Have you implemented Nexus 1000v yet?

[thomps01]

It looks like I'll be implementing Nexus 1000v within the next few months and I wanted to see if anyone had aleady deployed this.

Were there any big gotcha's you came across?

What's the general experience been like?

Thanks

[rob_ellison]

i'd suggest you test everything over and over. QoS is not what you might expect, port-channels are flakey but not using port-channels is no good either.

if it goes wrong it goes very wrong - dont ever rely on it for the connection to your ESX servers - use a separate vSwitch.

having said that it is a very good product.

[thomps01]

Thanks for your feedback Rob.

If we go down the route of using Nexus switches, I can't imagine the network support teams wanting us to implement traditional virtual switches alongside as this defeats the object of having a box they can manage.

There is a plan to test everything lots before making a decision.

Thanks

[rob_ellison]

by having separate vSwitches i only mean for some traffic - i have Nexus Control / Data and the ESX Service console on a normal vSwitch. everything else is on the Nexus. the few vlans that are on the vSwitch never change. it's applied using a host-profile at build time.

all the day-to-day changes are on the Nexus and as such controlled by the normal network support teams. it works out nicely.

you might want to have a look at some of my other posts on this forum for a bit of an insight into the issues i've had setting it up.

cheers,

Rob

[thomps01]

FYI - Deployed Nexus with port channels and we've hit so many issues it's not funny.

At the moment we are expecting a patch for 'known' bugs which should bring some stability.

We have a problem at the moment where the primary VSM fails and the the standby doesn't kick in, but all VM's remain online unless you perform a vmotion. If you try to move a VM, it will drop off the network.

Expect a new version out before Xmas