General Nexus vs Cat OS concern

[Kn1ghtR1d3rOfD00m]

Hi experts, 

I first apologize if this is not the way I supposed to be handling this type of question. If so, please let me know and direct me to the right channel.

Im totally confused related to this not so young nexus, ucs, mds, FC world, etc

We have the following model (without Nexus OS)

Access Layer- workstations PCs 

Distribution Layer (like aggregation layer)- 6500 series switches

Firewall protecting AD, DC, other services, etc are connected to a server switch and server switch connected to 6500 switch

UCS with iSCSI communicated with Netap for storage, UCS connected to the server switch

so thats my topology

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now my question is, if we plan to use Nexus in the Data Center, will they be replacing our 6500? 

Am im understading wrong the NX model architecture? 

Let say I use Nexus 9k for regular mode (not ACI mode), that will be like my Aggregation Layer or core, but thats only for Servers, I mean like UCS clustering?

The 7k or 9k will be used for connecting the workstation PCs (regular traffic, a user navigating youtube, streaming, Internet Access, Intranet)? 

Or still I will need to use the 6500 for data traffic and pass it thru the nexus devices?

Im sorry, I plan to certificate about this tech, but can someone explain how really the Nexus work? 

Not just tell me go to the cisco web site, it does not show real scenarios in the real world. 

for my topology, do I need to use MDS devices? 

I know this is very vague situation, but do you get my idea? 

so when they say "Cisco Nexus Next Generation " is so powerful, it is referring to the data center but just for connecting servers, UCS, MDS?

They sell the idea of FCoE, ok, I understand the term, but can you give me an example or scenario where both data traffic and storage traffic is passing in a real infrastructure?

why would I need FCoE if I have my separate Cat 6500 series and on the other side of the DC are the NX OS devices? 

Will that defeat the purpose? 

Please give some ideas, all of them are welcome, I need to grasp the idea to my the up level team so they can see the real deal about this and possibly talk about migration.

I know that some are silly questions, but pardon me since I know little about the famous Nexus family products

[Leo Laohoo]

Now my question is, if we plan to use Nexus in the Data Center, will they be replacing our 6500? 

Nexus is the heart of the DC networking.  Talk to your Cisco AM/SE.

[Kn1ghtR1d3rOfD00m]

Thank you, so you are saying that it will replace them, sorry its still vague the answer. 

thank you so much for your time sir.

[Leo Laohoo]

so you are saying that it will replace them

Yes. 

The old design has the 6500 in DC but the buffers for the 6500 can't cope with the sustained amount of data being pushed by the servers.  

The Nexus, however, was built with DC work in mind.

[Kn1ghtR1d3rOfD00m]

Ok thanks. I see what youre saying. 

Honestly dont know why we got a nexus 9K, 2 UCS blades chassis, one Big netapp, 2 X 6850 series switches, I will wait how they are going to deploy this infra. I thought the 6850 will not be used anymore and instead of buying and spending a lot of money, they should have acquired the nexus,

well, anyway, these people is confusing me haha, thanks for your valuable time Sir.

Regards,  

[Leo Laohoo · Accepted solution]

Honestly dont know why we got a nexus 9K

A few years ago, a lot of people (including some from Cisco) thought that Nexus 7K was primarily placed at the centre of the DC network.  The core.  

Nowadays, due to the increase of bandwidth requirements (think 40- and 100 Gbps), some people have started deploying Nexus 9K to do DC core and Nexus 7K to do distro work. 

Sometimes, Cisco SE/AM would price the Nexus 9K to become CHEAPER than a Nexus 7K.

[Vasileios Bouloukos MSc, ITIL, CCIE]

Have a look to the next article.

It will help you to answer most of your questions.

http://www.firewall.cx/cisco-technical-knowledgebase/cisco-data-center/1201-introduction-nexus-family-nx-os-ios-differences.html

[Kn1ghtR1d3rOfD00m]

Thank you so much, this is really useful info, 

Regards,