New Training: Automate Data Center Fabrics

In this 8-video skill, CBT Nuggets trainer John McGovern highlights some of the key techniques and considerations when automating Data Centers. Watch this new networking training.

Watch the full course: Advanced Network Automation with Cisco and Python

This training includes:

• 8 videos

• 1.5 hours of training

You’ll learn these topics in this skill:

• Data Center Design Considerations

• IP Unnumbered

• Nexus 9K Configurations

• Pushing Base Configurations

• Automating OSPF

• Automating BGP

• Stripping Configurations

• Deploying the Fabric

What is a Data Center Fabric?

Data center fabric is a design concept for managing network infrastructure. Instead of the traditional multi-tier network infrastructure approach, data centers are designed as flat, interconnected layers. This is known as a data center fabric, and it typically consists of only two or three layers.

By designing the data center around flat layers, network communications can be simpler and incur lower latency. This is a must in today's agile IT approach. Businesses have started to move away from using one monolithic app to utilizing microservices instead. A flat design approach allows for better communication between data centers and servers with fewer network hops.

Likewise, the concept of a data center fabric lets IT admins automate their network deployments. Because IT has moved to an agile approach, IT admins are now deploying these microservices in small, phased rollouts allocating resources as needed. Tools like Ansible and Nornir make that automation possible and approaches like constructing a data center fabric allow those automation tools to work more efficiently.