Nexus 7000
The Cisco Nexus Series switches are modular network switches designed for the data center. Nexus 7000 chassis includes 4, 9, 10 and 18 slot chassis, however, we have nexus 7010 deployed in data centers at Core layers.
The first chassis in the Nexus 7000 family is Nexus 7010 switch which is a 10-slot chassis with two supervisor engine slots and eight I/O module slots at the front, as well as five crossbar switch fabric modules at the rear.
All switches in the Nexus range run the modular NX-OS firmware/operating system. The Cisco NX-OS software is a data center-class operating system built with modularity, resiliency, and serviceability at its foundation. Based on the industry-proven Cisco MDS 9000 SAN-OS software, Cisco NX-OS helps ensure continuous availability and sets the standard for mission-critical data center environments. The highly modular design of Cisco NX-OS makes zero-effect operations a reality and enables exceptional operational flexibility.
Nexus 7010
-10 slots: 1-4 and 7-10 are line card slots, 5-6 are supervisor slots
-21 RU height
-Supports 384 10Gbit/s, and/or 1Gbit/s ports, all non-blocking ports
-9.9 Tbit/s system bandwidth
-480 Gbit/s, 720Mpps per slot
-Air flow is front to back, bottom to top
-Up to 5 Crossbar Fabric Modules
-Up to 3 power supplies
Supervisor Engine
Performs control plane and management functions
Dual-core 1.66 Ghz intel Xeon Processor with 4 GB DRAM
2 MB NVRAM, 32 GB internal bootdisk, compact flash slots
out-of-band 10/100/1000 management interface
Always-on connectivity management processor (CMP) for lights-out management
console and auxiliary serial ports.
Management Interface
10/100/1000 interface used exclusively for management
It is part of dedicated “management”vrf and can not be moved to any other or default vrf.
You can not assign other ports (Ethernet) to this vrf.
Crossbar Switch Fabric Modules
A single Cisco Nexus 7000 chassis can be configured with one or more fabric modules, up to a maximum of five for capacity as well as redundancy. Each I/O module installed in the system will automatically connect to and use all functional installed switch fabric modules. A failure of a switch fabric module will trigger an automatic reallocation and balancing of traffic across the remaining active switch fabric modules. Replacement of the failed fabric module reverses this process. Once the replacement fabric module is inserted and online, traffic is again redistributed across all installed fabric modules, thereby restoring the redundancy level.
A single Cisco Nexus 7000 chassis can be configured with one or more fabric modules, up to a maximum of five for capacity as well as redundancy. Each I/O module installed in the system will automatically connect to and use all functional installed switch fabric modules. A failure of a switch fabric module will trigger an automatic reallocation and balancing of traffic across the remaining active switch fabric modules. Replacement of the failed fabric module reverses this process. Once the replacement fabric module is inserted and online, traffic is again redistributed across all installed fabric modules, thereby restoring the redundancy level.
The Cisco Nexus 7000 Fabric Modules for the Cisco Nexus 7000 Chassis are separate fabric modules that provide parallel fabric channels to each I/O and supervisor module slot. The fabric module provides the central switching element for fully distributed forwarding on the I/O modules.
Switch fabric scalability is made possible through the support of from one to five concurrently active fabric modules for increased performance as your needs grow. All fabric modules are connected to all module slots. The addition of each fabric module increases the bandwidth to all module slots up to the system limit of five modules. The architecture supports lossless fabric failover, with the remaining fabric modules load balancing the bandwidth to all the I/O module slots, helping ensure graceful degradation.
Two fabric generations available – Fabric 1 and Fabric 2
All I/O modules compatible with both Fabric 1 and Fabric 2
Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switches
The Cisco Nexus 5000 Series switches include a family of line-rate, low-latency, lossless 10-Gigabit Ethernet, Cisco Data Center Ethernet, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), and native Fibre Channel switches for data center applications. The Cisco Nexus 5000 Series includes the Cisco Nexus 5500 Platform and the Cisco Nexus 5000 Platform.
Mainly Nexus 5k is used for layer 2 switching,however, it can support L2 add-in card.
-Currently there are 2 generations of 5000 series switches:
5000 series – 5010 & 5020
5500 series – 5548 & 5596
Cisco Nexus 5548P Switch
The Cisco Nexus 5548P Switch is the first of the Cisco Nexus 5500 platform switches. It is a one-rack-unit (1RU) 10 Gigabit Ethernet and FCoE switch offering up to 960-Gbps throughput and up to 48 ports. The switch has 32 1/10-Gbps fixed SFP+ Ethernet and FCoE ports and one expansion slot.
The Cisco Nexus 5548UP is a 1RU 10 Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel, and FCoE switch offering up to 960 Gbps of throughput and up to 48 ports. The switch has 32 unified ports and one expansion slot.
5500UP models support unified ports. Ports can run as Ethernet or native Fibre channel and if you are changing the role of a port, then it requires a reboot.
Cisco Nexus 2000 (Fabric Extender or FEX)
Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders behave logically like remote line cards for a parent Cisco Nexus 5000 or 7000 Series Switch. They simplify data center access operations and architecture as well as management from the parent switches. They deliver a broad range of connectivity options, including 40 Gigabit Ethernet, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, 1 Gigabit Ethernet, 100 MB and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE).
The Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders work in conjunction with a Cisco Nexus parent switch to deliver cost-effective and highly scalable Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet environments while facilitating migration to 10 Gigabit Ethernet, virtual machine–aware, and unified fabric environments.
The Cisco Nexus 2000 Series has extended its portfolio to provide more server connectivity choices and to support Cisco Nexus switches upstream. With more flexibility and choice of infrastructure, we gain the following benefits:
Architectural flexibility :
-Provides a comprehensive range of connectiv¬ity options—100 Megabit Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, and 10 Gigabit Ethernet server con¬nectivity and unified fabric environments—and supports copper and fiber Gigabit Ethernet and10 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity options with 1GBASE-T, SFP and SFP+, and CX1 over copper and fiber cables
− Supports various server form factors: rack and blade servers
− Offers space optimized for both ToR and EoR topologies
− Provides port-density options: 24, 32, and 48 ports
− Enables quick expansion of network capacity
Highly scalable server access
− Provides highest density per rack unit
− Allows transparent addition of network capacity as needed, reducing initial capital expenditures (CapEx)
− Enables quick expansion of network capacity by rolling in a prewired rack of servers with a ToR fabric extender and transparent connectivity to an upstream Cisco Nexus parent switch
Simplified operations
− With Cisco Nexus 5000 or 7000 Series, provides a single point of management and policy enforcement
The Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extender forwards all traffic to its parent Cisco Nexus 5000 Series
device over 10-Gigabit Ethernet fabric uplinks, allowing all traffic to be inspected by policies established
on the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series device. No software is included with the Fabric Extender. Software is
automatically downloaded and upgraded from its parent switch. The Nexus 2248T will allow 100/1000
connectivity and can be dual attached to the Nexus 5000. By dual attaching the Nexus 2248Ts to the 5000, it will allow for the most resilient connections for single attached servers.
The Cisco Nexus 2000 Series provides two types of ports: ports for end-host attachment (host interfaces) and uplink ports (fabric interfaces). Fabric Interfaces are differentiated with a yellow color(as shown in above figure) for connectivity to the upstream parent Cisco Nexus switch.
-Each fabric extender module should be assigned a unique number (between 100-199). This unique number enables the same fabric extender to be deployed in single-attached mode to one CiscoNexus 5000 Series Switch only or in fabric extender vPC mode (that is, dual-connected to different Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switches).
-Nexus 2000 Fabric Extenders are not independent manageable entities; the Nexus 5000 manages the fabric extender through in-band connectivity.
Nexus 2000 Series can be attached to the Nexus 5000 Series in two different configurations:
-Static pinning: The front host ports on the module are divided across the fabric ports (that is, the uplinks connecting to the Nexus 5000).
-Port-Channel: The fabric ports form a Port-Channel to the Cisco Nexus 5000.
FEX Configuration Example
N5K(config)#feature fex
N5K(config)#interface Ethernet 1/13-14
N5K(config-if-range)#channel-group 100
N5K(config-if-range)#no shutdown
N5K(config-if-range)#interface port-channel 100
N5K(config-if)#switchport mode fex-fabric
N5K(config-if)# fex associate 100
N5K(config-if)#fex 100
N5K(config-fex)#description FEX 100 Eth1/13-14
