Foreword

The data center is at the core of all companies in the digital age. It processes bits and bytes of data that represent products and services to its customers. The data storage and processing capabilities of a modern business have become synonymous with the ability to generate revenue. Companies in all business sectors are storing and processing more information digitally every year, regardless of their vertical affiliation (construction, medical, entertainment, and so on). This means that the network must be designed for speed, capacity, and flexibility.

The Nexus platform was built with speed and bandwidth capacity in mind. When the Nexus 7000 launched in 2008, it provided high-density 10 Gigabit interfaces at a low per-port cost. In addition, the Nexus switch operating system, NX-OS, brought forth evolutionary technologies like virtual port channels (vPC) that increased available bandwidth and redundancy while overcoming the inefficiencies of Spanning-Tree Protocol (STP). NX-OS introduced technologies such as Overlay Transport Virtualization (OTV), which revolutionized the design of the data center network by enabling host mobility between sites and allowing full data center redundancy. Today, the Nexus platform continues to evolve by supporting 25/40/100 Gigabit interfaces in a high-density compact form factor, and brings other innovative technologies such as VXLAN and Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) to the market.

NX-OS was built with the mindset of operational simplicity and includes additional tools and capabilities that improve the operational efficiency of the network. Today, websites and applications are expected to be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year. Downtime in the data center directly translates to a financial impact. The move toward digitization and the potential impact the network has to a business makes it more important than ever for network engineers to attain the skills to troubleshoot data center network environments efficiently.

As the leader of Cisco’s technical services for more than 25 years, I have the benefit of working with the best network professionals in the industry. This book is written by Brad, Richard, and Vinit: “Network Rock Stars,” who have been in my organization for years supporting multiple Cisco customers. This book provides a complete reference for troubleshooting Nexus switches and the NX-OS operating system. The methodologies taught in this book are the same methods used by Cisco’s technical services to solve a variety of complex network problems.

Joseph Pinto
SVP, Technical Services, Cisco, San Jose