This high-energy consumer show attracts a diverse audience that includes IT professionals, technology enthusiasts, students and consumers as well as regional traders.

Cisco Systems to are participating in GITEX Technology Week Under the theme ‘Within, between and beyond the Cloud’, Cisco will be showcasing its innovations with a main focus on Cloud, that will increase value to customers, create new business opportunities for partners and drive technology advances in the region. Cisco will examine the most current and critical trends and issues facing the Cloud and Virtualization landscape, and how Cisco is different with utilizing the network as the fundamental foundation that interconnects the world of many clouds while focusing on Data Center, Virtualization, Collaboration and Borderless Networks.

“Cisco’s ability to innovate is why customers rely on us as a strategic business partner rather than merely a product technology vendor,” said Wayne Hull, director and general manager, Cisco UAE. “Our aim is to leverage GITEX Technology Week as a platform to showcase our product innovation, whereby customers and partners will have the opportunity to explore how the network has become the most strategic IT asset today. Furthermore, GITEX is also an important event to connect with key business decision makers and continue to build relationships with customers and partners.”

Cisco’s stand will be located at the Zabeel Hall, GulfComms, stand number Z-B, 30. So if you happens to be in this part of the world its worth attending this exhibition

The Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) is a next-generation identity and access control policy platform that enables enterprises to enforce compliance, enhance infrastructure security, and streamline service operations. It is an integral part of the overall Cisco TrustSec^® solution and SecureX architecture.

The Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)is a  policy-based service-enablement platform which ensures corporate and regulatory compliance.

Some of the highlights of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE are as follows

• Context-aware enforcement: Gathers information from users, devices, infrastructure, and network services to enable organizations to enforce contextual-based business policies across the network.
• Business-relevant policies: Create and enforce consistent policy from the head office to the branch office.
• Systemwide visibility: Let IT see who and what is on the network for advanced discovery and troubleshooting.
• Flexible architecture: Combine authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA), posture, profiling, and guest management

Currently the Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) is available in following models and platforms

For further info please check the Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) home page at Cisco Systems.

We all know in Cisco Catalyst Multilayer Switches the matching process of the Access Control list is done at hardware level. In order to do this processing the Ternary Content Addressable Memory (TCAM) comes into picture. Basically the Ternary Content Addressable Memory (TCAM) is used by Cisco Catalyst switches to store information necessary for hardware processing. TCAM allows a packet to be evaluated against the entire access list in a single lookup table. Most Cisco Catalyst Switches comes with multiple TCAMs. Its utilization depends on the features supported by the platform, but the TCAM is generally partitioned into sections designated for unicast routes, multicast routes, VLANs, and entries for routed, VLAN, and QoS ACLs.

The Cisco IOS Software constitutes of two components what are part of the TCAM operation, namely Feature Manager (FD) and Switching Database Manager (SDM, when I saw SDM the first thing came to my mind was Security Device Manager Application.)

The Feature Manager merges or compiles the Access Control Entries (ACE) in the TCAM table of a Cisco Catalyst Switch, whereas the Switching Database Manager (SDM) comes handy in creating a partition of TCAM table on some of Cisco Catalyst Switches into areas of different functions. The Switching Database Manager (SDM) software can configure or tunes the TCAM partition if needed. The Cisco Catalyst 4500 and Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches cannot be repartitioned as it comes with the fixed TCAM memory.

To allocate physical interfaces to VDC from the config terminal mode type the VDC name and then allocate the physical interfaces as shown below by using the command “allocate interface”

N7000-ITKE01#configure t

N7000-ITKE01 (config)#vdc VDC-CORE1

N7000-ITKE01-DC-CORE1 (config-vdc)#allocate interface  Ethernet1/1

N7000-ITKE01-DC-CORE1 (config-vdc)#allocate interface  Ethernet1/2

N7000-ITKE01 -DC-CORE1 (config-vdc)#allocate interface  Ethernet1/3

Now let’s verify the Interface allocation to the VDC by using following command ” show vdc membership”

N7000-ITKE01-DC-CORE1# show vdc membership

vdc_id:2 vdc_name: DC-CORE1 interfaces:
        Ethernet1/1           Ethernet1/2           Ethernet1/3          
        Ethernet1/4           Ethernet1/5           Ethernet1/6          
        Ethernet1/7           Ethernet1/8           Ethernet1/9          
        Ethernet1/10          Ethernet1/11          Ethernet1/12         
        Ethernet1/13          Ethernet1/14          Ethernet1/15         
        Ethernet1/16          Ethernet1/17          Ethernet1/18         
        Ethernet1/19          Ethernet1/20          Ethernet1/21         
        Ethernet1/22          Ethernet1/23          Ethernet1/24         
        Ethernet1/25          Ethernet1/27          Ethernet1/29         
        Ethernet1/31         

N7000-ITKE01-DC-CORE1#

In addition to interfaces other physical resources such as IPv4 router memory, IPv6 router memory, port-channels, SPAN sessions can be allocated to individual VDC.

Configuring Virtual Device Contexts (VDC)   Cisco Nexus 7000 Series switch is as simple as just entering the VDC name, by following below mentioned steps we can create VDC named VDC-Admin

Step 1

Connect to Cisco Nexus 7000 Series switch using a console port.

Step 2

Create a VDC named DC-CORE1

N7000-ITKE01#configure t

N7000-ITKE01 (config)#vdc  DC-CORE1

Step 3

Verify the created VDC by using following commands “Show vdc” and “show vdc VDC-CORE1 detail” as demonstrated below.

N7000-ITKE01# sho vdc

vdc_id  vdc_name                          state               mac            
——  ——–                          —–               ———-     
1       VDC-Admin                         active              00:26:98:07:1c:c1
2       DC-CORE1                          active              00:26:98:07:1c:c2
3       DC-AGG1                           active              00:26:98:07:1c:c3

The show VDC command shows VDC id based on which VDC created first.BY default VDC id is assigned to the default VDC. In this case it is VDC-Admin.

VDC-Admin# sho vdc DC-CORE1 ?
  <CR>       
  >           Redirect it to a file
  >>          Redirect it to a file in append mode
  detail      Show detailed vdc information
  membership  Show vdc interface membership information
  resource    Show resource configuration for VDC
  |           Pipe command output to filter

In upcoming post I will show how to allocate physical interfaces to the newly created VDC.

The Virtual Device Contexts (VDC) is a new feature introduced in Cisco Nexus 7000 NX-OS, so does it happens to be the first Data Center Switch to provide Virtual Device Contexts (VDC) capabilities. The Virtual Device Contexts (VDC) allows a Cisco Nexus 7000 Series switch to be logically segmented into four different virtual switches (device contexts). The logical separation of single Nexus 7000 into multiple logical devices provides the following benefits:

• Administration and management separation
• Change and failure domain isolation from other VDSs
• Address, VLAN, VRP and vPC isolation.

When the Cisco Nexus 7000 Series switch is first booted, all interfaces of all line cards in the modular switch platform are placed in the default VDC (VDC 1).  Up to four VDCs can be created including the default VDC, but an interface can only belong to one VDC.  Interfaces from different line cards can be placed in different VDCs.  Once an interface is placed into a VDC, the interface can no longer be managed in the default VDC context.

The Cisco Nexus 7000 Series switch shares some components between VDC(s), which include the following:

• A single instance of the kernel which support all of the processes and VDCs.
• Supervisor Modules
• Fabric Modules
• Power Supplies
• Fan trays
• System fan trays
• CMP
• CoPP
• Hardware SPAN resources.

When we started planning for this project lot of solutions were presented, starting from Nortel, Juniper and Cisco. We opted for the Cisco recommended solution. In the new solution we are having Cisco Nexus 7010 as our Core Switches.

Since still we are staging our Cisco Nexus 7010 switches, while doing so I figure out there are no more Giga Ethernet or Ten Giga Ethernet interfaces in the Cisco Nexus 7010 Series Switch. All interfaces are known as Ethernet ports.

VDC-Admin-DC-ITKE1(config)# interface ?

  ethernet      Ethernet IEEE 802.3z

  loopback      Loopback interface

  mgmt          Management interface

  port-channel  Port Channel interface

  vlan          Vlan interface

VDC-Admin-DC-ITKE1 (config)# interface ethernet 1/26

VDC-Admin-DC-ITKE1 (config-if)# speed ?

  10     10Mb/s

  100    100Mb/s

  1000   1Gb/s

  10000  10Gb/s

  auto   Auto negotiate speed

VDC-Admin-DC-ITKE1 (config-if)#

 But nothing to worry they will not just support 10Mb/s but even they can support 10 GB/s. This is one of key difference I found between Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series and Nexus 7000 Series Switches. As we proceed further I let you all know the major differences between Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series and Nexus 7000 Series Switches. One fact to known about Nexus 7000 Series Switches run by Cisco NX-OS software. It was specifically designed for the most mission-critical place in the network, the data center.

This command can give a good idea of the size of the CAM table and how many hosts are using the network.

 From the above example you can notice how many mac address are used by each vlan and how many free mac address are available

A useful command for troubleshooting purpose as well as it’s a part for CCNP Switch 642-813 curriculum.

The Cisco 100 Series Switches proves to be useful to very small organizations or home users to establish network connectivity, especially the games savvy users can enjoy the great features offered by Cisco 100 Series Switches with life time warranty, some of the features of Cisco 100 Series Switches are

• Choice of Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet connectivity
• Available in desktop or rack mount models
• Sets up in minutes with no software to install or configuration requirements
• Automatic cable detection, so you don’t have to worry about using the wrong cable type
• Automatic speed and full- and half-duplex sensing helps ensure that you’re running at the right network speed
• Auto quality of service (QoS) on all models prioritizes network traffic to keep critical network applications running at top performance
• Fanless design so switches run silently and unobtrusively
• Power-saving technology is able to enter sleep mode, turn off unused ports, and adjust power as needed
• Flexible network design mini Gigabit interface converter (GBIC) expansion slots
• Compatibility with network devices from other vendors
• Ability to trade up to a Cisco or Cisco Small Business switch at any time and receive full credit for the value of their switch
• Limited Lifetime Warranty to protect your investment

Yesterday I received an email from the Area Manager Mohammed Fazal, of the leading Swiss cabling specialist, Reichle & De-Massari. According to his email R & M unveiled a major breakthrough in copper cabling, a new RJ45 connection module which meets the Cat. 6A standard as specified by ISO/IEC had been launched.

Jean Pierre Labry, managing director of R&M Middle East & Africa, said: “Cat 6A is the key to new maximum performance and greater operating reliability in data networks.”

He also added that the new devices allow companies to boost their network’s bandwidth and transmission quality without having to abandon the reasonably-priced and reliable RJ45 connector standard.

In a recently held Ineltec conference in Basel R & M unveiled the high speed RJ45 connection module.

The R & M development lab has discovered a new way of shielding individual twisted pairs from electromagnetic interference and the company claims the new devices will be suitable for transmission of data at speeds greater than 10Gbps.

Also check the press release from R & M.

The new research sponsored by Brockade and Eaton suggests still data centers are being driven by performance issues.