Clos network fabric

Three-stage switching network in which switch elements in the middle stages are connected to all switch elements in the ingress and egress stages. In the case of QFabric system components, the three stages are represented by an ingress chipset, a midplane chipset, and an egress chipset in an Interconnect device (such as a QFX3008-I Interconnect device). In Clos networks, which are well known for their nonblocking properties, a connection can be made from any idle input port to any idle output port, regardless of the traffic load in the rest of the system.

Director group

Set of Director devices that host and load-balance internal processes for the QFabric system. The Director group handles tasks such as QFabric system network topology discovery, Node and Interconnect device configuration, startup, and DNS, DHCP, and NFS services. Operating a Director group is a minimum requirement to manage a QFabric system.

The Director group runs the Director software for management applications and runs dual processes in active/standby mode for maximum redundancy and high availability. (See also Director software and Director device.)

fabric control Routing Engine

Virtual Junos OS Routing Engine instance used to control the exchange of routes and flow of data between QFabric system hardware components within a partition. The fabric control Routing Engine runs on the Director group.

infrastructure

QFabric system services processed by the virtual Junos Routing Engines operating within the Director group. These services, such as fabric management and fabric control, support QFabric system functionality and high availability.

Junos Space

Carrier-class network management system for provisioning, monitoring, and diagnosing Juniper Networks routing, switching, security, and data center platforms.

network Node group Routing Engine

Virtual Junos OS Routing Engine instance that handles routing processes for a network Node group. The network Node group Routing Engine runs on the Director group.

partition

Collection of physical or logical QFabric system hardware components (such as Node devices) that provides fault isolation, separation, and security.

In their initial state, all QFabric system components belong to a default partition.

QFabric system control plane

• Node devices, such as the QFX3500 Node device.
• Interconnect devices, such as the QFX3008-I Interconnect device.
• Director group processes, such as management applications, provisioning, and topology discovery.
• Control plane Ethernet switches to provide interconnections to all QFabric system devices and processes. For example, you can use EX Series EX4200 switches running in Virtual Chassis mode for this purpose.

To maintain high availability, the QFabric system control plane uses a different network than the QFabric system data plane, and uses a fabric provisioning protocol and a fabric management protocol to establish and maintain the QFabric system.

QFabric system endpoint

Device connected to a Node device port, such as a server, a storage device, memory, an appliance, a switch, or a router.

QFX3500 Node device

Node device that connects to either endpoint systems (such as servers and storage devices) or external networks in a QFabric system. It is packaged in an industry-standard 1U, 19-inch rack-mounted enclosure.

The QFX3500 Node device provides up to 48 10-Gigabit Ethernet interfaces to connect to the endpoints. Twelve of these 48 interfaces can be configured to support 2-Gbps, 4-Gbps or 8-Gbps Fibre Channel, and 36 of the interfaces can be configured to support Gigabit Ethernet. Also, there are four uplink connections to connect to Interconnect devices in a QFabric system. These uplinks use 40-Gbps quad small form-factor pluggable plus (QSFP+) interfaces. (See also QFX3500 switch.)

QFX3600 Node device

Node device that connects to either endpoint systems (such as servers and storage devices) or external networks in a QFabric system. It is packaged in an industry-standard 1U, 19-inch rack-mounted enclosure.

The QFX3600 Node device provides 16 40-Gbps QSFP+ ports. By default, 4 ports (labeled Q0 through Q3) are configured for 40-Gbps uplink connections between your Node device and your Interconnect device, and 12 ports (labeled Q4 through Q15) use QSFP+ direct-attach copper (DAC) breakout cables or QSFP+ transceivers with fiber breakout cables to support 48 10-Gigabit Ethernet interfaces for connections to either endpoint systems (such as servers and storage devices) or external networks. Optionally, you can choose to configure the first eight ports (Q0 through Q7) for uplink connections between your Node device and your Interconnect device, and ports Q2 through Q15 for 10-Gigabit Ethernet connections to either endpoint systems or external networks. (See also QFX3600 switch.)

QFX5100 Node device

QFabric system Node device that connects to either endpoint systems (such as servers and storage devices) or external networks. It is packaged in an industry-standard 1U, 19-inch rack-mounted enclosure.

The QFX5100-48S Node device by default provides 48 10-Gigabit Ethernet interfaces to connect to the endpoints. There are also six 40-Gbps quad small form-factor pluggable plus (QSFP+) interfaces. By default, the first 4 ports (labeled fte-0/0/48 through fte-0/0/51) are configured for 40-Gbps uplink connections between your Node device and your Interconnect devices, and 2 ports (labeled xle-0/0/52 and xle-0/0/53) use QSFP+ direct-attach copper (DAC) breakout cables or QSFP+ transceivers with fiber breakout cables to support 8 10-Gigabit Ethernet interfaces for connections to either endpoint systems (such as servers and storage devices) or external networks. Optionally, you can choose to configure the middle 2 ports (xle-0/0/50 and xle-0/0/51) for additional connections to either endpoint systems or external networks. (See also QFX3500 Node device and QFX3600 Node device.)

rolling upgrade

Method used in the QFabric system to upgrade the software for components in a systematic, low-impact way. A rolling upgrade begins with the Director group, proceeds to the fabric (Interconnect devices), and finishes with the Node groups.

routing instance

Private collection of routing tables, interfaces, and routing protocol parameters unique to a specific customer. The set of interfaces is contained in the routing tables, and the routing protocol parameters control the information in the routing tables.

(See also virtual private network.)

virtual LAN (VLAN)

Unique Layer 2 broadcast domain for a set of ports selected from the components available in a partition. VLANs allow manual segmentation of larger Layer 2 networks and help to restrict access to network resources. To interconnect VLANs, Layer 3 routing is required.