up to 96 40GE ports. 32 100GE ports

Redundant supervisors Yes Hitless software upgrade Upgrade (ISSU) Switch virtualization Programming interface Yes: Virtual Device Context (VDC) XML and CLI script Yes: In Service Software

Management tool
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Cisco Data Center Network Manager

Nexus 7000 (N7k) (2)

What to attack

Performance
N7k

linecards are a compromise between raw performance (F1, F2) and feature richness (M1,M2)

L3

processing with non-L3 switching linecards can drain performance from L3 switching linecards
12500 linecards have advantages when considering factors such as MAC table size and ACL scalability

HPN

Environment
N7k No

is a very energy demanding platform

DC power supplies for the N7k!! (Service providers usually require this)

Cisco Virtualization (VDC)

Low
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scalability: 1 administrative context + 3 user contexts on SUP1, 1 administrative context + 4 user contexts on SUP2 and 1 administrative context + 8 user contexts on

Nexus 7000 (N7k) (3)

What to attack
(cont.)
All

VDCs run the SAME version of NX-OS. Not a good idea to collapse different security levels on the same switch

If

you mix different types of linecards on the same switch (F & M) you have to reserve a VDC for F2 cards

Licensing ($$$, system and module based)

10

No service modules (Firewalls, Load Balancers, etc.). Use a Cat6.5k!!

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FlexFabric Enterprise core positioning

Typical customer requirements

HP differentiation

High density10 GbE server access Deep buffers High Availability (control plane redundancy) Faster-convergence (link/module/chassis failures) Low Latency Scalability (MAC/FIB/ACLs) RMAT supports larger environments needing to reduce HW footprint

IRF: Unmatched resiliency & topology simplification Comware: entire L2/L3 IPv4/IPv6/MPLS/VPLS stream without any additional licensing IMC: Single-pane-of-glass management Support for IEEE 802.1ah Provider Backbone Bridge (Mac in Mac)

12500 1/10GbE

Modern architecture (CLOS, Midplane, distributed switching/routing/TCAM)

Line rate 10GE for L2/L3 IPv4/IPv6/MPLS/VPLS Deep buffers (512MB/2 * 10GE ports) - strong QoS like VoQ/congestion avoidance 4-chassis IRF: faster re-convergence than any competitive scheme (Cisco VSS/vPC, Juniper Virtual Chassis), supports entire stack (not limited to L2 like Ciscos vPC)

Densities: 128 (1:1) 10G, 512 (4:1).

High Availability control plane redundancy Highly Scalable (up to 256K* MAC, up to 1M FIB, up to 32K ACLs) Manageability (sFlow) with IMC

LEAD

ALTERNATE

Nexus 5000/2000 (N5k/N2k)

Gen 1 5k (5020, 5010) Performance: 1.04 Tbps (5020) / 500 Gbps (5010) Port density: Up to 56 ports: 40 fixed non-unified 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports with SFP+ connectors and two expansion slots (5020) Up to 28 ports: 20 fixed non-unified 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports with SFP+ connectors and one expansion slot (5010) Size: 2RU (5020) / 1RU (5010) Expansion modules: 10G, 1/2/4/8 native FC and 10G FCoE

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Nexus 5000/2000 (N5k/N2k) (2)

Gen 2 5k (5596UP, 5548UP, 5548) Performance: 1.92 Tbps (5596UP) / 960 Gbps (5548UP) / 960 Gbps (5548) Port density: Up to 96 ports: 48 fixed unified 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet ports with SFP+ connectors and three expansion slots (5596UP) Up to 48 ports: 32 fixed unified 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet ports with SFP+ connectors and one expansion slot (5548UP) Up to 48 ports: 32 fixed non-unified 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet ports with SFP+ connectors and one expansion slot (5548)

Size: 2RU (5596UP) / 1RU (5548UP) / 1RU (5548)

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Expansion modules: 10G, 1/2/4/8 native FC and 10G FCoE, L3

Nexus 5000/2000 (N5k/N2k) (3)

Cisco Nexus 2224TP
Fabric extender host interfaces 24

Cisco Nexus 2248TP

48

Cisco Nexus 2248TP-E

48

Cisco Nexus 2232PP

32

Cisco Nexus 2232TM

32

Fabric extender host interfaces type

100BASET/1000BASE-T ports: RJ-45 connectors

100BASET/1000BASE-T ports: RJ-45 connectors

100BASET/1000BASE-T ports: RJ-45 connectors

1/10 Gigabit Ethernet ports SFP/SFP

1/10GBASE-T ports: RJ-45 connectors

Fabric extender fabric interfaces

Uplink module: 8 SFP+ (N2KM2800P) 80 Gbps in each direction (160 Gbps full duplex)

Fabric speed

20 Gbps in each direction (40 Gbps full duplex)

40 Gbps in each direction (80 Gbps full duplex)

40 Gbps in each direction (80 Gbps full duplex)

80 Gbps in each direction (160 Gbps full duplex)

Oversubscription

1.2:1

1.2:1

1.2:1

4:1

4:1

Performance

Hardware forwarding at 88 Gbps or 65 mpps

Hardware forwarding at 176 Gbps or 131 mpps

Hardware forwarding at 176 Gbps or 131 mpps

Hardware forwarding at 560 Gbps or 595 mpps

Hardware forwarding at 560 Gbps or 595 mpps

Cisco parent switch

Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Cisco Nexus 7000 Series

Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Cisco Nexus 7000 Series

Cisco Nexus 5000 Series

Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Cisco Nexus 7000 Series

Cisco Nexus 5000 Series

FCoE support

No

No

No

Yes

No

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Nexus 5000/2000 (N5k/N2k) (4)

What to attack

N5k/N2k combination has serious performance issues

All L3

switching is done on parent switch (N7k/N5k), even for hosts connected on the same N2k switching is non-existent on Gen1 N5k and severely limited on Gen2 N5k switching is only performed on 10G to 10G port traffic over subscription ratio is 1.2:1, attainable for 1G access ports limitations on dual attached servers

Cut-through Best

Topological

N7k/N2k combination seems better suited for high performance DCs but is not encouraged by Cisco
Environment
No

DC power supplies for the N5k!! (Service providers usually require this)

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Nexus 5000/2000 (N5k/N2k) (5)

What to attack

N2k has 10G-BaseT support!!

but try to get a rack/blade server with 10G-BaseT interfaces

Ciscos FCoE implementation is proprietary

Licenses Multi-hop

are needed to use it support is limited

Licensing ($$$)
FabricPath Services (Only for Gen2 N5k) FCoE NPV Layer 3 Base Services Layer 3 Enterprise Services Storage Protocols Services VM-FEX

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No 40G connectivity options

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Nexus 3000 (N3k)

Rack unit (RU) Switching capacity

Cisco Nexus 3064

Cisco Nexus 3048

Cisco Nexus 3016

1.28 -Tbps

176 Gbps

1.28 -Tbps

Interface-type

48 SFP+ and 4 QSFP+

48 RJ-45 and 4 SFP+

16 QSFP+

Maximum 10/100/1000 Mbps ports

48 (SFP+ 100/1000 Mbps ports with GLC-T, SFP-GE-T SFPs) Up to 64 (48 fixed; 16 using 4 QSFP-to-SFP+ cables)

Up to 48

Maximum 1/10 GE ports

Up to 64 (using 16 QSFP-toSFP+ cables)

Maximum 40 GE ports

Up to 4

Up to 16

Switch latency

Sub-microsecond

2.7 to 7.2 microseconds

Sub-microsecond

Line-rate traffic throughput (both Layer 2 and 3) on all ports Redundant and hot-swappable power supply and fans

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Air flow

Front-back and back-front

Front-back and back-front

Front-back and back-front

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Nexus 3000 (N3k) (2)

What to attack

N3k is one of the first Cisco switching platforms that doesnt use Cisco developed ASICs
Potential This

problems with code development

is the business model that HPN uses for their DC switching platforms

Currently deployment is focused on very specific environments (i. e. HighFrequency trading)

Documentation

is scarce when compared with whats available for the rest of the Nexus

family

Licensing ($$$)
Base license

LAN Enterprise license

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Catalyst 49xx

Feature and Descriptio n

Cisco Catalyst 4948

Cisco Catalyst 4948 10 Gigabit Ethernet

Cisco Catalyst 4928 10 Gigabit Ethernet

1RU

Cisco Catalyst 4900M

Cisco Catalyst 4948E and 4948E-F

Height

1RU

1RU

2RU

1RU

Power Redundancy Uplink Optic Types

1+1 AC or DC

1+1 AC or DC

1+1 AC or DC

1+1 AC or DC

1+1 AC or DC

4 SFP optics

Two X2 (10 Gigabit Ethernet) optics

Two X2 (10 Gigabit Ethernet) optics LR, CX4, LX4, SR, ER, LRM

Eight X2 (10 Gigabit Ethernet) optics X2: LR, CX4, LX4, SR, ER, LRM, ZR, DWDM SFP+: SR 40

SFP/SFP+

Optics

LH, SX, ZX, CWDM

LR, CX4, LX4, SR, ER, LRM, ZR, DWDM

CWDM, DWDM, SR, LR, LRM, CX4

Maximum 10/100/1000 Ports Maximum Gigabit Ethernet (Fiber) Ports

48

48

48

28

32 (Cisco TwinGig Converter Module) 16

Maximum 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GBase-T) Ports Maximum 10 Gigabit Ethernet (fiber) Ports Switching Capacity Throughput

2 (X2)

2 (X2)1

24 (X2) 1

4 (SFP+)

96 Gbps

136 Gbps

96 Gbps

320 Gbps

176 Gbps

72 mpps

102 mpps

72 Mpps

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250 mpps for IPv4 125 mpps for IPv6

131 mpps for IPv4 110 mpps for IPv6

Catalyst 49xx (2)

What to attack

Cat49xx is a legacy platform

No

support for 10G server interfaces (except for 4900M, which has capability for 16 10G interfaces) train is similar to Cat45xx, which is a LAN focused platform, not Datacenter support for datacenter oriented features such as switch virtualization

Code No

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Catalyst 2360

48 ports of Gigabit Ethernet 10/100/1000-Gbps downlink connectivity Four 10 Gigabit Ethernet Small Form-Factor Pluggable Plus (SFP+) uplinks Dual field-replaceable power supplies, providing power redundancy and uninterrupted operation Field-replaceable dual-fan module with reversible airflow (front-to-back or back-to-front) and cooling redundancy USB storage interface for file backup, distribution, and simplified operations Mini-USB console port on the front of the switch for easy management access LAN Lite software features to meet ToR Layer 2 switching requirements Forwarding bandwidth: 88 Gbps 1-year limited warranty

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Catalyst 2360 (2)

What to attack

No capability to connect 10G servers Switching capacity is inadequate for Datacenters

The

HPN 2910-48G al Switch has 2x the switching capacity

L2 only
Inter-VLAN

routing has to be delegated to an external device

Very limited feature set

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FlexFabric Enterprise Access Positioning

Typical customer requirements

HP differentiation

1 G or 10 GbE server access Rack or blade server connectivity Standard or deep buffers Low Latency FCoE

IMC: Single-pane-of-glass management Streamlined management and lower OPEX with Virtual Connect IRF: Un matched resiliency and topology simplification IPv6 Ready Phase 2 Logo for all switching/routing devices

5800AF (Rack) 1GbE costeffective solution

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5830AF (Rack) 1GbE Deep Buffers

5820AF (Rack) 10GbE to server

5900AF/5920AF ToR
10GbE to server

40GbE Uplinks Ultra low latency Commware V7 Modular OS IRF 4 units DCB, TRILL & FCoE (future) Reversible airflow

Low latency Up to 90 ports Reversible airflow IRF 9 units

48 or 96 ports Reversible airflow IRF

FCoE IRF 9 units Reversible airflow

LEAD

ALTERNATE

HPN TOOLS OVERVIEW

HPN tools overview

HP Networking Competitive Comparison Tool

http://h17007.www1.hp.com/us/en/products/comparison/index.aspx

IRIS
Competitive

Price Info (only available on standalone client)

HPs very friendly Solution Architects

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CONCLUSIONS

Conclusions

HPN has a very modern and feature rich datacenter focused switch portfolio Engage your customers early and explain the benefits of HPN
Open

standards

Fair
No

value

licensing constraints

Migration from IOS to NX-OS isnt trivial

With

the right support, it might be easier and more cost effective to migrate to Comware

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GRACIAS!!