VDC use cases?

[illusion_rox]

Dear Experts, 

I am new to DC switching. As per my understanding and limited research, vdc's are only supported in Nexus 7ks. They are not supported in N9k. So is it a technology with very limited use cases? actually i am confused as to why in a private organization would want to implement multiple VDCs (breaking one switch into multiple logical switches). Many organizations have only 1 network team, and server/application teams dont like to get involve with switches (atleast in the part of world i am living). Apart from telcos or clouds, is there any use case for VDC in the scenario i have described?

[Sergiu.Daniluk]

Hi @illusion_rox 

You are correct. VDC is only a Nexus 7000/7700 technology.

There are so many reasons why you would want a VDC:

+ first, it is a control plan and data plane virtualization protocol, meaning each VDC will have it's own dedicated control plane and specific ports/line cards will only be used in that specific VDC. This means, you can have different layers in your network architecture composed of different VDCs. Basically it will be only one physical switch.  Example below: Core, Agg1, and Agg2 are three VDCs of the same Nexus 7K, but logically the topology will look like the one from the left.

+ there are special features which needs a dedicated VDC: OTV and Storage VDC.

I would encourage to read the VDC whitepaper: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/switches/nexus-7000-series-switches/white_paper_c11-701112.html 

You will find more examples and use cases.

Stay safe,

Sergiu