Cisco Nexus FamilyPlatform Overview

Ronnie ScottConsulting CSE

Sept 2009

Cisco Nexus Data Center Portfolio

Enabling Low‐Cost 10GE…

Nexus 5000 Futures – Layer 2 MP

Virtual Machine GranularityIntroducing VN‐Link

Problems:

VN‐Link:• Extends network to the VM • Consistent services • Coordinated, coherent management

VMotion

• VMotion may move VMs across physical ports—policy must follow 

• Impossible to view or apply policy to locally switched traffic

• Cannot correlate traffic on physical links—from multiple VMs

VLAN101

VN‐Link with Cisco Nexus 1000v

Cisco Nexus 1000VSoftware Based

VMW ESX

VM#1

VM #4

VM #3

ServerVM #2

Nexus 1000V

NIC NIC

LAN

Nexus1000V

Industry’s first third‐party ESX switch

Built on Cisco NX‐OS

Compatible with switching platforms

Maintain VirtualCenter provisioning model unmodified for server administration but also allow network administration of Nexus 1000V via familiar Cisco NX‐OS CLI

Policy‐Based VM Connectivity

Non‐DisruptiveOperational Model

Mobility of Network and Security Properties

Unified Fabric OverviewFibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)

10/27/2009 24

• Mapping of FC Frames over Ethernet

• Enables FC to Run on a Lossless Ethernet Network

• Fewer Cables• Both block I/O & Ethernet 

traffic co‐exist on same cable

• Fewer adapters needed

• Overall less power

• Interoperates with existing SAN’s• Management SAN’s 

remains constant

• No Gateway

FCoE Benefits

Fibre Channel Traffic

Ethernet

Converged Network Adapters (CNA)

NON‐Unified Fabric – Phase 0

Unified Fabric – Phase 1

Unified Fabric – Phase 2

Unified Fabric SavingsHealthcare Customer Case Study

Cisco Unified Computing System

Unified Fabric

• Wire once, low latency FC and Ethernet

• Virtualization aware • Dramatic reduction in adapters, switches, pass thru modules

Industry Standard Servers• Blade Form Factor• Intel Xeon Processor 5500

series.• More than double the

memory capacity of competing systems

Virtualized Services

• Fine-grained control, portability, and visibility of network, compute, and storage attributes• Increased Processor Efficiency with Hypervisor Bypass

Up to 30% fewer components, switches, cabling, and management modules to purchase, manage, power, and cool

Up to 30% lower memory and SW licensing costs via Cisco Extended Memory Technology

Up to 10% better processor performance via Cisco Hypervisor Bypass Technology

Automated Provisioning

• Embedded single point of management and provisioning• Visibility and control across technology silos• Ongoing management and compliance

Up to 90% greater administrator efficiency, with faster changes and fewer incidents

Process Automation (ITIL)

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Scalable Unified Fabric that delivers up to 320 server nodes in a single system

The Cisco Unified Computing System is designed to dramatically reduce datacenter total cost of ownership while simultaneously increasing IT agility and responsiveness.

Cisco Inc., Company Confidential

Unified Compute SystemSingle Domain of Management

Unified Fabric

Stateless ServerswithVirtualized Adapters