Owner's Manual

• Internal local area network (LAN) or virtual networks

• Internal storage networks

• External uplink networks and association with internal networks

The controller, which connects the end-point controller software components to other domains, is a key

element of the active fabric that is responsible for workload management, network service provisioning,

and fabric configuration using external applications. The controller’s role can be a provider (manager of

active fabric infrastructure) or a tenant (user of resources).

• The tenant creates and manages the workload profile, which must include the adaptor profile. You

must select an associated endpoint port profile.

• The provider creates and manages the network profiles (LAN or SAN) and the port profiles (endpoint

or uplink).

To simplify workload mobility and the addition or removal of infrastructure cards or other elements, an

endpoint port profile is applied at startup when the workload is detected.

Advantages of Active Fabric Deployment

Active fabric is a solution designed for data centers that provides a programmable network of switches as

a seamless entity. The advantages of implementing active fabric are:

• Bundling the network fabric in the server infrastructure

• Simplifying operations for the server or virtualization administrator

• Optimizing for cloud capability

• Simplifying control and management

– Single point of control for management

– No protocols — zero-touch deployment

– Stateless autoconfiguration

• Combining virtual and physical networks

• Providing scalability and resiliency

Active Fabric Element Definitions and Requirements

The AFC provides multi-tenancy network connectivity for servers and VMs connected to the active fabric.

Multi-tenancy enables tenants to create networks and VMs for running workloads. The active fabric

isolates the traffic of the tenants.

Controller

• A software entity that manages a group of Dell SDN physical switches using OpenFlow to provide an

abstract fabric view.

Head Node

• The access point to the network; also known as a gateway router or a spine node.

Host

• A server consisting of one or more endpoints that connect to different networks or the bare metal

server running the application.

Introduction