ACESM Implementing the Application Control Engine Service Module

Prerequisites:

Delegates are required to have a basic understanding of the following:

- TCP / IP protocol
- HTTP and SSL protocols
- N-tier application architecture
- Server load-balancing

Course Description:

This is a four-day instructor-led, lecture / lab course that teachers delegates how to design, deploy and optimize intelligent network services using the Cisco (ACE) Application Control Engine Module for the Catalyst 6500 Switch. All key features of the ACE 2.0 software, including resource virtualisation and management, server load balancing (Layer 2-4 and Layer 7), SSL termination and offload, and security features like application-layer inspection and fix-ups.

Course Objectives

After completing the course, you will be able to:

• Describe IP application delivery within the ACE module
• Describe the configuration tasks necessary to successfully deploy an ACE module
• Describe the structure and function of the Modular Policy CLI statements used to configure ACE features
• Describe the methods used to manage the Cisco ACE Module
• Describe the capabilities the Cisco ACE Module used to load balance IP-based applications
• Create new contexts and resource classes
• Implement fix-ups and inspection
• Troubleshoot common SLB configuration errors
• Create class maps and server farms
• Configure a Cisco ACE context to load-balance traffic flows
• Configure a Cisco ACE context to monitor real servers
• Describe the ACE features that provide IP application-based security
• Implement SSL termination
• Configure network address translations
• Describe the high availability features of the Cisco ACE Module
• Identify the layer 7 processing options used to provide advanced application networking
• Configure a Cisco ACE context to perform a variety of functions in an integrated environment

Who should attend?

This course is intended for a technical engineers and network architects who need to design or deploy server load-balancing solutions using the Cisco ACE module.

This course includes the following modules:

Introducing Cisco ACE Module

• IP Protocol Stack Review
• IP Application Review
• Introducing the Cisco ACE Module

Deploying Cisco ACE Module

• Connecting ACE to the Network
• Network Topologies
• Virtualisation
• Resource Management
• Authorizing Management Users
• Configuring Interfaces

Configuring Modular Policy CLI

• Class Maps
• Policy Maps
• Applying Policy Maps

Managing the Cisco ACE Module

• Permitting Management Traffic
• SNMP Manageability

Understanding Security Features

• IP Access Control Lists
• ACL Object Groups
• SYN Cookies
• TCP/IP Fragmentation/Reassembly
• TCP/IP Normalisation
• Network Address Translation and Port Address Translation

Configuring Layer 4 Load Balancing

• Load Balancing Concepts
• Load Balancing Algorithms
• Configuring Layer 4 Load Balancing
• Traffic Rate Limiting

Configuring Layer 7 Protocol Processing

• HTTP Layer 7 Load Balancing
• Persistent and Pipelined HTTP Extensions
• HTTP Modifications
• Session Persistence
• HTTP Inspection
• FTP Processing
• RDP Processing
• Radius Processing
• SIP Processing
• Generic Protocol Parsing
• Inspected Protocols

Processing Secure Connections

• Digital Encryption Technologies
• SSL Service Options
• Configuring a Public-Key Infrastructure
• Configuring SSL Proxy Services

Understanding High Availability

• Redundancy
• Object Tracking
• Failover
• State Replication
• Displaying Fault Tolerance Information
• Configuring Multiple Integrated Features

Integrating Multiple Features

• Analysing Network Requirements
• Designing ACE Contexts
• Designing ACE features
• Configuring Multiple Integrated Features