FlexPod Datacenter topologies
Suggest changes
PDFs
This section describes the example topologies for FlexPod Datacenter.
Cisco UCS X-Series Modular System and C-Series rack servers with FC and IP-based SAN
The following figures show an example of FlexPod Datacenter with X-Series Modular System and C-Series rack servers for the IP-based iSCSI configuration.The topology also supports NFS and NVMe-TCP.
The following figure shows an example of FlexPod Datacenter with X-Series Modular System and C-Series rack servers for FC-based SAN configuration with MDS switches.The above topology also supports NFS and FC-NVMe.
Connectivity requirements for the above topologies include:
-
AFF cluster connectivity: For a 2-node AFF cluster, the controllers can be directly connected together with cables without using cluster switches.
-
Storage Ethernet connectivity: NetApp storage controllers must be directly connected to the Cisco Nexus switches.
-
Cisco UCS X9508 chassis connects to fabric interconnects using Cisco UCSX-I-9108-100G IFMs.The Cisco UCSX-I-9108-25G IFMs can also be used with 4x25G breakout cables used to connect the chassis to the fabric interconnects.
-
Cisco UCS X-Series Modular compute nodes contain Cisco VICs and can be used with either IFMs.
-
Cisco UCS C-series rack servers contain Cisco VICs and connect to fabric interconnects.
-
Virtual port channels (vPCs) are required to connect the Cisco Nexus switches to the NetApp storage controllers and to connect Cisco UCS Fabric Interconnects to the Cisco Nexus switches.
-
FC Connectivity requirements:
-
The NetApp storage controllers connect to the Cisco MDS switches using 32-Gbps FC connections for SAN connectivity.
-
Cisco UCS fabric interconnects connect to Cisco MDS switches using 32-Gbps FC connections configured as a single port channel for SAN connectivity.
-
You can choose to implement IP-based SAN only, FC-based SAN only, or implement both to adopt different protocols for workload latency and throughput requirements. The NVMe over fabric protocols offers lower latency and improved input/output operations per second (IOPs) due to more efficient device connections, command sets, and reduced CPU utilization.
|
The above sample topology refers to a X-Series Modular and C-Series rack server solution configuration using NetApp AFF. However, the same topology can be used for NetApp ASA and FAS as well. |
For more information on this configuration, see FlexPod Datacenter with Cisco UCS M7 IMM, VMware vSphere 8.0, and NetApp ONTAP 9.12 Design Guide.
Cisco UCS X-Series Direct with direct attached FC and IP-based SAN
The following figure shows a UCS X-Series Direct and direct-attached ASA sample topology for FlexPod Datacenter IP-based and FC-based SAN.
Connectivity requirements for this topology include:
-
ASA cluster connectivity: For a 2-node ASA cluster, the controllers can be directly connected together with cables without using cluster switches.
-
Storage Ethernet connectivity: The NetApp storage controllers can be connected directly to the embedded Fabric Interconnects. The two storage controllers in ASA have connectivity to two independent IP SAN fabric provided by FI A and FI B.
-
FI network uplink connectivity: For IP-based SAN connectivity, the uplink Nexus switches are not involved in the SAN data paths. SAN IO goes directly from the UCS Compute nodes to ASA storage using their connections to FI A or FI B. As a result, existing top-of-rack switches that supports VLAN and vPC can be utilized to provide external network access to the FlexPod SAN solution environment.
-
For FC-based SAN connectivity, the UCS FI (FC)ports need to be configured as breakout ports.
-
Cisco UCS should be configured in FC switching mode when used for a FC-based SAN solution.
The Cisco UCS X-Series Direct can also utilize a switch attached storage similar to the regular X-Series but using the embedded fabric interconnects instead of the external fabric interconnects.
For more information about this configuration, see FlexPod SAN Solution with Cisco UCS X-Series Direct and NetApp ASA.
|
|
The above sample topology refers to a direct attached storage solution using NetApp ASA. However, the same topology can be used for NetApp AFF and FAS as well. For an IP-based direct-attached NAS storage configuration using NetApp AFF or FAS storage, the uplink Nexus switches will need to be properly configured to support certain failure scenarios. Refer to the below link for additional configuration information. |