Cisco Cisco Dynamic Fabric Automation for OpenStack Getting Started Guide
At-A-Glance
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Overview
Cisco® Dynamic Fabric Automation (DFA) represents an evolution of the Cisco Unified
Fabric. It simplifies the deployment of data center fabric and automates consumption of
network services. It provides a scale-out architecture without congestion points in the
network while providing optimized forwarding for all types of applications. It consists of
four modular building blocks, shown in Figure 1, that can be deployed independently or
in combination.
Fabric. It simplifies the deployment of data center fabric and automates consumption of
network services. It provides a scale-out architecture without congestion points in the
network while providing optimized forwarding for all types of applications. It consists of
four modular building blocks, shown in Figure 1, that can be deployed independently or
in combination.
Figure 1. Cisco DFA Building Blocks
Virtual Fabrics
Workload
Automation
Optimized
Networking
Fabric
Management
Cisco DFA attributes and features include the following:
• Transparent integration with existing Cisco Nexus® 5000, 6000, and 7000 Series
Switches deployments and strong investment protection
• Flexible topologies and optimized traffic forwarding
• Interoperation with existing data center networks and data center fabrics
• Secure multitenancy at scale
• Central point of management (CPOM) to enforce policies for physical servers and
• Interoperation with existing data center networks and data center fabrics
• Secure multitenancy at scale
• Central point of management (CPOM) to enforce policies for physical servers and
virtual machines
• Open northbound APIs from the Cisco Prime™ Data Center Network Manager
(DCNM) CPOM and the data center fabric
• Fabric, host, and tenant visibility
• Integration with third-party Layer 4 through 7 services, virtualization, and
• Integration with third-party Layer 4 through 7 services, virtualization, and
management
Simplified Fabric Management
Cisco DFA uses the Cisco Prime DCNM CPOM to provide an easy way to deploy,
provision, and manage data center fabric. It provides zero-touch deployment of fabric
nodes and automates configuration of these fabric nodes,. It discovers the data center
fabric topology and can verify the cabling of the fabric against a cable plan provided
by the operator. It provides a simple presence-based messaging interface to group an
arbitrary set of nodes and manage them as a logical element. It can provide visibility
into the location of a workload in the fabric and simplify troubleshooting of data center
fabric and tenant virtual networks (Figure 2).
provision, and manage data center fabric. It provides zero-touch deployment of fabric
nodes and automates configuration of these fabric nodes,. It discovers the data center
fabric topology and can verify the cabling of the fabric against a cable plan provided
by the operator. It provides a simple presence-based messaging interface to group an
arbitrary set of nodes and manage them as a logical element. It can provide visibility
into the location of a workload in the fabric and simplify troubleshooting of data center
fabric and tenant virtual networks (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Simplified Fabric Management for Ease of Operations
Automated
Network Provisioning
Common Point of
Fabric Access
Host, Network and Tenant Monitoring
Visibility
Cisco Prime
DCNM CPOM
REST APIs
Cisco and Third-Party
ISV Applications
OpenStack, VMware
vCD, and Cisco UCS®
Director Management
and Orchestration
VM
VM
MAN
FW
The Cisco Prime DCNM CPOM provides an open Representational State Transfer
(REST) API that can be used by customers to integrate custom-developed
management tools and other third-party management tools.
(REST) API that can be used by customers to integrate custom-developed
management tools and other third-party management tools.