Vplex metro - options for connecting vplex clusters ...

HI Anil

Hope all is well.

Cisco OTV stands for "Overlay Transport Virtualization" which is technology to interconnect two data centers over layer 2. The purpose in very high level terms is to join seperate Data Centers and make them appear as one.

OTV enables Layer 2 extension between data centers over a Layer 2 or Layer 3 data center interconnect (DCI). The aggregation tier contains the functional elements to provide DCI.

OTV is not a requirement for VPLEX.

However if you are going to to deliver the all the benefits of a VMWARE HA environment with VPLEX then you will need OTV or similar to make the Data Centers appear as one.

In traditional DR environments Each DC would have an IP range associated with it. However when an applications fails from DC 1 to DC2 to the IP address will more than likely need to change. Making the recovery process a little more complicated.

With VPLEX the concept of Active Passive Data Centres is now longer a concern as either DC can be active. VPLEX delivers a true active active environment with all the benefits i.e. load balancing, Continuous Availability etc.

Take a typical environment 2 x DC. To have a Virtual Machine live migrate from DC 1 to DC 2 with VPLEX then a stretched VLAN is required

From a VMWARE HA perspective you would need a stretched VLAN that covers both DC so that if a Virtual Machine is moved from DC 1 to DC 2 its IP address will remain the same. Without a stretched VLAN this is more complicated to achieve.

Brocade have a similar technology called VXLAN which provides similar functionality as Cisco OTV

Some useful reading can be found here

Extend Layer 2 applications across distributed DC

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/data-center-virtualization/overlay-transport-virtualization-otv/index.html

Cisco Overlay Transport Virtualization FAQ

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/switches/nexus-7000-series-switches/qa_c67-574969.html

Using OTV to Extend Layer 2 between Two Data Centers

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/switches/nexus-7000-series-switches/white_paper_c11-644634.html

OTV Technology Introduction and Deployment Considerations

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/solutions/Enterprise/Data_Center/DCI/whitepaper/DCI3_OTV_Intro/DCI_1.html

Hopefully this will get you pointed in the right direction. Any further questions reply to this thread

Kind Regards,

Tadhg

Thanks for the nice reply.

One more query...

Lets forget about the Host side and the stretch LAN for VMWARE HA..

For VPLEX setup in two remote DC. What technologies we can use for VPLEX to VPLEX cluster SAN data traffic.

I guess it would be same like we have requirements for SRDF implementation interns of  FC connectivity over WAN or other dark fiber options like DWDN or SONNET.

Please share your thoughts....

Hi Anil

There are two choices of connecting VPLEX Metro

Clusters in a VPLEX Metro can be connected by either Fibre Channel (8 Gbps) or Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE).

When you order your VPLEX solution you have a choice of Fibre or Gigabit Ethernet connectivity and the EMC SA will advise based on your current DC connectivity

But in summary its the same requirements essentially as for SRDF if you have that in place currently

For more detailed information please see

h13552-vplex-ip-networking-best-practices from support.emc.com

vplex-san-connectivity-best-practices from support.emc.com

Any additional questions please reply to this thread

Kind Regards,

Tadhg