DCNM VXLAN switch prerequisits

[Patrick Colbeck]

Hi

I need to setup a new DC with Nexus 9000s with DCNM and VXLAN EVPN.

The switches will be new and straight out of the box. Is there a pre reqs document anywhere on what needs configuring on the switches prior to discovering them with DCNM and using that to deploy the fabric?

I am assuming I need to configure the OOB ports with a management IP and enable the SSH, BGP and OSPF features but anything else?

Thanks.

[Andrea Testino]

Patrick,

Straight out of the box, you could technically leave the Nexus 9Ks in the POAP loop and then discover them via DCNM and assign an IP address, hostname, etc via DCNM (using DCNM as a DHCP Server). Here's a POAP example from my EVPN fabric:

• When you are going through Control > Fabric Builder > Add Fabric (or Edit Fabric), fill out the Bootstrap information if you'd like to use DCNM as a DHCP Server for the devices within the fabric:

• Once you are finished with your fabric settings, go to "Add Switches" within the Fabric view and select the POAP Option:

Alternatively, you can break them out of POAP, configure username/password and give them a mgmt IP in their mgmt0 interface, then discover them via DCNM using the "seed IP" option instead. You don't need to configure any of the other features - DCNM will take care of that part for you. Example of Seed IP discovery:

• Reach "Inventory Management" via "Add Switches" (same as before) and select "Discover Existing Switches" instead:

• Once it Discovers the switch, you can select the hostname and click "Import into Fabric." 

There's a more detailed walk-through of all of this in the DCNM Configuration Guide under the Control tab:

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/sw/11_0_1/config_guide/lanfabric/b_dcnm_lan_fabric/control.html

Hope that helps!

[Patrick Colbeck]

Thanks Andrea

We will use the second method as we are routing the OOB network to DCNM in AWS for now and don't want to punch DHCP out that far. Good to know there isn't much else to do in prep. I did a fabric last month but someone else had already imported the switches to DCNM this is my first greenfield deployment.