Networking for Data Center Technicians
Networking from the data center floor, followed through Stonebridge Data's campus in Ashburn, Virginia: network owners and demarcation, switches, routers, firewalls and their airflow, Ethernet and MAC learning, VLANs, trunks and link aggregation, IP addressing and /31 fabric links, spine-leaf fabrics with ECMP and BGP, optic form factors and reach, handling optics and reading their diagnostics, InfiniBand and RoCE AI fabrics, out-of-band management and consoles, troubleshooting with lights, counters and optic readings, and a flapping fabric link from ticket to soak.
DCT-320 12 lessons · 3 h 56 min ▶ Video lessons coming soon
Offered by HSM University · Data Center Operations
This is the American version of this course. See the Canadian version.
What you'll learn
- Identify the owner and demarcation point of any network on a colocation campus and work only within a ticket
- Recognize switches, routers, firewalls and load balancers, replace their field-replaceable parts and match their airflow to the aisles
- Explain Ethernet frames, MAC learning, flooding and loops, and use neighbor discovery to confirm a link
- Explain VLANs, trunks and link aggregation, and recognize the symptoms of VLAN and bundle faults after physical work
- Read IP addresses, prefixes, gateways, /31 links and loopbacks, and use a ping to separate cabling from configuration faults
- Describe how spine-leaf fabrics use ECMP and BGP, and follow drain, change, check and undrain on fabric work
- Identify optic form factors, lane counts and reach suffixes, and choose and check the right optic for a link
- Handle, insert, remove, inspect and clean optics, and read their diagnostic readings against thresholds
- Explain why AI backend fabrics using InfiniBand or RoCE need lossless, error-free links, and apply Hall D's stricter rules
- Install and maintain out-of-band management and console connections and protect management access
- Troubleshoot links from the physical layer up using lights, settings, counters and optic readings, one change at a time
- Take a flapping fabric link from ticket to cause, fix, soak and a complete ticket note
Course content
12 lessons · 3 h 56 min total · final exam
- 1 The data center network from a technician's view 20 min · quiz
- 2 Network devices: switches, routers, firewalls and load balancers 19 min · quiz
- 3 Ethernet, MAC addresses and switching 20 min · quiz
- 4 VLANs, trunks and link aggregation 20 min · quiz
- 5 IP addressing and routing basics 20 min · quiz
- 6 Spine-leaf fabrics, ECMP and BGP at a glance 20 min · quiz
- 7 Optics and transceivers: form factors and speeds 20 min · quiz
- 8 Handling, inserting and cleaning optics 19 min · quiz
- 9 AI networks: InfiniBand and RoCE Ethernet 20 min · quiz
- 10 Out-of-band management and console access 20 min · quiz
- 11 Troubleshooting connectivity: lights, counters and optics diagnostics 20 min · quiz
- 12 Capstone: a flapping uplink in Hall D 18 min · quiz
- E Final exam 20 questions
Requirements
Recommended background. You can start any course at any time.
Description
Networking from the data center floor, followed through Stonebridge Data's campus in Ashburn, Virginia: network owners and demarcation, switches, routers, firewalls and their airflow, Ethernet and MAC learning, VLANs, trunks and link aggregation, IP addressing and /31 fabric links, spine-leaf fabrics with ECMP and BGP, optic form factors and reach, handling optics and reading their diagnostics, InfiniBand and RoCE AI fabrics, out-of-band management and consoles, troubleshooting with lights, counters and optic readings, and a flapping fabric link from ticket to soak.