Hi all,
I'm new to Cisco and its Nexus switches so I have a few questions about a planned setup.
I have 1x Nexus 5010 and 2x Nexus 2232TM-E FEX. I also have a stack of 3x DELL 5548. DELL's have 48gbe and 4 SFP+ 10gbit ports. Its a pretty simple network as we are not using any advanced features except for a few VLAN's. Reasons for using 2232TM-E's are they provide 10gbit RJ-45 ports and not SFP's.
The goal is to create a new 10gbit stack using the 5010 and the 2234's. I would also like to uplink the older DELL stack using 2-3 bundled SFP+ ports. I would also like to use 2-3 SFP+ ports between the 3 Cisco giving me 20-30gbit uplinks. And if possible i would like to have redundancy between the 3 Cisco's as well.
Now, lets leave DELL behind for a while and talk about the Cisco stack.
How should it be cabled? Is it so that the FEX is only hooked up to the 5010 via the twinax SFP+ cable? No other stacking cable is needed..?
My plan is to cable 2 twinax SFP+ from port 1 and 9 from the 5010 to port 1 and 2 on FEX1, then port 2 and 10 from the 5010 to port 1 and 2 on FEX2. I would also like to have uplinks between the 2 FEX'es using port 3&4 on FEX1 & 2 giving redundancy between the FEX'es. (not going via the 5010)
I'm not planning on using any of the ports on the 5010 except for FEX uplinks as I only have the one swtich.
Is this setup possible with only 1 Nexus 5010 switch?
What happens if the 5010 goes down? Will the FEX'es retain their config or do the rely on the mother-switch at all times?
Also can i uplink the DELL stack directly to the two FEX'es, or does that uplink have to be to the 5010?
Since i have 3 DELL's in a stack i would like to uplink switch 1 & 3 into separate FEX allowing a ring for redundancy.
Any tips and pointers are deeply appreciated! Also let me know if there is a need for more details.
Cheers
//Ray
