Study Guide Automating and Programming Cisco Data Center Solutions 300-635 DCAUTO Exam (eBook)

Anand Vemula (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025 | 1. Auflage
98 Seiten
Publishdrive (Verlag)
9780000964076 (ISBN)

Infos

The Cisco 300-635 DCAUTO certification focuses on automation and programmability within Cisco Data Center technologies, particularly Cisco ACI, NX-OS, and UCS environments. The exam covers fundamental knowledge of Cisco's Unified Data Center Architecture and dives deep into key components such as the Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC), Leaf and Spine switches in ACI, and the role of Cisco UCS with its management platforms including Cisco Intersight.

Central to the certification is understanding the ACI policy model, which uses tenants, bridge domains, and endpoint groups (EPGs) to logically segment and control network traffic. Mastery of the ACI object model and REST API is essential, enabling candidates to programmatically manage and automate network policies. The exam also emphasizes practical skills in NX-OS programmability, contrasting traditional CLI with modern NX-API REST and CLI methods, and highlights the importance of Python scripting alongside NETCONF and RESTCONF protocols.

Cisco UCS programmability is explored through UCS Manager's XML APIs, Cisco Intersight's cloud-based device management, and the use of Python SDKs and PowerTool for automation. Candidates learn how to automate workflows using DevOps and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools like Ansible and Terraform, integrating these with CI/CD pipelines and Git for streamlined operations.

Advanced scripting techniques cover data extraction, reporting, and building automation scripts across Cisco UCS, ACI, and NX-OS platforms. Monitoring and logging with telemetry, SNMP, and syslog integration into tools like Splunk and Grafana complete the skill set. Overall, the certification equips network professionals to automate and manage modern data center infrastructures efficiently.

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2. Cisco Data Center Architecture Fundamentals

2.1 Cisco Unified Data Center Architecture

Cisco’s Unified Data Center architecture is built to deliver high-performance, scalable, and efficient infrastructure by integrating compute, storage, and network resources. The goal is to simplify data center operations through a cohesive framework that supports virtualization, cloud computing, and automation.

At the heart of Cisco’s Unified Data Center strategy is the convergence of networking, compute, and storage access through a unified fabric. This eliminates silos in traditional data centers and provides a consolidated platform that can be centrally managed. The architecture is modular and supports both physical and virtual resources with policy-driven orchestration and automation capabilities.

Cisco's Unified Data Center architecture has three primary pillars: Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS), Cisco Nexus switches running NX-OS, and Cisco MDS storage networking solutions.

Cisco UCS integrates computing resources into a unified architecture managed by a centralized management interface. It replaces multiple disparate systems with a single logical pool of resources, allowing workloads to move freely between physical and virtual environments.

Cisco Nexus switches form the backbone of the network fabric. These switches are designed for high-density, low-latency, and highly available Ethernet and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) connections. They provide the capabilities to segment traffic, enforce policies, and optimize performance across virtual and physical workloads.

Cisco MDS switches offer a robust storage networking solution with intelligent SAN features. They provide secure, scalable, and high-performance storage networks that work in conjunction with the rest of the Cisco data center infrastructure.

A defining feature of this architecture is its support for unified fabric, which allows Ethernet and storage traffic (FCoE) to share a common infrastructure. This reduces cable complexity, switch sprawl, and administrative overhead. The unified fabric also facilitates service orchestration, policy enforcement, and consistent QoS.

The Unified Data Center supports both scale-up and scale-out models. With its open APIs and integration with third-party platforms, it is well-suited for hybrid and multi-cloud environments. It also offers programmable infrastructure using tools such as Python, REST APIs, and configuration management solutions like Ansible, which are directly relevant to the DCAUTO exam.

2.2 ACI (Application Centric Infrastructure)

Cisco ACI is a major innovation in software-defined networking (SDN) specifically designed for data centers. It is built around the idea of application-centricity, meaning the network responds to application needs rather than being manually configured for static infrastructure behavior.

ACI’s architecture comprises three main components: the Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC), the spine-leaf switching fabric, and the ACI object model.

The APIC is the central controller in ACI. It is a policy engine, automation controller, and single point of management. APIC holds the intent of the administrator in the form of policies and programs the network accordingly. It exposes a comprehensive RESTful API that developers and automation engineers can use to deploy, monitor, and troubleshoot network resources.

The spine-leaf architecture is a two-tier topology where all leaf switches connect to every spine switch, but no leaf connects to another leaf and no spine connects to another spine. This non-blocking architecture ensures consistent low-latency and high-bandwidth paths for all east-west traffic within the data center.

ACI uses an object-based policy model. The key building blocks include tenants, application profiles, endpoint groups (EPGs), bridge domains, and contracts. Tenants are isolated logical entities that can represent different business units. Application profiles define the structure of an application in terms of tiers and connectivity. EPGs group endpoints with similar policy requirements. Bridge domains define L2 forwarding domains, and contracts govern communication rules between EPGs.

One of ACI’s strengths lies in its operational simplicity. Network configurations, policy definitions, and endpoint management are abstracted and programmed via APIC. ACI ensures security by default through its white-list model, meaning no traffic is allowed between endpoints unless explicitly permitted.

ACI also supports microsegmentation, enabling different security policies for workloads even within the same subnet or EPG. This is particularly important for compliance and workload isolation.

ACI’s open API architecture supports integration with automation tools like Ansible, Terraform, and custom Python scripts. Cisco also provides ACI Toolkit, Cobra SDK, and Visore to enable developers to interact with the APIC programmatically.

ACI also supports Multi-Site and Multi-Pod deployments to ensure global scalability and fault tolerance. Multi-Site enables the connection of multiple ACI fabrics while maintaining centralized policy and fault isolation. Multi-Pod is used within the same geographical area for high availability and scalability.

The APIC GUI and its associated CLI are used for direct configuration and monitoring. However, for automation, most interactions with APIC are done via REST API calls, with Python and JSON being the primary interface languages.

2.3 NX-OS Overview and Platforms

Cisco NX-OS is the network operating system that runs on Cisco Nexus-series switches. It is purpose-built for data center environments and offers a robust, modular, and scalable platform for network operations and automation.

NX-OS provides Layer 2 and Layer 3 networking capabilities, virtualization features such as Virtual Device Contexts (VDCs), and advanced security and monitoring features. Its architecture is modular and supports high availability through features like In-Service Software Upgrades (ISSU) and Stateful Switchover (SSO).

One of the most compelling features of NX-OS is its programmability. It supports several automation and scripting interfaces:

• Embedded Event Manager (EEM): Allows you to write scripts that respond to network events.
• Python scripting: NX-OS includes a native Python interpreter that can be used to automate configuration tasks, interact with CLI, and perform complex logic operations.
• NX-API: This is a REST-like API that allows developers and automation tools to communicate with the switch. NX-API can return output in XML or JSON format, making it ideal for machine parsing.
• Bash shell access: Certain NX-OS platforms support access to a Linux-based shell environment, providing powerful scripting and file manipulation capabilities.

NX-API Sandbox is a built-in feature that allows users to experiment with API calls through a web interface. This is useful for testing scripts and commands before deploying them in production.

Cisco Nexus switches running NX-OS include models from the 9000, 7000, 5000, 3000, and 2000 series. The Nexus 9000 series is most relevant to ACI and DCAUTO. These switches support both standalone NX-OS mode and ACI fabric mode. In standalone mode, the switch behaves like a traditional network switch running NX-OS. In ACI mode, it is managed by the APIC and forms part of the ACI fabric.

The Nexus 7000 series is designed for core and aggregation layers in the data center and supports VDCs, which allow multiple logical switches to be created within a single physical chassis. This is useful for multi-tenancy and administrative separation.

NX-OS supports software-defined features such as VXLAN for network virtualization, EVPN for control-plane separation, and PBR for traffic engineering.

NX-OS also integrates with tools like Ansible, Puppet, and Chef for configuration management. Ansible modules are available for interface configuration, VLAN management, and NX-API interaction. With Python scripting, users can automate provisioning, fault detection, and network validation tasks.

For monitoring and telemetry, NX-OS supports streaming telemetry using gRPC, which allows real-time data to be sent to collectors for analysis and visualization.

Security features in NX-OS include Control Plane Policing (CoPP), role-based access control (RBAC), and support for 802.1x and AAA. These capabilities ensure that the data center network remains secure and resilient against threats.

In summary, NX-OS provides a programmable, scalable, and high-performance foundation for Cisco data center networks, making it a critical component for automation and orchestration workflows.

2.4 Cisco UCS and Intersight Overview

Cisco UCS (Unified Computing System) is Cisco's integrated solution for compute resources in the data center. It brings together servers, networking, storage access, and virtualization under a unified management domain.

Cisco UCS abstracts hardware components such as CPUs, memory, and network interfaces into service profiles, which define the configuration of a server. These service profiles can be automatically applied to any server in the infrastructure, ensuring consistent deployment and reducing the potential for human error.

UCS uses fabric interconnects to manage server connections to the network and storage. These fabric interconnects run NX-OS and provide a centralized management and connectivity layer between the UCS blades or rack servers and the rest of the data center.

Cisco UCS Manager (UCSM) is the management software embedded in the fabric interconnects. It provides a...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 27.5.2025
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Pädagogik
• ISBN-13: 9780000964076 / 9780000964076