In this 3-day workshop-driven course attendees will gain an understanding of how to use an InfiniBand fabric for both network and storage applications. You will learn how to utilize InfiniBand technology in a variety of different operating system environments using upper-level protocol specifications and support libraries (both licensed and open source). This course will enable Application Designers, Software Developers, and Network and Storage Administrators to understand the integration of InfiniBand in an existing environment. 

• Use the InfiniBand Architecture with existing software applications using the different upper-level protocol specifications, such as IPoIB (IP over InfiniBand), SRP (SCSI RDMA Protocol), SDP (Sockets Direct Protocol), DAPL (Direct Access Transport Protocol), VI (Virtual Interface), and MPI (Message Passing Interface).
• Use vendor and open source supplied support libraries that provide interfaces to the upper-level protocol specifications.
• Understand the application issues involved with testing and validating application design requirements in an InfiniBand environment.
• Understand the issues involved in meeting application and data center design requirements with InfiniBand.

This course is designed to provide a introductory foundation on InfiniBand as seen from the perspectives of software applications. This class provides a foundation in the technology from a usability point-of-view building on a prior understanding of the details of the InfiniBand specification. It is designed to meet the needs of anyone wanting the benefits of an InfiniBand infrastructure for existing or new software applications. It also addresses the needs of anyone managing, maintaining or operating these software applications when InfiniBand is introduced into the environment where they are deployed. For example, some questions this class will answer are:

• IT Professionals: How does InfiniBand affect application performance and scalability?
• Application Designers: How can IPoIB improve communication between application components and reduce system overhead? How can InfiniBand improve messaging protocols such as VI (Virtual Interface) and MPI (Message Passing Interface) for clustered systems? What is required of the application to support converting the data center to InfiniBand?
• Software Developers: What is involved in incorporating SDP (Sockets Direct Protocol) in an existing or new software application?
• Network Administrators: What are the tradeoffs between direct InfiniBand support (IPoIB) and using an IP/IB gateway? What are the tradeoffs between a single InfiniBand network design and multiple subnet configurations?
• Storage Administrators: What file system and operating system support is available for SRP (SCSI RDMA Protocol)? What is the impact of replacing fibre channel with InfiniBand? 

• Exploring applications using InfiniBand network technology
• Using an Application Interface for Communications
• Using an Application Interface for Clustering
• Using an Application Interface for Storage

Course attendees must have an understanding of the various computer architectures, a general understanding of networking and inter-networking concepts and an understanding of the InfiniBand architecture covered in the three-day InfiniBand Workshop course.

Day 1 - Morning - InfiniBand Fundamentals and Architecture

• Review of the InfiniBand architecture
  • InfiniBand System Area Network (SAN)
  • InfiniBand Architecture from an Application Perspectiv
    • Components
    • Switched Fabric
    • Types of Service
    • Management
    • Overview of Networks in Communications and Storage

Day 1 - Afternoon

• InfiniBand Application Layers Overview
  • Communications — Application to Application
  • Clustering — Server to Server
  • Storage — Server to Device

Workshop: Exploring applications using InfiniBand network technology.

Application Communications using InfiniBand

• Upper-Layer Protocol APIs 
  • Sockets
  • uDAPL (user Direct Access Provider Library)
  • VIPL (Virtual Interface Provider Library)

Day 2 - Morning - Application Communications using InfiniBand (continued)

• Lower-Layer Protocol APIs
  • SDP (Sockets Direct Protocol
  • IPoIB (IP over InfiniBand
  • VIA (Virtual Interface Architecture
• InfiniBand Fabric
  • InfiniBand Channel Interface
  • Addressing, Subneting, and Routing 

Workshop: Using an Application Interface for Communications

Day 2 - Afternoon - Using InfiniBand for Clustering

• Messaging API
  • VI (Virtual Interface 
  • MPI (Message Passing Interface)

Workshop: Using an Application Interface for Clustering.

Day 3 - Morning- Storage Connections using InfiniBand

• Overview of InfiniBand I/O Infrastructure
  • Specification view
• Block Level Storage APIs
  • iSCSI (SCSI over IP)
  • iSER (iSCSI Extensions for RDMA)
  • SRP (SCSI RDMA Protocol)
• File Level Storage APIs
  • DAFS (Direct Access File System)
  • IP Based (NFS, CIFS, SMB)

Day 3 - Afternoon

• Database Level Storage APIs
  • DAPL (Direct Access Provider Library)
  • VIA (Virtual Interface Architecture)

Workshop: Using an Application Interface for Storage

InfiniBand Application Traffic

• Traffic analysis for Applications using InfiniBand
  • Configuration issues
  • Traffic analyze

InfiniBand Software Product Overview

• Overview of current InfiniBand products
  • API Libraries
  • Operating System Support and Services
  • Management Products
• Using InfiniBand with Existing Products