Implementing Cisco HyperFlex - Student Learni... [Link]
Traditional Data Center Design
Most data centers that you see today, and over the last decade, are designed in a modular fashion:
Servers that offer compute capabilities (either bare metal or virtualized and using hypervisor technology such as
VMware ESXi or Microsoft Hyper-V).
Centralized storage that offers the capacity to store data in a reliable fashion.
Storage area network (SAN) switches which offer connectivity between servers and centralized storage.
LAN switches which offer connectivity from the data center to the company users and the Internet.
Of course, the approach shown here is just one design, although arguably the most popular in enterprises.
There are many options within this design:
Servers can be either rack-mount type or blade servers.
Storage can be direct attached storage (DAS), network attached storage (NAS), or storage area network (SAN).
Applications that require large amounts of storage should be SAN attached using a Fibre Channel or Internet
Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI).
You can eliminate SAN switches from your design by running iSCSI or Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
instead of a Fibre Channel protocol, but Fibre Channel is still more popular.
The separation of storage, storage networks, and servers often leads to silos, which are sections of the
infrastructure where one team manages each individual part, or silo. Silos can pose challenges even when
implementing minor changes, because each individual team must be involved, with their own process structure and
specific skill sets, causing delays and even severe bureaucratic overhead, as well as a need for extensive change
communication in the design phase.
Traditional Converged Solutions
Cisco converged solutions are reference architectures of Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) servers, Cisco
MDS SAN switches, and a storage solution from a third-party vendor. As of May 2019, the vendors that are on the
market are PURE Storage, Dell EMC, IBM, and NetApp.
A typical build-it-yourself three-part datacenter solution with servers, switching, and storage requires experts for all
three parts of the solution in order to make the solution complete and adapted for a given application. In
comparison, Cisco converged solutions are validated systems documented in form of Cisco Validated Designs.
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Implementing Cisco HyperFlex - Student Learni... [Link]
You can consider Cisco HyperFlex to be a part of converged solutions, and you will actually see this in
some marketing materials. However, there is a big difference between converged solutions and HyperFlex,
which is why (in the scope of this topic) we refer to converged solutions only as converged solutions of
FlashStack, VxBlock, FlexPod, and VersaStack. Key advantages of hyperconverged systems over
converged solutions are their scale-out architecture and ability to provide all compute and storage
functions through the same x86 server-based resources.
The benefit of a converged infrastructure is the validated design, for example:
If you are looking for a validated design with Cisco and Pure Storage to run Citrix XenDesktop, you can buy a
FlashStack bundle and follow the Cisco design guide to set up the entire solution (servers, SAN and LAN
switching, centralized storage, and applications).
If you are looking for a validated design with Cisco and NetApp to run SAP solutions, you can buy a FlexPod
bundle and follow the Cisco design guide to set up the entire solution (servers, SAN and LAN switching,
centralized storage, and SAP).
You can learn more about the Cisco converged infrastructures here: [Link]
/enterprise/design-zone-data-centers/[Link].
FlashStack, a converged infrastructure solution from Cisco and Pure Storage, brings the power and efficiency of
all-flash storage to your entire Cisco UCS powered data center. With industry-leading components from Cisco and
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Implementing Cisco HyperFlex - Student Learni... [Link]
Pure Storage, FlashStack is a powerful and resilient converged infrastructure solution that will dramatically reduce
your time to value. It scales without disruption as your business grows and provides all-flash speed and reliability
for every workload.
FlexPod is a pre-validated data center platform built on Cisco UCS, the Cisco Nexus family of switches, and the
NetApp data management solutions. FlexPod configurations and workloads are published as Cisco validated
designs that allow you to deploy applications and converged infrastructure faster using proven solutions.
The FlexPod portfolio includes:
FlexPod Datacenter for enterprise applications and virtualization in large enterprises.
FlexPod SF with SolidFire storage delivers next generation, web-scale infrastructure for modern applications.
FlexPod Express serves small and medium-sized enterprises and branch offices.
FlexPod Select for specialized, data-intensive workloads like big data and analytics.
VxBlock Systems provide a wide range of solutions to meet your requirements for size, performance, and
scalability. VxBlock Systems are built with industry-leading compute and networking from Cisco, storage from Dell
EMC, and virtualization technologies from VMware.
The VersaStack solution combines the innovation of the Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure with the efficiency of
the IBM Storwize storage system. The Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure includes Cisco UCS, Cisco
Nexus and Cisco MDS switches, and Cisco UCS Director.
© 2019 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Printed contents of MicheleCosta8223
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