Technical data

DATA CENTER and CAMPUS NETWORKS DEPLOYMENT GUIDE
Deploying Brocade Networks with Microsoft Lync Server 2010 31 of 52
In addition, the Brocade NetIron MLX switches will be configured for only Layer 3 and will include features such as
OSPF, LACP LAGs, and VRRP-e. Each Brocade NetIron MLX will have two separate LAGs with a 2 × 10 GbE LACP LAG
to each aggregation switch. OSPF will maintain the link state information and provide redundancy in case of a switch
failure.
The Fabrikam New York sales office will use the Brocade FastIron Super X as the core. Due to the size of the office,
there is no separation of the data center and campus LAN. The Brocade FastIron Super X will be running Layer 3 with
all the same functions as the Brocade NetIron MLX.
The features included in the core to meet the demands of Microsoft Lync Server 2010 are as follows:
• VRRP-e. This feature provides redundancy to routers with a LAN. Clients configure their default gateway
to the virtual router ID. This enables the client to maintain connectivity if a Brocade NetIron MLX
goes offline.
• OSPF. The core routers need to be configured with OSPF for both internal and external routes. OSPF
gathers link state information from available routers and constructs a topology map of the network.
• LAGs. The team decided to enable two separate LAGs. Each LAG will be a 2 × 10 GbE LACP LAG to
adjacent switches. By enabling the LAG, you can effectively provide 20 GbE of bandwidth between the
switches and provide redundancy if one or more ports goes offline.
• QoS ACLs. Ensure that the QoS enabled at the access layer is maintained.
Aggregation
The aggregation layer is also very important in the network architecture, because it is the bridge between the data
center and campus LAN access and core layers. The main Fabrikam offices (San Jose, Seattle, and Austin) will use
the Brocade FastIron Super X as aggregation switches running Layer 3 OSPF up to the core and Layer 2 to the
access layer. Brocade FastIron Super X switches will include the Layer 3 features OSPF, LACP, and QoS. In addition,
they will have the following Layer 2 features:
• VLAN. Fabrikam has decided to create separate VLANs for the different types of traffic. Client data
traffic, which includes Live Communications Manager traffic, will run on VLAN 10. Pure VoIP traffic,
which includes Polycom CX600 phones, will run on VLAN 20. Monitoring traffic will run on VLAN 30.
• Traffic Rate Limiting. Even though Fabrikam has made voice and video a higher priority than typical
day-to-day traffic, it wants to be sure that video does not consume all the available bandwidth. Since
video, especially HD video, is bandwidth-demanding, Fabrikam has decided to limit the bandwidth
available to video use traffic shaping on the Brocade switches. However, if video does reach its allotted
bandwidth, and there is additional bandwidth available, then the Brocade switches will apply best effort
to the remaining packets.
• Per VLAN Spanning Tree. Per VLAN Spanning Tree will be enabled on each VLAN. PVST allows each
VLAN to have its own Root Bridge. This ensures that if any switch goes offline, alternate paths are
available for the traffic flow. On each interface that is connected to an adjacent switch, use the
command admin-pt2pt-mac to decrease the convergence time of Spanning Tree to a few milliseconds
and allow voice and video calls to maintain state if a switch goes offline.
• QoS ACLs. Ensure that the QoS enabled at the access layer is maintained.
The aggregation layer is also the layer to which load balancers and firewalls are connected.
Access
The access layer is the layer in which the endpoints connect laptops and desktops from the campus LAN and servers
from the data center. Fabrikam has decided to use 48-port Brocade FCX switches with PoE at the access layer for
the campus LAN and 48-port Brocade FCX switches without PoE for the data center. The Brocade FCX is designed for
wire-speed and non-blocking performance.