Network technologies and trends » Nexus 7000 Series Switch

How to read a Nexus 7000 Series Switch line card naming convention?

Yasir Irfan — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 12:59:00 +0000

Whenever you are trying to place an order or trying the figure out the details of the Nexus 7000 Series line care follow the below breakdown of how to read the nomenclature and understand what it is tell you.

Example N7K-M132XP-12

N7K = denotes Nexus 7K chassis blade
M1 = denotes L2 and L3 capable line card; F would denote only L2 capable
32 = 32 ports are supported
X = each port is capable of 10Gbps
P = SPF+ port types
-1 = first generation fabric line card
2 = means that 2 crossbar fabric cards are required to use this line card at its full potential.

What is CMP in Nexus 7000 Series Supervisor Module?

Yasir Irfan — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 12:52:46 +0000

The Connectivity Management Processor (CMP) is separate processor on the Cisco Nexus 7000 Series supervisor module that is in addition to the main control processor (CP). The CMP provides a second network interface to the device for use even when the CP is not reachable. You can access the CMP to configure it and to perform system operations, such as taking over the CP console or restarting the CP. The CMP can reset all system components, including power supplies; it can also reset the host supervisor module to which it is attached, enabling a complete system restart.

The Connectivity Management Processor (CMP) available even if its supervisor module is in standby mode or the device is down because of issues such as over-temperature alarms. Each CMP gets power from an auxiliary power bus in the device that remains operational so long as you have at least one power cable attached to the device.

All these options are available through the Connectivity Management Processor (CMP) because it contains its own RAM, bootflash, and front panel management Ethernet port.

The Connectivity Management Processor (CMP) provides the following functions:

• Communicates with the supervisor module and I/O modules even if Cisco NX-OS device is not responding on the mgmt0 port.

• Maintains connectivity when you reboot the supervisor module.

• Monitors the supervisor module console port.

• Reboots the local supervisor module or the entire system.

• Takes over the supervisor module console port.

• Collects failure logs and watches bootup diagnostic messages.

Over View of Nexus Supervisor Engine 1

Yasir Irfan — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 12:32:23 +0000

Currently Supervisor Engine 1 is the only supervisor Engine Module available for the Nexus 7000 Series Switch, which is designed to provide a scalable control plane and management functions based on dual core processor. Cisco recommends to have two supervisor Engines per chassis in an active/standby mode.

The Supervisor Engine 1 Module provides the following

Dual-core 1.66Ghz Intel Xeon processors with 4GB DRAM
2MB NVRAM, 2GB internal boot disk, 2 external compact flash slots
10/100/1000bps management port
Console and Auxiliary serial ports
USB file transfer port
Connectivity Management Processor (CMP) with separate 10/100/1000 Ethernet access that will support 802.1ae LinkSec encryption in the future.
Supervisory modules run in Active/Standby mode for continuous operation

The most interesting part of Supervisor Engine 1 for me is the Connectivity Management Processor (CMP) which is basically designed to support remote management and troubleshooting of the system. Since a lot of information is available about Supervisor Engine 1, in my next post I will try to highlight the importance of Connectivity Management Processor (CMP) in the Supervisor Engine 1.

How to configure HRSP between Nexus 7000 and Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches?

Yasir Irfan — Sun, 22 May 2011 05:15:13 +0000

Configuring HRSP in a Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Switch is often an easy task and it takes slight different approach. Recently we had some issues in our Data Centre and then I was forced to configuring the HSRP between a Cisco Nexus 7010 Switch and Cisco Catalyst 6506 E Switch. The configuration was quite simple, I would like to share the steps need to configure HSRP between a Cisco Nexus 7000 Series and Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switches.

In the below example I will configure HRSP for VLAN 34 with a subnet of 10.204.34.0/24

Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series Switch Configuration

Step 1 – Create VLAN 34 in Cisco Catalyst Switch and assign an IP Address

MBGF-DAC-6500-BB01(config)#interface vlan 34

MBGF-DAC-6500-BB01(config-if)#ip address 10.204.34.3 255.255.255.0

Step 2 – Configure HSRP group id, priority and timers, my active switch will be Cisco 6500 Switch due to its priority

MBGF-DAC-6500-BB01(config-if)# standby 34 ip 10.204.34.1

MBGF-DAC-6500-BB01(config-if)# standby 34 timers 1 3

MBGF-DAC-6500-BB01(config-if)# standby 34 priority 150

MBGF-DAC-6500-BB01(config-if)# standby 34 preempt

Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Switch Configuration

Step 1 – Create VLAN 34 in Cisco Nexus Switch and assign an IP Address

VDC-Admin-AG01-MB-1256-002(config)# interface vlan 34

VDC-Admin-AG01-MB-1256-002(config-if)# ip address 10.204.34.2/24

Step 2 – Configure HSRP group id, priority and timers , Nexus will be in standby mode

VDC-Admin-AG01-MB-1256-002(config-if)#hsrp 34

VDC-Admin-AG01-MB-1256-002(config-if-hsrp)# priority 110

VDC-Admin-AG01-MB-1256-002(config-if-hsrp)# timers 1 3

VDC-Admin-AG01-MB-1256-002(config-if-hsrp)# ip 10.204.34.1

Verify the HSRP States

Cisco Catalyst 6500 Switch Status

MBGF-DAC-6500-BB01:1#sho standby brief

P indicates configured to preempt.

Interface Grp Prio P State Active Standby Virtual IP

Vl34 34 150 P Init local 10.204.34.3 10.204.34.1

MBGF-DAC-6500-BB01:1#

Nexus 7000 Series Switch HSRP Status

VDC-Admin-AG01-MB-1256-002# sho hsrp group 34

Vlan34 – Group 34 (HSRP-V1) (IPv4)

Local state is Standby, priority 110 (Cfged 110)

Forwarding threshold(for vPC), lower: 1 upper: 110

Hellotime 1 sec, holdtime 3 sec

Next hello sent in 0.179000 sec(s)

Virtual IP address is 10.204.34.1 (Cfged)

Active router is 10.204.34.2

Standby router is local

Virtual mac address is 0000.0c07.ac22 (Default MAC)

2 state changes, last state change 2d18h

IP redundancy name is hsrp-Vlan34-34 (default)

VDC-Admin-AG01-MB-1256-002#

Configuring HRSP is a quite a simple and if you are facing any problems configuring you can post your scenario in the comments area of this post.