Introduction

Cisco Service Ready Engine Virtualization integrated with the Cisco ISR G2 provides a compact all-in-one device for hosting edge services on dedicated x86 blades. The solution is best suited for small and medium-sized branch offices with centralized applications and lean branch-office infrastructure. Consider the following Use Cases:

  • An organization decides to implement Microsoft AD DS, DHCP Server, and DNS Server locally in the branch office. The branch office experiences productivity slowdown when these services either are not available or perform slowly.
    • Solution: With Cisco SRE-V, core Microsoft edge services can be implemented in the following way:
      • Run each service as a dedicated virtual server hosted on Cisco SRE-V.
      • Co-locate and run all (or a group of) services on a virtual server hosted on Cisco SRE-V.
      (Actual implementation will depend on the needs and requirements of the individual organization.)

  • A large retail chain cannot tolerate any downtime in its in-store point of sale (POS) system during shopping hours. The organization implements a local POS server in the branch office. The POS server is responsible for synchronizing the in-store inventory with a centralized inventory management system.
    • Solution: The local POS server can run on a dedicated virtual server hosted on Cisco SRE-V.

Benefits

  • The Cisco SRE-V solution is best suited for multisite organizations with centralized IT infrastructure that need to host a small number of essential applications locally in the branch office.
  • Unlike rack or tower servers, the Cisco SRE-V combined with the multiservice Cisco ISR G2 provides an x86 blade system consolidated into a single branch-office device.
  • Unlike appliance-based application hosting, the Cisco SRE-V with VMware vSphere hypervisor provides enterprise-class virtualization hosted on high-performance, feature-rich hardware.

Tech Details

The Cisco Service Ready Engine Virtualization is composed of the following elements:

  • Cisco Services-Ready Engine (SRE) Multipurpose x86 Blades: Designed to meet the requirements of lean branch-office applications, Cisco SRE x86 blades are compact, versatile, high-performance, and high-capacity servers.
  • Cisco ISR G2 Multigigabit Fabric (MGF) Backplane Switch: The MGF switch provides multigigabit Layer 2 connectivity between the Cisco SRE x86 blades and Cisco EtherSwitch® modules, facilitating gigabit-rate connectivity between the x86 blades and devices on the branch-office LAN.
  • Microsoft Windows server hosted on Cisco SRE-V: The Cisco SRE-V allows one or multiple instances of Microsoft Windows Server to run directly on the Cisco ISR G2.
  • Cisco Integrated Management Controller (CIMC): The CIMC is used for management and monitoring of Cisco SRE blades through web GUI, command-line interface (CLI), or Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI).