How do I simplify my network infrastructure and eliminate the redundant elements?

Cable sprawl. Not enough throughput. The headaches of managing separate networks. Soaring power and cooling costs. Redundancy in switches, adapters, and cables.

This is the reality for most data centers today. For years, businesses have been creating a series of separate LAN and storage area networks (SAN) as they react to new demands and business situations. Data centers are facing a new set of external demands such as global availability, regulatory compliance, expectations of the empowered user, and new metrics such as energy efficiency have been added to the mix. The result can be a complex, expensive data center infrastructure that is a huge challenge to manage.

So how do you eliminate all these redundant elements and simplify the management of your network?

The answer lies in merging LAN and SAN (Ethernet and Fibre Channel) traffic all in one unified cable, and then consolidating servers and applications through virtualization. We’ve created this eBook to help you start to understand the challenges and choices you’ll face when looking at solutions for simplifying your data center.

Part of the Choose Your Own Infrastructure eBook series.

What you are faced with. Companies are being forced to continually to expand and invest in their IT infrastructure, as well as making their core functions more IT dependent, because they simply don’t have a choice if they want to stay competitive. There are a whole host of reasons for this, from providing borderless “anytime, anywhere” access that users demand to improving customer service and throughput. And in theory, the guiding principle when adding IT elements to address these business drivers is to create a scalable and sustainable data center.

However, the traditional “piecemeal” approach to building data center infrastructure is becoming a barrier to running efficient data center. Typically the approach yields low asset utilization, poor energy efficiency, and increasing complexity. This helps to exacerbate a situation where companies are running out of space, power and cooling capacity, budget, and qualified staff. This traditional approach also poses major challenges in terms of availability and agility (think throughput for next gen apps, time to provision, and so on). At the physical level, it creates big redundancies in terms adapters, and switches, not to mention the harmful cabling mess that results from connecting all the disparate elements. Simply put, having a variety of different networks creates a range of problems that taken together add up to an inefficient data center and an expensive management challenge. In light of this, it has emerged that best approach to building a scalable, sustainable data center that supports business goals is to consolidate and virtualize servers, storage, and network resources.

The challenges that you faceWe’ve mentioned a few of the challenges facing IT professionals when it comes to managing specialized, parallel networks, but let’s take a closer look at the specifics, because understanding these challenges is critical when it comes to making the right choices for your infrastructure.

Operating CostsThe time spent on management in these environments can be enormous. Just imagine the resources spent in an increased server environment configuring ports, cables, multiple host bus adapters (HBA’s) and network interface cards (NIC’s) in response to increased demand and new business functions. There is also considerable capital expense associated with consistently adding new network equipment, not to mention the number of modules, adapters, switches and cables that are required to pull it all together.

Cable SprawlA virtualized network environment requires more NIC’s and cables per physical machine for multiple redundancies over copper, as well as network connections. This means you’ve got cable everywhere, and it creates a highly complex and expensive environment. And let’s not forget that cables can create air dams in the data center floor that act prevent cool air from circulating, leading to increased heating problems and HVAC costs.

ThroughputToday, the typical data center is populated with servers that are connected to the network with gigabit ethernet NIC’s and separate fibre channel HBA’s. When you move to the virtualized environment necessary to provide the necessary bandwidth for today’s load’s and applications, a single gigabit ethernet link can quickly become overwhelmed. From a networking perspective, virtualized environments typically necessitate a transition to 10 gigabit ethernet as the default mechanism for attaching servers and soon to be 40 gigabit ethernet.

ManagementIt is in inescapable truth that in a traditional, piecemeal siloed environment, the variety of devices and their different operating systems can create a huge management headache. Just managing the SAN can require a full-time employee. These kinds of environments also create big training issues when it comes to new IT employees, and makes cross-training and collaboration between storage and network teams extremely difficult. All of this adds up to a chunky, slow and expensive infrastructure management process. The ultimate goal is to have the Server, LAN, and SAN teams to work together to simplify and reduce the duplication of efforts in managing the data center.

Availability & AgilityIn a typical data center, because of the complexity of the environment, downtime has to be scheduled for upgrades and changes, and that just isn’t practical for most of today’s organizations. Usually, introducing a new application or service, it takes 90 minutes (at least) to provision a physical server, and you have to provision the server, storage and networking connection separately. It isn’t difficult to see how the complexity factor runs counter to today’s continuity expectations.

Energy ConsumptionWith all of the equipment required to make the typical data center run, the energy costs can be enormous. Not only do all the various servers require lots of power to run, there is also a significant cost incurred in cooling all this equipment.

How do I simplify my network infrastructure and eliminate the redundant elements?1

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Convergence: leading the way towards a Cisco FCoE Solution Obviously, there is no silver bullet when it comes to solving the typical data center challenges, but one of the best guiding concepts is convergence. You need to merge your data center server, storage, and network resources to increase asset, energy, and budget efficiency while eliminating redundancies and unnecessary management complexity.

And when it comes to enabling convergence, there is one solution that is making huge inroads helping organizations simplify their data center infrastructure: Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE).

I/O Consolidation in the data center, allowing fibre channel and ethernet networks to share a single Converged Network Adapter (CNA) in a server, connected to Cisco Nexus switch allows better efficiency of resources and energy in an integrated unified data center. An important pillar of this consolidated approach and a

need for a Unified Fabric is Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE).

What is Fiber Channel over Ethernet?

Fibre channel over ethernet (FCoE) is the next evolution of

ethernet and fibre channel networking where LAN and SAN

traffic are merged onto a one link is called unified fabric. Unified

fabric reduces the number of adapters, cables and devices,

resulting in savings that can extend the life of the data center.

FCoE enhances server virtualization initiatives with the

availability of standard server I/O, which supports the LAN

and all forms of ethernet-based storage networking, eliminating

specialized networks from the data center. FCoE is an industry

standard developed by the same standards body that creates

and maintains all Fibre Channel standards. FCoE is specified

under INCITS as FC-BB-5.

How it works: A deeper lookLet’s take a closer look at some of the specific applications

of FCoE and convergence solutions at work with designing a

network with designing a network hierarchy with Cisco Nexus

Family of switches Figure 1 hierarchy with Cisco Nexus Family of

switches, and how that translates into some tangible benefits for

any organization.

Converging the Access LayerThe first logical step in reducing the number of host adapters

and discrete switching platforms is to converge the access-layer

LAN and SAN switches into a single set of Converged Network

Adapter (CNA’s) host adapters and single switching platform.

Access-layer convergence significantly reduces capital expenditures

(CapEx) and operating expenses (OpEx), and extending convergence

beyond the access layer increases those benefits. By simply adding

FCoE-capable line cards in the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series it provides

unified port functionality that combines 1G or 10G Ethernet or any

iSCSI storage , including layer 2 and layer 3 traffic, and Fibre Channel

storage traffic all in one common data center platform, where the

need for dedicated Fibre Channel hardware is reduced. This approach

largely benefits IT administrators as they manage to reap the benefits

of convergence while using the same management tools that they

use on the LAN to monitor their mission-critical applications in the

SAN. Leverage a Nexus 2000 Series as a Fabric Extender (FEX) or

external I/O modules top of rack (ToR) device uplinked to Nexus

5000 Series End of Row (EoR) switch that brings 10G connectivity

to all your server ports in a rack, reducing the cost of cabling in

the cabinets, provide better air circulation, and a single point of

management. Replace the VMware virtual switches that have limited

capabilities with virtual Nexus 1000v switches in VSphere that ensures

secure network connectivity for all the VM’s in the data center. With

Nexus 1000V VN-LINK, Cisco enhances the VM networking abilities

and helps vMotion since the port configurations move with hosts and

network policies are preserved after vMotion.

Cisco also provides scalability for Fibre Channel traffic to a dedicated

MDS 9100, 9200 Fibre Channel SAN switches or MDS 9500 Multilayer

Directors Switches for more stringent requirements for large data

center environments.

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Figure 1

How do I simplify my network infrastructure and eliminate the redundant elements?

Converging the Distribution/Aggregation/Core LayerNexus 7000 Series switch comprise Cisco flagship modular switching platform for data center Cisco Unified Fabric deployment. The provide an end-to-end solution for data center core, aggregation, and high density EoR and ToR server connectivity in a single platform and designed for 10G, 40G, and 100G scalability to more than 15 Tbps of throughput. Cisco Nexus 7000 series in conjunction with Nexus 2000 Series FEX scales up to 1,500 ports per Nexus 7000 with a single point of management , significantly simplifying management as illustrated in Figure 2

Converged Cisco Nexus Network Design

The Cisco Nexus Family Benefits The flexible, responsive data center infrastructure delivered with the Cisco Nexus Family can help customers align IT assets and business priorities by providing the following benefits:

Lower cost of operation, elimination of redundancies IT can significantly reduce capital costs through consolidation and increased utilization of previously separate resources, reduce operational expenses through simplification and automation of administrative tasks, and reduce cooling and power costs through improved utilization and an inherently more efficient system design.

Additionally, by delivering a Unified Fabric (i.e., consolidating LAN, SAN, and server clustering traffic) the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series can eliminate redundant infrastructure (interfaces, cables, switches, etc.) and simplify operations.

Simplified management, increased productivityWith specific features embedded in the hardware, operating system, and network management facilities, the Cisco Nexus Family provides component- and system-level operational continuity. Increased network stability and fewer service disruptions mean that your employees have access to the resources they need, when they need them, and your operations staff can handle problems in the most efficient way possible.

Increased business agility IT can dynamically respond to changing business demands by the rapid provisioning of application and infrastructure services from shared pools of consolidated computing, storage, and network resources. Data center consolidation helps streamline operational procedures and enable policy-based control.

Enhanced business resilience IT can respond to disruptions or attacks by protecting infrastructure, applications, and data with the highest levels of availability, perva-sive security, and business continuance. The Cisco Nexus 7000 Series is designed with a zero-service-loss architecture, so capacity and capability can be added without any downtime.

Improved Throughput, Optimized service levels IT can optimize business service levels by providing secure, acceler-ated access to data center-hosted applications and information from anywhere, at any time, across the organization.

Investment protection and efficient use of capital Cisco Data Center 3.0 emphasizes investment protection and the incremental incorporation of new technologies and infrastructure, so investment is more closely aligned with business need. The Cisco Nexus Family is designed to support the entire lifecycle of the next-generation data center. The Cisco Nexus Family will allow capacity enhancements to be added in a granular, cost-effective manner.

Technical Nexus Benefits in the Data Center

Nexus-OS …Cisco keeps making enhancements• Ability to perform internal packet captures• Data plane and control plane separation• Checkpoints and rollbacks• Issue commands from anywhere• Capture to text and append to configs• SNMP + XML management• Can be paired with DCNM and/or Fabric Manager

• Many other improvements over I/O

So Long Spanning Tree!• Eliminating loops in the data center costs bandwidth• Several technologies offered with Nexus are changing the way

topologies are used, not sacrificing bandwidth and redundancy• Virtual PortChannels (vPC)• Fabric Shortest Path First• TRILL*

• Cisco Fabric Path

*Transparent Redundant Interconnection of a Lot of Links. >> See Google Tech Talk “Routing without tear; Bridging without danger” on YouTube

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Figure 2

How do I simplify my network infrastructure and eliminate the redundant elements?

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How do I simplify my network infrastructure and eliminate the redundant elements?

CaseStudy

ChallengeSalem Hospital is a regional medical center, offering medical services and technology to people in and around Oregon’s Willamette Valley. A not-for profit hospital, it is one of the largest of Oregon’s 57 acute care hospitals and operates the state’s busiest emergency department.

The hospital needed to upgrade its main data center to help ensure business continuity, reduce energy consumption, and accommodate larger data volume from electronic medical records (EMR) and the picture archiving and communications system (PACS).

“We could meet all of those needs by virtualizing our data center servers,” says Ken Kudla, chief information officer for Salem Hospital. “First, we would need 10 Gigabit Ethernet.”

SolutionsThe Salem Hospital IT department built Cisco® Data Center 3.0 architecture, working with Phoenix Health Systems for strategic planning, and collaborating on implementation with NetXperts, a Cisco Healthcare Select Partner with over 12 years of experience in the healthcare industry.

“We proposed the Cisco Nexus family because it provides the throughput and scalability needed for PACS, while not affecting the availability of EMR and other applications critical to patient care,” says Dave Norinsky of NetXperts. “The NX-OS provides a common, stable, and manageable operating system for both the Nexus and MDS platforms, minimizing lifetime support costs.”

One pair of Cisco Nexus 5020 Switches supports Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE). They connect over lossless 10 Gigabit Ethernet to the hospital’s newer servers, which host multiple healthcare applications and Microsoft Exchange, which is scheduled for implementation in mid-2010. The Cisco Nexus 5020 Switches send storage traffic to a Cisco MDS 9500 Multilayer Director and data traffic to the Cisco Nexus 7000 Switch at the core (Figure 1).

Another pair of Cisco Nexus 5020 Switches connects to existing Gigabit Ethernet servers, by way of Cisco Nexus 2000 Fabric Extenders.The main benefits of the Cisco Data Center Solutions for Salem Hospital include:

• Lower capital costs: The Salem Hospital campus includes multiple buildings. Rather than purchasing additional switches for the distribution layer, the IT group used the virtual device context (VDC) feature of the Cisco Nexus 7000 Switch to create a separate virtual switch that acts as the distribution-layer switch.

• Lower cabling costs: FCoE support in the Cisco Nexus 5020 Switch supports a unified fabric for server data and storage traffic, reducing the number of server cables from four to two. What’s more, the Cisco Nexus 5020 Switches are deployed close enough to the servers to use relatively inexpensive Twinax cabling.

• Support for new generation of healthcare applications: With 10 Gigabit Ethernet and a unified fabric, Salem Hospital can confidently expand its PACS and EMR programs. The EMR database grew to 60 gigabytes in the first 18 months. “We can also fully utilize the faster input/output operations per second for our servers,” says Kudla.

• Simplified management: All Cisco Nexus switches use the same operating system, NX-OS, minimizing training requirements. And all Cisco Nexus 2000 Fabric Extenders are managed through a single Cisco Nexus 5020 Switch.

• Streamlined IT organization: The hospital IT department uses Cisco Fabric Manager Software to manage both the Cisco Nexus 5020 and Cisco MDS 9500 Series Multilayer Director, and saves 3 to 4 hours daily to manage the SAN. “Our networking and storage teams can now cross-train and collaborate more effectively,” says Kudla. “We no longer need to dedicate a full-time employee to SAN management.”

• Increased availability: The IT department can upgrade the Cisco Nexus switches without interrupting hospital applications because of the in-service software upgrades (ISSU) feature.

Scheduling downtime for upgrades in a 24-hour healthcare environment is not practical, and the ISSU feature helps to ensure business continuity.

• Reduced energy consumption: Before the data center upgrade, Salem Hospital was using more than 80 percent of available energy, the maximum recommended. “We have reduced our energy consumption while also increasing reliability and data throughput compared to our previous solution,” says Kudla.

• Increased agility: When the hospital introduces a new IT service, the application team can provision a virtual server in just 30 minutes, compared to 90 minutes for a physical server. Rather than separately provisioning a server, storage, and networking connection, the team simply provisions the virtual machine (VM), and then everything else happens automatically. Up to 50 VMs reside on each server, reducing equipment and operational costs.

Salem Hospital plans to implement the Cisco Unified Computing System and begin using Cisco Nexus 1000V, a software switch on a server. The Cisco Nexus 1000V will give the hospital IT department the flexibility to move virtual machines across the server farm, preserving their settings. The network administrator will manage the Cisco Nexus 1000V switch alongside the other Cisco Nexus switches, offloading the burden from the server administrator.

Hospital Reduces Data Center Costs through Comprehensive Upgrade

“We have reduced our energy consumption while also increasing reliability and data throughput compared to our previous solution.”— Ken Kudla, Chief Information Officer, Salem Hospital

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How do I simplify my network infrastructure and eliminate the redundant elements?

Softchoice can help

When it comes to converged infrastructure we offer the resources

and technical expertise to realize the benefits of the latest in this

innovation. Our difference? An assessment-led approach aimed

at providing a clear understanding of the risks, opportunities, and

payback period for a given solution. From there we offer deep

expertise in solution design and delivery, including technology

architecture, project management and comprehensive implementa-

tion support. And behind this dedicated team our licensing and

product specialist work to ensure the technology itself is acquired

in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. At every

step our goal is to enhance performance and speed time to mar-

ket while lowering overall business costs.

Contact our networking experts at cisco@softchoice.com to learn more about consolidating your network.

>> Read about Softchoice’s Network Assessment

Connect with us today. 1.800.268.7638 | www.softchoice.com

Know your network:Softchoice’s Network Discovery AssessmentKnowing the status of your network assets can greatly improve business up-time and help you anticipate issues long before they occur. That’s why we created Softchoice’s Network Discovery Assessment – an end-to-end process designed to give you practical, actionable insights into the most complicated networking challenges.

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