Cisco Nexus

[markuk]

Hi,

I have been asked to look at Cisco nexus, what advantages have people found by using it?

Sorry for the vague question, I have been happily using Switches but because of some physical switch issues I have been asked to look at.

Thanks

Mark

[dburgess]

There are advanatges that fall into the category of simpler management via the Distributed Virtual Switch concept, these are essentially the same as the VMware Distributed Switch. There are feature comparisions availabe on the differences between the two implementations, but essentially create one switch and port groups and have all your ESX servers have the same configuration generated centrally.

There are a second set advatages that are specific to the Nexus product in that the administration is performed in the network admins domain. So your network administrators can use Nexus comand and control to create ports, ACLs, SPANs etc without having to go into Virtual Center at all - sometime referred to as seperation of duty. Network management is done in one place in a consistent manner for both hardware and software Nexus switches.

[jbruelasdgo]

old news, but can be helpful: http://virtualization.info/en/techtalk/2009/02/cisco-on-nexus-1000v-features.html

direct from Cisco: https://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps9441/ps9902/data_sheet_c78-492971.html

hope it helps, if so, please award points if helpful/correct

Jose B Ruelas

http://aservir.wordpress.com

[Dr_Virt]

Do to some recent security changes, we have had to integrate the Nexus 1000v into one of our vSphere solutions.

First, the Nexus is a needs based decision. You must really quantify the benefits versus the rise in costs. For our standard production areas, the cost could not be justified. For our high security area, it provided peace of mind to the security and auditing personnel.

A few notes:

1) While the Nexus 1000v is Cisco based, it is a new technology and format. Our Cisco engineers took some time to become comfortable. Too many times I hear that anyone familiar with Cisco can pick it right up. This is false. They must understand VMware and VDS first.

2) Initial setup is a team affair. The VMware and Network teams must coordinate closely to get the requirements fulfilled and VSM installed.

From a technical perspective, the Nexus 1000v isn't that big of a deal. It does make the network and security teams more comfortable, but when pressed, they have not been able to discredit the VMware vSwitch. There are some advanced feature sets that network teams may find beneficial.

From your description though, it sounds like there may be an issue further up stream that needs investigation.

[petedr]

These are some general pdfs on Cisco Nexus implementation guidelines.

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/partners/cisco/Cisco-vSphere-vNetwork-Implementation-Guidelines-V5.1...

www.phdvirtual.com, makers of PHD Virtual Backup for Vmware and Xen Server, formally esXpress