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Cisco CCDA Cert Guide: Data Center Design

Sample Chapter is provided courtesy of Cisco Press.
Date: Jul 5, 2011.

Chapter Information

Chapter Description

This chapter covers enterprise data center design fundamentals, technology trends, and challenges facing the data center to assist in preparation for the Cisco CCDA 640-864 exam.

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Exam Preparation Tasks

Review All Key Topics

Review the most important topics in the chapter, noticed with the Key Topic icon in the outer margin of the page. Table 4-6 lists a reference of these key topics and the page numbers on which each is found.

Table 4-6. Key Topics

Key Topic Element	Description	Page
Data Center 3.0 Components	Virtualization, Unified Fabric, and Unified Computing	126
Data Center 3.0 Topology Components	Virtualized servers, consolidated connectivity, and network devices	127
Challenges in the DC	Power, space, security, and management	127
Data Center Facility Aspects	Architectural and mechanical specifications, environmental conditions, physical security, capacities and compliance	129
Data Center Power	Cooling, server, storage, and network	131
Data Center Cabling	Controls the temperature and humidity of the devices	133
DC Access Layer	Provides Layer 2 and Layer 3 physical port density for devices	136
DC Aggregation Layer	Aggregates L2/L3 links from the access layer and connects using upstream links to the data center core	138
DC Core Layer	Centralized Layer 3 routing layer in which one or more data center aggregation layers connect	139
Challenges	Operational cost, traffic isolation, and increased performance/price ratio	141
Types of Virtualization	Network and device virtualization	142
Virtualization Technologies	VRF, vPC, and VSS	143
Device Contexts	VDC, ASA, and ACE	144
Services Edge	Secure network services available to users and groups with centralized managed policy	145

Complete Tables and Lists from Memory

Print a copy of Appendix D, "Memory Tables," (found on the CD), or at least the section for this chapter, and complete the tables and lists from memory. Appendix E, "Memory Tables Answer Key," also on the CD, includes completed tables and lists to check your work.

Define Key Terms

Define the following key terms from this chapter, and check your answers in the glossary:

Cisco Nexus 1000V, Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS), Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), Internet Small Computer Systems Interface (iSCSI), data center space element, power, cabling, data center access, data center aggregation, data center core, virtualization technologies, network virtualization, device virtualization, access control, path isolation, services edge

Q&A

The answers to these questions appear in Appendix A. For more practice with exam format questions, use the exam engine on the CD-ROM.

Which data center architecture was based on client/server and distributed computing?
1. Data Center 1.0
2. Data Center 2.0
3. Data Center 3.0
4. Data Center 4.0
What Cisco Nexus switch helps deliver visibility and policy control for virtual machines (VM)?
1. Nexus 7000
2. Nexus 4000
3. Nexus 2000
4. Nexus 1000V
Which of the following is a network adapter that can run at 10GE and support Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)?
1. CNA
2. VN-Link
3. MDS
4. NAS
What is an innovative next-generation data center platform that converges computing, network, storage, and virtualization all together into one system? (Select the best answer.)
1. Cisco MDS
2. Cisco Nexus 7000
3. Cisco Nexus 5000
4. Cisco UCS
Which of the following Cisco Nexus switches support virtual device contexts using (VDCs)?
1. Cisco Nexus 7000
2. Cisco Nexus 2000
3. Cisco Nexus 5000
4. Cisco Nexus 4000
What services option provides an effective way to address firewall policy enforcement in a Cisco Catalyst 6500 series switch?
1. IPS
2. FWSM
3. Nexus 1000V
4. VDCs
What has enabled applications to no longer be bound to bare metal hardware resources?
1. Unified fabric
2. Device virtualization
3. Network virtualization
4. Server virtualization
Which of the following supports network virtualization technology that allows two physical Cisco Catalyst 6500 series switches to act as a single logical virtual switch?
1. VN-Link technology
2. Unified fabric
3. Virtual Switching System (VSS)
4. Virtual routing and forwarding (VRF)
What enables the spanning-tree topology to appear loop-free although multiple redundant paths are present in the physical topology?
1. vPC
2. VRF
3. VSS
4. VDC
Which of the following are data center core layer characteristics? (Select all that apply.)
1. 10GE
2. High-latency switching
3. Distributed forwarding architecture
4. Service modules
Which data center layer provides advanced application and security services and has a large STP processing load?
1. Data center access layer
2. Data center aggregation layer
3. Data center services layer
4. Data center core layer
Which of the following are drivers for the data center core layer? (Select all that apply.)
1. Future growth
2. 10 Gigabit Ethernet density
3. Services edge
4. Administrative domains and policies
Benefits such as port density for server farms, high-performance low-latency Layer 2 switching, and a mix of oversubscription requirements belong to which data center layer?
1. Core
2. Distribution
3. Access
4. Aggregation
Cable management is affected by which of the following? (Select all that apply.)
1. Alternative cooling technologies
2. Number of connections
3. Media selection
4. Increase in the number of HVAC units
Which of the following best describes how "cold" and "hot" aisles should be arranged in the data center?
1. Hot and cold aisles facing each other
2. Alternating pattern of cold and hot aisles
3. Nonalternating pattern of hot and cold aisles
4. None of the above
Within the unified computing resources, what defines the identity of the server?
1. Virtualization
2. Unified fabric
3. Services profile
4. Virtual machines

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