Most engineers in the channel utilize a tool called the Dynamic Configuration Tool. This allows you to take a product, configure it with all of its software, hardware and licensing options, give it a sanity check and then output a spreadsheet. You then take spreadsheet and combine it with the other hardware in your design to create what is called a Bill of Materials (commonly referred to as a BOM). The challenge here is if you only use the Dynamic Configuration Tool, you will not see the storage specific options for the Nexus family of Data Center switches.

The solution is to use a tool called the Multi-line Configurator. In the video below, I will show you how to use this tool to create a working Nexus 5000 BOM for your customers. (for fullscreen hover your mouse over the video and click on the “X” next to the vimeo link.)

Normally I don’t discuss channel specific topics on this blog, but my fear is that other engineers in the channel may fumble when creating BOM’s around Nexus, and otherwise tarnish a really good product. Since channel specific topics is new to this blog, it would help me out if you could ping me if you found this useful. Depending on the response I receive I will start sprinkling in more of channel partner specific content in the future.
Similar Posts:

• Cisco Unified Computing System Quoting and Configuration with Netformx
• Me and the Nexus 7000 last week at the Data Center VT
• Link Round Up – L2TPv3 FCOE Trill Wounded Warriors
• Nexus 5020 – Consolidated 10 Gig Ethernet and 4 Gig Fibre Channel
• Cisco EMC and VMware partneship VCE VBlocks Acadia and the Partner Ecosystem
• Twitter Updates for 2008-06-05

--Colin McNamara

Cisco Nexus 5020 and 5010 FCOE video ordering guide

He writes about “the VLAN leaking myth” and how it encourages clients to utilize physically separate network infrastructure in the DMZ’s. Now first things first, I wouldn’t call VLAN leaking a myth. At one time it was a very real and serious vulnerability that was exploited by overflowing the capacity of the switch you were attacking, and causing it to “downgrade” from switch to a hub. Once this happened you now had access to previously protected devices, as well as having the ability to sniff data as it passed through the shared hub backplane.

As he mentions though, this is 8 years ago. Most switches have evolved to the point where backplanes far exceed the traffic that could ever be injected into their switchports. Even beyond backplane enhancements there are many ways to further firm up your security stance – Virtual Device Contexts, not using Layer 3 SVI’s on a DMZ VLAN, utilizing PVLANs, using port security, virtual routing instances, and many more. Of course, there are still many other attack vectors that still remain, but can be mitigated by utilizing features built into the majority of enterprise switches available today.

I think the real question is not “are VLANs safe in a DMZ”. The important question is have you mitigated the probability of compromise (the actual threat) to levels that are acceptable to your business. This question remains whether you have a standalone switch or not. So many times we hear about risk risk and more risk. But risk alone is meaningless in a business context. What is important is combining risk with likelihood. For that I like to use a simple table to come up with the true threat.

For example, as I drive to Fry’s there is the risk of me dying due to a car crash. The impact of me dying is very high (risk) however the likelihood of an accident is low, and furthermore I reduce (mitigate) the latent risk (threat) by wearing my seat belt. So all in all the threat of me dying on my way to Fry’s is pretty darn low.

In a business context this may be that I have public facing web servers and network devices in my DMZ. The impact of them being compromised is that my public image may be tarnished for a short time, and my end users may lose productivity if they are not able to VPN into work, or access the Internet while on premise. I mitigate this risk by using firewalls and both host and network based Intrusion Prevention Systems as well as implementing best security practices on my network and systems devices. The latent risk (threat) remaining is at a level that is acceptable to the business leaders, so the system is allowed.

One question that I have seen coming up more often as we move towards fully virtualized data centers is centered around commingling of virtual infrastructure. There are some hard questions which challenge some practices that we have held true over the years.

• Should you allow sharing of physical memory on a host virtual machine between an internal and DMZ server?
• Should you allow virtual infrastructure from multiple security zones to share a storage array or cluster of arrays?
• Should you allow multiple virtual switches in different security zones commingling on the same ESX or Hyper-V cluster?
• Should you allow virtual firewall and load balancing instances protecting internal and external zones to reside on the same hardware?
• Should you allow virtual routing instances from multiple zones to share a physical infrastructure?

In the past world of standalone systems, the additional cost of providing a wholly separate infrastructure for DMZ environments was relatively low. Each system generally had internal disk, or at most direct attached storage. Network devices themselves were scaled down to support one chassis one function. This fit quite neatly into the Enterprise Composite Network model that was quite common from 1999-2003.

Now, many data centers have moved to the Service Oriented Network Architecture (SONA). In this model the cost of a virtualized data center is primarily focused on foundation elements such as the virtual storage and virtual fabrics, virtualized network, and virtual systems elements. The cost of providing additional virtualized services off these elements is low, however the cost of duplicating the physical infrastructure is quite high on both the capital and operational levels. This is forcing the technical and executive leadership at many companies to take a long hard look at the true threats they are facing in previously physically separate security zones such as DMZ’s, Financial and other secure zones. In the end, they are having to decide whether the threat remaining after their security controls is worth duplicating hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of infrastructure or not.

These are hard questions, with really no single good answer. My gut feel is that over the next few years we will continue the move towards the fully virtualized data center where components such as memory, PCI-X buses, storage and network devices are even further decentralized. This will make the cost of duplicating the infrastructure more and more significant, causing consolidated data center (or compute) fabrics to be the norm. At this point the discussion will move away from securing zones by creating separate infrastructure, to providing end to end security, starting integrated application level security, maybe with TrustSec or a dirivative, all the way down to securing the data at rest on disk. For the time being however, the best we can do is sit down and do an honest appraisel of our security stances, mitigate what we can, and do our best to design data center architectures that provide the flexibility of implementing whatever choice the technical and business leaders agree on.Similar Posts:

• Moving towards a Green Data Center – Truth behind the hype
• Cisco’s Cloud Computing Offering
• About Colin McNamara
• Simplifying remote site security with Cisco’s new video surveillance modules on the ISR
• Interesting TechWise TV episode on virtualization
• Cisco releases Nexus 1000V virtual switch for VMware

--Colin McNamara

Measuring and mitigating risk involved with sharing virtual infrastructure between DMZ and Internal environments

UPDATE  – Sorry for the RSS spam, I have been playing with twitter (and frankly am failing to see its draw) and setup twitter tools to integrate my blog with my twitter microblog. I apparently left the create daily twitter summaries on. My appologies for the RSS spam.

–ColinSimilar Posts:

• Fibre Channel over Ethernet is taking off
• Cisco Nexus 5020 and 5010 FCOE video ordering guide
• Nexus 5020 – Consolidated 10 Gig Ethernet and 4 Gig Fibre Channel
• Cisco Unified Computing System Quoting and Configuration with Netformx
• Is your network ready for Cloud Computing with Virtual Infrastructure 4?
• Cisco Nexus 7000 DataCenter switch released – Welcome to DataCenter 3.0

--Colin McNamara

Twitter Updates for 2008-06-05

This switch answers a fundamental problem that has been presented by blade centers and VMware. The problem is increasing density of 10 Gig Ethernet, as well as the creation of SAN islands to provide storage access to VMware ESX clusters.  The nexus 5020 provides a solution that address both of these challenges, as well as supporting Fibre Channel Over Ethernet (FCOE) for the eventual move to a consolidated data center fabric in the years to come.

Want to learn more ?

Mastering VMware Infrastructure

Nexus 5020 Video Data Sheet

Unified Data Center Fabric whitepaperSimilar Posts:

• Cisco Nexus 7000 DataCenter switch released – Welcome to DataCenter 3.0
• Cisco Nexus 4000 Blade Switch
• Simplifying your Data Center with Cisco’s Nexus 2000 Fabric Extender (FEX)
• Fibre Channel over Ethernet is taking off
• Is your network ready for Cloud Computing with Virtual Infrastructure 4?
• Cisco releases Nexus 1000V virtual switch for VMware

--Colin McNamara

Nexus 5020 – Consolidated 10 Gig Ethernet and 4 Gig Fibre Channel

CERTIFICATIONS / ACCREDITATIONS HELD

CCIE – Cisco Systems Internetwork Expert #18233

VCP – VMware Certified Professional

CDCUCSS – Cisco Data Center Unified Computing Support Specialist

VSP – VMware Sales Professional

VTSP – VMware Technical Sales Professional

TSS – Cisco Technical Solutions Specialist, Data Center

GCIH – GIAC Certified Incident Handler

CCVP – Cisco Certified Voice Professional

CSNSSS – Cisco Storage Networking Solutions Support Specialist

CSNSDS – Cisco Storage Network Solutions Design Specialist

CADCNSS – Cisco Advanced Data Center Networking Infrastructure Support Specialist

CCIE Storage Networking

RHCE – Redhat Certified Engineer #804006368822511

RHCT – Redhat Certified Technician #804006368822511

EMCPA – EMC Proven Professional Associate – Information Storage and Management

NSCA – Netscaler Certified Administrator #2005072

NACE – Network Appliance Certified Expert #12912

NACP – Network Appliance Certified Professional #12017 – Data Protection

NACP – Network Appliance Certified Professional #11985 – Storage Area Network

NACP – Network Appliance Certified Professional #12911 – High Availability

Retired Certifications -

Cisco Qualified Specialist – IP Telephony Support

Cisco Qualified Specialist – IP Telephony Design

Cisco Qualified Specialist – IP Telephony Operations

Cisco Wireless LAN Design Specialist

Cisco Wireless LAN Support Specialist

TECHNICAL PROFICIENCY

PROTOCOL PROFICIENCY

EIGRP, OSPF, RIP, BGP, MPLS,  Spanning Tree, Rapid Spanning Tree, ATM, RTP, SIP, H.323, LWAPP, RADIUS, TACACS+, Ethernet, Fibre Channel, ISCSI, FCIP, FCP, FSPF, NDMP 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, RBE, ISDN, SNMP

Virtualization Platforms

VMware ESX, Kernel Virtual Machine, Xen

VOICE and VOICE OVER IP

CallManager, Unity, ICS7750, PBX Trunking, SRST, Active Directory Integration, Extended Services, Call Detail Recording, Automated Attendant, Extension, Mobility, Asterisk, Callware and VSR VM.

HARDWARE

Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) 6100, 2100, 5100, Nexus 7000, Nexus 5000, Nexus 2000 and Nexus 1000v switches, Catalyst 1900-6509 switches, 1600-7500 series routers, Cisco PIX firewalls, Cisco Load Balancers, Cisco MDS , F5 Load Balancers, Netscreen / Juniper Firewalls, Cisco VPN3000 VPN concentrators, Cisco ASA Adaptive Security Appliances, Nortel Contivity VPN Concentrators, Aironet Access Points and Bridges, Airespace LWAPP concentrators. 3com TotalConnect racks, Ascend dial concentrators, Netscaler Load balancers, SSL accelerators, SSL VPN concentrators. Brocade Silkworm, HP Eva Storage

NETWORK MANAGEMENT

Nagios, Cacti, NTOP, IPswitch What’s Up Gold, BIG Brother, Spectrum Network Management, Kiwi Syslog,, MRTG , HP OpenView, Cisco Secure Intrusion Detection system, Cisco Network Based Application Recognition, Snort IDS, Netscreen Firewall Manager, Unified Compute System Manager

OPERATING SYSTEMS

Redhat, Suse and Ubuntu Linux, Windows 2000, Windows 2003, Windows 2008, Windows XP, NT4.0, BSD, Solaris, OSX

BUSINESS ENVIRONMENTS

Consulting, Valued Added Reseller, Large Enterprise, Startup, Banking, Service Provider, Software Development, Manufacturing, Military

EMPLOYMENT

1/07 – Present, ePlus Technology

Consulting Systems Engineer – Data Center

Accelerate Data Center sales, design and implement network, storage, and systems solutions for ePlus west coast customers.

Accomplishments

• Developed and deployed go to market strategy for Cisco’s Unified Computing System resulting in significant competitive advantage in the western united states.

• Increased Data Center revenues year over year in a the worst economy in a century.

• Changed regional sales focus from technology silo’s to solutions based selling covering network, systems, storage and applications under one umbrella.

• Established a trend of Advanced Technology account wins.

• Accelerated ePlus’s southern California sales by providing high end engineering support.

• Increased sales for ePlus’s northern California office by overlaying and training field sales.

• Integrated MPLS service provider designs into cutting edge Enterprise Solutions.

• Filled PM and lead network engineer roles for large publicly traded company data center migrations.

• Created modular Cisco design / quote format and menu based hardware and services options to address rapidly changing customer needs.

9/05 – 1/07 ID Analytics

Lead Network Engineer

Lead team of four engineers, Define network and application integration architecture for large SaaS analytics deployment, Leverage networking technology to increase security and availability, and decrease development and product deployment timelines

Accomplishments

• Led team of engineers responsible for all Production and Back Office systems in 2 offices and 3 datacenters

• Designed and Implemented ID Analytics Phase2 datacenter, processing 1.2-1.8 million financial transactions daily.

• Designed and Implemented Contents Switching and SSL offloading solution, enabled non-disruptive scaling of core products

• Integrated ID Analytics product with the largest card processors in the world – Equifax, Visa, TransUnion, etc.

• Designed and integrated centralized Fiber Channel and ISCSI SAN solution, increasing application speed and decreasing production database refresh times from 4 weeks to 1 week.

• Managed and maintained over 130 terabytes of storage

• Created lights out server imaging and deployment solution for remote datacenters

• Deployed and integrated monitoring solutions utilizing open source technology

• Created user emulation probes for real time application monitoring and trending of production systems

• Worked with development and Analytics to create structured Development and QA environments

• Spearheaded project to change Analytics / Informatics environment from “unix for workgroups” to high performance computing environment (HPC)

• Provide structured documentation to US Government and Corporate auditors

• Utilized project management skills for international rollouts

2/04 – 8/2005 Openwave Systems
Senior Network Engineer, Strategic Design and Integration Group
Provide technical leadership, Define network architecture, Establish standards and technical vision. Responsible for researching, developing, and architecting technical solutions to business needs.

Accomplishments

• Designed Openwave’s new Pacific Datacenter Networks, with 900 production, and 2000 development servers.

• Designed Openwave’s Pacific Shores Campus Networks, and Showcase Datacenter.

• Responsible for hardware acquisition budget of 1.7 million dollars

• Established ISCSI IP based SAN infrastructure with DR components in 4 major datacenters worldwide

• Promoted from the ranks, moving from running our VOIP phone systems, to Network team lead, to Senior Network Engineer in the Strategic Design and Integration team.

• Active and engaged member of multiple boards covering design review, change control, and security

• Negotiated with Cisco and SBC regarding datacenter purchases saving $906,000 off list price.

• Renegotiated Cisco support saving Openwave nearly $600,000 over our three year term

• Established improved data center controls, allowing Openwave to pass Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) audits

• Wrote and ran multiple RFP, RFQ, and RFI’s

• Utilized project management skills for international rollouts

• Managed, Piloted, and Installed new wireless systems for our Customer Briefing Center

• Responsible for 6 VOIP clusters around the world

• Recipient of multiple awards recognizing dedication and quality work.

• Attended continuing training for security management (CISSP)

2/03 – 1/04 USMC Reservist activated in support of Operation Enduring Freedom
Information Services Coordinator
Implement and maintain Tactical Data Networks, Provide consulting services to hosting units. Maintain Microsoft Exchange servers in both tactical and garrison environments. Perform security audits and remediation. Train support personnel.

Accomplishments

• Performed Disaster recovery of routed ATM LANE environment for Marine Corps Air Station Yuma enabling over 3000 users to resume work (awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal for that event)

• Performed security audit and created a security and performance remediation plan for MCAS Yuma

• Provided project management and security audit skills to 3^rd Marine Air Wing Yuma server support teams, managed server security audit, security remediation, and SMS rollout.

• Designed and implemented Nagios network monitoring system at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma.

• Implemented Norton Antivirus server for MWSS 473

• Provided training on to data teams from MWSS 473, MCAS Yuma Station IT, and 3^rd Marine Air Wing Yuma server teams.

12/02 – 2/04 2 Cups Solutions, Pleasanton , Ca
Principal Consultant
Founded 2 Cups Solutions to provide cutting edge Voice, Data, Wireless and Security services to clients in the San Francisco bay and Fresno areas.

Accomplishments

• Implemented WAN failover solution at two City of Hayward fire stations.

• Implemented email and web solution for Express Mobile Notary.

• Developed and implemented business plan focusing on State and Local Government contracts.

2/02 – 12/02 ExtraTeam, Pleasanton , Ca
Senior Systems Engineer
Design, Installation, Configuration and Maintenance of network systems consisting of Cisco CallManager, Unity, Cisco Secure ACS, LEAP secured wireless, Aironet, Cisco routers and switches, PIX firewalls, and VPN3000 concentrators. Integrating all systems with Active Directory. Performed VOIP feasibility studies. Managed the entire business cycle including sales, design, installation, training and maintenance.

Accomplishments

• Integrated CallManager voice system with Active Directory

• Recovered a failed CallManager implementation at Phase 2 Strategies (PR firm for Logitech). Implemented CallManager with up to date hardware and software, upgraded Unity up to reasonably current levels. Brought up remote office in Phoenix utilizing SRST.

• Implemented City wide wireless network integrated with active directory for the City of Hayward

• Implemented VPN Concentrators in conjunction with multiple levels of firewalls for City of Hayward and Hayward PD to meet CLETS requirements.

• Implemented network configuration management system responsible for the city of Hayward.

• Implemented new wan for Livermore Pleasanton Fire department moving fire stations from isdn to T1 and Gigabit fiber lines in conjunction with moving the location for the network core.

• Designed and implemented IPSEC based wan for Universal life resources, allowing nationwide secure remote office connectivity while minimizing wan connection costs.

• Designed CallManager based VOIP system for a 27 site school district

• Provided emergency support to Fire and Police agencies across the bay area

• Performed security remediation for a large bay area company

• Participated in large switched network cutover from 7500 to a 6509 with flex-wan modules for Stanislaus County.

• Achieved technical certifications for ExtraTeam to become certified under both the Wireless and IP Telephony revised specifications.

7/01 – 2/02 Infobond Inc. Burlingame , Ca
Network Engineer

Responsible for engineering duties in a leadership role. Integrated legacy PBX’s using VOIP technology. Used Quality of service to ensure VOIP service levels. Support legacy voice over IP and voice over Frame Relay technologies. Upgrade from legacy voice integrations to state of the art VOIP integrations. Create project plans and act on them.

Accomplishments

• Cut over evergreen lines shipping terminal from legacy 3com equipment to VOIP enabled Cisco routers and switches. Accomplished all work during Union stand downs.

• Contracted to Openwave, Inc. to run Remote Access while the engineer was on leave. Ran Remote Access for 5 weeks, resolving DSL RLAN issues and IPSec issues, while reducing trouble ticket backload to manageable levels. Assisted other engineers when needed.

• Implemented Cisco 6509’s to replace aging core network of a Benchmark Capital (bay area investment firm).

• Diagnosed and resolved VOIP issues that were stopping call center rollouts for Embarcadero Systems (a large bay area shipping company).

03/00 – 7/01 Knapp Publishing Corporation, San Ramon, Ca
Network Systems Administrator

Responsible for day-to-day operations of e-commerce data center, and wide area networks Performed DNS changes for both internal and external networks. Designed, piloted, and implemented network changes. Installation configuration and maintenance of NT, and Windows 2k file, print, and web servers

Accomplishments

• Improved service levels from 90% to 99.99%, enhanced security and increased bandwidth were benefits derived from implementing a state-of-the-art web hosting data center

• Implemented a network monitoring system to document, report, and notify of network status.

• Designed and implemented ISDN failover of Frame-Relay Network.

• Designed, piloted, and implemented network changes.

• Replaced NT servers with Linux based servers, integrated with the Windows network

01/98 – 03/00 DKA Computers Inc. Clovis, Ca
Manager Information Services (01/99 – 03/00 )

Ran day to day operations of a central valley ISP. Worked with systems manufacturing to bundle client software with all new PC’s. Partnered with local ISP’s to provide access numbers across the valley.

Accomplishments

• Managed web development, and professional services

• Moved web hosting from IIS to APACHE based servers, drastically increasing site availability

• Produced a forms based web application to configure custom systems online.

• Designed and implemented an IPSec based WAN connecting 3 stores point of sales systems.

• Managed corporate office and data center relocation project.

Senior PC Service Technician (01/98 – 01/99)

Provide on call service. Staff PC help desk. Provide direct customer systems support while maximizing company revenues. Configured all servers ordered from manufacturing.

Accomplishments

• Responsible for all day to day service activities for a 13 million dollar company. Management of 4 team members. Directly responsible for customer satisfaction

• Implemented hard drive imaging system, decreasing both warranty costs and turnaround time

• Installed and configured SCO Unix reservation system for National Park service, Kings Canyon

• Designed, implemented inventory tracking database, reducing required stock on hand by $40,000

MILITARY

1996 – 2004 UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS RESERVE
Have held U.S. Government security clearance – Secret

EDUCATION

Ongoing professional education

Sans CISSP + Track

University of Oklahoma extension – Fire Science

Cisco Networking Academy

Similar Posts:

• What does it take to pass the CCIE exam?
• Cisco Certified Design Expert – CCDE – officially released by Cisco
• About Colin McNamara
• I’ll be at Cisco Live 2008 (networkers) in Orlando all week
• Where is Colin ? Passing the VCP exam (VMware Certified Professional)
• Challenges integrating VMware into Cisco networks

--Colin McNamara

Resume – Colin McNamara, CCIE #18233