CCIE Data Center - Zero to Hero

Explore the five core data center domains—network, compute, storage, automation, and security—focusing on automation and security, SDN integrations, and practical labs that prepare you for modern data centers.

Master OSPF authentication and virtual links in area zero, using plain text or MD5 keys on interfaces, and configure virtual links to connect other areas.

Perform an OSPF lab to configure area zero, enable MD5 authentication, and establish a virtual link to connect area one as a transit, troubleshooting keys and neighbor adjacency.

Configure and verify etherchannel on Cisco switches using manual and LCP methods, including port-channel creation, channel-group setup, and show etherchannel summary. Learn LCP versus BGP negotiation and debugging procedures.

Explain stub, totally stubby, and not so stubby OSPF areas, including NSA types and LSA filtering. Learn to inject a default route with default-information originate and the always option.

Explore multiprotocol bgp basics, neighborship synchronization, and hands-on lab exercises to deploy bgp in data centers, covering autonomous systems, neighbor autonomous systems, and prefix advertising.

Explore border gateway protocol, the exterior gateway protocol running over any igp, using tcp port 179, to interconnect multiple autonomous systems with ibgp and ebgp.

Execute a BGP lab to build eBGP relationships, configure routers with neighbor statements and update source loopback, and verify session states and open messages using BGP summary and debug outputs.

Apply corrections in the basic BGP lab, verify iBGP versus eBGP configurations, and confirm the peers are up and running by checking the BGP summary.

Learn the basics of PIM (protocol independent multicast) and apply them in a lab, through two videos: theory first, then the lab.

Explore VRRP theory and its similarities and differences with Cisco HSP, including the virtual IP, timers, priority, preemption, and authentication, and learn manual load balancing across gateways.

Learn about RSVP, LCP, and VPC virtual port channel through theory and labs, starting with Etherchannel focus on LCP, then RSVP labs, and finally VPC videos.

Explore rapid spanning tree protocol (rstp) and its faster convergence through per-switch bpdu exchange, edge ports, port fast, root and designated ports, and alternate and backup ports.

Compare topology change notification in SGP and RSVP, showing how BPDU with the DC bit propagates changes, edge ports fast-forward, and rapid pvst enables faster convergence in RSVP.

Begin with BGP EVPN VXLAN configuration. Watch two videos on VXLAN theory and encapsulation, then the actual lab will start.

Explore vxlan theory and overview, including ethernet in udp tunnel, underlay/overlay, tunnel endpoints, and layer two multipathing in a leaf-spine fabric to scale east-west data center traffic.

Build the underlay for a spine-leaf fabric by enabling OSPF on spine and leaf, setting router IDs, and configuring point-to-point links and loopbacks for underlay reachability.

Configure overlay vlan to vni mapping and l3 vni mapping across leafs, then create tenant configurations with auto rd and auto vpn targets for external communication.

Configure a vxlan tunnel within an overlay, building l2 vni and l3 vni using loopback one as the vtep endpoint and enabling host reachability via bgp.

Configure EVPN L2 and L3 VPN on leaf and border leaf devices, with auto route distinguisher and route target, and SBI VLAN based bridging across tenants.

Perform internal fabric verification across leaves and spines, test VLAN 101 connectivity between servers via VXLAN tunnels, and verify router peers and loopback endpoints.

Learn OTV terminology and how it extends layer 2 over a layer 3 backbone to connect data centers via encapsulation, decapsulation, edge devices, join interfaces, and multicast overlay interfaces.

Configure an OTB lab across DC1 and DC2 by enabling licenses, creating VLANs, and building an overlay with a join interface, IGMP v3, and identifiers with control and data groups.

Explore what ACI is, its policy-driven automated data center fabric, and how Cisco's implementation blends sdn concepts with a leaf-spine topology. See how it delivers centralized management, scalability, and security.

Explore the application-centric infrastructure at the heart of ACI, where leaf-spine fabric, epic controllers, and an overlay network decouple control from data, enabling rapid, programmable, and mobile subnet provisioning.

Identify faults, events, and audit logs in the epic system, verify details in the system tab and dashboard, and understand health scores and fault resolutions.

Explore the ACA bring-up process, including establishing leaf-epic connectivity, using infra vilan for internal and external fabric extension, non overlapping endpoint pools, and LDP discovery.

Continue the bring up process by configuring bond zero inbound links with no IP, bond one for management, and dynamic fabric IPs, then verify interfaces on the epic controller.

Configure the Nexus fabric by defining interface policies, policy groups, and attachable entity profiles, then establish physical domains, willan pools, and tenants with application profiles and endpoint groups.

Embark on Section 01 lab with APIC 4.2 to bring up a fabric, register leaf and spine devices, and perform BGP and DNS configurations in the APIC simulator.

Explore ACI packet forwarding under the section 2.0, including ACA packet forwarding behavior and total ratings; define endpoint and interactor, examine actual packet forwarding and encapsulation inside the ACA fabric.

Define an ACI endpoint as a mac plus zero or more ip addresses, with local and remote types. Learn how leaf learning and spine queries enable destination resolution.

Explore endpoint learning for local and remote endpoints, including mac and ip lookup, cache entries, l2 vs l3 learning, and tunnel and coop database updates.

Explore pervasive gateways, bridge domains, and epgs to define forwarding scope, differentiate L2 vs L3 traffic, and use proxies and default gateways for cross-subnet reach.

Explore how spine-proxy and arp glean handle unknown destinations across leaf-spine fabrics, detailing l2 and l3 forwarding, flooding, and proxy queries to local and remote leaves.

Learn how external network connectivity extends bridge domains and private networks via L2 out and L3 out, with routing considerations for cross-domain communication.

Explore extending an ACI EPG or bridge domain to the external world, mapping external L2 to EPGs, and applying immediate or on-demand policy deployment.

Compare extending the bridge domain with extending the EPG, including internal vs external contracts and shared subnets. Emphasize learning Mac/IP and distributing extended networks across leaf switches.

Understand how the ACI fabric floods BPU frames, unknown unicast, and broadcast traffic within the EPG and bridge domain, and how SGP configuration guides resolution.

Enable the mislabelling protocol globally to detect and break layer loops, preventing service and network expansion loops. Enable MCP before connecting external networks.

Explore L3 connectivity from the fabric to the outside world via border leaves. Enable BGP and iBGP inside the fabric, assign autonomous systems, and define L3 out policies.

Configure a L3 outside lab by provisioning an external EPG network, defining an ICMP contract, and linking it to internal and external EPGs within an application profile.

Explore policy instantiation options and learn to build interface policies, policy groups, and profiles for VM and physical domains, with micro segmentation across VMware, Microsoft, RedHat, and Docker.

Create the L4/L7 service function profile and profile group, configure external and internal interfaces with IPv4, and build and apply a service graph template linking consumer and provider through firewall.

Learn to configure out-of-band management in a data center fabric by creating node management, setting management IP and gateway, and defining provider-consumer contracts and external management network profiles.

Configure the system for the syslog lab by following the slide steps, create log sources and definition groups, and enable local and remote call home destinations with appropriate severity.

Learn to set up a backup lab by adding a remote location, configuring import/export options, and exporting a configuration policy with encryption. Verify backups through policy operations and job history.

Implement Tripoli AAA and LDAP by creating a provider, defining group map rules, and linking these to the Tripoli policy within the login domain for admin access.

Welcome beginners to the Cisco HCI course; learn 6.0 with new security features and ESG, and gain a quick refresher on ACI's basic building blocks for operational engineers.

Configure the remaining basics of the data center fabric: out-of-band management, VPC peers, BGP, DNS, TCP, and NDP, then verify topology and fabric membership.

Define service level agreements with performance, uptime, mean time to recover, and customer data handling, and outline cloud provider services such as storage, networking, and middleware.

Explore software as a service and the x as a service evolution, with examples like Google Docs and Cisco WebEx.

Explore public, private, and hybrid clouds and Cisco cloud services. Examine public cloud risks like data loss, outages, data breaches, and insecure interfaces, along with control and cost challenges.

Explore private cloud emulation inside public cloud with Amazon VPC, weighing cost, control, and security tradeoffs, noting it's not fully private and citing Azure and OpenStack as examples.

Advance the cloud journey by consolidating legacy it infrastructure, then virtualization, standardization, and automation, culminating in orchestration for a modern automated data center.

Explore OpenStack, the open source cloud platform by NASA and Rackspace, delivering identity, compute, storage, and networking through a web dashboard or API for scalable public and private clouds.

Distinguish disruptive and non-destructive upgrades in the Nexus operating system, using in-service upgrades with redundant supervisors, stateful switchover, modular architecture, and persistent storage (database).

Explain destructive vs non-destructive upgrades, describe how to check readiness with show system redundancy status, and cover SMU patching and enhanced ISSU virtualization to minimize disruption.

Configure flexible NetFlow by defining a flow exporter, creating a flow record with key fields, attaching a monitor to an interface, and verifying with show flow monitor.

Learn compute basics in the CCIE data center course by exploring UCS architecture, blade servers, and service profiles; cover storage area network concepts and hyperflex with hands-on labs.

Explore the Cisco UCS architecture, including chassis, blade servers, converged network adapters, IO modules, fabric extenders, fabric interconnects, and UCS manager.

Learn the UCS bring-up by console configuring FIA and FIB, syncing independent control planes, and setting fabric name and IPs; then log into the GUI to manage the UX dashboard.

Learn to design and manage CCIE data center UCS service profiles, zones, and the initiator-target storage relationship, and configure vSAN fabrics with fabric interconnects, port channels, and domains.

Learn to create and attach a service profile in the UCS manager using service profile templates, configure policies, VLANs, and adapters, and apply to blade servers.

Explore hyperflex and hyperconverged infrastructure, learn about UCS, hyperflex theory, and deploy using Intersight with VMware virtualization as the backbone.

Explore Cisco Intersight, a cloud-based management plane that unifies UCS, Hyperflex, and ucaas with SaaS orchestration, embedded recommendations, and native APIs for agile data center operations.

Learn to claim and connect devices by pairing the UX manager with Cisco Intersight using device ID and claim code, creating an Intersight account, and using the dashboard.

Learn how to add and remove dashboards, add widgets from the library such as fabric interconnect health and license status, and rename or delete dashboards.

Deploy Hyperflex edge via Intersight GUI, following cluster profile, node assignment, security, DNS, and network setup. Note replication factor two on two nodes; three are required for redundancy.

Perform post-installation verification of a hyperflex deployment by accessing targets, launching HyperFlex Connect, and checking cluster health. Review data stores and vCenter to prepare for data store creation.

Deploy virtual machine templates by importing an OVF, selecting the local file, data store, and VM network in vSphere, then clone and power on multiple infra servers on HyperFlex.

Learn how to use intersight to review health, download recommended drivers and firmware, perform pre-upgrade checks, prepare firmware install, and manage fault separation for UCS firmware upgrades.

Compare manual and auto UCS firmware upgrades: manual checks every step, while auto uses workflows to verify prerequisites, select firmware packages, and perform hardware-enabled software upgrades.

Learn the fundamentals of storage area networks, including fabric channel and ethernet traffic, initiators and targets, and the roles of SAN switches, storage arrays, and host bus adapters (HBAs).

Explore fibre channel topologies: point-to-point, arbitrated loop, and switched fabric, and learn FC addressing with WWN, WWPN, and FCID, including zoning and port mapping for reliable storage connections.

Convert port worldwide name to friendly device aliases to improve visibility and troubleshooting across the fabric, then configure, commit, and verify replication in the device alias and Ifcn's databases.

Understand NPV and NPIV virtualization for scalable fabrics, enabling multiple FC IDs and domain IDs with a node proxy core switch, including VMware host virtualization.

Learn to configure a port channel in DCNM and create zoning for vSAN by defining zone sets and zone members, then verify with monitor and CLI.

Watch and consolidate section 3.4 on software updates by reviewing previous recordings 94–96 and the newly created video, then begin section 3.5 on infrastructure monitoring.

Explore EPLD details and hardware upgrade strategies, including ASIC upgrade, downtime planning, and maintenance paths for line cards, supervisor engines, fabric modules, and power supplies.

Explore how the DCN management tool Dcnm monitors underlay and overlay networks, provides real-time topology, device and compliance visibility, and VM and host visibility for day-to-day operations.

Section four introduces data center automation basics through 25 videos, covering M script, embedded event management, and Python API integration to establish a baseline for the future automation section.

Learn how to configure the EEM scheduler within M, including event manager schedulers for applets, application extension policy, callhome, and class/thread settings with syntax and numeric ranges.

Watch three videos on enabling the index API inside the Nexus operating system through the guestshell NX-OS, then proceed to 4.1 b and 4.1 e.

Learn how to use a Python program to log into a Nexus device, enter config mode, and enable the nxapi API via automated SSH commands.

Learn the basics of JSON as a data encoding format, compare JSON name-value pairs with Python dictionaries, and convert between JSON strings and Python objects, with Nexus OS examples.

Explore XML as a data-describing language distinct from HTML, compare XML with JSON, and learn to parse XML with Python using SAX to produce human-readable outputs for APIs.

Explore the evolution of automation and orchestration technologies, including Ansible, Puppet, and PowerShell, and preview sections on Python and tools in the CCIE data center - zero to hero course.

Trace the shift from snmp-based device management to programmable rest-based interfaces. Highlight real-time monitoring, writable MIBs, libraries, and machine-to-machine communication with rest, netconf, and restconf.

Compare agent-based tools (Chef, Puppet, SaltStack) with agentless Ansible, and explain how agents pull cookbooks or playbooks from a master to enable multi vendor data center automation.

Explore Python basics and its interpreter-driven approach, widely used in networking and automation. Install and run Python on Linux, write and execute scripts, and use IDE and the Python shell.

Master Python basics: modules, blocks, statements, and dynamic objects. See Python 2 vs 3 differences, and use help, dir, and type to explore data types and plan SSH-driven device configuration.

Explore how POAP, power-on auto provisioning, automates switch boot with DHCP and TFTP discovery to fetch images, configuration files, and scripts, then install and save in NVRAM.

Cover security across network, compute, and storage, with 5.1 A and 5.1 B on AAA and RBAC, ACA context, and troubleshooting, plus four videos to complete the network portion.

Describe access and AAA fundamentals using ISE, including EAP over LAN for supplicants, authenticator roles, and RADIUS interactions that govern authentication and authorization.

Protect the control plane by policing control plane traffic on line cards, including OSPF hello flood mitigation, using ACL-based malicious traffic classes, policy maps, and verification commands.

Learn keychain authentication for secure remote logging to the UCS manager via certificates, including creating a key ring, certificate requests, trust points, and key management steps.

Implement role-based access control on the MTA switches by creating rule sets and assigning them to users, enabling roles like system admin and network admin with up to 64 rules.

Learn fabric binding operates at the switch level, contrasts with port security, follow six steps to enable, activate, map switch worldwide name to domain ID, verify per vSAN binding.

Begin section three, exploring multi-site configuration with Cisco and the DFC controller, and learn how to achieve this task.

Create an external fabric for the core router to enable DCI interconnect with greenfield and brownfield fabrics, configure device discovery, seed IPs, and deploy router rules for topology integration.

Create a multi-site fabric from the template, configure DCI parameters and multi-site overlay deployment, and move child fabrics to build a hierarchical multi-site domain with attached networks for cross-site testing.

Deploy a three-site fabric by configuring leaf and border gateway devices with vlan 50, verify topology, and test inter-site connectivity with ping and bgp status.