Cisco Cisco Prime Virtual Network Analysis Module (vNAM) 6.1 White Paper
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Cisco Virtualized Multiservice Data Center (VMDC) Virtual Services Architecture (VSA) 1.0
Design Guide
Chapter 3 VMDC VSA 1.0 Design Details
VMDC Building Blocks
Figure 3-4
DC Pod in VMDC VSA 1.0
Working with ecosystem partners, Cisco currently supports two ICS options: Vblock and FlexPod.
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A Vblock comprises Cisco UCS and EMC storage systems, offered in several combinations to meet
price, performance, and scale requirements.
price, performance, and scale requirements.
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A FlexPod comprises UCS compute and NetApp storage resources. FlexPods are offered in a range
of sizes designed to achieve specific workload requirements. A FlexPod can be scaled up or scaled
out to host the entire workload for a particular pod. Using a FlexPod at the ICS layer provides the
flexibility to scale the ICS layer to a Pod. FlexPods are integrated into ICS by attaching at the
FabricPath access-edge nodes (for example, Nexus 5500 or Nexus 7000).
of sizes designed to achieve specific workload requirements. A FlexPod can be scaled up or scaled
out to host the entire workload for a particular pod. Using a FlexPod at the ICS layer provides the
flexibility to scale the ICS layer to a Pod. FlexPods are integrated into ICS by attaching at the
FabricPath access-edge nodes (for example, Nexus 5500 or Nexus 7000).
More information about Vblocks and FlexPod implementations is available here:
The VMDC reference architecture further accommodates generic compute and storage units, including
storage from other third-party vendors. However, the business advantage of an ICS is that integration takes
the guesswork out of balancing compute processing power with storage input/output operations per second
(IOPS) to meet application performance requirements.
storage from other third-party vendors. However, the business advantage of an ICS is that integration takes
the guesswork out of balancing compute processing power with storage input/output operations per second
(IOPS) to meet application performance requirements.
Data Center Interconnect
In the VMDC reference architecture, pods can be interconnected between data centers using various data
center interconnection methods, such as Overlay Transport Virtualization (OTV), xPLS, or Locator/ID
Separation Protocol (LISP). Though not in scope for VMDC VSA 1.0, these technologies have been
tested and the resulting analysis is available in VMDC reference documents, Refer to
center interconnection methods, such as Overlay Transport Virtualization (OTV), xPLS, or Locator/ID
Separation Protocol (LISP). Though not in scope for VMDC VSA 1.0, these technologies have been
tested and the resulting analysis is available in VMDC reference documents, Refer to
for details.
Unified Data Center Networking
Past descriptions of a unified fabric focused rather narrowly on storage transport technologies, such as
FCoE. In a cloud architecture model such as VMDC, the concept of a unified fabric is one of virtualized
data center resources (compute, application, storage) connected through a high-bandwidth network that is
very scalable, high performing, and enables the convergence of multiple protocols onto a single physical
FCoE. In a cloud architecture model such as VMDC, the concept of a unified fabric is one of virtualized
data center resources (compute, application, storage) connected through a high-bandwidth network that is
very scalable, high performing, and enables the convergence of multiple protocols onto a single physical