N-Port Virtualization (NPV), and N-port ID Virtualization (NPIV) have been around for quite some time now. Enhancements have been made to the traditional NPV and NPIV implementations, making it more convenient for unified fabric topologies (which is what we will be discussing today). This blog, part 1 in a 2-part series, will be discussing the ‘fcoe-npv’ implementation of NPV/NPIV, while the next blog will be focused on the traditional implementation.
NPV and NPIV were created as a method in which we could add additional switches (i.e. port density), to a given fabric, without consuming additional domain-id’s, or adding to the administrative burden of a growing SAN (managing zoning, domain-id’s, principle switch elections, FSPF routing, etc…). A lot of this concern stemmed from the fact that the Fibre Channel standard limits us to 239 usable domain id’s. Essentially 8-bits, or the most significant byte in the Fibre Channel ID (FCID), is reserved for this domain-id. This byte is what is used within FSPF protocol to route traffic throughout a Fibre Channel fabric. While this gives us 256 addresses, only 239 are usable, as some are reserved. Beyond this, many vendors restrict us too a much smaller number of domain-id’s on Continue reading
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SDxCentral’s Roy Chua looks at the key components that make up cloud architectures and outlines the seven most important cloud networking requirements.
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Big Tap 4.5, a next-generation network packet broker, is bringing security to Big Switch's monitoring.
I came across some weird behavior (I think) in Junos recently. Nothing major, but an annoyance nonetheless.
Let’s check out some statistics on this beautiful looking EX4550 stack, shall we?
john@EX4550> show pfe statistics bridge
Slot 0
PFE: 0
----------------------------------------
---- Ingress Counters ----
-- Set0 --
Received: 654383803
VLAN Filtered: 0
Security Filtered: 0
Other Discards: 324
-- Set1 --
Received: 654383797
VLAN Filtered: 0
Security Filtered: 0
Other Discards: 324
[...]
Oh dear look, 324 “Other” discards on my EX4550. I sure hope they aren’t incrementing. Let’s issue the command again and check if the 324 figure has increased?
{master:0}
john@EX4550> show pfe statistics bridge
Slot 0
PFE: 0
----------------------------------------
---- Ingress Counters ----
-- Set0 --
Received: 913272
VLAN Filtered: 0
Security Filtered: 0
Other Discards: 0
-- Set1 --
Received: 913267
VLAN Filtered: 0
Security Filtered: 0
Other Discards: 0
[...]
No it hasn’t. In fact it has mysteriously reset itself along with all the other PFE statistics. That is, well, suboptimal to say the least.
It’s probably a known bug, though it’s not important enough for me to go look it up. Maybe it’s even intentional (though for the life of Continue reading
Original content from Roger's CCIE Blog Tracking the journey towards getting the ultimate Cisco Certification. The Routing & Switching Lab Exam
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