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This chapter contains the following sections:
The Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform product family includes the Cisco Nexus 1010, Cisco Nexus 1010-X, Cisco Nexus 1110-S, and Cisco Nexus 1110-X. The Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform provides dedicated hardware for Cisco Nexus 1000V Virtual Supervisor Modules (VSMs) and can host VSMs that were hosted on virtual machines, which allows you to install and manage a Cisco Nexus 1000V VSM like a standard Cisco switch.
The services managed by the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform are called virtual service blades (VSBs). The Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform supports the following VSBs:
Cisco Nexus 1000V VSM for VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, and KVM
Cisco Network Analysis Module (NAM)
Cisco Nexus 1000V VXLAN gateway
Citrix NetScaler 1000V
For more information about VSBs, see Virtual Service Blades.
For more information about the number of VSBs supported and hosted on the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform, see the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform Compatibility Information.
The following figure shows how the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform hosts a Cisco Nexus 1000V VSM and its Virtual Ethernet Modules (VEMs) in your network.
The Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform supports high availability. Two Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platforms can form an HA pair to provide high availability. If control connectivity is lost for a Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform, but management connectivity is preserved, the active Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform reloads the standby once. The standby comes up in a wait state until control connectivity is restored. In an HA pair, the active and standby Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platforms use control connectivity to synchronize data.
The Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform supports the following forms of high availability:
Active-Standby in Management Deployment—The active Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform is reachable over the network and a majority of the commands are supported only on the active Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform. The standby Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform is not reachable over the IP network, but is accessible through the active Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform or directly through a serial connection.
Active-Active in VSB Deployment—When you deploy a VSB on the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform, you can deploy the VSB on either the active or the standby Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform. The VSBs can be active on both the active and standby Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform. This configuration balances the distribution of traffic and reduces the potential fault domain.
The following figure shows the HA components and the communication links between them.
The following table compares running a VSM on a Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform with running a VSM on a virtual machine.
Feature | Virtual Machine | Cisco Nexus 1010 | Cisco Nexus 1010-X | Cisco Nexus 1110-S | Cisco Nexus 1110-X |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Host management capacity |
64 |
384 64 hosts per VSM x 4 VSMs |
640 64 hosts per VSM x 4 VSMs |
384 64 hosts per VSM x 4 VSMs |
640 64 hosts per VSM x 4 VSMs |
VSM with Cisco NX-OS high availability |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
VEM running on hypervisor host machine |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Cisco Nexus 1000V running on hypervisor host machine, features scalability |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Software-only switch |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Dedicated services appliance, such as the Cisco NAM |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Installation similar to a standard Cisco switch |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Network team manages the switch hardware |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Note | The Cisco Nexus 1000V supports a hypervisor host machine that runs on VMware vSphere or Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisors. |
The following figure compares running a VSM on a Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform with running a VSM on a virtual machine.
The Cisco Integrated Management Controller (CIMC) is a software interface included with the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform. CIMC allows you to configure Serial over LAN (SoL) access and set up remote management if the device becomes unreachable. For more information about remote management, see the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform Software Installation and Upgrade Guide.
When you are installing the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform, you have the option to configure the CIMC interface. For details, see the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform Hardware Installation Guide.
The services hosted, created, and managed by the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform family are called virtual service blades (VSBs).
Note | In this document, a Cisco Nexus 1000V Virtual Supervisor Module (VSM) refers to a service hosted on VMware vSphere, KVM, or Microsoft Hyper-V. |
The Cisco Nexus 1010 can host up to six virtual service blades (VSBs) and the Cisco Nexus 1010-X can host up to ten VSBs. The Cisco Nexus 1110-S can host up to ten VSBs and the Cisco Nexus 1110-X can host up to 14 VSBs.
VSBs are created using ISO or OVA image files found in the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform bootflash:repository. The ISO defines the following for a VSB:
For more information about VSBs, see Information About Virtual Service Blades.
For information about supported VSBs, software compatibility, and the weighing matrix to determine the maximum capacity on the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform, see the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform Compatibility Information.
This section describes the uplinks that you connected during your installation of the hardware. For more information about these connections and the prerequisites for the switches that are upstream from your Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform, see the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform Hardware Installation Guide.
The following table describes the classes of network traffic carried on the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform uplinks.
Starting in Release 5.2(1)SP1(7.1), the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform supports a flexible network topology by default. A flexible network uplink offers complete flexibility to connect the Cisco Nexus 1110-S or Cisco Nexus 1110-X to the network, and allows flexible deployment of the virtual service blades (VSB) on the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform. A flexible configuration enables appropriate traffic segregation policies such as VSB traffic segregation. In the default flexible network uplink configuration, each physical port acts as an individual uplink. You can change the default configuration by adding ports to a port channel or by assigning uplinks to a VSB interface.
For more information on the flexible network uplink configuration, see Default Network Uplink Configuration.
The following figures show the flexible network uplink configured by default with or without vPC and Virtual Switching System (VSS).