Data Center LAN Migration Guide - Juniper Networks

Data Center LAN Migration Guide
Significant levels of integration can be done in fault, performance, and network configuration and change
management. As an example, IBM’s Tivoli NetCool is a well established leading multivendor solution for fault
management. Juniper’s Junos Space platform licenses and integrates NetCool into its Junos Space offering. There
are also well established multivendor solutions for performance management that include IBM NetCool Proviso,
CA eHealth, InfoVista, and HP OpenView that an enterprise can consider for managing network and application
performance for both current vendor and Juniper network infrastructures.
There are currently over a dozen Network Configuration and Change Management (NCCM) vendors with multivendor
tools. These tools bring more structure to the change management process and also enable automated configuration
management. NCCM vendors include IBM Tivoli, AlterPoint, BMC (EmprisaNetworks), EMC (Voyence), HP (Opsware),
and others. Prior to introducing Juniper into an existing single vendor infrastructure, Juniper recommends that you
replace manual network configuration management processes and vendor-specific tools with automated multivendor
NCCM tools. It is also good practice to establish standard network device configuration policies which would apply to
all vendors in the network infrastructure. Automated network configuration management is more efficient and also
reduces operational complexity. An IT management solution should be built around the standards outlined by the
Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance, Security (FCAPS) Model.
Refer to the following URL for more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FCAPS.
Integrating Management and Orchestration with Junos Space
Some amount of integration for management and orchestration can be accomplished using Junos Space. Junos Space
is a network application platform for developing and deploying applications that simplify data center operations. Junos
Space abstracts network intelligence such as traffic flows, routing topology, security events, and user statistics (to
name a few), and makes this available as services used both by Juniper-developed applications and applications from
third-party vendors leveraging the Junos Space SDKs/APIs. Junos Space applications are designed to be collaborative.
They share common services such as inventory and configuration management, job scheduling, HA/clustering, etc.,
and they use a common security framework. This enables users to optimize scale, security, and resources across their
application environment. The Junos Space application portfolio currently includes Ethernet Design (rapid endpoint and
switch port configuration in campus/data center environments), Security Design (fast, accurate deployment of security
devices and services), Network Activate (point/click setup and management of VPLS services), Route Insight (visibility,
troubleshooting, and change modeling for L3 MPLS/IP networks), Virtual Control, which provides a consolidated
solution for network administrators to gain end-to-end visibility into, and control over, both virtual and physical
networks from a single management screen, and Service Now (automated case and incident management).
Data Center Consolidation Trigger Event
Numerous large enterprises are consolidating their geographically distributed data centers into mega data
centers to take advantage of cost benefits, economies of scale, and increased reliability, and to fully exploit the
latest virtualization technologies. According to industry research, more than 50% of the companies surveyed had
consolidated data centers within the last year and even more planned to consolidate in the upcoming year. Data center
consolidation can involve multiple insertion points into access and core aggregation layers as well as consolidation of
security services.
Best Practices in Designing for the Access Layer Insertion Point
We have already discussed the recommended best practices for the access layer insertion point. In this section, we will
highlight key best practice/design considerations for the other insertion points related to the consolidation trigger event.
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