New Nexus and FabricPath

[paul snoep]

Hi

For a customer we have implemented a FP network based on N5K and N7K. With the new Nexus switches and the rumors on no support for FP, what is the future of FP with Nexus?

N9K does not support FP, the N6K does not support FP, N77K supports FP on F2e and F3 linecards.

Thanks

Regards

[Amit Singh · Accepted solution]

Hi Paul,

We do suppport FabricPath with Nexus 7K/5K/6K product line. Both N7K and 77K supports Fabricpath with F-Series line cards and will continue to do so. The same support will continue on Nexus5K/6K switches. Fabricpath as a technology feature is part of the Cisco Unified Architecture and has a great roadmap.

Nexus9K does not support FabricPath as the hardware is designed on Merchant silicon and the ASIC's do not support FabricPath encap/decap on the line-cards . Nexus9K is all together built-in on an ACI architecture to provide the fully integrated and automated network fabric solution driven by Application Network Profile.

We do support vPC and other Layer 2/3 features to integrate the system with  Nexus Products in NX-OS mode. This should work seamlessly. The NX-OS on N9K is an enhanced NX-OS which will provide you with better performance on N9K hardware.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps9441/ps13386/white-paper-c11-729987.html

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps9441/ps13386/datasheet-c78-729405.html

Hope this helps.

-amit singh

[paul snoep]

Hi Amit,

This sure helps

Many thanks

Paul

[c.fuller]

So my question is does it make sense to move to fabricpath in a mid-size enterprise data-center with SDN/ACI on the horizon?

Would having fabricpath enabled either simplify or complicate a migration to SDN/ACI?   

Are these technologies mutually exclusive?

Would it make sense to remain on a Nexus vPC/STP based network until SDN/ACI is ready for prime-time assuming this meets DC requirements?

Chuck

[paul snoep]

Hi Charles,

FWIW:

We use FP to enable a smooth transition between locations, as we are on the move. DC A and DC B are FP interconnected. Since DC A is relocated, we just have to add DC A" to the FP cloud. Then we just have all vlans available in DC A".

Although it is not the hardware bus like Juniper QF, it works and does its job. We will keep FP in its place as I feel this is a better solution than running dual VPC between the two sites. Ease of operation and visibility int the FP cloud is for us the main purpose.

It all depends on how you intend to facilitate SDN. By means of VMware NSX, ACI on the 9K - which does not support FP, but does support VXLan, or by means of VMware SRM. NSX and SRM can use FP, ACI on the 9K with FP will be an issue

HTH

Paul