Category Archives: SAN / WAN - Page 5

Cisco Smart Zoning: is it really worth the effort? YES!

Posted by on February 18, 2015 1 comment

It’s been available since NX-OS 5.2(6), but is the community ready for a change? It seems the majority of SAN managers are still afraid to start using it, but why? the concept is so simple: it looks like the infamous “default zone” has made it’s way back to the storage area network, but with a twist.

Default zoning

When I was introduced to the world of Fibre Channel, over ten years ago, I remember going through the automatic steps of setting up a freshly powered-on SAN-switch and disabling the default zone, because that one makes that all initiators and targets can communicate with each other. And two initiators talking to each other is not done, because on the midrange arrays an initiator (used for data replication) can also be a target and you don’t want ports logging into each other.

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Cisco releases update for its SAN switches to fix the Shellshock aka Bashbug

Posted by on November 18, 2014 No comments
Cisco MDS

Although I was triggered by a daily update I received from EMC in this knowledge base article: https://support.emc.com/kb/194669, it was Cisco who finally published an update for various firmwares that did not have a fix yet for the shellshock aka bashbug.
You can find all Release Notes on the Cisco site at http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/storage-networking/mds-9000-nx-os-san-os-software/products-release-notes-list.html.
The EMC version of the Release Notes can be found here:

If you haven’t upgraded yet, I’d plan to do so in the very near future!

Software-Defined Data Center Symposium 2014

Posted by on March 24, 2014 1 comment
SDDC 2014

Tech Field Day plans SDDC Symposium

Being part of the SFD5 gang I was invited to join the Software-Defined Datacenter Symposium as well! This event will feature many key figures from the industry and end-user community, and will include discussions of OpenFlow, software-defined networking (SDN), software-defined storage, converged infrastructure, and the greater software-defined future!

Note that the event capacity is severely constrained. Therefore, the SDDC Symposium is focusing on end-user implementors and encouraging others to participate online by viewing the live video stream on this page!

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Will the new WiFi super antenna change the world?

Posted by on February 17, 2014 2 comments

A Dutch invention will change the WiFi world drastically

At least, that’s what Roel Pieper and Marcel Boekhoorn are convinced of. The revolutionary super antenna should cause all problems concerning the reach of indoor WiFi signals to disappear. Furthermore this new product is supposed to make an end to wireless antennas interfering with each other’s frequencies and smartphones will get a better reception because of this new invention. The new antenna should be better and more advanced than anything else currently known to mankind. On average a smart phone needs about seven different antennas, but with the new invention only a single one is needed. And on top of this using the new antenna more data can be sent and received compared to the existing ones.

Mathematical super-formula

Boekhoorn and Pieper worked together in a company called “Antenna Company”, which will produce these next-gen antennas. The technique is based on a mathematical super-formula made up by Professor Gielis and it’s called the “Super-formula“.

Roel Pieper is appointed as the CEO of the “Antenna Company” and they’re already talking to various multinationals about applying the antenna in cell phones, cars and routers according to the Dutch newspaper “de Telegraaf”. Other applications could be airplanes, medical equipment, weaponry and radar systems, but other equipment that needs to communicate with other equipment, such as central heating thermostats.

World hit

Antenna Company “promises to be my most successful company ever”, according to Boekhoorn in an exclusive interview by Quote. The 3D-optimized antenna can potentially make billions of Euros. “This super antenna will be a hit.” HTC, LG and Samsung are potential customers according to the billionaire. The Antenna Company is already talking to several of these multinationals. Even Cisco is supposedly interested.

High Tech Campus

Production of these super-antennas will start in March. The Antenna Company will settle at the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven in the Netherlands. The Head Quarters is formally located on Curacao. Exactly how much Boekhoorn has invested in the project, he’s unwilling to say..

 

Source: http://www.it-infra.nl/default.aspx?page=7364

Which Cisco NX-OS should I use?

Posted by on February 12, 2014 No comments

This time a really short reminder-like post. Somehow I often end up trying to locate certain release notes of various equipment, but Cisco organized theirs for the SAN switches in an orderly manner: Release Notes

Every NX-OS version is listed here and in each all supported equipment is named. I found this to be very helpful.