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

Fri May 17 13:17:42 EDT 2013

Drew,

I don't think any special license should be needed to use vPC.  You do need
extra licenses for FabricPath though.

Oliver

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

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

On Fri, May 17, 2013 at 9:42 AM, Drew Weaver <drew.weaver at thenap.com> wrote:

> Since you guys are talking about it anyway I figured I would chime in and
> ask a question I had about the N5K.
>
> If you just buy a new or even used 5548P does it come with the
> functionality to do MCT/vPC or is that an additional license (just purely
> for L2)?
>
>  Thanks,
> -Drew
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: cisco-nsp [mailto:cisco-nsp-bounces at puck.nether.net] On Behalf Of
> Oliver Garraux
> Sent: Thursday, May 16, 2013 4:54 PM
> To: Blake Pfankuch - Mailing List
> Cc: cisco-nsp at puck.nether.net
> Subject: Re: [c-nsp] Nexus 5548 Questions and experiences...
>
> 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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