Nexus 9500 line cards

[S891]

Hi, we are looking to purchase 9508s for our DC. We are going for NX-OS mode now but we are possibly looking to have a setup of ACI Spine/Leaf in 2 - 3 years down the road. We want to have a setup that is also ACI ready for future and we don't have completely rip it off and throw. 

There are few line cards options I am looking at. I have read in Cisco live presentations that i/O module N9K-X9564PX and N9K-X9536PQ are VXLAN  capable ACI Leaf Ready. I think what it means is that these can be used as ACI Leafs in future and can work with a ACI spine ready Line Card. 

I hope someone must have encountered these type of setups. 

[S891]

We are looking to replace two 6509-Es in our DC with N9K. We are thinking of going with NX-OS and possibly switch to ACI mode two to three years down the road.

We are looking at 9508 Bundles. The issue comes with the selection of I/O. I see there are three options available for I/O modules; NX-OS only (9432PQ or similar), VXLAN and ACI Leaf ready (9564 or similar), and the new ACI Spine type (9732C-EX or similar).

I was thinking of going with 9508 chassis in NX-OS mode with 9564 type ACI leaf ready I/O cards. When we eventually switch to ACI mode we can use 9508s as Leaf switches with these ACI Leaf ready 9564 cards. For the Spine we can get 9300 series or a smaller 9504.

There could be many other options. We are not very enthusiastic about full 40G or 100G I/O modules. Considering that we are working under a budget what would be the best possible combination that works for NX-OS mode now and can be easily switches to ACI?

If either ACI leaf or Spine card is not worth going at this time we may consider just to go for NX-OS only options.

1.             9508 NX-OS with 9432PQ  NX-OS only support
2.             9508 NX-OS with 9564 ACI Leaf ready
3.              9508 NX-OS with 9732C ACI Spine
4. ….

I hope it makes sense to you!

Thanks,