Hi there,
Really A LOT has been going on in the last weeks: we had Cisco Live in Berlin with record attendance, a successful Partner Summit in US, 2 major releases for both ACI and NXOS, acquisition announcements, an entry in a new market for Cisco and brand new hardware with new bandwidth standards. Not too bad for a month time!
- 1.1(2h) software for ACI online! Congratulations to the team for yet another software milestone delivered in time! Release notes:
- APIC software: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/aci/apic/sw/1-x/release/notes/apic_rn_122g.html
- Switch software: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/aci/apic/sw/1-x/release/notes/aci_nxos_rn_1122g.html
- Scalability guide: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/aci/apic/sw/1-x/verified-scalability/b_Verified_Scalability_1_2_2.html
- My favourite new features (there are many other in the release notes):
- Intra-EPG PVLAN
- N9372TX-E support
- Data Plane Policing (QoS policers)
- 7.0(3)I3(1) software for NXOS posted in cisco.com!! Lots of new features, check out the release notes here: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/nexus9000/sw/7-x/release/notes/70331_nxos_rn.html. Amongst others:
- N9200 support
- ISSU
- FCoE NPV
- From Cisco Live Europe 2016:
- New market penetration numbers presented by Soni (more in http://blogs.cisco.com/datacenter/excitement-in-the-air-more-customers-are-embracing-cisco-aci):
- 6,000+ N9K customers
- 1,400+ ACI customers
- 50+ partners in the ACI/N9K ecosystem
- Lots of great content, check out this link: https://www.ciscolive.com/online/connect/search.ww?cid=Global#loadSearch-searchPhrase=aci&searchType=session&tc=0&sortBy=&p=&i(10017)=20991
- New market penetration numbers presented by Soni (more in http://blogs.cisco.com/datacenter/excitement-in-the-air-more-customers-are-embracing-cisco-aci):
- And from the Partner Summit 2016:
- Announcement summary (CliQr, HyperFlex and 9200/9300-EX): http://newsroom.cisco.com/press-release-content?type=webcontent&articleId=1750136
- You probably heard about the CliQr acquisition by now: http://newsroom.cisco.com/press-release-content?type=webcontent&articleId=1750092
- Hardware:
- Looks like ASIC innovation is still relevant for next-gen DCs: http://idcdocserv.com/US41022016
- On 25G: Unlike 10G, 25G requires FEC for the majority of the transceivers. There are 3 types of 25G transceivers, switch support for one version of FEC or another can influence the cabling the 25G ports will support:
- No FEC: Passive Copper Cables for 1 and 2 meters
- Base-R FEC: Passive Copper Cables for 3 meters
- RS-FEC: Passive Copper Cables for 5 meters, and SR
- On 25G-capable switches like the 92160, there will be twinax cables for 25G: SFP-H25GB-CU1M, SFP-H25GB-CU2M and SFP-H25GB-CU3M (the latter requires FC-FEC on both server NIC and switch).
- Don’t get scared if you feel the BiDi optics run physically hotter than other optics, that is normal
- The lack of port-channel support on the existing 4x100G uplink module for the N9396PX is a hardware limitation and will not be lifted in the future. If you need 100G port channeling, the upcoming Nexus 9200 or 9300EX are your friends
- Regarding optics, note that S-class 40G optics are not compatible with 10G SR optics (using an MPO breakout cable) because of power reasons.
- ACI:
- Interesting discussion on TACACS+/RADIUS over inband. As you might know, the APIC has a single routing table, and prefers the inband default gateway (when configured). However, the switches have a dedicated oob VRF, which is always use for RADIUS/TACACS+ (even if inband is configured). So there is a problem if the authentication servers are only reachable over inband.
- Check out Hank’s updated workflows for automated deployments on ACI out of UCS Director: https://communities.cisco.com/docs/DOC-65217
- Uplink port tracking in leaves supported since 1.2(2)
- NXOS:
- Nexus 9200 orderable now, and software-supported with the 7.0(3)I3(1) release!
- If you are looking for better ways to manage your VXLAN network, Puppet might be your option! (BTW this is an industry first): https://puppetlabs.com/blog/networking-industry-s-first-puppet-orchestrated-vxlan-fabric
- N9272Q supports breakout cables only on ports 37-72
- Great automation examples to use with NXOS by Jason Pfeifer: https://github.com/jpfeifer22/boneyard/tree/master/Nexus9000/NXOS
- EoS announcements:
- EoS/EoL announcements:
- 6.1(2)I3(x): May 1 2016
- 7.0(3)I1(x) and 7.0(3)IX1(x): March 30 2016
- The last date of software maintenance releases:
- 6.1(2)I3(x): October 30th 2017
- 7.0(3)I1(x) and 7.0(3)IX1(x): March 28th 2017
- EoS/EoL announcements:
- Not directly related to N9K/ACI, but other important announcements:
- 7.3(0)N1(1) available for the N5K family (release notes here: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/nexus5500/sw/release/notes/7x/Nexus5500_Release_Notes_7x.html)
- 7.3(0)D1(1) available for the N7K family (release notes here: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/sw/7_x/nx-os/release/notes/7x_nx-os_release_note.html)
- CECS 2.5 announcement: http://amp2.h2fmedia.com/Amp/q.aspx?211266325806_v2e4_b4bf26fe-f6be-4999-87c5-947b527f5133
- New Docker 1.10 release with many improvements, including network related: http://blog.docker.com/2016/02/docker-1-10/
- In the Web:
- Cloning ACI tenants (by WWT): https://www2.wwt.com/cloning-aci-tenants-demo/
- ACI and ICO solution paper: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/data-center-virtualization/application-centric-infrastructure/white-paper-c11-736625.html
- “Operating ACI” now in CCO: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/aci/apic/sw/1-x/Operating_ACI/guide/b_Cisco_Operating_ACI.html
- eHDF and ACI, a success story: http://www.itp.net/606367-ehdf-enhances-data-centre-services-with-cisco-aci
- Using Ansible to create ACI contracts: http://davidstamen.com/ansible/cisco/using-ansible-to-create-cisco-aci-filters/
- Blogs:
- Cisco blog by Soni: http://blogs.cisco.com/news/delivering-cloud-services-at-cloud-scale-with-cloud-economics
- N9K/ACI customer and ecosystem numbers: http://blogs.cisco.com/datacenter/excitement-in-the-air-more-customers-are-embracing-cisco-aci
- ACI and secure PaaS: http://blogs.cisco.com/datacenter/aci-policy-enables-secure-paas-and-more-at-cleur
- NXOS and Ansible: http://blogs.cisco.com/datacenter/devops
- Open APIs: http://blogs.cisco.com/datacenter/open-apis-enable-greater-customer-value
- Customers share their digital journeys at CLEUR: http://blogs.cisco.com/datacenter/customers-share-their-digital-journeys-with-ciscoaci
- William Nellis and macro (or is it micro?) segmentation: http://williamnellis.com/2016/02/22/macro-segmentation-for-system-level-hardening/
- Nic Vermandé and inter-tenant route leaking: http://static-void.io/simple-inter-tenant-communication-rules-with-aci/
- Check out these 2 entries by Luca on CliQr-CECS integration (premonition before the acquisition attempt?):
- Videos
- NFM overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyKD9xY0btc
- Tech Field Day extra at CLEUR:
- Cisco ACI microsegmentation with Juan Lage (33:50): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJCthJZ2AMw
- Raf super star on ACI deployment (29:57): https://vimeo.com/155547163
- Cisco integrated infrastructure with UCS+ACI (35:39): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu5sZnQgdSE
- Check the rest here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLinuRwpnsHacKtAm5Js_yqqDpxqYxLKot&feature=view_all
- ACI troubleshooting by Michael Earls (6:19): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf4YU4IYYYs
- Interview with F5 at CLEUR (6:43): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhoAB22sMa4
- Interview with Citrix at CLEUR (5:45): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFlKxEH4j6k
Thanks for reading down to here! Did I forget anything?
Cloudtrooper 