Cisco FabricPath Reviews

I use Cisco FabricPath for network connectivity and Ethernet switches, specifically Layer three switches like the 3750 series. My environment requires advanced network traffic monitoring and reliable network performance. I have had experience with other brands like HP, but I find that Cisco provides significant advantages in speed and network monitoring.

One of the most valuable features of Cisco FabricPath is its protocol freedom, which allows me to use multiple protocols at a time, such as Spanning Tree to prevent loops in the network. It also offers tools to prioritize network traffic and direct traffic to specific MAC addresses. 

Additionally, the reliability of Cisco enhances my overall network efficiency by reducing the need for switch restarts and helping me isolate issues from other network tools I use. The improved speed and monitoring capabilities are evident when compared to my previous experience with HP.

I have about eight years of experience working with Cisco FabricPath. I was initially a final customer and integrator, and now I'm a freelancer and consultant. I work with many Cisco environments, including CyberArk and various client endpoints. Many of my customers are clients of Cisco, and they often test integrations with other companies to interface with Cisco solutions.

Cisco FabricPath is very fast, stable, extendable, and scalable. It doesn't have issues with patches or problems because it's built on the stable NXOS operating system. In a scenario using FabricPath, the spin and leaf architecture is beneficial. For example, we can use two separate spine switches like 9980s and multiple leaf switches as access switches. 

These leaf switches are connected using VPC between them, with each switch separated and not directly connected to the spine. This setup improves data center architecture by allowing two ways to arrange destinations, connecting the first connection to the first spine and the second to the second spine. The spines are configured as a virtual chassis. In FabricPath, we can enhance VXLANs, VPNs, and integrate with Cisco ISE for user authentication. It can also be configured with WLC to manage wireless technology, depending on the client's architecture.             

The tool makes it easy to manage multi-layer networking and increases network efficiency. I haven't faced any challenges in integrating it into our existing infrastructure. 

Cisco FabricPath's pricing is expensive. 

We implemented Cisco FabricPath in our networking design. Depending on cost considerations and customer preferences, we may configure Cisco or HP switches accordingly. We aim to deliver a configuration that is both cost-effective and acceptable to the customer.

Cisco FabricPath is highly beneficial for network performance and relatively easy to implement. It also offers straightforward monitoring capabilities.

I am using Cisco FabricPath in my data centre operations for management, monitoring and trend setup.

The most beneficial feature of Cisco FabricPath for network performance is its reliability. We connected different fabrics and servers to different storage and it worked very well. It is also stable and scalable. 

We have configured Cisco FabricPath mainly for allocating to VMware ESXA servers. We are utilizing only a few ports out of 90 and using a maximum of ten nodes.

Cisco FabricPath operates with minimal errors. Initially, we faced a hardware issue that was resolved by replacing the switch, leading us to take regular backups of zone details. Redundancies are in place to ensure service continuity if one switch is down. This prevents significant customer access issues.

We have the solution installed in many data centers, configured in spine-leaf technology configured with Nexus. We use FabricPath and VXLAN to make our infrastructure reliable in different data centers. We have multiple layers to our environment. Data Centers A to C are connected with fiber, and we used FabricPath to enhance our data center in spine-leaf technology six to seven years ago. Internally, we had VRF to separate our routing table. We use many virtualization environments, not only Cisco, but we especially use Cisco to expand layer 2 and layer 3.

For us, there is a change between a single data center with different IP addresses to a spam data center, where the VLAN could be extended between the two, so we are able to grant the service with high availability. We can also enhance our service line with disaster recovery.