[c-nsp] Cisco Nexus as MetroE switch?

[Mark Walters]

Hi Gavin - 

The 5548/5596 fits that physical requirement, but those have a limited
feature set with no actual E-line features.

In small PoPs we¹ve used those as simple 1/10G layer2 aggregation switches
fronted by PEs with E-line features, like ME3600s.

One big caveat in that setup: the N5ks consider MPLS-tagged traffic to be
³non-IP², for which the only etherchannel hashing is ³src-dst-mac².  So
one link in a 4x10G etherchannel can get slammed while the others are
idle.  We worked around by creating multiple(/parallel) layer3 peerings
between some devices and manually setting the MAC address on the SVIs to
influence the hashing decision.  Annoying.

Hope that helps.

Mark





On 10/14/15, 5:52 PM, "cisco-nsp on behalf of Gavin McBride"
<cisco-nsp-bounces at puck.nether.net on behalf of gavmcb.lists at gmail.com>
wrote:

>Hello all,
>
>I've been evaluating a few platforms for a smallish MetroE-style
>deployment, focused on E-Line services between a number of sites, with n x
>10G DWDM links between sites.
>
>Looked at the usual suspects e.g. Cisco ME3600X/ME3800X, ASR920, as well
>as
>Juniper EX4550 and QFX5100.
>
>What I am after is a platform that will give me a bunch (32-40 odd) 1G/10G
>capable SFP+ ports, no need for 40G/100G, and due to starting off
>smallish,
>probably looking more at a 1RU/2RU box rather than a chassis based
>solution
>(so no ASR9000 at this point).
>
>Cisco have just pointed to their Nexus 9000 switches however, which has me
>a little surprised. From looking at their website, they really look like
>something aimed at a more Enterprise/Data Centre role, and I can't help
>but
>get the feeling they are trying to shoehorn any product in to suit the
>role
>I'm describing.
>
>Is anybody else out there using these in such a role, or able to comment
>on
>the suitability of such a switch?
>
>Also, how do people feel about using NX-OS and VXLAN vs. IOS and IP/MPLS?
>
>Thanks in advance.
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