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Table Of Contents
Preface
The Cisco Virtualized Multi-tenant Data Center (VMDC) is a reference architecture for cloud ready infrastructure and is a design that is validated in a lab environment. This guide describes the design of the Cisco VMDC architecture and identifies environment-specific considerations to be addressed prior to deployment. It also discusses the problems solved by this architecture and describes the four pillars of a cloud-ready, multi-tenancy environment. This design guide focuses on infrastructure elements but does not address automation and orchestration considerations.
This preface contains the following topics:
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About Cisco Validated Designs
Purpose of This Document
This document identifies the design considerations and validation efforts required to design and deploy a cloud-ready infrastructure that serves as a foundation for either Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offerings or application environments deployed on a shared infrastructure.
Audience
The target audience for this guide includes, but is not limited to, sales engineers, field consultants, professional services, IT managers, partner engineering, and customers who want to deploy a Cisco VMDC-based cloud ready infrastructure.
Problem Identification
Today's traditional IT model suffers because resources are located in different, unrelated silos, which leads to low utilization, gross inefficiency, and an inability to respond quickly to changing business needs. Enterprise servers reside in one area of the data center and network switches and storage arrays in another. In many cases, different business units own much of the same type of equipment, use it in much the same way, in the same data center row, and yet require separate physical systems to separate their processes and data from each other.
This separation is often ineffective, complicates the delivery of IT services, and sacrifices business activity alignment. As the IT landscape changes, cost reduction pressures, focus on time to market, and employee empowerment are compelling enterprises and IT providers to develop innovative strategies to address these challenges.
By deploying a Cisco VMDC infrastructure, each business unit can be a tenant and benefit from the transparency of the virtual environment that still "looks and feels" like the traditional physically separate topology.
From the tenant viewpoint, each system is separate with its own network and storage; however, the separation is not provided by a server rack, but by a Cisco VMDC environment. The servers, networks, and storage are securely separated and in some cases, more so than in a traditional environment.
Solution Objectives
The Cisco VMDC architecture is a blueprint for organizations that either want to start moving toward or move all the way toward a cloud infrastructure. This design addresses the following key requirements:
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The secure cloud architecture extends end-to-end control of the tenant environment, from compute platform through network connectivity, storage resources, and data management. This architecture enables Service Providers and Enterprises to securely offer their users unprecedented control over their entire application environment. Unique isolation technologies combined with extensive management flexibility deliver the cloud computing benefits that IT providers require to confidently provide high levels of security and service for multi-tenant customers and consolidated application environments.
Change Summary
Cisco VMDC 2.1 is based on Cisco's general multi-tenancy architecture and improves the Cisco VMDC 2.0 Compact Pod design. The Cisco VMDC 2.0 Compact Pod validated design documents are located at the following URLs:
Cisco VMDC 2.0 Design Guide
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/solutions/Enterprise/Data_Center/VMDC/2.0/design_guide/vmdcDesignGuideCompactPoD20.html
Cisco VMDC 2.0 Deployment Guide
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/partner/docs/solutions/Enterprise/Data_Center/VMDC/2.0/implementation_guide/vmdcImplementationGuideCompactPod20.html
Table ii-1 summarizes the high-level differences.
Related Documentation
The Cisco VMDC design recommends that general Cisco data center design best practices be followed as the foundation for IaaS deployments. The following Cisco Validated Design (CVD) companion documents provide guidance on such a foundation:
Data Center Design—IP Network Infrastructure
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/solutions/Enterprise/Data_Center/DC_3_0/DC-3_0_IPInfra.html
Data Center Service Patterns
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/solutions/Enterprise/Data_Center/DC_3_0/dc_serv_pat.html
Security and Virtualization in the Data Center
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/solutions/Enterprise/Data_Center/DC_3_0/dc_sec_design.html
Designing Secure Multi-Tenancy into Virtualized Data Centers
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/ns340/ns414/ns742/ns743/ns1050/landing_dcVDDC.html
Enhanced Secure Multi-Tenancy Design Guide
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/solutions/Enterprise/Data_Center/Virtualization/securecldg_V2.html
The following VMDC solution document provide additional details on the solution:
Cisco VMDC 1.1 Design and Deployment Guide
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/solutions/Enterprise/Data_Center/VMDC/vmdcDdg11.pdf
Cisco VMDC Solution Overview
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns340/ns517/ns224/solution_overview_c22-602978.html
Cisco VMDC Solution White Paper
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns340/ns517/ns224/ns836/white_paper_c11-604559.html
About Cisco Validated Designs
The Cisco Validated Design Program consists of systems and solutions designed, tested, and documented to facilitate faster, more reliable, and more predictable customer deployments. For more information visit www.cisco.com/go/validateddesigns.
ALL DESIGNS, SPECIFICATIONS, STATEMENTS, INFORMATION, AND RECOMMENDATIONS (COLLECTIVELY, "DESIGNS") IN THIS MANUAL ARE PRESENTED "AS IS," WITH ALL FAULTS. CISCO AND ITS SUPPLIERS DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT OR ARISING FROM A COURSE OF DEALING, USAGE, OR TRADE PRACTICE. IN NO EVENT SHALL CISCO OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, LOST PROFITS OR LOSS OR DAMAGE TO DATA ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE DESIGNS, EVEN IF CISCO OR ITS SUPPLIERS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
THE DESIGNS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE. USERS ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR APPLICATION OF THE DESIGNS. THE DESIGNS DO NOT CONSTITUTE THE TECHNICAL OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL ADVICE OF CISCO, ITS SUPPLIERS OR PARTNERS. USERS SHOULD CONSULT THEIR OWN TECHNICAL ADVISORS BEFORE IMPLEMENTING THE DESIGNS. RESULTS MAY VARY DEPENDING ON FACTORS NOT TESTED BY CISCO.