The Cisco Nexus switches are targeted primarily to the data center core and are offered in both modular (7000 series) and fixed (rack mountable; the 5000 series) configurations.

Targeted to the data center core, the Cisco Nexus 7000 series is the flagship offering in the vendor's Cisco Nexus product family. The 7000 series now consists of two entries: The original 7010, and the new 7018.

The 7010 is a 10-slot modular switch that can be loaded with the user's choice of Gig (48 port; now available in copper of fiber flavors) or 10 Gig (32 port) Ethernet ports, for a total of 384/256 ports per chassis respectively across 8 interface cards. The remaining 2 slots are dedicated to supervisor control modules, which themselves boast dual-core processors and provide the control plane and management functions for the chassis. The new 7018 includes 18 slots, 16 of which can be loaded with I/O cards for a total of 768 Gig or 512 10 Gig ports.

The chassis is driven by the vendor's Cisco NX-OS operating system, which the vendor notes is based on Cisco IOS, MDS 9000 SAN-OS, and technology from other acquisitions. NX-OS is the operating system behind all of the Nexus switches, with key features including:

- Support for the definition and deployment of Virtual Device Contexts (VDCs), which enable the switches to be logically (virtually) partitioned into virtual devices that operate independently; i.e., each virtual device presents itself uniquely to connected users. Each VDC, while physically running within the switch chassis, can maintain its own set of software processes, have its own configuration, and be managed by its own administrator. Virtualized components in a VDC span the chassis' control, forwarding, and management planes; as well as allow for separately configured and partitioned software processes (for fault management) and assignment of hardware components.

- Support for self-diagnostics and "graceful" and stateful inline restarts of failed processes

- An XML-based programmatic interface

Also headlined is the device's support for the vendor's Trusted Security (TrustSec) architecture, which seeks to endow each port of the chassis with identity and role-based security features including 802.1x-based endpoint authentication/authorization, Link-layer AES-128 encryption, and enforcement of identity-based, application-specific access controls through ingress tagging and egress filters.

Management of the chassis is through the vendor's Cisco Data Center Network Manager (DCNM) GUI, the aforementioned XML-based API, or SNMP (v 1/2/3) support. Configurations can additionally be checkpointed for roll-back purposes and verified prior to roll-ins.

Other hardware features include up to five dedicated fabric modules that enable the processing of parallel fabric channels to each interface and supervisor slot (each of the five fabric modules can work simultaneously to deliver a total of up to 230 Gb/sec of bandwidth per slot); front-to-back airflow; modular, dual-input power supplies; and integrated cable management.

The other key line in the Cisco Nexus family are the 5000 series switches; now offered in two flavors: The original 5020, a 2U chassis; and the new 1U 5010. The 5010 has 20 fixed ports supporting 10 Gig Ethernet, the vendor's Data Center Ethernet, or Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) communications as well as accepts a single expansion slot that can accept an 8 port FC module (1/2/4 Gb/sec), a 6 port 10 Gig Ethernet module (DCE and FCoE), or a combo module with 4 FC ports and 4 10 Gig ports. Hot-pluggable power supplies and fans with front-to-back cooling are listed as standard features.

Finally, related to the Cisco Nexus 5000 series are the new Cisco 2000 series "Fabric Extenders," which provide Gigabit Ethernet connectivity for the 5000 Series switches; enabling legacy servers with Gig Ethernet connections to communicate over the Nexus-based fabric. The initial entry in the 2000 Series line is the 2148T, a 1U device that houses 48 Gig Ethernet ports for hosts and four 10 Gig Ethernet uplink ports for connectivity to the 5000 Series switches.

The Nexus 7010 and Nexus 5020 are available now. Contact Cisco for further information on the remaining offerings in the line.

product submission by EITPlanet Staff

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