Connecting Private Cloud Appliance to the Data Center Network
Before powering on the Private Cloud Appliance for the first time, ensure that the necessary network cable connections have been installed between the appliance rack and the data center network devices.
For external connectivity, 5 ports are reserved on each spine switch. Four ports are available to establish the uplinks between the appliance and the data center network; one port is reserved to optionally segregate the administration network from the data traffic.
If administration traffic is physically segregated, the administration network and the data network can be configured at different speeds. For example, you can configure your administration network to operate at 10Gbit, and your data network to operate at 40Gbit.
Peer connections between Private Cloud Appliance systems are not covered here. See Establishing a Peer Connection.
On each spine switch, ports 1 to 4 can be used for uplinks to the data center network. For speeds of 10Gbps or 25Gbps, the spine switch port must be split using a 4-way splitter or breakout cable. For higher speeds of 40Gbps or 100Gbps each switch port uses a single direct cable connection. For more information, see Uplinks.
At a minimum, you must connect 1 port on each spine switch, which provides a single high bandwidth, high availability network for the administration and data traffic.
Use the following table to determine the correct configuration for your environment.
It is critical that both spine switches have a connection to a pair of next-level data center switches. This configuration provides redundancy and load splitting at the level of the spine switches and the data center switches. The cabling pattern is essential to the continuation of service during failover scenarios.
|
Use Case |
Network Speed |
Cables Required |
Ports |
Administration Network Port |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Minimum Configuration |
10Gbit or 25Gbit |
2 splitter cables |
Port 1 on each spine switch |
Not Used |
|
Minimum Configuration |
40Gbit or 100Gbit |
2 direct cables |
Port 1 on each spine switch |
Not Used |
|
Minimum Configuration with Administration Network |
10Gbit or 25Gbit |
4 splitter cables |
Port 1 on each spine switch |
Port 5 on each spine switch |
|
Minimum Configuration with Administration Network |
40Gbit or 100Gbit |
4 direct cables |
Port 1 on each spine switch |
Port 5 on each spine switch |
|
Maximum Configuration |
10Gbit or 25Gbit |
8 splitter cables |
Ports 1-4 on each spine switch |
Not Used |
|
Maximum Configuration |
40Gbit or 100Gbit |
8 direct cables |
Ports 1-4 on each spine switch |
Not Used |
|
Maximum Configuration with Administration Network |
10Gbit or 25Gbit |
10 splitter cables |
Ports 1-4 on each spine switch |
Port 5 on each spine switch |
|
Maximum Configuration with Administration Network |
40Gbit or 100Gbit |
10 direct cables |
Ports 1-4 on each spine switch |
Port 5 on each spine switch |