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Hello Everyone, The link for the replay of the Uncover the Business Impact of Application Acceleration with Solid-State Systems Webcast is live here. I am attaching the Q&A session from the webcast here where you are invited to continue asking questions and leaving comments in our community format. Q Please submit your questions during this broadcast. Our subject matter experts are standing by to answer your questions throughout the broadcast. 02/27/2014 11:03AM Q Does this integrate with EMC VPLEX and/or VCE VBlock? 02/27/2014 11:00AM A The governance model for the design of VSPEX and VCE VBlock architectures will continue unchanged. As of this moment we are not aware of any plans to include UCS Invicta in those solutions. 02/27/2014 11:03AM Q Will Invicta be offered by itself? 02/27/2014 11:06AM A No, UCS Invicta is not available or intended to be a stand-alone storage solution. Cisco’s innovation will continue to focus on increasingly deep integration of this flash technology with UCS Management and UCS Invicta will only be offered as part of existing or new UCS server environments. 02/27/2014 11:07AM Q Does it work with UCS Director? 02/27/2014 11:03AM A Yes, UCS Invicta works with UCS Director. 02/27/2014 11:08AM Q What kind of capacity does this offer? 02/27/2014 11:09AM A The Invicta Appliance ranges from 3TB-24TB of capacity. The Invicta Scaling System ranges from 6TB-240TB. 02/27/2014 11:10AM Q does UCS Manager manage UCS Invicta? 02/27/2014 11:03AM A The first release of UCS Invicta will be managed by UCS Director. We're are looking to incorporate UCS Manager in future releases. 02/27/2014 11:12AM Q is invicta only with UCS servers ? What if i have HP or IBM servers ? can I use invicta ? 02/27/2014 11:13AM A Yes, UCS Invicta is only available with Cisco UCS and not available or intended to be a stand-alone storage solution. Cisco’s innovation will continue to focus on increasingly deep integration of this flash technology with UCS Management and UCS Invicta will only be offered as part of existing or new UCS server environments. 02/27/2014 11:14AM Q will the presentation be available for download? 02/27/2014 11:12AM A Thank you for joining us today. You can get a copy of the slides by opening the “More Information” window. It is accessed via the [i] icon at the bottom of the console. This event will be archived and available for on-demand viewing within 1-2 days. You can use the same event link to access the archived event. 02/27/2014 11:15AM Q what storage networking protocols are supported by UCS Invicta? 02/27/2014 11:14AM A UCS Invicta supports Fibre Channel and iSCSI at this time. 02/27/2014 11:15AM Q Can Invicta be sold to connec to non-UCS systems? 02/27/2014 11:07AM A No, UCS Invicta is not available or intended to be a stand-alone storage solution. Cisco’s innovation will continue to focus on increasingly deep integration of this flash technology with UCS Management and UCS Invicta will only be offered as part of existing or new UCS server environments. 02/27/2014 11:16AM Q Can you deploy Invicta + UCS without UCS Director or is UCS Director required Day 1? 02/27/2014 11:16AM A UCS Invicta can be deployed without UCS Director. 02/27/2014 11:18AM Q Does Invicta leverage data reduction technologies? 02/27/2014 11:14AM A At this time, UCS Invicta provides a deduplication option for data reduction. 02/27/2014 11:18AM Q Cisco SSD is MLC or SLC? 02/27/2014 11:19AM A UCS Invicta leverages MLC SSDs. 02/27/2014 11:20AM Q Where's the technical discussion version of this 4topic? I don't need to hear a bunch of suits yapping about business justification. 02/27/2014 11:15AM A We are planning a Cisco TechWise TV episode with a technical deep dive. Keep an eye on the Cisco Data Center blog and when it is scheduled we'll promote it there. You can also follow the #CiscoUCS hashtag to stay posted on that. 02/27/2014 11:21AM Q Is the deduplication block or file, and is it in-line, or post-process? 02/27/2014 11:20AM A The deduplication is block level and it is in-line. 02/27/2014 11:22AM Q Is UCS Invicta a relabel of the Whiptail product recently acquired by Cisco 02/27/2014 11:16AM A No. The UCS Invicta OS runs on UCS C series hardware. 02/27/2014 11:22AM Q Is Invicta access like server memory or like storage? 02/27/2014 11:18AM A Currently UCS Invicta supports Fiber Channel and Ethernet protocols, We are evaluating Direct Server Memory Addressing support with future releases 02/27/2014 11:22AM Q As a follow on - it could be sold stand alone to a customer that had already purchased UCS servers in the past? 02/27/2014 11:09AM A Yes, a UCS Invicta can be added to an existing UCS system. 02/27/2014 11:23AM Q Can Invicta be used as a pure caching solution? 02/27/2014 11:16AM A No. UCS Invicta is not designed to perform as a caching product. 02/27/2014 11:23AM Q About deduplication -- is that an additional license? or is it included with invicta? 02/27/2014 11:19AM A Deduplication is an option at the time of sale which requires an additional license. 02/27/2014 11:23AM Q xDoes this become a good solution for healthcare - faster processing of patient data and images? 02/27/2014 11:18AM A Yes, this becomes a great solution for the healthcare industry. Customers with data-intensive multi-workload environments such as: real-time analytics and intelligence, batch processing, email, online transaction processing (OLTP), video, virtual desktops, database loads, and high-performance computing (HPC) will benefit the most from the UCS Invicta. 02/27/2014 11:23AM Q The Register covered the Invicta saying "The array still links to UCS servers via a network link – Ethernet or Fibre Channel – and still provides flash storage resources to a bunch of servers over these network pipes, just like EMC's XtremIO array and NetApp’s EF540/550" etc. How is Invicta different? 02/27/2014 11:09AM A Cisco saw a strategic need, based on customer demand, to integrate flash systems directly into the Unified Management control plane of UCS. Joint solutions with our storage partners do not fully meet this need. Cisco UCS will continue as an open system and we will support interoperability and certification with all of our partner’s Flash- and Disk-based storage systems. 02/27/2014 11:24AM Q Is this being recorded for later playback? 02/27/2014 11:23AM A This event will be archived and available for on-demand viewing within 1-2 days. You can use the same event link to access the archived event. 02/27/2014 11:24AM Q Do we have a better/compelling story to tell with MDS and UCS Invicta? 02/27/2014 11:08AM A The UCS + MDS value proposition is well established in the market. There are key technologies that are only enabled with they are both used together such as FC port channeling and VSAN trunking. Now we have the ability to add UCS Invicta storage to the architecture and over time build out technology integration. 02/27/2014 11:25AM Q Does Invicta have any unique or proprietary integration with UCS? 02/27/2014 11:11AM A We have a compelling road map that we will be aggressively executing on. Contact your Cisco account team for more details 02/27/2014 11:26AM Q Can this solution be used in conjuction with FusionIO products that are directly on the blades? 02/27/2014 11:17AM A There are some use cases where a customer can use the UCS Invicta and Fusion-io. In these situations, flash presented as memory expansion for in-memory objects (via Fusion-io) would be great, where the UCS Invicta will play the “following-level” shared memory cache via our shared – and mainly deduplication – capabilities. 02/27/2014 11:27AM Q If Invicta can be deployed without the director, can we buy it as a standalone unit? 02/27/2014 11:21AM A At this point we have no plans to offer Invicta as a stand alone solution. 02/27/2014 11:28AM Q How are the relationships with existing Whiptail partners and customers changing? 02/27/2014 11:10AM A For former Whiptail customers a transition to Cisco for account servicing and technology partnership is complete and we're excited to welcome them to our Data Center fold. A similar integration for existing Whiptail partners is underway, and many were already Cisco partners as well. 02/27/2014 11:28AM Q How is high availability ensured? Looks like each Invicta array is a UCS rack server where the motherboard is a single point of failure. 02/27/2014 11:15AM A High availability is handled by mirroring between shelves in the Scaling System architecture. 02/27/2014 11:28AM Q Is Invicta targeted at transaction processing? If so, why use dedupe? 02/27/2014 11:22AM A Deduplication is most effective with data that contains duplicate blocks of data. If the DB or related files contains duplicate date that falls on common boundaries then you may find effective storage reduction 02/27/2014 11:29AM Q Is the NAND flash on this slide eMLC or SLC ? 02/27/2014 11:23AM A MLC 02/27/2014 11:29AM Q Does Invicta leverage SLC or MLC drives? 02/27/2014 11:23AM A Invicta leverages MLC 02/27/2014 11:30AM Q Does Invicta does inline deduplication? If yes, is this deduplication done globally across all nodes? 02/27/2014 11:21AM A UCS Invcita offers inline deduplication and this is performed on a shelf by shelf basis. 02/27/2014 11:30AM Q Are the SSDs eMLC or cMLC? 02/27/2014 11:23AM A They are consumer based MLC 02/27/2014 11:31AM Q When will storage profiles be added to UCSM? What release? 02/27/2014 11:22AM A We have an exciting roadmap for various integrations between UCSM and Invicta. Please contact your Cisco account team to setup a meeting for more details 02/27/2014 11:31AM Q Is it memory or is it really like SAN storage ? 02/27/2014 11:21AM A It is based on NAND Flash memory and therefore memory, however it is accessed using Fiber Channel and Ethernet protocols with additional access methods being evaluated 02/27/2014 11:31AM Q How does invicta Scale 02/27/2014 11:19AM A The UCS Invicta Scaling System scales by adding shelves as needed. This adds both capacity and performance with each addition. 02/27/2014 11:31AM Q Is there a timeline for control plane integrations? 02/27/2014 11:27AM A Yes, integration has already been completed with UCS Director. We'll have more announcements this year as the integration work continues with UCS Manager and UCS Central as well as deeper integration with UCS Director. It's an exciting roadmap. 02/27/2014 11:31AM Q what is the granularity of the dedupe 02/27/2014 11:23AM A The Current De-Duplication block size is 4k 02/27/2014 11:31AM Q Will Invicta be supporting FCoe? 02/27/2014 11:23AM A FCoE targets on Invicta is part of an exciting roadmap that we are working on. Please contact your Cisco account team for more details 02/27/2014 11:32AM Q Do you offer compression? 02/27/2014 11:25AM A Compression is not offered at this time but is being explored as an option moving forward. 02/27/2014 11:32AM Q Does Invicta go up against platforms like Fusion ION from Fusion-io? 02/27/2014 11:16AM A We partner with Fusion-io to meet customer requirements. Where those products are appropriate, we will continue to incorporate them in solutions for customers. 02/27/2014 11:33AM Q I need a 100G network for my Thunderbird Data Center Design that we are building out in West Houston can you help? George Ingram, NTE 02/27/2014 11:02AM A Hi George, 02/27/2014 11:32AM Q Are you currently focused on implementing ULLDIMM into the equation? 02/27/2014 11:25AM A Please contact your Cisco account team for any roadmap questions. We are always evaluating all available technologies on the market 02/27/2014 11:33AM Q So do you access it byte level like memory or block level like storage? 02/27/2014 11:32AM A Yes. The I/O is done at the block level. 02/27/2014 11:33AM Q what RAID type does it use? Also, does it have compression,deduplication, snaps/clones/ Replication? 02/27/2014 11:26AM A UCS Invicta leverages RAID6 protection. Invicta provides deduplication, snapshots and asynchronous replication. 02/27/2014 11:34AM Q Does Invicta require MDS switches for native fiber channel access? 02/27/2014 11:27AM A SAN switches are not required to implement a UCS Invicta solution. 02/27/2014 11:34AM Q How do you scale a LUN beyond the capacity of a single Invicta? 02/27/2014 11:26AM A If you are refering to a storage Node as a single Invicta you can expand a volume group to include multiple nodes this means that a single LUN can be as large as the total aggregate of usable space presented by a Single Invicta 02/27/2014 11:35AM Q Is dedupe global ? 02/27/2014 11:27AM A Yes, Dedupe is global. 02/27/2014 11:35AM Q How does Invicta connect to UCS, Fabric switch or Interconnect? 02/27/2014 11:28AM A AWe will support connecting Invicta to the UCS Fabric Interconnects through an upstream FC switch as well as a direct connect method. Please consult the UCS HCL for details 02/27/2014 11:35AM Q Can you use Invicta as direct attached storage, connected directly to the fabric interconnects? 02/27/2014 11:32AM A Yes, this will be supported. Please check the UCS HCL for these details 02/27/2014 11:36AM Q is it enterprise grade MLC or consumer grade MLC ? 02/27/2014 11:27AM A We use consumer grade MLC 02/27/2014 11:36AM Q Will Cisco/Whiptail be offering any other stand-alone solid-state storage solutions? 02/27/2014 11:10AM A UCS Invicta will be offered in conjunction with other UCS products and not as a stand-alone solution. 02/27/2014 11:36AM Q How many disks are in a shelf 02/27/2014 11:31AM A 24 drives in all the different offerings, varying in capacity. 02/27/2014 11:36AM Q When will Invicta be available as a SKU for purchase? 02/27/2014 11:32AM A UCS Invicta Appliances and Scaling Systems are available for purchase currently. 02/27/2014 11:37AM Q what about whiptail.is it the same Technology of Invicta, and can still offered by itself 02/27/2014 11:15AM A RaceRunner OS which powered the Whiptail technology is now Invicta OS. Invicta OS is optimized to run on UCS C series hardware with Flash media. UCS Invicta Series is offered as an IO enhancement to UCS B and C series. 02/27/2014 11:37AM Q Any Replication technology built in 02/27/2014 11:29AM A Asynchronous Replication is provided as licensable feature. 02/27/2014 11:37AM Q Earlier you said dedupe was contained to each shelf. Then you said global. Which is it? 02/27/2014 11:36AM A Correction. Dedupe is accomplished at the shelf level. All shelves can support dedupe 02/27/2014 11:37AM Q How does Cisco do ScaleOut? Can a LUN traverse multiple Invicta Nodes? 02/27/2014 11:27AM A The answer to this is Yes you can traverse multiple nodes. That is, you have a need to present a node larger than say 19TB. This LUN could be created as large as the entire usable space although I am not sure that would be within normal practice. There are many ways to aggregate usable space with both the Server Operating Systems and the arrays 02/27/2014 11:38AM Q What about the Accela? 02/27/2014 11:37AM A We renamed Accela as the UCS Invicta Scaling System 02/27/2014 11:38AM Q Does this obviate the need for the traditional PCIe-based 'bolt-on' to UCS for application acceleration? 02/27/2014 11:27AM A No. For customers who require in-server acceleration, without the need for scaling or pooling of the Flash resource across the larger environment, our current offerings with Fusion-IO and others will continue to be an important option. Both PCI-e card (for C-Series Rack servers) and our B-Series Blade daughtercard implementations will continue to be offered. 02/27/2014 11:38AM Q What sbout NFS support for vSPhere Datastores? 02/27/2014 11:24AM A NFS support is not offered at first ship but will be rolled out shortly thereafter. 02/27/2014 11:39AM Q What type of parity protection is Invicta using? 02/27/2014 11:26AM A UCS Invicta uses RAID6 02/27/2014 11:39AM Q How do you deploy UCS Invicta without UCS Director? What managment app? 02/27/2014 11:33AM A You would use the Invicta management tools, GUI, CLI, API like many customers use today 02/27/2014 11:39AM Q Os the invicta going to be on the CCIE -DC in the future? 02/27/2014 11:22AM A Yes, training and certifications for UCS Invicta will be introduced as part of existing UCS programs. 02/27/2014 11:39AM Q Does Invicta only work with B-series or C-series as well? 02/27/2014 11:39AM A Invicta is support on UCS B and C series. 02/27/2014 11:39AM Q Are the SSRs active/passive ? 02/27/2014 11:32AM A The SSRs are active/active 02/27/2014 11:40AM Q If the Invicta OS is running on a UCS server, does that mean that commodity SSD's could be used? 02/27/2014 11:33AM A CCisco uses only those drives which we have tested and certified after rigorous testing. The customer does not choose their own drives if that is what you are asking 02/27/2014 11:40AM Q if it scales by adding shelves, and is accessed via Fibre Channel and/or iSCSI, is access completely transparent to end applications? 02/27/2014 11:32AM A The scaling system has the ability to support adding additional storage nodes non-disruptively 02/27/2014 11:41AM Q Does Invicta connect directly to the Interconnect? 02/27/2014 11:35AM A wWe will support this. Please check the UCS HCL for the details 02/27/2014 11:42AM Q Can application volumes span different shelves in an Invicta array? Or are the volumes confined to a single shelf? 02/27/2014 11:31AM A The answer to this is Yes you can traverse multiple nodes or shelves. That is, you have a need to present a node larger than the usable TB for this shelf. A LUN could be created as large as the entire usable space of the array, although I am not sure that would be within normal practice. There are many ways to aggregate usable space with both the Server Operating Systems and the arrays 02/27/2014 11:42AM Q Do we need 2 sets of identical hardware for HA then for mirroring the data ? 02/27/2014 11:29AM A Within the UCS Invicta Scaling System data can be mirrored between nodes to increase data availability. Data can also be replicated between appliances and scaling systems to meet DR requirements. 02/27/2014 11:42AM Q Is integration into UCS management tools the primary advantage of Invicta over the plethora of available FC Flash arrays 02/27/2014 11:35AM A Exactly. Flash is a boundary technology that already exists in both compute and storage products across the industry. Much like storage technology has historically integrated a cache layer to improve price/performance of disk, Cisco views Flash as an optimization opportunity for computing adjacent to DRAM. UCS Invicta leverages Cisco’s scalable, unified approach to computing to deliver this rapidly emerging technology to our customers in a highly optimized way. 02/27/2014 11:43AM Q What is the performance overhead for data deduplication? 02/27/2014 11:24AM A This answer greatly depends on the load being driven of course, but ranges have shown roughly a 10-20% overhead for deduplication. 02/27/2014 11:43AM Q Which grade of MLC? 02/27/2014 11:30AM A We use consumer grade MLC and our Operating System is built to increase the life of the drives by using intelligent write algorithms 02/27/2014 11:43AM Q is there a whitepaper that discuss TCO saving using UCS Invicta ? 02/27/2014 11:39AM A Yes, whitepapers are available on Cisco.com 02/27/2014 11:44AM Q What re some typical use cases for Invicta vs. whiptail? 02/27/2014 11:40AM A The same use cases would apply. 02/27/2014 11:45AM Q How is Invicta managed? 02/27/2014 11:28AM A UCS Invicta can be managed through several ways. UCS Director, a proprietary graphical user interface, or through leveraging Invicta's API. 02/27/2014 11:45AM Q How does moving application to Flash help address performance issues that are application or DB specifics ? 02/27/2014 11:39AM A Flash eliminates the mechanical delay inherent in rotating disk. 02/27/2014 11:45AM Q You've given different answers to the same question. Is dedupe global or is it per-shelf 02/27/2014 11:37AM A De-dup is global In the UCS Invicta Appliance. On the Scaling System De-dup occurs on he nodes that have data reduction active. 02/27/2014 11:46AM Q So to fully manage UCS Invitca a customer needs UCS Manager-UCS Central and UCS Director? 02/27/2014 11:42AM A NNo. UCS Director is an option for those customers who want to manage compute, networking, and storage from a single tool. Customers can use the standalone management tools for Invicta 02/27/2014 11:48AM Q We are retailer here in Clagary AB product "VOIP" Services home/office phones services with international calling & The problem we are facing quality and costly Looking for a better solutions/carrier I heard cisco provide best VOIP solutions so My questions is, Am I attending a right seminar? and If not whats my option Thanks 02/27/2014 11:32AM A Unfortunately no. Please contact your local Cisco sales office. They will be happy to help you. 02/27/2014 11:48AM Q What are the size of these, what space does it take up in the Rack? 02/27/2014 11:29AM A Our Appliances are a self contained, 2U unit. A base Scaling System unit needs 8U and each additional shelf will require 2U in a rack. 02/27/2014 11:48AM Q Would invicta connect directly to the FI today or to the fabrics? 02/27/2014 11:46AM A Both options will be supported. Please check the UCS HCL for details of what is supported 02/27/2014 11:49AM Q Phenomenal job answering questions, you guys. In most cases they are picked-through. You've answered great volume and were willing to accept the snarky Q's too. 02/27/2014 11:48AM Q Earlier you said that HA is provided by mirroring between Invicta shelves. Can I use RAID 0 within a shelf in that case? 02/27/2014 11:43AM A You can mirror LUN's with a single Storage Node, however that may not make a lot of sense unless you are using establish mirror, break mirror then re-attach to another server 02/27/2014 11:49AM Q Can I still start with a single appliance then move into a scale out system like Whiptail had provided previously? 02/27/2014 11:48AM A Yes, a single appliance can be added/upgraded to the Scaling System. 02/27/2014 11:50AM Q How does Invicta play compared to hybrid storage offerings of Nimble? 02/27/2014 11:28AM A Not everyone in the market is trying to solve the same problem. 100% flash brings a new solution to growing businesses and the UCS Invicta is designed to address any workload while providing high performance and scalability along with low total cost of ownership and the best architecture to integrate with UCS. 02/27/2014 11:50AM Q what size RAID 6 groups are used? 22+2? 02/27/2014 11:42AM A We currently are using 24 drives and therefore the RAID6 Sets are built with 22 + 2 Parity drives 02/27/2014 11:51AM Q I have a question on HA. Do we need 2 sets of SSRs ? Or do we just need 2 sets of SSNs ? 02/27/2014 11:33AM A A Scaling System consists of 2 SSRs and 2 SSNs. Additional SSNs can be added as needed for additional capacity and performance (up to 10 total). No additional SSRs are necessary to add SSNs. 02/27/2014 11:51AM Q if i have invicta and other storage connected to one UCS FI; will i need the FI to work as FC switch? 02/27/2014 11:47AM A No. As per the UCS HCL we support a variety of different arrays connected to the FI in both NPV mode (Default) and Switching mode 02/27/2014 11:51AM Q What is the file system used by Invicta? 02/27/2014 11:34AM A UCS Invicta leverages block storage. 02/27/2014 11:51AM Q what brands of SSD 's i used by Cisco ? 02/27/2014 11:46AM A Today we ship with Micron drives 02/27/2014 11:52AM Q For very large LUNs (That scale beyond a single shelf, how do you balance between different nodes? 02/27/2014 11:41AM A The UCS Invicta Scaling System enables LUNs to span multiple nodes. LUNS can be striped balancing IO performance. 02/27/2014 11:53AM Q Can you turn off Dedup or it is ON all the time? 02/27/2014 11:35AM A Deduplication is a choice at the point of sale and cannot be turned on or off. 02/27/2014 11:53AM Q Is the replication an additional cost? Can it do sync replication? 02/27/2014 11:37AM A Asynchronous replication is an additional cost. Synchronous replication is not offered at this time. 02/27/2014 11:54AM Q Is Dedupe post process or real time? 02/27/2014 11:18AM A We use inline, real time deduplication 02/27/2014 11:54AM Q Does UCS Invicta support traditional Fibre Channel, or FCoE within the UCS infrastructure, or both? 02/27/2014 11:18AM A Invicta supports FC or iSCSI targets today. 02/27/2014 11:55AM Q Does Invicta run Garbage collection? 02/27/2014 11:41AM A Yes the UCS Invicta OS does perform garbage collection. This is a critical component of any storage media that does not do update in place. If the Invicta OS does not do garbage collection then it would rely on the onboard IO controller of the individual SSD and the onboard controller is limited in it's capacity with respect to performance 02/27/2014 11:55AM Q How will Invicta work with my EMC storage in a vlbock design, does this devalue my EMC storage 02/27/2014 11:19AM A This certainly does not devalue your EMC storage. While no plans to include UCS Invicta in VBlock have been announced, VCE's evaluation of all available technology from VCE partners will continue as it has in the past. 02/27/2014 11:55AM Q Do I need a specific type of node to do data reduction or is it supported just by enabling a license? 02/27/2014 11:41AM A All nodes are capable of running deduplication however it needs to be a choice made at the time of purchase. 02/27/2014 11:55AM Q Can dedup be purchased as an add on option after the appliance has already been purchased? 02/27/2014 11:55AM A Yes, dedupe is available as an add-on option. 02/27/2014 11:56AM ... View more

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