Cisco NX-OS Forwarding Architecture The Cisco NX-OS forwarding architecture is responsible for processing all routing updates and populating the forwarding information to all modules in the chassis. The Cisco NX-OS forwarding architecture consists of multiple components, as shown in Figure 6-6. Figure 6-6 Cisco NX-OS Forwarding Architecture The unicast routing information base (URIB) exists … Read more
Routing Metrics Routing algorithms use many different metrics to determine the best route. Sophisticated routing algorithms can base route selection on multiple metrics. Path Length The path length is the most common routing metric. Some routing protocols allow you to assign arbitrary costs to each network link. In this case, the path length is the … Read more
VDC High Availability The Cisco NX-OS software platform incorporates a high-availability feature set that helps ensure minimal or no effect on the data plane should the control plane fail. Different high-availability service levels are provided, from service restart to stateful supervisor switchover to ISSU without affecting data traffic. Should a control plane failure occur, the … Read more
VDC Management When several departments share a single physical device and each department has its own administrator, it presents a security concern to share one administrator account with every department admin. VDC user roles comes to the rescue here. Using VDC user roles, each VDC can be managed by a different VDC administrator. An action … Read more
Cisco Nexus Switch Process Separation and Restartability Cisco NX-OS provides isolation between software components so that a failure within one process does not disrupt others. In the Cisco NX-OS software, independent processes, known as services, perform a function or set of functions for a subsystem or feature set. Each service and service instance runs as … Read more
Cisco Nexus 7000 VDCs VDCs partition a single physical device into multiple logical devices that provide fault isolation, management isolation, address allocation isolation, service differentiation domains, and adaptive resource management. In simple terms, VDCs enable the virtualization of the control plane, data plane, and management plane of a switch, along with its hardware resource virtualization. … Read more
VDC Architecture The Cisco NX-OS software provides the base upon which the VDCs are supported. Figure 5-5 shows NX-OS in VDC mode. Figure 5-5 NX-OS in VDC Mode At the heart of the NX-OS, are the kernel and infrastructure layer. The kernel supports all processes and all VDCs that run on the switch, but … Read more