Course Overview
Please Note: This course is designed for Partners or anyone who needs to create a FlexPod solution. If you already have a FlexPod system, you do not need this course.
Course Content
Designing the FlexPod Solution is a 2 day instructor-led course where you will learn to evaluate the FlexPod solution design process in regards to the contemporary data center challenges. The course provides a comprehensive understanding of the reconnaissance and analytics assess computing solution performance characteristics and requirements. In addition, this course will describe the hardware components of the FlexPod and the process for selecting proper hardware for a given set of requirements.
UPDATED: The following topic areas have been added to the Designing the FlexPod Solution course:
- UCS Mini (Directly Attached NetApp Storage)
- Cisco ACI Architecture (NVA – All Flash FAS and AltaVault)
- Nexus 9K and 5K Switch Validated Designs
- Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware 6
- FlexPod DC with All Flash FAS, 9K, ONTAP 8.3.1
Who should attend
The primary audience for this course is as follows:
- This course is designed for pre-sales audiences and is aimed at channel partners, customer network engineers and administrators whose interest is focused around designing a scalable infrastructure with the FlexPod.
Certifications
This course is part of the following Certifications:
Prerequisites
The following prerequisite skills and knowledge are recommended before attending this course:
- Knowledge of server system design and architecture
- Familiarity with Ethernet and TCP/IP networking
- Familiarity with SANs and NFS NAS technologies
- Familiarity with Fibre Channel protocol
- Understanding of Cisco Enterprise Data Center architecture
- Familiarity with hypervisor technologies (such as Microsoft, Red Hat, or VMware)
Course Objectives
Upon completing this course, you will be able to meet these objectives:
- Describe data center architecture and identify FlexPod architecture components
- Identify and configure FlexPod networking components
- Describe and configure FlexPod storage with clustered data ONTAP
- Identify and configure the Cisco UCS compute components of FlexPod
- Describe and configure the VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisors
- Identify FlexPod management and troubleshooting tools
Follow On Courses
Outline: Designing the FlexPod Solution (FPDESIGN)
Module 1: FlexPod Data Center Solutions and Architecture
- Describe data center elements
- Identify data center business, environmental, and technical challenges
- Describe the data center consolidation trend
- Describe the FlexPod solution
- Identify the benefits of FlexPod
- Describe FlexPod platforms
- Describe FlexPod validated and supported designs
- Identify supported Cisco UCS components
- Identify supported Cisco Nexus switch components
- Identify supported NetApp storage components
Module 2: FlexPod Workload Sizing and Technical Specifications
- Describe FlexPod performance characteristics
- Describe server and desktop virtualization performance characteristics
- Describe reconnaissance and analysis tools
- Describe the process for deploying analysis tools
- Configure the Microsoft MAP Toolkit
- Identify FlexPod Design components
- Describe FlexPod Sizing considerations
- Employ Cisco UCS Application Sizer
- Describe NetApp Solution Builder Sizing tool
Module 3: FlexPod Deployment and Management Strategies
- Describing Key FlexPod Configuration Features
- Describe key FlexPod LAN and SAN features
- Identify FlexPod server provisioning features
- Describe FlexPod high availability features
- Describe virtual port channels
- Describe supported FlexPod SAN features
- Describe FlexPod virtual storage tiering features
- Identifying FlexPod Validated Designs
- Identify Cisco FlexPod validated designs
- Identify FlexPod data center with VMware vSphere 5.1 with Cisco Nexus 7000
- Identify FlexPod data center with Microsoft Private Cloud Enterprise Design Guide
- Identify FlexPod Select with Cloudera Distribution Including Apache Hadoop (CDH)
- Identify FlexPod Cisco Nexus 7000 and NetApp MetroCluster for multisite deployment
- Identifying Recent FlexPod Validated Designs
- Identify FlexPod Data Center with Cisco Nexus 5600 and Nexus 9000 Series Switches
- Identify FlexPod Data Center with NetApp AFF 8000 All-Flash Storage and Cisco ACI
- Identify FlexPod Express with Cisco UCS Mini and VMware vSphere 5.5
- Describing the Management and Provisioning Strategy for FlexPod
- Identify data center operations and management challenges
- Describe FlexPod validated management solutions
- Describe Cisco UCS Director turnkey solutions and automation
- Identify Cisco UCS Director management types
- Describe self-service provisioning and reporting
- Describing a FlexPod Use Case
- Identify the customer challenges and goals
- Describe the workload analysis
- Describe the component selection process
- Review the selected component
- Analyze the solution