IBM b-type Data Center Networking: Design and Best Practices Introduction

IBM b-type Data Center Networking: Design and Best Practices Introduction

by Jon Tate, Norman Bogard, Michal Holenia, Sebastian Oglaza, Steven Tong
Released December 2010
Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
ISBN: 9780738435015

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

As organizations drive to transform and virtualize their IT infrastructures to reduce costs, and manage risk, networking is pivotal to success. Optimizing network performance, availability, adaptability, security, and cost is essential to achieving the maximum benefit from your infrastructure.

In this IBM® Redbooks® publication, we address these requirements:

  • Expertise to plan and design networks with holistic consideration of servers, storage, application performance, and manageability

  • Networking solutions that enable investment protection with performance and cost options that match your environment

  • Technology and expertise to design and implement and manage network security and resiliency

  • Robust network management software for integrated, simplified management that lowers operating costs of complex networks


IBM and Brocade have entered into an agreement to provide expanded network technology choices with the new IBM b-type Ethernet Switches and Routers, to provide an integrated end-to-end resiliency and security framework.

Combined with the IBM vast data center design experience and the Brocade networking expertise, this portfolio represents the ideal convergence of strength and intelligence. For organizations striving to transform and virtualize their IT infrastructure, such a combination can help you reduce costs, manage risks, and prepare for the future. This book is meant to be used along with "IBM b-type Data Center Networking: Product Introduction and Initial Setup," SG24-7785.

Table of contents

  1. Front cover
  2. Notices
    1. Trademarks
  3. Preface
    1. The team who wrote this book
    2. Now you can become a published author, too!
    3. Comments welcome
    4. Stay connected to IBM Redbooks
  4. Chapter 1. Smarter data center
    1. 1.1 Technology trends
      1. 1.1.1 Smarter planet
      2. 1.1.2 Virtualization
      3. 1.1.3 Cloud computing
      4. 1.1.4 Dynamic infrastructure
    2. 1.2 Data center evolution
      1. 1.2.1 Business drivers
      2. 1.2.2 Operational drivers
    3. 1.3 Data center infrastructure
      1. 1.3.1 Server infrastructure
      2. 1.3.2 Storage infrastructure
      3. 1.3.3 Network Infrastructure
    4. 1.4 Data center network reference architecture
      1. 1.4.1 Data center cloud
      2. 1.4.2 Virtual data center management
    5. 1.5 Next-generation data center
      1. 1.5.1 Intelligent Ethernet fabric
      2. 1.5.2 Distributed intelligence
      3. 1.5.3 Logical chassis
      4. 1.5.4 Dynamic services
    6. 1.6 IBM addressed market segments
      1. 1.6.1 Data center market segment
      2. 1.6.2 Enterprise market segment
      3. 1.6.3 High Performance Computing market segment
      4. 1.6.4 Carrier market segment
  5. Chapter 2. Product introduction
    1. 2.1 Product overview
      1. 2.1.1 Product features
      2. 2.1.2 Naming convention: IBM to Brocade
      3. 2.1.3 Product overview
    2. 2.2 Product description of the IBM b-type m-series Ethernet/IP Routers
      1. 2.2.1 Operating system
      2. 2.2.2 Exceptional density
      3. 2.2.3 Scalable Clos fabric architecture
      4. 2.2.4 High availability
      5. 2.2.5 Distributed queuing for fine-grained Quality of Service (QoS)
      6. 2.2.6 Traffic policers and ACLs
      7. 2.2.7 Denial of Service (DoS) guards
      8. 2.2.8 Spatial multicast support
      9. 2.2.9 Industry-leading multi-service feature set
      10. 2.2.10 Scalability
      11. 2.2.11 Investment protection
      12. 2.2.12 Physical and thermal parameters
      13. 2.2.13 Power parameters
      14. 2.2.14 Slots, ports, memory, and performance
      15. 2.2.15 Interface modules
      16. 2.2.16 Interface types
      17. 2.2.17 Transceivers
      18. 2.2.18 Services, protocols, and standards
    3. 2.3 Product description of the IBM b-type r-series Ethernet Switches
      1. 2.3.1 Operating system
      2. 2.3.2 Exceptional density
      3. 2.3.3 High availability
      4. 2.3.4 Scalability
      5. 2.3.5 Investment protection
      6. 2.3.6 Physical and thermal parameters
      7. 2.3.7 Power parameters
      8. 2.3.8 Slots, ports, memory, and performance
      9. 2.3.9 Interface modules
      10. 2.3.10 Interface types
      11. 2.3.11 Transceivers
      12. 2.3.12 Services, protocols, and standards
    4. 2.4 Product description of the IBM b-type x-series Ethernet Switches
      1. 2.4.1 Operating system
      2. 2.4.2 Flexible data center deployment and future-proofing
      3. 2.4.3 High availability hardware features
      4. 2.4.4 Physical and thermal parameters
      5. 2.4.5 Power parameters
      6. 2.4.6 Ports, memory, and performance
      7. 2.4.7 Interface types
      8. 2.4.8 Transceivers
      9. 2.4.9 Services, protocols, and standards
    5. 2.5 Product description of the IBM b-type c-series Ethernet Switches
      1. 2.5.1 Operating system
      2. 2.5.2 Carrier-class resiliency with Multi-Service IronWare
      3. 2.5.3 Enabling true Carrier-Grade Ethernet services
      4. 2.5.4 Standardized services
      5. 2.5.5 Scalability
      6. 2.5.6 Service management
      7. 2.5.7 Reliability
      8. 2.5.8 Hard QoS
      9. 2.5.9 Multicast support
      10. 2.5.10 Routing capabilities
      11. 2.5.11 Physical and thermal parameters
      12. 2.5.12 Power parameters
      13. 2.5.13 Ports, memory, and performance metrics
      14. 2.5.14 Interface types
      15. 2.5.15 Transceivers
      16. 2.5.16 Optional features
      17. 2.5.17 Services, protocols, and standards
    6. 2.6 Product description of the IBM b-type s-series Ethernet Switches
      1. 2.6.1 Operating system
      2. 2.6.2 Future-proofing the network with IPv6
      3. 2.6.3 Configuration alternatives
      4. 2.6.4 High-quality and reliable network convergence
      5. 2.6.5 Resilient green power distribution and consumption
      6. 2.6.6 Intelligent and scalable Power over Ethernet
      7. 2.6.7 Advanced QoS and low latency for enterprise convergence
      8. 2.6.8 Ease of use: plug and play
      9. 2.6.9 Flexible bandwidth management
      10. 2.6.10 Complete solution for multicast and broadcast video
      11. 2.6.11 Advanced full Layer 2/3 wire-speed IP routing solution
      12. 2.6.12 Comprehensive bulletproof security suite
      13. 2.6.13 Resilient design for business continuity
      14. 2.6.14 Investment protection through IPv6 capable hardware
      15. 2.6.15 Physical and thermal parameters
      16. 2.6.16 Power parameters
      17. 2.6.17 Slots, ports, memory, and performance
      18. 2.6.18 Management modules
      19. 2.6.19 Interface modules
      20. 2.6.20 Interface types
      21. 2.6.21 Transceivers
      22. 2.6.22 Optional features
      23. 2.6.23 Services, protocols, and standards
    7. 2.7 Product description of the IBM b-type y-series Ethernet Switches
      1. 2.7.1 Data center models
      2. 2.7.2 Enterprise campus (PoE+) models
      3. 2.7.3 IBM y-series B24Y (PoE+) & B48Y (PoE+) feature comparison
    8. 2.8 Stacking y-series Ethernet Switches
      1. 2.8.1 IronStack technology features
      2. 2.8.2 IronStack terminology
      3. 2.8.3 Building an IronStack
      4. 2.8.4 Software requirements
      5. 2.8.5 IronStack construction methods
      6. 2.8.6 Removing a unit from an IronStack
      7. 2.8.7 Replacing an IronStack unit
      8. 2.8.8 Managing your IronStack
      9. 2.8.9 Important notes about software images
      10. 2.8.10 Managing IronStack partitioning
      11. 2.8.11 MIB support for the IronStack
      12. 2.8.12 Persistent MAC address
      13. 2.8.13 Unconfiguring an IronStack
      14. 2.8.14 Displaying IronStack information
      15. 2.8.15 Syslog, SNMP, and traps
    9. 2.9 IBM b-type documentation
  6. Chapter 3. Networking introduction
    1. 3.1 Brief network history
    2. 3.2 Network communications
      1. 3.2.1 Introduction to data communications
      2. 3.2.2 ISO OSI communications model
      3. 3.2.3 Layer 1 - Physical Layer
      4. 3.2.4 Layer 2 - Data Link Layer
      5. 3.2.5 TRILL
      6. 3.2.6 Layer 3 - Network Layer
      7. 3.2.7 VPLS
      8. 3.2.8 Layer 4 to Layer 7
  7. Chapter 4. Making the network highly available
    1. 4.1 Hardware resiliency
      1. 4.1.1 Design for redundancy
      2. 4.1.2 Device-level redundancy
      3. 4.1.3 Hitless upgrades and hitless switchover
      4. 4.1.4 Infrastructure resiliency
    2. 4.2 Layer 1 availability features
      1. 4.2.1 Device connectivity
      2. 4.2.2 Link Aggregation Group
      3. 4.2.3 Protected link groups
    3. 4.3 Layer 2 availability features
      1. 4.3.1 Spanning Tree Protocol and Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol
      2. 4.3.2 Virtual Switch Redundancy Protocol
      3. 4.3.3 Metro Ring Protocol
      4. 4.3.4 Multi-Chassis Trunking
    4. 4.4 Layer 3 availability features
      1. 4.4.1 Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol and VRRP Extension
      2. 4.4.2 Static routing
      3. 4.4.3 Dynamic routing
      4. 4.4.4 Graceful restart
      5. 4.4.5 Equal-Cost Multi-Path routing
    5. 4.5 Power over Ethernet redundancy
      1. 4.5.1 g-series
      2. 4.5.2 s-series
  8. Chapter 5. Quality of Service
    1. 5.1 QoS introduction
    2. 5.2 Why QoS is used
    3. 5.3 QoS architecture
    4. 5.4 QoS components
      1. 5.4.1 Packet classification
      2. 5.4.2 Traffic profiling
      3. 5.4.3 QoS mechanisms
      4. 5.4.4 Network wide QoS
      5. 5.4.5 QoS management
    5. 5.5 QoS on b-type networking products
      1. 5.5.1 FastIron QoS implementation
      2. 5.5.2 FastIron fixed rate limiting and rate shaping
      3. 5.5.3 FastIron traffic policies
      4. 5.5.4 NetIron m-series QoS implementation
      5. 5.5.5 NetIron m-series traffic policies
      6. 5.5.6 NetIron c-series QoS implementation
      7. 5.5.7 NetIron c-series traffic policies
      8. 5.5.8 BigIron QoS
  9. Chapter 6. Data Center Virtualization
    1. 6.1 Virtualization overview
      1. 6.1.1 Server virtualization
      2. 6.1.2 Server virtualization considerations
    2. 6.2 Network virtualization
      1. 6.2.1 Network virtualization and business opportunities
      2. 6.2.2 Network virtualization approaches
  10. Chapter 7. Security
    1. 7.1 Security in depth
    2. 7.2 Layer 1 security
      1. 7.2.1 Secure console access
      2. 7.2.2 Enable password
      3. 7.2.3 Super-user password
      4. 7.2.4 Console time-out
    3. 7.3 Layer 2 security
      1. 7.3.1 MAC port security
      2. 7.3.2 Multi-device port authentication
      3. 7.3.3 802.1x supplicant authentication
      4. 7.3.4 STP root guard
      5. 7.3.5 BPDU guard
      6. 7.3.6 VLAN security
      7. 7.3.7 VSRP authentication
      8. 7.3.8 Layer 2 ACLs
    4. 7.4 Layer 3 security
      1. 7.4.1 Dynamic ARP Inspection
      2. 7.4.2 DHCP snooping
      3. 7.4.3 IP Source Guard
      4. 7.4.4 VRRP authentication
      5. 7.4.5 OSPF authentication
      6. 7.4.6 BGP password
    5. 7.5 Layer 4 security
      1. 7.5.1 IP ACLs
      2. 7.5.2 Per-port-per-VLAN ACL application
      3. 7.5.3 Protocol flooding
      4. 7.5.4 ICMP rate-limiting
      5. 7.5.5 Protection against TCP attacks
    6. 7.6 Layer 5 security
      1. 7.6.1 System security with ACLs
      2. 7.6.2 Remote access
      3. 7.6.3 Telnet / SSH
      4. 7.6.4 HTTP / SSL
      5. 7.6.5 SNMP
    7. 7.7 Design considerations
  11. Chapter 8. Management
    1. 8.1 Introduction to network management
      1. 8.1.1 Configuration management
      2. 8.1.2 Change management
      3. 8.1.3 Performance management
      4. 8.1.4 Fault management
      5. 8.1.5 Event management
    2. 8.2 Management options in IBM b-type products
      1. 8.2.1 Command Line Interface
      2. 8.2.2 Web Management Interface
      3. 8.2.3 SNMP and Syslog
      4. 8.2.4 IronView Network Manager
      5. 8.2.5 Integration with Network Management Systems
    3. 8.3 Management network considerations
  12. Chapter 9. IP Storage Area Networks
    1. 9.1 Introduction
    2. 9.2 The evolution to shared storage
    3. 9.3 Small Computer Systems Interface
    4. 9.4 Storage area networks
      1. 9.4.1 Fibre Channel SANs
      2. 9.4.2 Internet Small Computer System Interface SANs
      3. 9.4.3 Introduction to iSCSI
      4. 9.4.4 Challenges in iSCSI SANs
      5. 9.4.5 IBM b-type iSCSI solutions
      6. 9.4.6 The IBM b-type technology advantage
  13. Chapter 10. Data center network design
    1. 10.1 Network documentation
    2. 10.2 Network requirements
      1. 10.2.1 Non-functional requirements
      2. 10.2.2 Functional requirements
    3. 10.3 Network design context
    4. 10.4 Structured network design
      1. 10.4.1 Standards
      2. 10.4.2 Environment
      3. 10.4.3 Scalability
      4. 10.4.4 Performance
      5. 10.4.5 Availability
      6. 10.4.6 Security
      7. 10.4.7 Convergence
      8. 10.4.8 Network management
      9. 10.4.9 Serviceability
      10. 10.4.10 Service level agreement
    5. 10.5 Tier based design
      1. 10.5.1 Topology
      2. 10.5.2 Access layer
      3. 10.5.3 Aggregation layer
      4. 10.5.4 Core layer
      5. 10.5.5 Edge network interface
    6. 10.6 Multisite data center connectivity
      1. 10.6.1 Technologies for connectivity
      2. 10.6.2 Virtual private LAN services
    7. 10.7 Data center network sizing
      1. 10.7.1 Mini data center network design
      2. 10.7.2 Small data center network design
      3. 10.7.3 Medium network design
      4. 10.7.4 Large network design
  14. Chapter 11. Network design for the enterprise
    1. 11.1 Enterprise network evolution
    2. 11.2 Enterprise network requirements
      1. 11.2.1 Connectivity considerations
      2. 11.2.2 IBM b-type products
    3. 11.3 Enterprise campus reference architecture
    4. 11.4 Enterprise network design considerations
      1. 11.4.1 Number of layers
      2. 11.4.2 Enterprise site chassis versus stacking considerations
      3. 11.4.3 Enterprise access tier
      4. 11.4.4 Enterprise distribution tier
      5. 11.4.5 Enterprise core tier
    5. 11.5 Solutions for the enterprise network
      1. 11.5.1 Mobile campus network
      2. 11.5.2 Real-time campus network
      3. 11.5.3 Distributed enterprise network
  15. Chapter 12. Voice over IP
    1. 12.1 Overview
    2. 12.2 Architecture overview
      1. 12.2.1 VoIP components
      2. 12.2.2 Design considerations
      3. 12.2.3 VoIP traffic types
      4. 12.2.4 Network requirements
    3. 12.3 Resources
      1. 12.3.1 QoS for VoIP traffic prioritization
      2. 12.3.2 LLDP
      3. 12.3.3 PoE for VoIP devices
      4. 12.3.4 VLAN features for VoIP traffic
      5. 12.3.5 Security features for VoIP traffic
  16. Chapter 13. Network design for high performance computing
    1. 13.1 High Performance Computing introduction
      1. 13.1.1 The challenge
      2. 13.1.2 HPC architectures
      3. 13.1.3 HPC 2.0
      4. 13.1.4 HPC 3.0
    2. 13.2 HPC 2.0
      1. 13.2.1 HPC 2.0 cluster fabric architecture
      2. 13.2.2 IBM Ethernet products for the flat HPC 2.0
      3. 13.2.3 HPC connectivity in a tiered HPC 2.0
    3. 13.3 HPC 3.0
      1. 13.3.1 Single fabric solution
      2. 13.3.2 HPC 3.0 cluster fabric architecture
    4. 13.4 HPC case study
      1. 13.4.1 Deploying HPC 2.0 with an existing storage fabric
      2. 13.4.2 HPC is an evolving art
    5. 13.5 HPC design scenarios
      1. 13.5.1 Small cluster example
      2. 13.5.2 Medium cluster example
      3. 13.5.3 Medium and large cluster example
      4. 13.5.4 Large cluster example
  17. Chapter 14. IBM networking and systems solutions
    1. 14.1 Solutions using the IBM b-type y-series switches
      1. 14.1.1 Connectivity options
      2. 14.1.2 Connectivity to IBM System x servers
      3. 14.1.3 Connectivity to IBM BladeCenter
      4. 14.1.4 Connectivity to IBM System Storage
      5. 14.1.5 Network cabling requirements
      6. 14.1.6 Popular configurations
    2. 14.2 Solutions using the IBM b-type x-series switches
      1. 14.2.1 Connectivity options
      2. 14.2.2 Connectivity to IBM System x servers
      3. 14.2.3 Connectivity to IBM BladeCenter
      4. 14.2.4 Connectivity to IBM System Storage
      5. 14.2.5 Popular configurations
  18. Appendix A. IBM Ethernet in the green data center
    1. Key elements
    2. Power consumption
    3. Power utilization
    4. Device reduction
  19. Appendix B. Introduction to the IBM b-type g-series Ethernet Switch
    1. Naming convention: IBM versus Brocade
    2. Product introduction
    3. IBM g-series stacking overview
    4. Stack topology
    5. Secure Stack
    6. Adding, replacing, or removing units in a stack
    7. Merging stacks
    8. Best practices in a stack
  20. Related publications
    1. IBM Redbooks Publications
    2. Online resources
    3. Help from IBM
  21. Back cover

Product information

  • Title: IBM b-type Data Center Networking: Design and Best Practices Introduction
  • Author(s): Jon Tate, Norman Bogard, Michal Holenia, Sebastian Oglaza, Steven Tong
  • Release date: December 2010
  • Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
  • ISBN: 9780738435015