Basic Nexsus 5548 Configuration

[olsonkyle12]

Hello,

I'm configuring my first Nexsus 5548 10 GB switch.  The config is very basic, it's a standalone switch that resides on 1 subnet, in vlan 202.  The subnet is 10.234.250.0/ 255.255.255.192.

I created VLAN 202 on the switch and assigned IP address 10.234.250.2/ 255.255.255.192 to the device.  I've also put every interface on the switch in VLAN 202.

The problem is from devices plugged into the switch, I'm unable to ping from one device to another in the 202 network, nor am I able to ping vlan 202 interface .  Further, from inside the switch, I can't ping vlan 202 interface either.  So it does not appear to be any packet communiction between device on the network.  When I try and ping from inside the switch to vlan 202 interface, I get a "No ip route" (something like that).  It's all layer 2, so I'm not sure why i'm getting that error.

I've temporarily solve the issue by uplinking the switch to another Layer 3 switch and creating an IP interface (10.234.250.1) on the layer3 switch.  Once I did that, I went back into the Nexsus and created ip route:  10.234.250.0 255.255.255.192 10.234.250.1 and now all devices on the network can ping each other and I can ping the vlan 2 interface as well.  This is a temporary solution.  If the switch is truley standalone, how should it be configured?

[Ulrich Hansen]

From what I know, the N55K is a Layer2-only switch by default. So if you want it to have routing capabilities, you need to install a Layer 3 daughter card, which is either ordered along with the N55K or as a seperate unit. On the 5548, the daughter card is installed by replacing the i/o module on the front of the switch, which holds the Mngt and Console ports. This way, the daughter card does not take up space, that would otherwise be used by port-expansion modules.

In your case, you'll want to install the N55-D160L3 card.

hth

/Ulrich

[olsonkyle12]

Okay, but that's my point:  I don't need L3 capability, yet I'm unable to ping interfaces on the switch within the same VLAN.  the entire switch resides on vlan 202, yet I can't ping any device connected through the switch, nor can I ping the IP address assigned to the ethernet interface.

[Ulrich Hansen]

My bad, misunderstood your problem.

When you log into the switch, do you log in via the management port and thus, the Management Vrf?

When I log into my N55K and issue an icmp, i get this error:

dc2nx01# ping 10.10.115.254
PING 10.10.115.254 (10.10.115.254): 56 data bytes
ping: sendto 10.10.115.254 64 chars, No route to host
Request 0 timed out
ping: sendto 10.10.115.254 64 chars, No route to host
Request 1 timed out
ping: sendto 10.10.115.254 64 chars, No route to host
Request 2 timed out
ping: sendto 10.10.115.254 64 chars, No route to host
Request 3 timed out
ping: sendto 10.10.115.254 64 chars, No route to host

But by adding the management vrf, my icmp succeeds:

dc2nx01# ping 10.10.115.254 vrf management
PING 10.10.115.254 (10.10.115.254): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 10.10.115.254: icmp_seq=0 ttl=123 time=3.591 ms
64 bytes from 10.10.115.254: icmp_seq=1 ttl=123 time=4.005 ms
64 bytes from 10.10.115.254: icmp_seq=2 ttl=123 time=3.98 ms
64 bytes from 10.10.115.254: icmp_seq=3 ttl=123 time=4.105 ms
64 bytes from 10.10.115.254: icmp_seq=4 ttl=123 time=4.11 ms

[olsonkyle12]

Hmm, okay, not too familiar with the VRF termonoligy/ functionality.

My expectation is that this device will work like other Cisco switches in that if I pull it out of the box and power it up and then if I plug two devices into the switch and both those devices are configured with an IP address and subnet mask in the same network, those two devices should be able to ping each other.

That does not appear to be the case with this device.

VRF is "virtual routing forwarder"?