[c-nsp] Nexus 5548 Questions and experiences...

Thu May 16 16:53:33 EDT 2013

Twinax-wise we've had a few issues with active twinax cables.  The NIC's on
some storage hosts (Isilon IIRC) didn't work well with active twinax
cables.  We've used Panduit passive twinax cables w/o issue.  I think
Panduit sells up to a 7m passive cable, whereas Cisco only sells passive up
to 5m.

Also - there are some restrictions on ISSU on the 5k that might bite you.
 I think as someone already mentioned it doesn't do ISSU if you're using
L3.  Personally I'd try to avoid doing L3 on a N5k if possible.

Oliver

-------------------------------------

Oliver Garraux
Check out my blog:  blog.garraux.net
Follow me on Twitter:  twitter.com/olivergarraux

On Thu, May 16, 2013 at 4:34 PM, Blake Pfankuch - Mailing List <
blake.mailinglist at pfankuch.me> wrote:

> Scott,
>                 Great question on the Layer 3.  This literally a Layer 2
> DR network with a /21 internally for a small subset of our primary
> datacenter.  Very limited Layer 3 (4 /28's or smaller totaling 11 devices),
> which is all handled by our HA firewall and inter-datacenter WAN Routers
> (through the firewall).  Firewall is 10gbit, and will handle that traffic
> without a problem.  This is a 3 rack environment currently holding a 4900M
> and a 3560G.  I need 4 ports of 10gbit SR, 10 ports of non-overcommitted
> 10gbase-t and 40 ports of 1gbase-t.  Storage lives on its own dedicated
> fabric (for now) and will not be on Nexus for a number of years.  Next year
> I will add a second 5548UP and properly multihome the FEX and HA firewalls.
>  The only reason this environment is going Nexus is due to space
> constraints (colo) and the need for 10gbit fiber, copper and CX1, otherwise
> the existing 4900M or a small 4500E would have been perfectly fine.
>
> Vendor bit us on this one as they don't know how to pick a standard...
>  The moral of the story is, never let your DBA team purchase their own
> equipment.  Also don't listen to Oracle sales monkeys.  They lie.
>
> I did know about the BPDU guard implementation on the N2k devices.  I do
> have a question regarding other types of links... Any experience with
> routers?  I have a pretty big handful of T1/MPLS/DS3/OC3/Voice routers
> ranging from 1700 to 7206 which I was thinking might have to go into a non
> n2k platform when we do our primary datacenter next year.  Do these devices
> that do not speak spanning tree function as expected on the 2k's?
>
> What about Routed interfaces?  I have 2 (soon to be 3) WAN links that are
> terminated within our primary datacenter 6509's as routed interfaces.  I am
> assuming that they need to be on a non n2k platform as well?
>
> Thanks,
> Blake
>
> From: Scott Voll [mailto:svoll.voip at gmail.com]
> Sent: Thursday, May 16, 2013 11:58 AM
> To: Blake Pfankuch - Mailing List
> Cc: cisco-nsp at puck.nether.net
> Subject: Re: [c-nsp] Nexus 5548 Questions and experiences...
>
> We have just started our move from a 4506E to a set of 5548's.  NXOS is a
> little different from IOS.  Learn the vPC, and such will be a good thing.
>  as someone already stated, having one is not the best design.  With all
> the 10 Gig stuff running, what are you going to use for layer 3?
>
> we went with the 5548's, but there are some design considerations to be
> made.  my understanding is you can't do a Non interrupting upgrade.  Was
> not my plan originally, and makes upgrades more of a problem (especailly
> with Storage running through them also), thus I'm back to what ever you
> install will be on it until we by new hardware.  Thus we went with the 5.2
> flavor, having been burned on .0 stuff way to often.
>
> we have a Cisco Blade chassis with multiple blades.  very happy with the
> TwinAX cables.  So long as you get the right sizes.  I don't like looping
> them a bunch.  But it's hard to order before you get them in, with out
> knowing were everything will be racked.
>
> also another note, you will not want to place any IOS switches hanging off
> the 2k's.  They don't support Spanning tree and will error disable your
> port.  Wish I would have known that before buying a 5548.  Might have went
> bigger.
>
> YMMV
>
> Scott
>
> On Thu, May 16, 2013 at 7:35 AM, Blake Pfankuch - Mailing List <
> blake.mailinglist at pfankuch.me<mailto:blake.mailinglist at pfankuch.me>>
> wrote:
> Within the next week I will be starting my first dive into Nexus.  I have
> read the Cisco Press book for nexus, however its primarily focused on 4.x
> not 5.x and 6.x.
>
> I am looking for some real world feedback, including some of the gotchas
> people have found in existing deployments.  Really this will be a small
> deployment, a single 5548 for now and a couple 2232TM-E and 2224TP for
> fabric extenders.  What has been the experience using TwinAX cables to
> uplink to servers?  Cisco Twinax cables working only or have people been
> able to use HP/Sun/Dell provided cables with luck?  What's the experience
> with the Nexus B22 blade chassis FEX?
>
> OS suggestions?  Again this is going to be a new deployment, and its going
> into an environment that is not upgraded heavily.  As an example I have
> moved some devices off 12.2 (20) or earlier in the past few weeks.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Blake
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