The Use of Port Profiles

[thehxman101]

My understanding of the uses of port profiles includes the implementation of Nexus 1K/5K etc. and the implementation of VM-FEX correct? These port profiles are then pushed to vCenter to be used by the VM's offloading the networking portion back to UCSM and not the VM admin... Is this correct?

[mwronkow · Accepted solution]

N1k/N5k/UCS VM-FEX port-profiles are used by both the network & VMware administrator.  The network administrator creates the port-profile & assigns properties (VLAN, QoS, ACL, etc) - available features differ on each product with N1k offering the most features.  After the the port-profile is create it is automatically advertised in vCenter.  The vCenter admin then assigns port-profiles to VM interfaces and vmnics.  This essentially separates the network & system admin roles so that each person concentrates on their area of expertise.

Port-profiles are also available on standalone N5k/N7k to be used at interface templates when not integrating with VMware.

[thehxman101]

Thanks, one other point is that in order to implement port-profiles you have to use technologies in UCSM such as VM-FEX and Nexus? You can't just create them and expect the profiles to show in VC.

[mwronkow]

Correct.  Profiles only appear in vCenter if using VM-FEX/N1k.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns1124/index.html#~products