Extreme Networks and
A10 Networks
Integrated Solution
SOLUTION BRIEF
EXTREME NETWORKS SOLUTION BRIEF
Extreme Networks and
A10 Networks
Integrated Solution
Surging demand for data center resources is increasing the need for integrated
application and network management solutions that improve efficiency and reduce
operating costs. With the integration of Extreme Networks SDN Platform with
A10 Networks aCloud Service Architecture, data centers benefit from secure and
reliable delivery of mission critical applications with increased transparency and
control.
Combining management intelligence with fine-grained application control, the
solution consists of Extreme Networks OneFabric Connect and A10 Networks
aCloud Services Architecture, including Thunder Application Delivery Controller
(ADC) and Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB) elements. Leveraging Network
Access Control (NAC), location services, and topology awareness, the solution
combines application delivery, access control, and complete network awareness.
Improve Security Across the Network
A10 Networks high performance Application Delivery Controllers (ADC) provide
application and content control with high-throughput, consolidating the data
center edge infrastructure and enabling Server Load Balancing (SLB), Secure
Sockets Layer (SSL), Web Application Firewall (WAF), and other high-value Layer
4–7 services. A10 protects the perimeter of the network by monitoring external
servers, and notifies Extreme Networks NetSight management application of
suspicious server activity.
NetSight then blocks suspicious internal server traffic within the network without
affecting other servers - even servers on the same port. The server remains
blocked until cleared, independent of the attachment port. Even if the server VM
is reassigned to a new host, NetSight continues to block the VM traffic at the new
port. Administrators are notified of events via captive portal, email, or SMS.
Optimize Application Performance
A10 Networks’ ADC and GSLB functions optimize application performance by
defining policies that balance requestor traffic to different data center sites via an
intelligent algorithm that includes the relative number of application server VMs
defined at each site. The aCloud Services Architecture provides a comprehensive
open standards-based RESTful aXAPI that delivers automated provisioning and
management and lowers service provisioning time.
Extreme Networks and A10 Networks Integrated Solution – Solution Brief
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In a typical scenario, GSLB algorithms account for the number of server VMs available
in each data center to send the proportional amount of traffic to each one. But if
an event results in server VMs moving, such as a vMotion or Disaster Recovery (DR)
scenario that forces a server VM to move from one data center to another, then the
GSLB may be distributing traffic based on stale information, because standard GSLB
health checks lack VM location movement information. As a result, traffic distribution
may be disproportional to the available resources, and the applications may have
degraded performance or traffic traversing the DCI via suboptimal routes, resulting in
asymmetrical resource distribution.
To resolve this challenge, Extreme Networks NetSight provides network-triggered
location updates to A10 GSLB configurations via RESTful APIs, allowing GSLB patterns
to be optimized to internal DC topologies. As the server VMs that host applications
move within a data center or between data centers, the network detects the server
at the new location and NAC notifies the A10 load balancers to make the necessary
adjustments. The quick detection and notification by the network minimizes the time
period for suboptimal routing.
A10 Thunder 01
A10 Thunder 02
Benefits
• Optimized utilization of data center resources
• Increased security and acceleration of business-critical applications
• Improved availability and resiliency
• In-depth visibility into data center network and application performance
• Reduced management complexity and increased automation
Extreme Networks and A10 Networks Integrated Solution – Solution Brief
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Extreme Networks SDN Platform
Extreme Networks SDN platform includes a comprehensive set of components that
includes network management, network access control, application analytics and
wireless controller technologies and a OpenDaylight (ODL) based controller. Extreme
Networks comprehensive approach preserves the integrity of the open API provided
by ODL while extending data center orchestration, automation and provisioning to the
entire network under a single pane of glass.
Extreme Networks SDN platform tightly integrates with existing and multi-vendor
hardware and software network environments, preserving customer investments
and avoiding vendor lock-in. Backward compatibility is maintained with multi-vendor
network infrastructure. Extreme Networks’ software development kit (SDK) and
developer community will enable customers to evolve the network to keep pace with
emerging security, wireless, and converged SDN infrastructure.
The result is a simpler development platform that avoids the feature and capability
limitations of other ‘open’ SDN models which are only applicable to new or greenfield
networking implementations. Extreme Networks SDN platform also enables customers
to avoid the limitations of proprietary SDN models that result in vendor lock-in and
operational compromise.
A10 Networks aCloud Services Architecture
The A10 aCloud Services Architecture enables data center operators to deliver
advanced L4-7 tenant services while improving agility and reducing total cost of
ownership. It includes a portfolio of products and features that integrate with SDN
network fabrics and cloud orchestration platforms, dynamically delivering application
and security services and policies per tenant for public, private or hybrid cloud
deployments. aCloud Services Architecture enables a dynamic enforcement of
centralized policy as new workloads and services are created with significant increase
in provisioning speed, business agility and reduced costs. Integration with centralized
orchestration systems such as Extreme Neworks SDN platform via flexible RESTful APIs
ensure accurate and unified configuration of network application services reducing
manual configuration tasks and speeding time to implementation.
Extreme Networks and A10 Networks Integrated
Solution Requirements
• Extreme Networks NetSight 6.1 or above – NMS- XXX (e.g. NMS-10 - NetSight
License for up to 10 devices and 100 thin Aps)
• Extreme Networks NAC 6.1 or above – NAC-A-XX, NAC-V-XX or IA-ES-XX (e.g.IAES-1k - Identity and Access 1,000 end-system license, IA licenses with appliance
IA-A-XX require NMS-ADV-XXX NetSight Advanced licenses )
• Extreme Networks Data Center Manager (DCM) plugin installed and configured
• A10 Networks Thunder ADC, with ACOS 2.7 or above
• A10 Networks appliances at a minimum 2 Data Centers (two or more appliances).
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