[c-nsp] Nexus 2232PP FEX Switch Question

[Joseph Hardeman]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for the responses, I appreciate it.

Stephen,

I will probably stick with the 5000 series, maybe just use 5010's since I
have a pair at a facility I am shutting down, I will simply move them over.

Ray,

The TAC guy I was speaking with, said there might be a way to "trick" them,
but I don't want to do something janky.

Phil,

Your correct I shouldn't be calling them switches.

Thanks again everyone.

Joe


On Tue, Dec 10, 2013 at 9:00 PM, Phil Bedard <philxor at gmail.com> wrote:

> So the first issue, and probably the root of it, is you are calling the
> FEX a "switch", and it's not a switch.  It doesn't do any local switching
> itself and the FEX ports do not support running STP, so it really is meant
> to connect to L3 devices. There is no way to disable BPDUGuard.
>
> If the switches are just homed to the FEX you could run a VPC and just
> turn off STP on the downstream switch. But if you had say multiple
> switches connected to eachother which then connected to the FEX that's not
> going to work.  The only alternative is use some other method to block
> links like Flex links.
>
> Phil
>
> On 12/10/13, 7:56 PM, "Joseph Hardeman" <jwhardeman at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >Hi Everyone,
> >
> >I knew I should have come here first but I went with the word of a CCXX
> >something or another (Director of IT) from a vendor and a couple links he
> >sent me.  After I explained the setup I was putting together and how
> >everything needed to work together, he told me that the Nexus 2232PP
> >Switch
> >could do what I wanted and needed.
> >
> >I have a pair of 2232PP FEX switches that we just got to extend our 5000
> >series switches from one cage to another (I have never worked with the FEX
> >Switches before, so I should have done better homework).  We were going to
> >use the pair of FEX switches to provide redundant links to additional
> >switches from which I was going to connect to customer switches or
> >firewalls.  Which going through the initial config today on setting up the
> >VPC port on say Eth100/1/1 for my first test switch, I got an error saying
> >that the VPC could not be added that there was one already applied.
> >
> >I reached out to the TAC Contact I have that has helped me out this week,
> >and he told me that the FEX Switches were never meant to connect to other
> >switches and the BPDUGuard would shut down the ports to the switch shortly
> >after the ports come up.  And it was not just this model but any FEX
> >Switch.
> >
> >So my question to you guys is, (drum roll please):
> >
> >Does anyone have a Nexus 2000 FEX Switch Pair doing VPC Port Channel to
> >another switch instead of a host/server?  And if you do how did you make
> >it
> >work.  I am considering returning these switches as I can't use them right
> >now and I really need a usable pair of switches for the 10G+ cage to cage
> >connectivity and then 1 or 10G to either my switches or customer switches.
> > Which my switches then step it down to either 100M or 10M if needed.
> >
> >Is there a FEX switch that will do this? (imagine the full mesh setup)
> >
> >routers -> 5000Switch -> FEX Switch -> 2960G or 3560G (for example) switch
> >-> Possible other switching/firewall gear -> end system
> >
> >Can you recommend any other switch that can do what I want, or should I
> >just get another pair of 5000 series switches?
> >
> >Thanks,
> >
> >Any thoughts or suggestions would be helpful.
> >
> >Joe
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