I/O Consolidation in the Data Center

By Silvano Gai, Claudio DeSanti
Published Sep 8, 2009 by Cisco Press. Part of the Networking Technology series.

eBook

Your Price: $36.79
List Price: $45.99
About Watermarked eBooks

This PDF will be accessible from your Account page after purchase and requires PDF reading software, such as Acrobat® Reader®.

The eBook requires no passwords or activation to read. We customize your eBook by discreetly watermarking it with your name, making it uniquely yours.

Watermarked eBook FAQ

Add to cart

Description

Sample Content

Updates

Copyright 2010
Edition: 1st

eBook
ISBN-10: 1-58714-121-3
ISBN-13: 978-1-58714-121-8

Using Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and related technologies, data centers can consolidate data traffic onto a single network switch, simplifying their environments, promoting virtualization, and substantially reducing power and cooling costs. This emerging technology is drawing immense excitement, but few enterprise IT decision-makers and implementers truly understand it. I/O Consolidation in the Data Center is the only complete, up-to-date guide to FCoE. FCoE innovators Silvano Gai and Claudio DeSanti (chair of the T11 FCoE standards working group) systematically explain the technology: its benefits, tradeoffs, and what it will take to implement it successfully in production environments. Unlike most other discussions of FCoE, this book fully reflects the final, recently-approved industry standard. The authors also present five detailed case studies illustrating typical FCoE adoption scenarios, as well as an extensive Q and A section addressing the issues enterprise IT professionals raise most often. This is a fully updated version of Silvano Gai's privately-published book on FCoE, written for leading FCoE pioneer Nuova Systems before the company was acquired by Cisco. Nearly 12,000 copies of that book have already been distributed, demonstrating the immense interest in FCoE technology, and the scarcity of reliable information that has existed about it.

I/O Consolidation 1

Introduction 1

What Is I/O Consolidation 2

Merging the Requirements 3

Why I/O Consolidation Has Not Yet Been Successful 4

Fundamental Technologies 5

PCI-Express 5

10 Gigabit Ethernet 5

Additional Requirements 8

Buffering Requirements 8

Layer 2 Only 9

Switch Architecture 9

Low Latency 10

Native Support for Storage Traffi c 11

RDMA Support 11

Enabling Technologies 15

Introduction 15

Lossless Ethernet 15

PAUSE 15

Credits Versus PAUSE 17

PAUSE Propagation 18

Is Lossless Better? 19

Why PAUSE Is Not Widely Deployed 20

Priority-based Flow Control (PFC) 20

Additional Components 22

DCBX: Data Center Bridging eXchange 22

Bandwidth Management 23

Congestion Management 25

Delayed Drop 26

Going Beyond Spanning Tree 28

Active-Active Connectivity 32

Etherchannel 32

Virtual Switching System (VSS) 32

virtual Port Channel (vPC) 34

Ethernet Host Virtualizer 36

Layer 2 Multipath (L2MP) 38

Basic Mechanisms in L2MP 40

Cisco DBridges 47

IETF RBridges and the TRILL Project 51

VEB: Virtual Ethernet Bridging 52

Server Virtualization 53

SR-IOV 54

The IEEE Standard Effort 54

VEB in the Adapter 55

VEB in the Switch 56

VNTag 57

Fabric Extenders 59

VN-Link 60

Questions and Answers 63

Does FCoE Uses Credits? 63

High Availability of PAUSE and Credits 63

Queue Size 63

Long-Haul 63

FECN/BECN 64

Confi guration 64

Bandwidth Prioritization 64

Storage Bandwidth 64

Cisco DCB/FCoE Support 65

10GE NICs 65

IP Routing 65

Lossless Ethernet Versus Infi niband 66

Nomenclature 66

Fibre Channel over Ethernet 67

Introduction 67

Fibre Channel 69

Fibre Channel Architectural Models 71

FCoE Mapping 73

FCoE Architectural Models 74

FCoE Benefi ts 79

FCoE Data Plane 80

FCoE Topologies 82

FCoE Addressing 85

FCoE Forwarding 87

FPMAs and SPMAs 90

FIP: FCoE Initialization Protocol 92

FIP Messages 93

FIP VLAN Discovery 97

FIP Discovery 98

FIP Virtual Link Instantiation 103

FIP Virtual Link Maintenance 108

Converged Network Adapters 110

FCoE Open Software 112

Network Tools 113

FCoE and Virtualization 114

Fibre Channel Block I/O 115

iSCSI Block I/O 116

Moving a VM 117

FCoE and Block I/O 117

FCoE FAQ 118

Is FCoE Routable? 118

iSCSI Versus FCoE? 120

Does FCoE Require Gateways? 123

Case Studies 125

Introduction 125

I/O Consolidation with Discrete Servers 126

Top-of-Rack Consolidated I/O 129

Example with Blade Servers 131

Updating the Distribution Layer 133

Unifi ed Computing System 136

Bibliography 139

PCI Express 139

IEEE 802.3 139

IEEE 802.1 139

Ethernet Improvements 139

Fibre Channel 139

FCoE 140

TRILL 140

Virtualization 140

Glossary 141

Figures 145

Tables 149

Index 151

Submit Errata

Cisco Press Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from Cisco Press and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Privacy Notice

Overview

Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about Cisco Press products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information

To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites; develop new products and services; conduct educational research; and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email information@ciscopress.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information

Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security

Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children

This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing

Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information

If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out

Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by Cisco Press. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.ciscopress.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information

Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents

California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure

Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

As required by law.
With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links

This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact

Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice

We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020

Email Address