Cisco Storage Design Fundamentals

This course provides an introduction to the MDS 9000 family for pre-sales engineers, system engineers, and network engineers who need to design SAN fabrics using MDS 9000 Family switches.

Enrollment is open to all Cisco SEs, Cisco channel partners, and customers.

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Explain the fundamentals of SCSI and Fibre Channel operation
• Identify the components of the MDS 9000 family of switches
• Describe the hardware architecture and components of the MDS 9000 family of switches
• Explain how intelligent fabric services on the MDS 9000 platform enable the design of scalable SAN fabrics
• Configure and demonstrate key features of the Cisco MDS 9000 platform
• Explain how to use the features of the Cisco MDS 9000 platform to solve customer challenges
• Describe applications for the MDS 9000 Storage Services Module
• Explain how to optimize traffic flows on the MDS 9000 platform
• Design an end-to-end SAN security solution
• Explain the options available for extending an MDS 9000 SAN infrastructure over IP and optical networks
• Explain how iSCSI can be used to enable migration of mid-range applications to the SAN

Cisco MDS 9000 Introduction

• Cisco Storage Solutions Overview
• Installation Guidelines
• Managing the MDS 9000
• License Packages

Architecture and System Components

• System Architecture
• Oversubscription and Bandwidth Reservation
• Credits and Buffers

The Multilayer SAN

• Virtual SANs
• Inter-VSAN Routing
• Port Channels
• Intelligent Addressing
• Cisco Fabric Services: Unifying the Fabric
• Switch Interoperability

Lab Overview

• System Memory Areas
• CLI Overview
• Fabric Manager and Device Manager
• System Setup and Configuration
• Using the MDS 9000 Remote Storage Labs

Network-Based Storage Applications

• The Benefits of Consolidation
• Server Virtualization
• N_Port Identifier Virtualization (NPIV)
• Network Consolidation
• Storage Virtualization Overview
• Network-Based Storage Virtualization
• Network-Hosted Applications
• Symmetric Virtualization Examples
• Network-Assisted Applications
• SANTap and remote replication
• Data Mobility Manager (DMM)
• Network-Accelerated Applications
• Fibre Channel Write Acceleration

Optimizing Performance

• Virtual Output Queues
• Fibre Channel Congestion Control
• Quality of Service
• Port Tracking
• Load Balancing
• SAN Performance Management

Securing the SAN

• SAN Security Issues
• Loss of Privacy
• Impersonation
• Denial of Service
• Data Theft and Integrity
• Zoning Overview
• LUN Masking and LUN Zoning
• Storage Media Encryption (SME)

Designing SAN Extension Solutions

• SAN Extension Applications
• SAN Extension Transports
• Extending SANs with WDM
• Fibre Channel over IP
• Extending SANs with FCIP
• MDS 9000 IP Services Modules
• High Availability FCIP Configurations
• Using IVR for SAN Extension
• SAN Extension Security
• FCIP Performance Enhancements

Building iSCSI Solutions

• iSCSI Overview
• MDS 9000 IP Services Modules
• When to Deploy iSCSI
• Securing iSCSI
• Scaling iSCSI
• Wide Area File Services

Course Labs

Lab 1: Initial Switch Configuration
Lab 2: Accessing Fibre Channel-Attached Disks
Lab 3: Configuring High-Availability SAN Extension
Lab 4: Configuring IVR for SAN Extension
Lab 5: Exploring Fabric Manager Tools
Lab 6: Implementing iSCSI

The following courses are recommended for further study:

• Data Center SAN Design (DCSD)