The “Implementing Cisco Data Center Unified Fabric (DCUFI) 5.0” course covers the implementation of a data center network fabric based on Cisco Nexus switches. Primary focus of the course is on the Cisco Nexus 5000 and Nexus 7000 switches and advanced data center technologies, such as vPC, FabricPath, OTV, and FCoE. The implementation and troubleshooting of these technologies is practiced in a series of hands-on labs.

The following sites contain useful references that supplement the course.

Cisco Live Online

Cisco Live Online (free registration required) is a great free resource for all things Cisco. It contains the session presentations from past Cisco Live events in PDF format. In addition to the PDFs, there are recordings for many of the sessions that you can review at your leisure. There is a lot of material related to Data Center implementation and Nexus switching. The presentations mentioned here are the ones that I can personally recommend as a supplement to this course:

• BRKARC-3470 – Cisco Nexus 7000 Switch Architecture (2013 Orlando)
• BRKARC-3452 – Cisco Nexus 5000/5500 and 2000 Switch Architecture (2013 Orlando)
• BRKDCT-2121 – Virtual Device Context (VDC) Design and Implementation Considerations with Nexus 7000 (2013 Orlando)
• BRKDCT-2048 – Deploying Virtual Port Channel in NXOS (2013 Orlando)
• BRKDCT-3103 – Advanced OTV – Configure, Verify and Troubleshoot OTV in Your Network (2013 Orlando)
• BRKDCT-2081 – Cisco FabricPath Technology and Design (2013 Orlando)
• BRKRST-2509 – Mastering Data Center QoS (2013 Orlando)

Blogs

• Carole Warner Reece has several excellent posts on Nexus QoS and other Nexus related topics at the Chesapeake Netcraftsmen Staff Blogs.