Direct Connect WP

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SYSTIMAX Solutions

Direct Connect: A Cabling Architecturefor Small and Medium Data Centers

White paperFrank Yang, Data Center Business UnitCommScope, Inc, June 2010


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I. Executive summa 2

II. Achitectue 3

III. Use cases 5Desin 5Hoizontal distibution aea (HDA) 6Cable pathwa 7Equipment distibution aea (EDA) 9

IV. Applications 10Seve vitualization and cloud computin 10Hih peomance computin (HPC) 10

V. Conclusions 11

Contents


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I. Executive Summa

Business pessues and Data Cente constaints have diven the Data Cente to tansom om ataditional, iid stuctue to an ecient, fexible envionment. Oanizations ae now equippedto bette suppot owth and innovation, inteate acquisitions, and educe costs and isks

while stivin to achieve the next eneation Data Cente.

This white pape suves a popula connectivit model - Diect Connect cablin achitectue.In Diect Connect achitectue, all netwokin equipment, e.. LAN and SAN switches,ae located at a centalized place. All seves and stoae devices ae connected to thecentalized location thouh stuctued cablin. Diect Connect achitectue is well suited osmalle and medium Data Centes.

A summa o the advantaes and disadvantaes o the Diect Connect achitectue isdisplaed in the table below.

TABLE 1: ADVANTAgES AND DISADVANTAgES O THE DIrECT CONNECTCABLINg ArCHITECTUrE

Pros Cons

DirectConnect

Simple to design, implement, and maintain Minimized network bottlenecks Excellent switch port utilization Easy network device management

Lack of scalability Large cable bundles Difculties in cable pathway design Cable management

The Diect Connect achitectue is widel applied in vaious Data Cente tpes. A numbeo best pactices ae selected to illustate the achitectue. The achitectue can be utilized tosuppot applications such as seve vitualization Cloud Computin and Hih PeomanceComputin.

CommScopes ull potolio o connectivit solutions can ulll Data Cente customes needswhen choosin the Diect Connect achitectue. CommScope ecommends the Diect Connectcablin achitectue o small and medium Data Centes.


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II. Achitectue

The Diect Connect cablin achitectue is populal utilized in small and medium Data Centes. Theimplementation o this cablin achitectue is commonl seen in stoae netwoks also, paticulal inStoae Aea Netwoks (SANs) and Netwok Attached Stoae (NAS) implementations.

The Diect Connect cablin achitectue entails seves that ae connected to switcheslocated in a centalized Main Distibution Aea (MDA) o Hoizontal Distibution Aea (HDA),dependin on Data Cente size and complexit.

In the Diect Connect model, cables un om all seve and stoae cabinets at EquipmentDistibution Aeas (EDA) diectl to the MDA/HDA, as shown in iue 1. The e linesepesent coppe twisted pai cable and ma be CommScope giaSPEED X10D o XLsolutions. The blue lines stand o be optic cables and ma be CommScope LazSPEED,InstaPATCH 360, TeaSPEED solutions.

IgUrE 1: PHySICAL TOPOLOgy O DIrECT CONNECT CABLINg ArCHITECTUrE

A netwok topolo o the Diect Connect achitectue is povided in iue 2. The ed lines iniue 2 denote coppe twisted pai cables while the blue lines epesent be optic cables.

The Diect Connect achitectue is simple to desin and eas to implement and maintain. Itpovides the most ecient use o LAN and SAN switch pots because most switch pots aeo seves and stoae to access netwoks. Top o rack o Zone achitectues eplicate accessswitches in man locations esultin in moe unutilized switch pots. Switch pot utilization can

impact the oveall cost o implementin a Data Cente netwok.

All seves and stoae devices ae diectl connected to the coe/aeation switches.The Diect Connect appoach emoves the need o an additional lae o switchin betweenseves and the netwok coe. The benet o this achitectue minimizes netwok bottlenecks andlatenc between seves and stoae. The achitectue also povides tiht contol o phsicalaccess as all switchin equipment is centall located in one phsical location. An advantaeo the achitectue is that it equies less capital expenditue on netwokin equipment than theothe two cablin achitectues.


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The lack o scalabilit is a disadvantae with the Diect Connect achitectue. When moeseves and stoae ae installed cable bulk inceases. Lae cable bundles could causediculties in cable pathwa desin, cable installation and manaement, and can cause

conestion in coolin ai ciculation unde the aised foo (i utilized).

IgUrE 2: LOgIC TOPOLOgy O DIrECT CONNECT CABLINg ArCHITECTUrE


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III.Use Cases

To uthe illustate the Diect Connect achitectue, the ollowin best pactices ae identied.

Desin

A compute manuactue in the Noth Ameica reion (NAr) desined one o its Data Centesusin the Diect Connect achitectue, as shown in iue 3. All Coe and Access Ethenetswitches ae centall located at one side o the Data Cente. The netwok ow is denoted ba ow o oane ectanles. The liht een ectanles in ows epesent seve cabinets. TheData Cente has 240 seve cabinets. The smalle ed boxes with PP stand o patch panelsinstalled in each seve cabinet.

This custome selected the Diect Connect achitectue because it is eas to desin, implementand maintain, and it povides excellent pot utilization and netwok peomance.

IgUrE 3: A DATA CENTEr O A COMPUTEr MANUACTUrEr


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Hoizontal Distibution Aea (HDA)

A media compan in the Asia Pacic reion has a Data Cente o appoximatel 100

seve cabinets. A netwok ow is located in the middle o the Data Cente. The back viewo the netwok ow is shown in iue 4. The netwok ow is the HDA o the Data Cente.In this example, enclosed netwok cabinets instead o acks ae used in ode to ain bettecontol o phsical access to the switches. The Data Cente uses CommScope giaSPEED XLcoppe cablin solutions. A compellin eason o the end use to choose the Diect Connectachitectue is that it is eas to desin and implement.

IgUrE 4: THE HDA O A MEDIA COMPANyS DATA CENTEr


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Cable Pathwa

Stuctued cables om HDA to EDA can un eithe in ovehead space, unde aised foo, o

both. These two appoaches ae widel used aound the wold. Dieent eions ma havethei peeences based on the phsical attibutes o the space the ae usin.

With the ovehead appoach, the ceilin heiht o the Data Cente buildin must be thoouhlexamined thouh the entie white space. I the ceilin is hih enouh, multilae installationis ecommended as shown in iue 5. The uppe lae ladde ack caies be optic cableswhile the second lae ladde ack holds coppe cables.

IgUrE 5: STrUCTUrED CABLES IN OVErHEAD SPACE


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iue 6 shows the appoach o utilizin the space unde a aised foo to deplo stuctueddata cablin. Beside data cablin, the space unde a aised foo can be utilized toaccommodate coolin ai pathwa, chilled wate o othe utilit pipelines, powe cable

conduits and oundin id.

IgUrE 6: STrUCTUrED CABLES UNDEr A rAISED LOOr


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Equipment Distibution Aea (EDA)

A best pactice o cablin in seve cabinets in the EDA is shown in iue 7. It is in a Data

Cente o a health cae poduct manuactue in Noth Ameica. The Data Cente has moe than100 seve cabinets. The end use wants to have complete contol, monitoin and manaemento the Data Cente o accuate executions o wok odes. The Data Cente administato alsodesies to pecisel locate phsical assets and tace Keboad/Video/Mouse (KVM) connectionsin seve cabinets. The equiements o this Data Cente seek the benets o deploin theiPatch sstem in eve seve cabinet as shown in the ue. In this pactice, iPatch IntellientInastuctue Solution patch panels ae installed on top o each seve cabinet.

IgUrE 7: SErVEr CABINETS O A HEALTH CArE PrODUCT MANUACTUrEr

Anothe best pactice shown in iue 8 has a patch panel installed inside each seve cabinet.The patch panel sits at the top o each cabinet and aces the cabinet ea o hot aisle. Theue cleal shows how the hoizontal cable entes into the cabinet om the ovehead spaceand is nicel outed alon the side panel. The Data Cente in iue 8 belons to an IT sevicecompan in the Cental Ameica and Latin Ameica (CALA) eion.

IgUrE 8: SErVEr CABINETS O AN IT SErVICE COMPANy


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IV. Applications

Seve Vitualization and Cloud Computin

Seve vitualization uses sotwae to tansom o vitualize the hadwae esouces o a

compute to ceate a ull unctional vitual machine. Seve vitualization o vitual machine hasbecome an established tend o deploin computin powe.

Cloud Computin is the use o netwoked and shaed inastuctue (seve, netwok andstoae) and sotwae to povide esouces to uses in an on-demand envionment. It is alsocalled utilit computin sometimes. Clouds povide a set o tpicall vitual machines whichcan povide uses with the abilit to stat and stop seves o use compute ccles onl whenneeded, oten pain onl upon usae

Seve vitualization equies a fat netwok to implement vi tual machine mobilit, such asVMotion. A fat netwok is a sinle boadcast domain. In a fat netwok all seve hosts cancommunicate with each othe without oin thouh a oute. A fat netwok can be a phsicalLAN o a vitual LAN (VLAN).

The Diect Connect cablin achitectue natuall oms a fat netwok o LAN. As shown iniue 2, the lae white squae in which computes ae located can be a fat LAN. Vitualmachines can be easil moved acoss phsical machines in a fat netwok envionment.

The Diect Connect achitectue phsicall oanizes seve hosts and stoae devices in apool. Pooled computin and stoae esouces povide the undamental inastuctue o CloudComputin applications.

Hih Peomance Computin (HPC)

Hih peomance computin (HPC) is the use o paallel pocessin o unnin advancedapplication poams ecientl, eliabl and quickl. The poams o HPC ae divided intolittle pieces so that each piece can be executed simultaneousl b sepaate pocessos. Thetem HPC is occasionall used as a snonm o supecomputin.

HPC equies a eat amount o paallel computin, which equies low latenccommunications amon seves. One o the chaacteistics o the Diect Connect achitectue isthat thee is onl one hop o switchin between an two seves. This achitectue minimizes thelatenc in the communications between an two seve hosts. With 10g Ethenet technoloiesavailable toda, the Diect Connect achitectue can povide an excellent choice o lowlatenc, hih peomance computin applications.


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2011 CommScope, Inc. All ihts eseved.

All tademaks identied b o ae eisteed tademaks otademaks, espectivel, o CommScope, Inc.

This document is o plannin puposes onl and is not intendedto modi o supplement an specications o waantieselatin to CommScope poducts o sevices.

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The Diect Connect cablin achitectue is one o the thee pima cablin achitectues inData Cente envionment, povidin simplicit in desin, implementation and manaement.With the limitation o scalabilit, the Diect Connect achitectue is well suited o small

and medium Data Centes and is widel deploed aound the wold. The Diect Connectachitectue can suppot Vitualization, Cloud Computin, and HPC alon with man otheapplications. CommScope ecommends the Diect Connect cablin achitectue o smalland medium Data Centes.

V. Conclusions

Documents

Direct Connect WP