In my previous post I did discussed about some of the key features of NX-OS lets see what else it offer

• Base services: The default license that ships with NX-OS covers Layer 2 protocols including such features such as Spanning Tree, virtual LANs (VLAN), Private VLANS, and Unidirectional Link Detection (UDLD).
• Enterprise Services Package: Provides Layer 3 protocols such as Open Shortest Path First (OSPF), Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System (ISIS), Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP), Policy-Based Routing (PBR), Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM), and Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE).
• Advanced Services Package: Provides Virtual Device Contexts (VDC), Cisco Trustsec (CTS), and Overlay Transport Virtualization (OTV).
• Transport Services License: Provides Overlay Transport Virtualization (OTV) and Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) (when available).

Apparently the NX-OS includes some quite interesting kef features and benefit. In this post I will try to highlight few of those features. Some of them are as follows

• Virtual device contexts (VDC): Cisco Nexus 7000 Series switches can be segmented into virtual devices based on customer requirements. VDCs offer several benefits such as fault isolation, administration plane, separation of data traffic, and enhanced security.
• Virtual Port Channels (vPC): Enables a server or switch to use an EtherChannel across two upstream switches without an STP-blocked port to enable use of all available uplink bandwidth.
• Continuous system operation: Maintenance, upgrades, and software certification can be performed without service interruptions due to the modular nature of NX-OS and features such as In-Service Software Upgrade (ISSU) and the capability for processes to restart dynamically.
• Security: Cisco NX-OS provides outstanding data confidentiality and integrity, supporting standard IEEE 802.1AE link-layer cryptography with 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) cryptography. In addition to CTS, there are many additional security features such as access control lists (ACL) and port-security, for example.

To allocate physical interfaces to VDC from the config terminal mode type the VDC name and then allocate the physical interfaces as shown below by using the command “allocate interface”

N7000-ITKE01#configure t

N7000-ITKE01 (config)#vdc VDC-CORE1

N7000-ITKE01-DC-CORE1 (config-vdc)#allocate interface  Ethernet1/1

N7000-ITKE01-DC-CORE1 (config-vdc)#allocate interface  Ethernet1/2

N7000-ITKE01 -DC-CORE1 (config-vdc)#allocate interface  Ethernet1/3

Now let’s verify the Interface allocation to the VDC by using following command ” show vdc membership”

N7000-ITKE01-DC-CORE1# show vdc membership

vdc_id:2 vdc_name: DC-CORE1 interfaces:
        Ethernet1/1           Ethernet1/2           Ethernet1/3          
        Ethernet1/4           Ethernet1/5           Ethernet1/6          
        Ethernet1/7           Ethernet1/8           Ethernet1/9          
        Ethernet1/10          Ethernet1/11          Ethernet1/12         
        Ethernet1/13          Ethernet1/14          Ethernet1/15         
        Ethernet1/16          Ethernet1/17          Ethernet1/18         
        Ethernet1/19          Ethernet1/20          Ethernet1/21         
        Ethernet1/22          Ethernet1/23          Ethernet1/24         
        Ethernet1/25          Ethernet1/27          Ethernet1/29         
        Ethernet1/31         

N7000-ITKE01-DC-CORE1#

In addition to interfaces other physical resources such as IPv4 router memory, IPv6 router memory, port-channels, SPAN sessions can be allocated to individual VDC.

Configuring Virtual Device Contexts (VDC)   Cisco Nexus 7000 Series switch is as simple as just entering the VDC name, by following below mentioned steps we can create VDC named VDC-Admin

Step 1

Connect to Cisco Nexus 7000 Series switch using a console port.

Step 2

Create a VDC named DC-CORE1

N7000-ITKE01#configure t

N7000-ITKE01 (config)#vdc  DC-CORE1

Step 3

Verify the created VDC by using following commands “Show vdc” and “show vdc VDC-CORE1 detail” as demonstrated below.

N7000-ITKE01# sho vdc

vdc_id  vdc_name                          state               mac            
——  ——–                          —–               ———-     
1       VDC-Admin                         active              00:26:98:07:1c:c1
2       DC-CORE1                          active              00:26:98:07:1c:c2
3       DC-AGG1                           active              00:26:98:07:1c:c3

The show VDC command shows VDC id based on which VDC created first.BY default VDC id is assigned to the default VDC. In this case it is VDC-Admin.

VDC-Admin# sho vdc DC-CORE1 ?
  <CR>       
  >           Redirect it to a file
  >>          Redirect it to a file in append mode
  detail      Show detailed vdc information
  membership  Show vdc interface membership information
  resource    Show resource configuration for VDC
  |           Pipe command output to filter

In upcoming post I will show how to allocate physical interfaces to the newly created VDC.

The Virtual Device Contexts (VDC) is a new feature introduced in Cisco Nexus 7000 NX-OS, so does it happens to be the first Data Center Switch to provide Virtual Device Contexts (VDC) capabilities. The Virtual Device Contexts (VDC) allows a Cisco Nexus 7000 Series switch to be logically segmented into four different virtual switches (device contexts). The logical separation of single Nexus 7000 into multiple logical devices provides the following benefits:

• Administration and management separation
• Change and failure domain isolation from other VDSs
• Address, VLAN, VRP and vPC isolation.

When the Cisco Nexus 7000 Series switch is first booted, all interfaces of all line cards in the modular switch platform are placed in the default VDC (VDC 1).  Up to four VDCs can be created including the default VDC, but an interface can only belong to one VDC.  Interfaces from different line cards can be placed in different VDCs.  Once an interface is placed into a VDC, the interface can no longer be managed in the default VDC context.

The Cisco Nexus 7000 Series switch shares some components between VDC(s), which include the following:

• A single instance of the kernel which support all of the processes and VDCs.
• Supervisor Modules
• Fabric Modules
• Power Supplies
• Fan trays
• System fan trays
• CMP
• CoPP
• Hardware SPAN resources.