[c-nsp] Nexus 2000 vs Catalyst 4948 for access layer

[Manu Chao]

Correct, not yet

On Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 1:37 PM, Livio Zanol Puppim <
livio.zanol.puppim at gmail.com> wrote:

> Neus 2000 does not have FCoE.
>
> 2010/2/9 Manu Chao <linux.yahoo at gmail.com>
>
>  Two key advantages:
>> - Technical: FCoE, vPC
>> - Management: you needn't to manage N2Ks
>>
>> R/
>> Manu
>>
>> On Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 11:40 AM, Livio Zanol Puppim <
>> livio.zanol.puppim at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Yeah, You are right.
>>>
>>> But I would like to use my nexus 5000 10GE/FCoE ports just for access
>>> servers, maximizing it's use... The uplinks from Nexus 2000 could
>>> easially
>>> go directly to my distribution/core. Unfortunally, nexus 2000 is just an
>>> fabric extender and can ONLY be attached to Nexus 5000... Maybe CISCO
>>> changes it's later...
>>>
>>> Let's think:
>>>
>>> 10 nexus 2000 using all uplink ports = 40 ports. Yes, 40 ports that I
>>> must
>>> use at my nexus 5000. That's more than 1 entirelly switch (1RU) and
>>> almost 1
>>> switch (2RU).
>>>
>>> I haven't figure out yet what's the advantage of having this design
>>> (nexus
>>> 2000 -> nexus 5000) other than the "old" one (catalyst 4948 -> nexus
>>> 7000/cisco 6500). That's what I'm talking about.
>>>
>>> The only REAL advantage so far is the vPC...
>>>
>>> 2010/2/2 Brad Hedlund <brhedlun at cisco.com>
>>>
>>> >
>>> > True, the Nexus 2000 does not locally switch, but lets explore that for
>>> a
>>> > second...
>>> >
>>> > 1) a typical enterprise Data Center is running applications that are
>>> not
>>> > latency sensitive, where latencies in the 10s of microseconds are
>>> perfectly
>>> > OK and nobody is really counting anyway. Only in the small minority of
>>> Data
>>> > Centers running high frequency trading, grid computing, or some other
>>> ultra
>>> > low latency application, every *nanosecond* matters and local switching
>>> with
>>> > fewer hops is of paramount importance. Furthermore, these applications
>>> are
>>> > quickly migrating away from 1GE to 10GE attached servers for the
>>> obvious low
>>> > latency advantages.
>>> >
>>> > 2) the Nexus 2000 has 4x10GE uplink bandwidth versus the 2x10GE uplink
>>> for
>>> > 4948.  This results in a possible 1:1.2 oversubscription ratio for
>>> Nexus
>>> > 2000 to handle the additional uplink load that may otherwise not be
>>> present
>>> > on a 4948.
>>> >
>>> > 3) The upstream Nexus 5000 implements cut-through switching, and the
>>> Nexus
>>> > 2000 itself also uses cut-through for frames entering on 1GE and
>>> egressing
>>> > on 10GE.  The two combined often results in port-to-port latencies
>>> similar
>>> > to a Catalyst 6500, even without the "local switching".  If you are
>>> > comfortable with your Catalyst 6500 local switching latencies, you can
>>> > expect similar performance from a Nexus 2000/5000 combination.
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > --
>>> > Brad Hedlund, CCIE #5530
>>> > Consulting Systems Engineer, Data Center
>>> > bhedlund at cisco.com
>>> > http://www.internetworkexpert.org
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > On Jan 31, 2010, at 5:25 PM, David Hughes wrote:
>>> >
>>> > >
>>> > > On 29/01/2010, at 6:54 AM, Livio Zanol Puppim wrote:
>>> > >
>>> > >> Can anyone please tell me the advantages of using Nexus 2000 over
>>> > Catalyst
>>> > >> 4948 as access layers switches?
>>> > >> Using Nexus 2000, I have to use at least 2 ports at my Nexus 5000,
>>> that
>>> > >> could be used by servers with 10GbE/FCoE servers.
>>> > >
>>> > > The N2K does no local switching so if you have any east-west traffic
>>> > between ports on the same switch you'll be better served by a more
>>> > "traditional" access switch.  Naturally the N2K offers centralised
>>> > management etc etc but that may or may not be of interest depending on
>>> the
>>> > size of your deployment.
>>> > >
>>> > >
>>> > >
>>> > > David
>>> > > ...
>>> > > _______________________________________________
>>> > > cisco-nsp mailing list  cisco-nsp at puck.nether.net
>>> > > https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/cisco-nsp
>>> > > archive at http://puck.nether.net/pipermail/cisco-nsp/
>>> >
>>> >
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> []'s
>>>
>>> Lívio Zanol Puppim
>>>  _______________________________________________
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>>> https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/cisco-nsp
>>> archive at http://puck.nether.net/pipermail/cisco-nsp/
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> []'s
>
> Lívio Zanol Puppim
>