The Requirements for Cluster Management
- Simplify initial bring up
- Streamline Installation and Operations
- Repeatability of deployment and configuration
- Flexibility to mix and match different switches based on speed and desired connectivity requirements
- Redundant Control/Data-Plane
- Campus-wide distributed cluster with LR fiber links
- Open Standards based and non-proprietary solution
- Deployment in existing L2 or L3 customer topologies
The Solution - Cluster Configurator
- Single Management IP
- Single CLI shell for all switches
- No OOB connectivity required for leafs
- Commands to configure and manage cluster operations
- Aggregation and relay of Syslog and SNMP
- Centrally managed SSH, NTP etc. configurations
- Single point of failure resiliency
- Redundant Configuration-Plane
- Redundant Control/Data-Plane
- Auto/ZTP provisioning for scaling and replacements with no downtime
- Simplified Licensing
- Web Interface
CC - The Open Switch Cluster deployment, configuration and management solution
- The CC application delivers a flexible and scalable approach to address customer networking port aggregation requirements
- CC simplifies customer deployment and operational workflows
- MLAG Spine & Leaf Topology, reduces dependency on STP and increases link utilization
- Standardized template for MLAG deployment making for easy deployment and troubleshooting, key for modular repeatability in an enterprise scale deployment
- L2 Rapid PVST or L3 OSPF/BGP network boundary on the cluster spine switches connecting to the upstream aggregation/core network
Cluster Configurator (CC) Benefit Summary
Greater Availability: Enabling MLAG technology increases network availability and redundancy. Reduces network downtime and enables undisrupted business operations.
Better Performance: The ability to span access and aggregation network tiers and interconnect n-number of switches in deployments with the ability to do easy sparing of leaf switches.
Scalability and Flexibility: Pay-as-you-grow scalability on fixed configuration switches -- from 1GbE to 100GbE allows flexible growth as network requirements follow the ASICs performance curve.
Dual Control Plane implementation: Leverage PICA8’s CrossFlow functionality that enables OpenFlow/OVS to exert control on active L2/L3 ports without impacting network traffic.
Large Product Portfolio: Choice of different deployment configurations, offering different switch platforms with varying bandwidth and port density options. No vendor lock-in, no vendor-imposed scale limitations.
Orchestration and Management: Auto detection and provisioning for new switches allowing configuration updates across the stack through a single operation and centralized CLI using a single IP address.
Resiliency and Redundancy: Automatic switch failover in a fully resilient deployment. No dependency on any protocol requiring re-convergence. Uses SSH for secure connection between the nodes and LLDP for neighbor discovery.
Backup & Restore: Ability to perform up to 3 backups and restore in addition to factory default rollback behavior.
Log Aggregation: Provides aggregated Syslog and SNMP capability which can be also relayed to external servers.
Reduced OpEx/CapEx: Network OpEx and CapEx plummets, even compared to heavily discounted legacy alternatives.
Open Networking: Simple, Economical, Vendor agnostic, Flexible, Modular solution that leverages no proprietary protocols or applications and delivers a fully programmable and extensible networking platform.