Found what I was looking for. Cisco 5020 Nexus Switches. See http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps9670/index.html for more info.
Anyway, its very cool because not only is it an enterprise 10GB switch, but it is also basically a MDS FC switch. Plug in your storage via some 8GB FC ports, plug your servers in via 10GB ports, uplink it to a 10GB data switch, and BAM! A converged data-FC switch. Sent FCoE and data on the same link to your servers, or send just data, or send just FCoE. Sweet!
We need to converge our HP C7000 chassis’s with 10GB links. The links will carry both FCoE and data. For us it looks like a pair of Cisco Nexus 5020 switches located at the top of the cabinet will do the trick. The switches can consolidate both the data coming from several EMC CX4-240′s, 10Gb from local data center 6509′s and push it all down a single pipe to the C7000. Of course we will run two 10GB links from each 5020 and that means a total of four 10GB links to each C7000 chassis.
We should easily be able to run hundreds of virtual servers on 4-8-16 blades with no problem here. This will reduce FC cables and mgmt to almost zero and just four 10GB links. Plus the 5020′s can act like a FC switch. We do need to decide if we want to use the 5020′s as a switch for zoning, or pass it on to our MDS switches. I think adding 8GB FC to the CX4′s and dropping them to the 5020′s and then doing the zoning for the ESX nodes on the 5020′s is the best solution. This keeps it all 10GB going to the ESX servers. BAM. I like 10GB!
That leaves the C7000. More on that later. I need to review a few things with our HP provider. I know they have a CNA and also 10GB switches for the C7000. So that is next. Once I figure that out I can budget for this and get it in the plans for next year. The sweet thing is our MDS is the 9124/9134 model and limited to 4GB. So it was planned for upgrading. This takes a big chunk off our upgrade list if we can use the 5020′s as an MDS switch.
Guess we will see…..
UPDATE: No CNA adapters for now. That sucks. HP really needs to ship a CNA adapter or they will be left in the dust by IBM and Cisco. Guess time will tell.
UPDATE II: HP will announce new CNA’s and C7000 chassis switches that support FCoE in late Q3/early Q4.
Down in the data center we have been waiting and waiting and waiting to get any of the Cisco Voice applications running on VMWare. Surprise – Surprise. Cisco is now allowing voice applications on VMWare if the hardware is Cisco’s unified computing system (UCS). WOW. That is a big bummer. We have been a Cisco voice shop since v3.3 and it has been good for us and Cisco.
But to only allow UCM, Unity, CCX, etc only UCS, that really is lame. Cisco is a proponent of open source, standards, etc and now they go hardball and only certify their own stuff. The Cisco UCS platform is good stuff. But not everyone can jump in and pop for a UCS platform, especially when you already have an investment in another vendors equipment. Kind of like us. We are an HP shop, but we can not just dump what we have, and go spend a bunch of capital at a moments notice.
Now I heard someone say that Cisco is going down this path because they are cautious of VM’ing voice applications and they want to control it initial release on VMWare, and it’s possible it will work on other hardware in the future. Lets hope so. Lets really hope so.
I guess I’ll quit whining now.
Not really a datacenter item, it may impact the data center, meet the Cisco Cius. The Android-based device delivers virtual desktop integration with anywhere, anytime access to the full range of Cisco collaboration and communication applications, including HD video.
Hey, I love anything Android right now, and this looks cool. The bummer is that it is not epxected until 2011. That is too far out. By then someone else will ahve something cooler. Cisco has to learn from Cisco. Announce it, take pre-orders, ship it. That is how you build demand.
Anyway, see this for more http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2010/corp_062910.html info.
An important job is keeping up to date on technology and planning for improvements and updates to key systems in the data center. We are a Cisco shop and attending both annual user conferences and local training is good way to learn about the trends and roadmaps available to customers. So here I am at Cisco Live 2010. As I arrive here, I had two technologies I am looking at, and I scheduled my activities to take a look.
Converged Networks. We are an ESX shop and run separate data and FC networks to our ESX hosts. This is pretty standard, but it is now old school. Why? Well for one typically you are providing data on GB links and FC on 4/GB links. The latest blades are pretty beefy and can host quite a few VM’s. Running off GB and FC4/8 links can easily mean a bottleneck. Especially if you’re using disk intensive applications or running an application server that consumes bandwidth to DB or web servers. It also requires quite a bit of cabling, configuration, maintenance, and support. So the next thing is to look at a system that converge both data and storage to a single converged network. Can you say 10GB to the blade chassis? More on that later.
Collaboration. We are currently working on improving internal collaboration systems by integrating telephones, IM, desktop video, and room based video. Cisco’s acquisition’s of Tandberg is exciting for us. We are a Tandberg shop and bringing it all together is both exciting and scary at the same time.
Surprise! Cisco is making a big push on collaboration with a twist. Collaboration with integration with social media and mostly in their call center contact line of applications. It includes new ways to pull social data into the call center and push it to agents. Nothing real concrete now, but they do have some new demo’s that look real cool. The idea is to be very proactive and reach out to customers based on their social comments.
ok. Sounds dumb, but for some reason, when you spend big bucks at EMC, its not registered for you automatically. So be sure you have an account on Powerlink, go in a verify the Site ID/address is correct, and register the CX4.
If you do not, then when you make your first service call, they will be like “who are you” and “what do you have”. So depending on your issue, it could delay your response and kill your service response.
Cisco, CiscoLive2010 | Ts-admin June 30, 2010 | 
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