Leaf-and-Spine Fabric Architectures

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The Leaf-and-Spine Fabric Architectures webinar describes the leaf-and-spine (Clos fabric) concepts, architecture, and single- and multistage designs that can be used to build large layer-2 or layer-3 all-point-equidistant Data Center networks.

Last modified on 2019-04-18 (release notes)

Materials
Roadmap

32:43 Introduction
Traditional data center networks used a 3-tier design that was mostly mandated by hardware limitations, resulting in unequal bandwidth between endpoints based on their locations. In the last few years the networking industry rediscovered the work of Charles Clos (from 1953) and everyone started promoting leaf-and-spine fabrics.
Challenges of Traditional Data Center Networks	16:04	2017-11-04
Clos Networks and Leaf-and-Spine Fabrics	16:39	2017-11-04
Additional Resources
Slide deck	1.3M	2017-11-04
Further Reading
Demystifying DCN Topologies: Clos Networks
Demystifying DCN Topologies: Fat trees and leaf-and-spine fabrics
1:02:41 Free items Physical Fabric Design
After mastering the basic principles of leaf-and-spine fabrics described in the Introduction section we're moving on to the physical design: how do you build a leaf-and-spine fabric given number of edge ports and oversubscription ratio? What if you need less than 100 ports? What if you need 50.000 ports? What do you do if you have to support low-speed edge interfaces?
Physical Leaf-and-Spine Fabric Design	14:55	2017-11-04
Small Fabrics and Lower-Speed Interfaces	9:07	2017-11-04
Building Very Large Fabrics	21:52	2017-11-04
16:47 Implementation examples
Leaf-and-Spine Clos Fabric with Dell Force10 switches	4:17	2012-11-12
Large Leaf-and-Spine Clos Fabric Using 10GE Links	5:14	2013-02-19
Multi-Stage Clos Fabrics With Dell Force10 Switches	7:16	2013-02-19
Additional resources
Slide deck	1.7M	2017-11-04
1:25:50 Free items Layer-3 Fabrics with Non-Redundant Server Connectivity
We're starting the design part of the webinar with the simplest possible scenario – each leaf switch is a single IP subnet – and focus on routing protocol selection, route summarization, leaf-to-spine link aggregation, and core link addressing.
44:27 Overview and Design Principles
Introduction to Leaf-and-Spine Designs	4:39	2017-02-09
Layer-3 Fabric with Non-Redundant Server Connectivity	6:52	2017-02-09
Routing Protocol Selection	19:50	2017-02-09
Route Summarization and Link Aggregation	6:40	2017-02-09
Core Link Addressing	6:26	2017-02-09
Slide deck	1.4M	2016-03-25
41:23 Using BGP in Leaf-and-Spine Fabrics
Based on the work done by Petr Lapukhov at Microsoft, every vendor talks about using BGP as the routing protocol in leaf-and-spine fabrics. Does it make sense? You'll find some of the answers in this section presented by Dinesh Dutt (Cumulus Networks).
Using BGP in Leaf-and-Spine Fabrics	10:19	2016-06-06
Simplifying BGP Configurations	19:30	2016-06-06
Troubleshooting and Managing BGP	8:19	2016-06-06
BGP in Data Centers - Sample Deployments	3:15	2016-06-06
Slide deck	1.9M	2016-03-04
32:38 Layer-3 Fabrics with Redundant Server Connectivity
After establishing the baseline in the Layer-3 fabrics with non-redundant server connectivity section we'll add complexity at the fabric edge: redundantly connected servers.
Layer-3 Fabrics with Redundant Server Connectivity	18:54	2018-01-17
Link Aggregation between Servers and Network	5:26	2018-01-17
Active-Standby Server Connectivity	8:18	2016-12-12
Slide deck	1.7M	2018-01-17
31:15 Free items Layer-3-Only Data Centers
Is it possible to build a pure layer-3 data center fabric that supports redundant server connectivity and IP address mobility? You'll find out in this section.
6:53 Design Guidelines
Host Routing	6:53	2016-12-12
Slide deck	1.3M	2016-03-25
24:22 Building a Pure L3 Data Center with Cumulus Linux
Building a Pure L3 Data Center with Cumulus Linux	24:22	2016-12-12
Slide deck	949K	2016-03-29
29:27 Free items Routing on Servers
Another approach to building a pure layer-3 fabric is to extend the fabric routing protocol into the servers and announce servers' loopback IP addresses using BGP.
Runinng Routing Protocols on Servers	10:55	2016-12-12
Routing from Hosts - Deep Dive	10:24	2016-12-12
Examples from Real World	8:08	2016-12-12
1:53:15 Free items Layer-2 Fabrics
We're leaving the stable world of L3-only fabrics and entering the realm of large VLANs that most enterprise data centers have to deal with. We'll cover numerous design scenarios, from traditional bridging to routing on layer 2 and MAC-over-IP encapsulation.
1:00:15 Design Guidelines
Layer-2 Fabrics	14:49	2017-03-21
Traditional Bridging	10:05	2017-03-21
Routing on Layer-2	13:12	2017-03-21
MAC-over-IP Encapsulation	13:25	2017-03-21
Redundant Server-to-Network Connectivity	8:44	2017-03-21
Slide deck	1.8M	2016-04-01
53:00 Shortest Path Bridging in Avaya Fabric
Avaya is one of the few data center switching vendors that still uses routing on layer 2 (SPB) technology instead of VXLAN encapsulation. In this guest presentation Roger Lapuh (Avaya) explains how SPB works and how you can use it to build layer-2 or layer-2+3 data center fabrics.
Introduction to SPB and Avaya Fabric Connect	18:25	2017-03-21
SPB Deep Dive	18:17	2017-03-21
Building Data Center Fabrics with SPB	16:18	2017-03-21
Slide deck	2.1M	2016-04-06
1:49:57 Free items Mixed Layer-2 + Layer-3 Fabrics
Most data center fabrics have to combine elements of large VLANs and routing. In this section we'll explore the various combinations, from traditional routing on spine switches to anycast routing on leaf switches.
31:05 Design Guidelines
Layer-2+3 Fabrics	6:45	2017-04-04
Routing on Spine Switches	9:04	2017-04-04
Routing on Leaf Switches	15:16	2017-04-04
Slide deck	1.4M	2016-04-20
1:18:52 VXLAN with BGP EVPN on Cisco Nexus OS
Major data center switching vendors use VXLAN to build large layer-2 domains across IP fabrics, and EVPN control plane to build flooding trees and exchange MAC address reachability information. In this section Lukas Krattiger (guest speaker from Cisco Systems) explains how VXLAN transport and EVPN control plane work on Nexus switches.
Overlays in Data Center Fabrics	15:07	2017-04-04
Overview of VXLAN with BGP EVPN	15:59	2017-04-04
Introduction to BGP EVPN	15:29	2017-04-04
BGP EVPN Deep Dive	15:39	2017-04-04
EVPN Integrated Routing and Bridging	16:38	2017-04-04
Slide deck	12M	2016-04-21
2:16:42 Free items Multi-Pod and Multi-Site Fabrics
Should you stretch a single fabric across multiple sites? Does it make sense to split a large fabric into smaller fabrics (pods)? What could you do to improve the scalability of VXLAN-based EVPN fabrics? This section contains the design guidelines and technology details you need to answer these questions.
44:42 Multi-Site and Multi-Pod Fabrics Design Guidelines
What Problem Are We Trying to Solve?	13:38	2019-01-28
Physical Multi-Site Topologies	11:54	2019-01-28
Data-, Control- and Management-Plane Failure Domains	17:05	2019-01-28
Conclusions	2:05	2019-01-28
Slide Deck	2.1M	2018-03-29
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1:32:00 Using VXLAN and EVPN in Multi-Pod and Multi-Site Fabrics
Introduction to Multi-Pod and Multi-Site Fabrics	6:58	2019-01-28
Multi-Pod Fabrics	27:04	2019-01-28
Multi-Site Fabrics	33:19	2019-01-28
Multi-Site Packet Forwarding	19:10	2019-01-28
Conclusions	5:29	2019-01-28
Slide Deck	29M	2018-03-27
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