NX-OS and Cisco Nexus Switching

The complete guide to planning, configuring, managing, and troubleshooting NX-OS in the enterprise–updated with new technologies and examples

Using Cisco Nexus switches and the NX-OS operating system, data center professionals can build unified core networks that deliver unprecedented scalability, resilience, operational continuity, flexibility, and performance. NX-OS and Cisco Nexus Switching, Second Edition, is the definitive guide to applying these breakthrough technologies in real-world environments. This extensively updated edition contains five new chapters addressing a wide range of new technologies, including FabricPath, OTV, IPv6, QoS, VSG, Multi-Hop FCoE, LISP, MPLS, Layer 3 on Nexus 5000, and Config sync. It also presents a start-to-finish, step-by-step case study of an enterprise customer who migrated from Cisco Catalyst to a Nexus-based architecture, illuminated with insights that are applicable in virtually any enterprise data center.

Drawing on decades of experience with enterprise customers, the authors cover every facet of deploying, configuring, operating, and troubleshooting NX-OS in today’s data center. You’ll find updated best practices for high availability, virtualization, security,
L2/L3 protocol and network support, multicast, serviceability, provision of networking and storage services, and more. Best of all, the authors present all the proven commands, sample configurations, and tips you need to apply these best practices in your data center.

Ron Fuller, CCIE No. 5851 (Routing and Switching/Storage Networking), Technical Marketing Engineer on Cisco’s Nexus 7000 team, specializes in helping customers design end-to-end data center architectures. Ron has 21 years of industry experience, including 7 at Cisco. He has spoken at Cisco Live on VDCs, NX-OS multicast, and general design.

David Jansen, CCIE No. 5952 (Routing/Switching), is a Cisco Technical Solutions Architect specializing in enterprise data center architecture. He has 20 years of industry experience, 15 of them at Cisco (6 as a solution architect); and has delivered several Cisco Live presentations on NX-OS and data center solutions.

Matthew McPherson, senior systems engineer and solutions architect for the Cisco Central Select Operation, specializes in data center architectures. He has 12 years of experience working with service providers and large finance and manufacturing enterprises, and possesses deep technical knowledge of routing, switching, and security.

NX-OS and Cisco Nexus Switching

• Understand the NX-OS command line, virtualization features, and file system
• Utilize the NX-OS comprehensive Layer 2/Layer 3 support: vPC, Spanning Tree Protocol, Cisco FabricPath, EIGRP, OSPF, BGP, HSRP, GLBP, and VRRP
• Configure IP multicast with PIM, Auto-RP, and MSDP
• Secure your network with CTS, SGTs, ACLs, CoPP, and DAI
• Establish a trusted set of network devices with Cisco TrustSec
• Maximize availability with ISSU, stateful process restart/switchover, and non-stop forwarding
• Improve serviceability with SPAN, ERSPAN, configuration checkpoints/rollback, packet analysis, Smart Call Home, Python, and PoAP
• Unify storage and Ethernet fabrics with FCoE, NPV, and NPIV
• Take full advantage of Nexus 1000V in a virtualized environment
• Achieve superior QoS with MQ CLI, queuing, and marking
• Extend L2 networks across L3 infrastructure with Overlay Transport Virtualization (OTV)
• Deliver on SLAs by integrating MPLS application components such as L3 VPNs, traffic engineering, QoS, and mVPN
• Support mobility via the new Locator ID Separation Protocol (LISP)
• Walk step-by-step through a realistic Nexus and NX-OS data center migration