Data Center Design Guides
Proven Designs, Expert Guidance
Cisco Validated Designs help you deploy our products with confidence.
Design guides by solution
Data-Intensive Storage
Applications
Emerging Technologies
Designed for predictability
Find guides to architect your data center for performance, simplicity, and efficiency.
Automation
- VersaStack for Data Center with Cisco UCS Director
Cisco & Hitachi
- Cisco and Hitachi Adaptive Solutions for Converged Infrastructure as a Stretched Data Center
- Cisco and Hitachi Adaptive Solutions for SAP HANA TDI with Scale-Out Storage
- Cisco and Hitachi Adaptive Solutions for SAP HANA TDI with Scale-Out Storage Design Guide
- Cisco and Hitachi Adaptive Solutions for Converged Infrastructure with Cisco ACI Design Guide
- Cisco and Hitachi Adaptive Solutions for Converged Infrastructure with Cisco ACI
- Cisco and Hitachi Adaptive Solutions for Converged Infrastructure Direct Attached
- Cisco and Hitachi Adaptive Solutions for SAP HANA TDI
- Cisco and Hitachi Adaptive Solutions for Converged Infrastructure
- Cisco and Hitachi Adaptive Solutions for Converged Infrastructure Design Guide
- Cisco and Hitachi Adaptive Solutions for SAP HANA TDI Design Guide
Hyperconverged Infrastructure
Platform
- Cisco HyperFlex 4.0 for Citrix VDI with VMware ESXi for up to 5000 Users
- Cisco HyperFlex for Google Cloud’s Anthos
- Cisco HyperFlex All-NVMe Systems for Deploying Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Databases with VMware ESXi
- Cisco HyperFlex Edge Protection with Veeam
- Cisco HyperFlex 4.0 for Virtual Server Infrastructure with Microsoft Hyper-V
- Cisco HyperFlex 4.0 for Virtual Server Infrastructure with VMware ESXi
- Cisco HyperFlex Edge 4.0 with Cisco Intersight
- Cisco HyperFlex 3.5 Stretched Cluster with Cisco ACI 4.0 Multi-Pod Fabric Design Guide
- Cisco HyperFlex 3.5 Stretched Cluster with Cisco ACI 4.0 Multi-Pod Fabric
- Cisco Hyperflex 3.5 for Virtual Server Infrastructure with Microsoft Hyper-V
- Cisco UCS with Cohesity Data Protection for Cisco HyperFlex
- Cisco HyperFlex 3.5 All-Flash Systems for Deploying Microsoft SQL Server 2016 with MS Hyper-V
- Cisco HyperFlex 3.5 All-Flash Systems for Deploying Microsoft SQL Server 2016 with VMware
- Cisco HyperFlex Virtual Server Infrastructure 3.0 with Cisco ACI 3.2 and VMware vSphere 6.5
- Cisco HyperFlex 3.0 for Virtual Server Infrastructure with Microsoft Hyper-V
- Cisco HyperFlex 2.6 for Virtual Server Infrastructure
- Cisco HyperFlex 2.5 for Virtual Server Infrastructure
- Cisco HyperFlex 3.0 for Virtual Server Infrastructure with VMware ESXi
- Cisco HyperFlex for Virtual Server Infrastructure 2.0.1a with All Flash Storage
- Cisco HyperFlex System with HX Data Platform 1.8, a Hyperconverged Virtual Server Infrastructure
- Cisco HyperFlex with Veeam Availability Suite Design Guide
- Cisco HyperFlex with Veeam Availability Suite
- Cisco HyperFlex with Veeam Availability Suite for Multisite Deployments
Desktop Virtualization
- Cisco HyperFlex M5 All-Flash Hyperconverged System with Hyper-V 2019 and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops
- Cisco HyperFlex M5 All-Flash Hyperconverged System with Hyper-V 2016 and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops
- Cisco HyperFlex 3.5 All-Flash with up to 2000 Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Users
- Cisco HyperFlex 3.5 All-Flash Systems with up to 2000 Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Users
- Cisco All-Flash HyperFlex 3.5 Hyperconverged System with up to 4400 VMware Horizon 7 Users
- Cisco HyperFlex M5 All-Flash Hyperconverged System with Hyper-V 2016 and Citrix XenDesktop
- Cisco HyperFlex All-Flash Hyperconverged System with up to 2000 VMware Horizon 7 Users
- Cisco HyperFlex M5 All-Flash Hyperconverged System with up to 600 Citrix XenDesktop Users
- Cisco HyperFlex M5 All-Flash Hyperconverged System with up to 600 VMware Horizon 7 Users
- Cisco HyperFlex All-Flash Hyperconverged System with up to 4000 Citrix XenDesktop 7.13 Users
- Cisco HyperFlex All-Flash Hyperconverged System with up to 4000 VMware Horizon 7 Users
- Cisco HyperFlex for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure with VMware Horizon 7 for upto 2400 Users
- Cisco HyperFlex for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure with VMware Horizon 7
- Cisco HyperFlex for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure with Citrix XenDesktop and XenApp 7.11
FlashStack Platforms
- FlashStack for OpenShift 4.3, a User-Provisioned Infrastructure Design Guide
- FlashStack for SAP HANA TDI Design Guide
- FlashStack Data Center for Oracle RAC 19c Database on NVMe/RoCE
- FlashStack Virtual Server Infrastructure with Fibre Channel Storage for VMware vSphere 6.7 U1
- FlashStack® for AI: Powering the Data Pipeline
- FlashStack® for AI: Powering the Data Pipeline Design Guide
- FlashStack Virtual Server Infrastructure with iSCSI Storage for VMware vSphere 6.7 U1
- FlashStack Data Center with Citrix XenDesktop 7.15 and VMware vSphere 6.7 U1 with Cisco UCS Manager 4.0 for 6000 Seats
- FlashStack Virtual Server Infrastructure for VMware vSphere 6.7 Update 1 Design Guide
- FlashStack for AI and Deep Learning with Cisco UCS C480 ML and Pure Storage FlashBlade Design Guide
- FlashStack with Cisco ACI Multi-Pod and Pure Storage ActiveCluster
- FlashStack Datacenter with VMware Horizon 7.4 and VMware vSphere 6.5 U1 with Cisco UCS Manager 3.2 for 6000 Seats
- FlashStack Data Center with Oracle RAC 12cR2 Database on Pure Storage FlashBlade
- FlashStack Virtual Server Infrastructure with Cisco ACI and Pure Storage FlashArray
- FlashStack Mini with Pure Storage FlashArray//m10 for Citrix XenDesktop Users
- FlashStack Data Center with Oracle RAC 12cR2 Database
- FlashStack Virtual Server Infrastructure for VMware vSphere 6.5 U1 Design Guide
- FlashStack Virtual Server Infrastructure for VMware vSphere 6.5 U1 using iSCSI
- FlashStack Virtual Server Infrastructure for VMware vSphere 6.5 U1 using Fibre Channel
- FlashStack Virtual Server Infrastructure with Commvault for Data Protection
- FlashStack for SAP HANA TDI
- FlashStack Data Center with Oracle RAC 12c on Oracle Linux
- FlashStack Virtual Server Infrastructure Design Guide for VMware vSphere 6.0 U2
- FlashStack Virtual Server Infrastructure for VMware vSphere 6.0 U2
- FlashStack with Cisco UCS and Pure Storage FlashArray//m for 5000 Citrix XenDesktop Users
- FlashStack with Cisco UCS and Pure Storage FlashArray//m for 5000 VMware Horizon View 6.2 Users
OpenStack Platforms
- Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure with Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform and Red Hat Ceph Storage (Design Guide)
- Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure with Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform and Red Hat Ceph Storage Deployment Guide
- Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure with Red Hat OpenStack Platform 8 and Red Hat Ceph Storage
- FlexPod Datacenter with Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform Design Guide
- FlexPod Datacenter with Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform
VersaStack Platforms
- VersaStack Solutions with Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.3 and IBM FlashSystem Family
- VersaStack for IBM Cloud Object Storage on Cisco UCS S3260
- VersaStack with Cisco ACI and IBM FS9100 NVMe Accelerated Storage Design Guide
- VersaStack with Cisco ACI and IBM FlashSystem 9100 NVMe-accelerated Storage
- VersaStack for IBM Cloud Object Storage on Cisco UCS C240 for Concentrated Dispersal Mode
- VersaStack for IBM Cloud Object Storage on Cisco UCS C240 for Concentrated Dispersal Mode Design Guide
- VersaStack for IBM Cloud Private with Cisco UCS and IBM Storage
- VersaStack with Cisco UCS M5 Servers, IBM SVC, and vSphere 6.5 U1
- VersaStack for Hybrid Cloud with Cisco CloudCenter and IBM Spectrum Copy Data Management
- VersaStack with Cisco UCS M5 Servers and IBM SAN Volume Controller
- VersaStack for IBM Cloud Object Storage with Cisco UCS S3260 Storage Server
- VersaStack for Hybrid Cloud with Cisco CloudCenter and IBM Spectrum Copy Data Management Design guide
- VersaStack with Cisco UCS and IBM FlashSystem A9000 Storage for 5000 VMware Horizon Users
- VersaStack Data Center with All-Flash Storage and VMware vSphere 6.0 Design Guide
- VersaStack for Data Center with All-Flash Storage and VMware vSphere 6.0
- VersaStack for Data Center with Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure Design Guide
- VersaStack Data Center with Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure
- VersaStack for Data Center Design Guide (PDF - 3 MB)
- VersaStack for Data Center (PDF - 12 MB)
- VersaStack for Data Center with Direct Attached Storage (PDF - 10 MB)
- VersaStack for Data Center Scale Out
- VersaStack for Data Center with All Flash Storage Design Guide
- VersaStack for Data Center with All Flash Storage
- VersaStack with Cisco ACI and IBM SAN Volume Controller Design Guide
- VersaStack with Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure and IBM SAN Volume Controller
- VersaStack with Cisco UCS Mini and IBM V5000 Design Guide
- VersaStack with Cisco UCS Mini and IBM Storwize v5000
- VersaStack with Cisco UCS Mini and IBM Storwize v5000 IP-Based Storage
- VersaStack with Cisco UCS Mini and IBM V5000 2nd Generation Design Guide
- VersaStack with Cisco UCS Mini and IBM Storwize V5000 Gen2, Direct Attached SAN Storage
Other Platforms
Security
Big Data and Analytics
Big Data on Hyperflex
Generation 5
- Cisco Data Intelligence Platform with Cloudera Data Platform
- Cisco Data Intelligence Platform with Hortonworks and Modernizing with NVMe Hybrid Storage
- Cisco Data Intelligence Platform with Cloudera and Modernizing with NVMe Hybrid Storage
- Cisco Data Intelligence Platform with Cloudera 6.2
- Cisco Data Intelligence Platform with Hortonworks 3.1
- Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure for Big Data and Analytics with Hortonworks Data Platform 3.0
- Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure for Big Data and Analytics with MapR 6.1
- Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure for Big Data and Analytics with Cloudera for Data Science at Scale
Generation 4
- Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure for Big Data and Analytics with Cisco ACI and SAP HANA Vora for In-Memory Analytics
- Cisco UCS S3260 Storage Server with IBM (PDF - 15.8 MB)
- Cisco UCS S3260 Storage Server with Cloudera (PDF - 23.1 MB)
- Cisco UCS S3260 Storage Server with Hortonworks (PDF - 10.9 MB)
- Cisco UCS S3260 Storage Server with MapR (PDF - 8.1 MB)
- Cisco UCS S3260 Storage Server for Petabyte-Scale solution with Splunk (PDF - 26.6 MB)
- Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure for Big Data and Analytics with Splunk Enterprise (PDF - 32.6 MB)
- Cisco UCS II for Big Data and Analytics with MapR Converged Data Platform Using MapR Streams
- Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure for Big Data & Analytics with IBM BigInsights for Apache Hadoop
- Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure for Big Data and Analytics with Hortonworks Data Platform and Hortonworks DataFlow
- Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure for Big Data and Analytics with Cloudera for Real-time Analytics
Generation 3
- Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure for Big Data with SAP HANA Vora for In-memory Analytics
- Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure for Big Data with IBM BigInsights
- Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure for Big Data with MapR with Optional Multi-Tenancy Extension (PDF - 10.3 MB)
- Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure for Big Data with Cloudera for Enterprise Data Hub (PDF - 14.5 MB)
- Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure for Big Data with Splunk Enterprise (PDF - 15.8 MB)
- Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure for Big Data with Hortonworks Data Platform (PDF - 15 MB)
Generation 1 and 2
- Hadoop as a Service (HaaS) with Cisco UCS
- Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure for Big Data with Cloudera Enterprise, and Scaling with Cisco ACI (PDF - 10.9 MB)
- Cisco UCS Common Platform Architecture for Big Data with Cloudera (PDF - 7.1 MB)
- Cisco UCS Common Platform Architecture for Big Data with Hortonworks (PDF - 11 MB)
- Cisco UCS Common Platform Architecture for Big Data with Pivotal HD and HAWQ
- Cisco UCS Common Platform Architecture for Big Data with Intel Distribution for Apache Hadoop
- Cisco UCS Common Platform Architecture for Big Data with MapR
Data Protection
- Cisco HyperFlex Edge Protection with Veeam
- Cisco UCS C220 M5 Rack Servers with ScaleProtect
- Cisco UCS for ScaleProtect with Cisco UCS Servers Design Guide
- Cisco UCS C240 M5 Rack Servers with ScaleProtect
- Cisco UCS for ScaleProtect with Cisco UCS S3260 Servers
- Cisco UCS for ScaleProtect with Cisco UCS S3260 Servers Design Guide
- Cisco UCS with Cohesity Data Protection for Cisco HyperFlex
- Cisco HyperFlex with Veeam Availability Suite
- Cisco HyperFlex with Veeam Availability Suite Design Guide
- FlashStack Virtual Server Infrastructure with Commvault for Data Protection
Scale-out Storage
- Cisco UCS C240 M5 Server with Cloudian HyperStore Object Storage
- Cisco UCS C240 M5 Server with Cloudian HyperStore Object Storage Design Guide
- Cisco UCS S3260 M5 with Swiftstack
- Cisco UCS S3260 M5 Server with Cloudian HyperStore Object Storage
- Cisco UCS C240 M5 with Scality Ring Design Guide
- Cisco UCS S3260 M5 Server with Cloudian HyperStore Object Storage Design Guide
- VersaStack for IBM Cloud Object Storage on Cisco UCS C240 for Concentrated Dispersal Mode
- Cisco UCS S3260 M5 Storage Server with Scality RING
- VersaStack for IBM Cloud Object Storage on Cisco UCS C240 for Concentrated Dispersal Mode Design Guide
- Cisco UCS S3260 Storage Server with SwiftStack Design Guide
- Cisco UCS S3260 M5 Storage Server with Scality Design Guide
- Cisco UCS S3260 Storage Server with SwiftStack
- VersaStack for IBM Cloud Object Storage with Cisco UCS S3260 Server
- Cisco UCS S3260 Storage Server with Red Hat Ceph Storage 2.3
- VersaStack Design Guide for IBM Cloud Object Storage with Cisco UCS S3260 Server
- Cisco UCS Storage Server with Scality Ring
- Cisco UCS S3260 Storage Server with Red Hat Ceph Storage 2.1
Desktop Virtualization
Citrix
- Cisco HyperFlex 3.5 All-Flash with up to 2000 Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Users
- Cisco HyperFlex M5 All-Flash Hyperconverged System with Hyper-V 2016 and Citrix XenDesktop
- FlexPod Datacenter with Citrix XenDesktop/XenApp 7.15 and VMware vSphere 6.5 Update 1 for 6000 Seats
- FlexPod Datacenter with Citrix XenDesktop/ XenApp 7.7 and VMware vSphere 6.0 for 5000 Seats
- FlashStack Mini with Pure Storage FlashArray//m10 for Citrix XenDesktop Users
- FlashStack for 5000 Citrix XenDesktop 7.9 Users with Pure Storage FlashArray//m
- 4000 Seat VDI with Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 & XenApp 6.5 on Cisco Unified Computing System and EMC VNX (PDF - 22.1 MB)
- Cisco Solution for EMC VSPEX Computing for 500 Citrix XenDesktop Users
- 500 Seat and 1000 Seat VDI with Citrix XenDesktop 7 on Cisco UCS, EMC VNXe and MS Hyper-V 2012 (PDF - 10.8 MB)
- Design for 5000 Seat VDI with Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 on Cisco UCS and EMC VNX (PDF - 19.6 MB)
- Cisco HyperFlex for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Citrix XenDesktop and XenApp 7.11 1000 Seats
VMWare
- Cisco All-Flash HyperFlex 3.5 Hyperconverged System with up to 4400 VMware Horizon 7 Users
- FlashStack Datacenter with VMware Horizon 7.4 and VMware vSphere 6.5 U1 with Cisco UCS Manager 3.2 for 6000 Seats
- FlexPod Datacenter with VMware Horizon View 7.3 and VMware vSphere 6.5 Update 1 with Cisco UCS Manager 3.2 for 5000 Seats
- VersaStack with Cisco UCS and IBM FlashSystem A9000 Storage for 5000 VMware Horizon Users
- Cisco HyperFlex for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure with VMware Horizon 7 for upto 2400 Users
- Design and Deployment of Cisco HyperFlex for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure with VMware Horizon 7
- FlashStack with Cisco UCS and Pure Storage FlashArray//m for 5000 VMware Horizon View 6.2 Users
- Cisco Solution for EMC VSPEX End User Computing for 2000 VMware Horizon View 5.3 Users (PDF - 12 MB)
- Cisco Solution for EMC VSPEX End User Computing for 2000 VMware Horizon View 5.2 Users
- Cisco Solution for EMC VSPEX with VMware View 5.1.2 for 500 Desktops (PDF - 27 MB)
- Cisco Solution for EMC VSPEX End User Computing for 2000 VMware Horizon View 5.1 Users (PDF - 20 MB)
- Desktop-as-a-Service for Service Provider 2000-Seat Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (PDF - 40.8 MB)
- Cisco Desktop as a Service Solution with Desktone
Microsoft
- FlexPod Datacenter with Microsoft SQL Server 2017 on Linux VM Running on VMware and Hyper-V Design Guide
- FlexPod Datacenter with Microsoft SQL Server 2017 on Linux VM Running on VMware and Hyper-V
- Cisco HyperFlex 3.5 All-Flash Systems for Deploying Microsoft SQL Server 2016 with MS Hyper-V
- Cisco HyperFlex 3.5 All-Flash Systems for Deploying Microsoft SQL Server 2016 with VMware
- FlexPod Datacenter with Microsoft SQL Server 2016 and VMware vSphere 6.5
- Microsoft SharePoint 2010 with Microsoft Hyper-V on Cisco UCS Rack-Mount Servers
- 500 Seat and 1000 Seat VDI with Citrix XenDesktop 7 on Cisco UCS, EMC VNXe and MS Hyper-V 2012 (PDF - 10.8 MB)
- Cisco Solution for EMC VSPEX Microsoft SQL 2014 Consolidation
Oracle
- FlashStack Data Center for Oracle RAC 19c Database on NVMe/RoCE
- FlashStack Data Center with Oracle RAC 12cR2 Database on Pure Storage FlashBlade
- FlashStack Data Center with Oracle RAC 12cR2 Database
- FlashStack Data Center with Oracle RAC 12c on Oracle Linux
- Oracle 12c on Cisco UCS and EMC VNX2 (PDF - 11.8 MB)
- Virtualizing Oracle JD Edwards on Cisco Unified Computing System
- Oracle RAC(11.2.0.2) on Cisco Unified Computing System and EMC VNX Storage
- Oracle JD Edwards on Cisco Unified Computing System with EMC VNX Storage
- Oracle Siebel CRM on Cisco Unified Computing System with EMC VNX Storage
- Cisco Unified Computing System for Oracle PeopleSoft
SAP
- FlexPod Datacenter for SAP with Cisco ACI, Cisco UCS Manager 4.0, and NetApp AFF A–Series
- FlashStack for SAP HANA TDI Design Guide
- Cisco and Hitachi Adaptive Solutions for SAP HANA TDI with Scale-Out Storage
- Cisco and Hitachi Adaptive Solutions for SAP HANA TDI with Scale-Out Storage Design Guide
- Cisco and Hitachi Adaptive Solutions for SAP HANA TDI
- Cisco and Hitachi Adaptive Solutions for SAP HANA TDI Design Guide
- FlexPod Datacenter for SAP Solution with Cisco ACI, Cisco UCS Manager 4.0, and NetApp AFF A–Series Design Guide
- FlexPod Datacenter for SAP Solution with Cisco UCS Manager 3.2 and Cisco ACI
- FlexPod Datacenter for SAP Solution with Cisco UCS Manager 4.0 and NetApp AFF A–Series Design Guide
- FlexPod Datacenter for SAP Solution with IP-Based Storage using NetApp AFF A-Series and Cisco UCS Manager 3.2
- FlashStack for SAP HANA TDI
- Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure for SAP HANA with RHEL
- Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure for SAP HANA with SLES
- Cisco UCS C240 M4 Data Platform for SAP HANA Storage TDI
- Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure on M4 for SAP HANA with SLES
- Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure for SAP HANA with MapR
- Cisco UCS Integrated Infrastructure for SAP Applications with EMC VNX
Containers
- FlashStack for OpenShift 4.3, a User-Provisioned Infrastructure Design Guide
- VersaStack Solutions with Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.3 and IBM FlashSystem Family
- Cisco UCS Infrastructure with Red Hat OpenShift Platform on VMware vSphere
- Cisco UCS Infrastructure for Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform
- Cisco UCS Infrastructure for Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform Design Guide
- Cisco UCS Infrastructure with Contiv and Docker Enterprise Edition for Container Management
- FlexPod Datacenter with Docker Datacenter for Container Management
- Cisco UCS Infrastructure with Docker Datacenter for Container Management