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

We are running a virtualized environment, we have both VMWare and Hyper-V
running in our environment accounting for approximately 250-300 VS. We also
have another 50 or so dedicated servers. All servers have dual port CNAs...
one attached to each 5K of a pair. The NICs are teamed utilizing LACP. We
do not currently have VDC turned on because we haven't had a need for it in
the new DC, but it's always there if we need it. I did play with it at CPOC
and it seemed to work as advertised.

Basically, the design is as such:

2x 7Ks peered together using VPC
6x N5K dual homed to the core N7Ks and peered using VPC
14x N2K dual homed into a 5K pair. They are split into pods with 2 pods
consisting of 4x 2248s and a pair of N5Ks and a single pod of 6x 2248s and a
pair of N5Ks. We are also running some native FC to the modules in the N5Ks
as well as FCoE to the CNAs. We have a mixture of EMC SAN and HP iSCSI
traffic.

We have appliances for most of the services we need to provide. F5s for
load balancing, ASA 5500s for FW, etc. Everything in the 7K is routed, 5Ks
are strictly layer 2. The FEXs work extremely well.

We have not run into a feature in NX-OS that we needed that isn't there FOR
OUR ENVIRONMENT.

Most of the issues we've run into were making things play nice together with
things outside of Nexus. For example, if you use HP NIC teaming in a
Hyper-V environment, it does Tx/Rx-Tx with the ports. If there is an F5 LTM
in the data path, it'll break because of that so you have to use LACP.
(Long story) We had a problem finding a CNA that would work with Hyper-V,
NIC Teaming and VLAN trunking. Everybody had a card that worked great with
VMWare but they all were behind on the drivers for the above mentioned
environment. (Qlogic, Emulex and Brocade) We ended up finding that the HP
version of the Emulex card works as ordered even though the Emulex branded
card doesn't work.
On Thu, Aug 12, 2010 at 12:42 PM, Ryan West <rwest_at_zyedge.com> wrote:

> Michael,
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: nobody_at_groupstudy.com [mailto:nobody_at_groupstudy.com] On
> > Behalf Of Michael Marvel
> > Sent: Thursday, August 12, 2010 1:30 PM
> > To: --Hammer--
> > Cc: ccielab_at_groupstudy.com
> > Subject: 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.
> >
>
> I am interested in the overall design. In particular, are you using a VDC
> sandwich architecture? Do you have services switches or appliances?
> Transparent or routed mode? Is it for a virtualized environment?
>
> Thanks!
>
> -ryan

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Received on Thu Aug 12 2010 - 13:01:12 ART