RE: OT : To Connect IBM BladeCentre Swiches with Nexus 2k

North/South means traffic from the servers to the data center core and then
out, normally to the end users. In your case if traffic comes from a blade
server, goes to the 2K, up to the 5K, up to the core, and then out towards the
final user, this is considered north/south. The same as the orientation of
your diagram (up/down or north/south). However if traffic is going between
two blade servers it is going east/west or left/right. In this case it has to
go up to the 2K, up to the 5K, back down to the 2K, and back down to the
server. It really just depends what your traffic patterns are. If most
traffic is between the servers then you don't want fabric extenders. If most
traffic is from the servers to the end users then FEXes are fine..

HTH,

Brian McGahan, CCIE #8593 (R&S/SP/Security)
bmcgahan_at_INE.com<mailto:bmcgahan_at_INE.com>

Internetwork Expert, Inc.
http://www.INE.com

From: Akber Ali Mirza [mailto:akberali.cisco_at_gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2012 10:27 AM
To: Brian McGahan
Cc: CCIE Lab
Subject: Re: OT : To Connect IBM BladeCentre Swiches with Nexus 2k module

Brian,

Thanks for your inputs!

Can you please let me know what is north/south traffic etc stands for ., ?
why does it creates a problem when traffic goes East to west?
Also please go through the attached diagram which shows the exact connectivity
how all devices connected.

1) N2k's are connected with N5k on a VPC
2) 6500's are connected with N5k on a VPC

3) All Four blade switch connected with two cables each to N2k as
ether-channel access port.

Currently the setup is in implementation stage and throughput is as follows

N2k 1 or N2k 2 to N5k is 40Gbps throughput

6500- 1 or 6500- 2 to N5k is 40Gbps throughput

Blade-switch 2*1 gig eth-channel to N2k is 2Gbps throughput

~ Akber.
On Wed, Dec 19, 2012 at 7:35 PM, Brian McGahan
<bmcgahan_at_ine.com<mailto:bmcgahan_at_ine.com>> wrote:
It's not really a consequence of spanning-tree that's an issue because like
you said they're just access ports. Be aware though that the 2K's do not
support STP on their downstream facing links, as these links always run as
edge ports with BPDU filter enabled. The real potential design issue is that
the Nexus 2k doesn't support local switching. If most or all of your traffic
is north/south then this is fine, but if you're trying to go east/west between
the blade switches then all your traffic has to go north on the uplinks to the
parent Nexus 5K switch, and then south back down to the 2K. Also depending on
how many uplinks you have on your 2K's going to the 5K's, you're potentially
going to be oversubscribing these links beyond what you want.

Ideally you would probably skip the 2K's and go direct to the 5K's, e.g. 5020
or 5596 if you need more port density, but of course the disadvantage of this
is the cost.

HTH,

Brian McGahan, CCIE #8593 (R&S/SP/Security)
bmcgahan_at_INE.com<mailto:bmcgahan_at_INE.com>

Internetwork Expert, Inc.
http://www.INE.com

-----Original Message-----
From: nobody_at_groupstudy.com<mailto:nobody_at_groupstudy.com>
[mailto:nobody_at_groupstudy.com<mailto:nobody_at_groupstudy.com>] On Behalf Of
Akber Ali Mirza
Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2012 3:08 AM
To: CCIE Lab
Subject: OT : To Connect IBM BladeCentre Swiches with Nexus 2k module

Hello All,

We are looking forward to implement IBM BladeCentre Swiches connectivity with
Nexus 2k module.

I would like to brief you about my network over as follows:

Coreswitch : 6513 ( Layer 3 switch + Spanning Tree root)

Nexus 5010 : Layer 2 switch

Nexus 2k 10G ports based module.

*Currentl Solution : *we want to connect the IBM Blade Switches (4) as
demonstrated in the attached diagram which will be connected

to Nexus 2k module as Ether-channel Access port.

Initially we been proposed by our vendor with this design and Now vendor is
recommending us to connect the Blade switch etiher to

Nexus 5k switch or directly to 6513 core-switches instead of Nexus 2k modules
as they say Nexus 2k modules are only to connect

the Edge devices .

We do not have ports available on Nexus 5010 to connect the cables from IBM
Blade Centre Switches.

Otherthan that, incase if we go ahead and connect the IBM Blade switches as
access ether-channel access port with Nexus 2k module

what are the consequences we have to face realted Spanning tree or any other.

Request you to please give your valuable comments at the earliest!

~ Akber Mirza.

Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net
Received on Wed Dec 19 2012 - 11:13:32 ART