Cisco VM-FEX Parent Switch & Nexus 1K

[michaelgitonga]

Hi,

I'm designing a Cisco UCS Blade server enviroment and want to use Cisco VM-FEX. I also have Cisco Nexus 5548UP and Nexus 7009 & 7004 datacenter switches. I need advice on the following:

1. What is the Parent switch for Cisco VM-FEX? Is it:
   
   • Cisco 6200 Fabric Interconnect?
     
   • Cisco Nexus 5500 switch with VM-FEX licences
     
2. Also, can a Cisco Nexus 7000 switch be the parent switch for Cisco VM-FEX? If yes, what licensing is needed for the Nexus 7000 switch?
   
3. When using VM-FEX in both Emulated and Pass-through modes, do I need to use Cisco Nexus 1000v switch in the Blade hosts?
   

Thank you.

Michael.

[michaelgitonga]

Also,

1. Can I use VMware DVS switch with VM-FEX or it has to be the Cisco Nexus 1000v?
   
2. Does the VM-FEX feature work for FCoE traffic or its only Ethernet switching?
   

Thank you.

Michael.

[timoma]

Hello Michael,

1. VM-FEX Parent Switch (Controlling Bridge) could be

   - Cisco 6100/6200 Fabric Interconnect : Support ESXi, Hyper-V and Redhat KVM

   - Nexus 5500 switch, Nexus 6000 switch with VM-FEX license: Support ESXi

2. Nexus 7k is not supportted to be the parent switch

3. VM-FEX and Nexus 1000v are mutually exclusive on a single UCS blade. Also each VM-FEX interface is independnet     and one could have both emulated and pass-through mode on the same VM

4. Both VM-FEX and Nexus 1000v utilize VEM mondule on ESX host but they are different binary files. VM-FEX VEM

    could be donwloaded from driver ISO

    Downloads Home > Products > Servers - Unified Computing > Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Server Software

    > Unified Computing System (UCS) Drivers-2.1(2a)

5. VM-FEX currently only support Ethernet traffic