Re: OT: Cisco NEXUS 7k vs Catalyst 6509E

We are currently in the final stages of a greenfield datacenter buildout.
Then entire infrastructure is Nexus gear. 2x N7010s as the core, 6x N5020
(paired into 3 pairs) and 14x N2248 FEX. We looked at both the 6500 VSS
solution as well as the Nexus 7K before making our decision. The final
decision was based on a combination of things including hands on experience
at a CPOC lab and our environment.

I'll tell you this, from a pure throughput standpoint, it definately lives
up to expectations. There are a very limited number of line cards
available. Pretty much a 32 port 10Gb card, 32 port 10Gb DCE card, 48 port
RJ-45 blade and a 48 port SFP blade for 10/100/1000 connectivity. Cisco is
definately not stocking these things right now so if you have an RMA issue,
especially on the 7K, you might be in for a bit of a wait.

Now, that being said, I do know of other major projects in my area using
Nexus and specifically the 7K. The State of Tennessee is rolling a bunch
into their new DC and a major hospital put some in as the core of the
hospital network. They are definately becoming more widely utilized.

If you have any specific questions you can PM me so we don't fill up the
CCIE study group with off topic stuff. Unless, of course, anybody else is
interested.

On Thu, Aug 12, 2010 at 9:56 AM, --Hammer-- <bhmccie_at_gmail.com> wrote:

> I would also recommend you also get some good customer references for
> non-biased feedback. We are evaluating the product. Some of the hurdles we
> are having to question:
>
> 1. We have spoken with two peers in our vertical that have had RMA issues.
> It appears that staging Nexus gear at the appropriate depots (even when
> under maintenance) has been an issue. It's a logistical issue but it's still
> an issue.
>
> 2. We have had issues with feature parity to the NX-OS. Most common
> features are already there. But we are moving from a service module data
> center to strictly port density and core routing and so it's a little
> different for us.
>
> 3. They don't have the diverse line card offering (YET) that we would like
> to see.
>
> --Hammer--
>
>
>
> On 8/12/2010 9:47 AM, Ryan West wrote:
>
>> Vincent,
>>
>>
>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> Sent: Thursday, August 12, 2010 10:30 AM
>>> To: Ccielab_at_groupstudy.com
>>> Subject: Cisco NEXUS 7k vs Catalyst 6509E
>>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> Still early now to consider NEXUS 7K?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> Might be a question better suited for c-nsp mailers, but I believe the N7k
>> is coming along nicely. Cisco's direction with the line is as a core
>> datacenter component. For datacenter design, the N7K is being used as a VDC
>> sandwich, among other things, while the 6500's are being transitioned into
>> services (FWSM/ACE...) switches. OTV already exists for the N7k, but
>> _should_ be arriving for the 6500/7600 in the near future. There are still
>> a lot of features missing from the N7k that some require, so I guess it
>> depends on your environment.
>>
>> -ryan
>>
>>
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Received on Thu Aug 12 2010 - 12:29:40 ART