Hyperconverged Infrastructure Data Centers: Demystifying HCI

Hyperconverged Infrastructure Data Centers: Demystifying HCI

by Sam Halabi
Released January 2019
Publisher(s): Cisco Press
ISBN: 9780134997957

Read it now on the O’Reilly learning platform with a 10-day free trial.

O’Reilly members get unlimited access to books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Start your free trial

Book description

This book approaches the HCI topic from the point of view that any individual working this field needs to have enough knowledge in all the different areas such as storage, storage networking, compute, virtualization, switching and routing and automation. The book will explain each area in the context of a legacy data center design, detailing the problem statement for the particular technology and how HCI solves the problem and to what extent. Equipped with such knowledge the IT professional whether at a technical or management level will be well prepared to evaluate the need to move into the HCI and to find the best approach and timeline to move from a legacy data center design to an HCI design.

The HCI for Data center book will be the bible for IT professionals, technical and management, in all technology areas, and will guide them through the decision process to move in the HCI direction.

Table of contents

  1. About This E-Book
  2. Cover Page
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright Page
  5. About the Author
  6. About the Technical Reviewers
  7. Dedication
  8. Acknowledgments
  9. Contents at a Glance
  10. Contents
  11. Icons Used in This Book
    1. Command Syntax Conventions
  12. Introduction
    1. Goals and Methods
    2. Who Should Read This Book?
    3. How This Book Is Organized
    4. Book Structure
    5. Figure Credits
  13. Part I. Basics of Data Center Networking and Storage
    1. Chapter 1. Data Networks: Existing Designs
      1. Information Technology Equipment of a Data Center
      2. Multitier Data Networking Architecture
      3. Challenges of Existing Designs
      4. Looking Ahead
    2. Chapter 2. Storage Networks: Existing Designs
      1. The Storage View of Multitier Designs
      2. Types of Disk Drives
      3. Disk Performance
      4. RAID
      5. Storage Controllers
      6. Logical Unit Numbers
      7. Logical Volume Manager
      8. Block-, File-, and Object-Level Storage
      9. Storage-to-Server Connectivity
      10. Storage Efficiency Technologies
      11. Looking Ahead
  14. Part II. Evolution in Host Hardware and Software
    1. Chapter 3. Host Hardware Evolution
      1. Advancements in Compute
      2. Evolution in Host Bus Interconnect
      3. Emergence of Flash-Based Products
      4. Looking Ahead
    2. Chapter 4. Server Virtualization
      1. The Virtualization Layer
      2. Datastores
      3. Virtualization Services
      4. Virtual Switching
      5. Looking Ahead
      6. References
    3. Chapter 5. Software-Defined Storage
      1. SDS Objectives
      2. Preserving the Legacy and Offering New Features
      3. vSphere APIs for Storage Awareness (VASA) and VVols
      4. Looking Ahead
  15. Part III. Hyperconverged Infrastructure
    1. Chapter 6. Converged Infrastructure
      1. Cisco UCS—The First Step in Convergence
      2. The Converged Systems
      3. Looking Ahead
    2. Chapter 7. HCI Functionality
      1. Distributed DAS Architecture
      2. Advanced Data Storage Functionality
      3. Looking Ahead
    3. Chapter 8. HCI Business Benefits and Use Cases
      1. HCI Business Benefits
      2. HCI Use Cases
      3. Looking Ahead
  16. Part IV. Cisco HyperFlex
    1. Chapter 9. Cisco HyperFlex
      1. HyperFlex Physical Components
      2. HyperFlex Performance Benchmarks
      3. Integration with UCS
      4. Cisco’s HX Data Platform
      5. Advanced Data Services
      6. Looking Ahead
      7. References
    2. Chapter 10. Deploying, Provisioning, and Managing HyperFlex
      1. Installation Phase
      2. HyperFlex Workload Profiler
      3. HyperFlex Sizer
      4. Management Provisioning and Monitoring
      5. Looking Ahead
      6. References
    3. Chapter 11. HyperFlex Workload Optimization and Efficiency
      1. Enterprise Workload Issues
      2. HyperFlex with Cisco Tetration
      3. Cisco Workload Optimizer
      4. Cisco AppDynamics
      5. Looking Ahead
      6. References
  17. Part V. Alternative HCI Implementations
    1. Chapter 12. VMware vSAN
      1. vSAN Physical Components
      2. vSAN Hyperconvergence Software
      3. vSAN Advanced Functionality
      4. Integration with Legacy SAN and NAS
      5. Persistent Storage for Containers
      6. vSAN Management
      7. Thoughts on vSAN Versus HyperFlex
      8. Looking Ahead
      9. References
    2. Chapter 13. Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform
      1. Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform
      2. ECP Hyperconvergence Software
      3. I/O Path
      4. Data Protection
      5. Nutanix Advanced Functionality
      6. Snapshots and Clones
      7. Metro Availability: Stretch Clustering
      8. Data At Rest Encryption
      9. Nutanix Acropolis Block Services
      10. Nutanix Acropolis File Services
      11. Support for Hyper-V
      12. Docker Containers
      13. Provisioning, Managing, and Monitoring
      14. The Nutanix Competitive Landscape
      15. Looking Ahead
      16. Reference
    3. Chapter 14. Open Source—Compute and Storage
      1. OpenStack
      2. Nova
      3. Cinder Block Storage
      4. Swift
      5. Ceph
      6. Looking Ahead
      7. References
  18. Part VI. Hyperconverged Networking
    1. Chapter 15. Software-Defined Networking and Open Source
      1. The SDN Background
      2. The Overlay and Microsegmentation Edge
      3. The Switching Fabric
      4. The Underlay Network
      5. The Overlay Network
      6. Microsegmentation in the Data Center
      7. Networking Open Source Initiatives
      8. OVN—The Open Source SDN
      9. State of Vendors with Open Source
      10. Looking Ahead
      11. References
    2. Chapter 16. VMware NSX
      1. Setting and Enforcing Policies in NSX
      2. The NSX Manager and Controller Cluster
      3. Enhancements for vDS
      4. Flooding Avoidance
      5. NSX L2 Switching and L3 Routing
      6. Handling of Multidestination Traffic
      7. Looking Ahead
      8. Reference
    3. Chapter 17. Application-Centric Infrastructure
      1. Cisco Application-Centric Infrastructure
      2. ACI Microsegmentation Constructs
      3. Cisco Application Policy Infrastructure Controller
      4. ACI Domains
      5. The ACI Fabric Switching and Routing Constructs
      6. Virtual and Physical Connectivity to the ACI Fabric
      7. The ACI Switching and Routing Terminology
      8. The ACI Underlay Network
      9. The ACI Overlay and VXLAN
      10. Multicast in the Overlay Versus Multicast in the Underlay
      11. ACI Multi-PoD
      12. ACI Multi-Site
      13. ACI Anywhere
      14. High-Level Comparison Between ACI and NSX
      15. Looking Ahead
      16. References
  19. Part VII. Public, Private, Hybrid, and Multicloud
    1. Chapter 18. The Public Cloud
      1. The Cloud Services
      2. Amazon Web Services
      3. Launching Multitier Applications in AWS
      4. Cloud Automation
      5. Looking Ahead
      6. References
    2. Chapter 19. The Private Cloud
      1. What Is a Private Cloud?
      2. Cisco UCS Director
      3. Integration Between UCSD and HyperFlex
      4. Looking Ahead
      5. References
    3. Chapter 20. Hybrid Cloud and Multicloud
      1. Why Hybrid Cloud?
      2. Why Multicloud?
      3. Cisco CloudCenter
      4. Looking Ahead
      5. References
  20. Glossary
  21. Index

Product information

  • Title: Hyperconverged Infrastructure Data Centers: Demystifying HCI
  • Author(s): Sam Halabi
  • Release date: January 2019
  • Publisher(s): Cisco Press
  • ISBN: 9780134997957