RKR Certified DataCenter Associate
The lab-first foundation for India's AI datacenter buildout · Dual-NOS: Cisco NX-OS + Juniper Junos
The blueprint
Ten weeks, seven modules, sixteen graded labs. RCDA builds one thing end-to-end: a working 2-spine/4-leaf Clos pod that the learner cables, addresses, routes, overlays, and operates — from rack elevations and QSFP28 breakout optics, through vPC-dual-homed servers, to an RFC 7938 eBGP underlay with BFD and a live VXLAN segment verified by packet capture. Comparable in rigor to Juniper JNCIA-DC and Cisco CCNA Data Center foundations, but assessed by a proctored practical exam on real virtual NOSes — the certificate proves the holder can be left alone in a pod.
Skill domains
6 assessed domainsFacilities & Physical Layer
- Uptime Tier I-IV, power chain (UPS/PDU, N+1/2N), hot/cold aisle & high-density cooling
- 42U rack elevations and power-budget engineering
- Cat6a/DAC/AOC vs OM4/OS2 fiber; SFP+/QSFP28 optics, DOM light-level verification
- 100G→4x25G breakout and MPO/MTP patching discipline
Layer 2 Switching
- 802.1Q VLANs and trunking across NX-OS and Junos
- MST design, root placement, and convergence under failure
- LACP port-channels and hashing behavior
- Nexus vPC: peer-link, keepalive, consistency checks, orphan ports
Clos Fabric Architecture
- 3-stage/5-stage Clos, leaf/spine roles, pod-based scaling
- Oversubscription math and uplink sizing for east-west traffic
- ECMP as the fabric load-distribution engine
- Two-hop determinism and why AI/storage traffic demands it
eBGP Underlay (RFC 7938)
- Private ASN plans, /31 point-to-points, /32 loopbacks
- ECMP multipath configuration and FIB verification on both NOSes
- BFD sub-second failure detection vs default hold timers
- Structured troubleshooting: Idle/Active session diagnosis
VXLAN Overlay Foundations
- Encapsulation anatomy: VNI, VTEP, UDP 4789, outer/inner headers
- Static VXLAN with ingress replication on Nexus NVE and QFX
- Wireshark dissection of live overlay traffic
- Flood-and-learn limits — the case for EVPN (RCDP tier)
Dual-NOS Operations
- Junos commit confirmed/rollback vs NX-OS checkpoints
- Syslog, SNMPv3, NTP observability baseline
- L1→L3 link diagnosis method under 15 minutes
- NOC-grade incident tickets: symptom, evidence, root cause, verification
Signature labs
Rack time, not watch timeBuild the Pod: cable, address, and LLDP-verify a 2-spine/4-leaf Clos in containerlab
eBGP Underlay Bring-Up: RFC 7938 ASN plan, ECMP multipath, loopback reachability on NX-OS and Junos
BFD Failure Convergence Trial: measured before/after sub-second failover report
vPC Dual-Homing: LACP-bonded server across a Nexus pair, peer-link failure analysis
Static VXLAN Segment: VLAN 10 → VNI 10010 over the routed fabric, proven with show nve peers
VXLAN Packet Autopsy: annotated Wireshark dissection of live overlay traffic
Graded Incident Simulation: 45-minute fault diagnosis and NOC-quality ticket, rubric-scored
How you are examined
Part 1: 90-min proctored theory — 60 scenario questions with live CLI exhibits (pass 70%). Part 2: 3-hour proctored practical on RKR's cloud lab — repair and complete a broken spine-leaf pod (breakout optics, vPC, eBGP underlay, VXLAN VNI), auto-graded on device state plus verification report (pass 75%). One free lab retake.
Career ladder
- Rung 1 · 0-1 yrDC NOC Engineer / Network TechnicianRs 6-9 LPA
- Rung 2 · 1-3 yrsDatacenter Network Engineer (deploy & operate pods)Rs 9-14 LPA
- Rung 3 · 3-5 yrsFabric Engineer — EVPN/VXLAN operations (RCDP track)Rs 14-20 LPA
- Rung 4 · 5+ yrsSenior DC Network Engineer / GPU fabric specialistRs 20-26 LPA
Rs 6-14 LPA entry band, with a credible 14-20 LPA step within 2-3 years on the fabric track