Designing Cisco Data Center Infrastructure (DCID)

This course provides training on designing data centers using Cisco data centers solutions and technologies. Topics covered include network designs with virtualisation technologies, Layer 2 and Layer 3 technologies and routing protocols, and data center interconnect design options.

You’ll learn design practices for the Cisco Unified Computing System™ (Cisco UCS®) solution based on Cisco UCS B-Series and C-Series servers, Cisco UCS Manager, and Cisco Unified Fabric, while gaining experience with network management technologies including Cisco UCS Manager, Cisco Data Center Network Manager (DCNM), and Cisco UCS Director.

This course helps you prepare to take the exam, Designing Cisco Data Center Infrastructure (300-610 DCID). This training also earns you 40 Continuing Education (CE) credits towards recertification.  

Digital courseware: Cisco provides students with electronic courseware for this course. Students who have a confirmed booking will be sent an email prior to the course start date, with a link to create an account via learningspace.cisco.com before they attend their first day of class. Please note that any electronic courseware or labs will not be available (visible) until the first day of the class.

Exam Vouchers: Cisco exam vouchers are not included in the course fees but can be purchased separately where applicable.

What you’ll learn

After completing this course, students will be able to:

• Describe the Layer 2 and Layer 3 forwarding options and protocols used in a data center  

• Describe the rack design options, traffic patterns, and data center switching layer access, aggregation, and core  

• Describe Locator/ID separation protocol  

• Design a solution that uses Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN) for traffic forwarding  

• Describe the hardware redundancy options; how to virtualise the network, compute, and storage functions; and virtual networking in the data center  

• Describe solutions that use fabric extenders and compare Cisco Adapter Fabric Extender (FEX) with single root input/output virtualisation (SR-IOV)  

• Describe security threats and solutions in the data center  

• Describe advanced data center security technologies and best practices  

• Describe device management and orchestration in the data center  

• Describe the storage options for the compute function and the different Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) levels from a high-availability and performance perspective  

• Describe Fibre Channel concepts and architecture  

• Describe Fibre Channel topologies and industry terms  

• Describe Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)  

• Describe security options in the storage network  

• Describe the management and automation options for the storage networking infrastructure  

• Describe Cisco UCS servers and use cases for various Cisco UCS platforms  

• Explain the connectivity options for fabric interconnects for southbound and northbound connections  

• Describe the hyperconverged solution and integrated systems  

• Describe the systemwide parameters for setting up a Cisco UCS domain  

• Describe role-based access control (RBAC) and integration with directory servers to control access rights on Cisco UCS Manager  

• Describe the pools that may be used in service profiles or service profile templates on Cisco UCS Manager  

• Describe the different policies in the service profile  

• Describe the Ethernet and Fibre Channel interface policies and additional network technologies  

• Describe the advantages of templates and the difference between initial and updated templates  

• Describe data center automation tools 

Who is the course for?

• Data center engineers

• Network designers

• Network administrators

• Network engineers

• Systems engineers

• Consulting systems engineers

• Technical solutions architects

• Server administrators

• Network managers

• Cisco integrators or partners

Prerequisites

Before taking this offering, you should be able to: 

• Implement data center networking [Local Area Network (LAN) and Storage Area Network (SAN)] 

• Describe data center storage  

• Implement data center virtualisation  

• Implement Cisco Unified Computing System (Cisco UCS)  

• Implement data center automation and orchestration with the focus on Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) and Cisco UCS Director  

• Describe products in the Cisco Data Center Nexus and MDS families