Verified Scalability Limits

This chapter describes the Cisco NX-OS configuration limits for the Cisco Nexus 3164Q switch.

Introduction

The values provided in this guide should not be interpreted as theoretical system limits for Cisco Nexus 3164Q hardware or Cisco NX-OS software. These limits refer to values that have been validated by Cisco. They can increase over time as more testing and validation is done.

Verified Scalability Limits (Unidimensional)

The tables in this section list the unidimensional verified scalability limits for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(3)I4(1) on the Cisco Nexus 3164Q switch. The values provided in these tables focus on the scalability of one particular feature at a time.

Each number is the absolute maximum currently supported by this Cisco NX-OS release for the corresponding feature. If the hardware is capable of a higher scale, future software releases might increase this verified maximum limit. Results might differ from the values listed here when trying to achieve maximum scalability with multiple features enabled.

Table 1. Interfaces Verified Scalability Limits (Unidimensional)

Feature

3164Q Verified Limit

DHCP clients per switch

10 (IPv4) + 10 (IPv6)

BFD sessions

128 (IPv4) + 128 (IPv6)

Generic routing encapsulation (GRE) tunnels

8

Port channel links

32

SVIs

250

vPCs

60

Table 2. Label Switching Verified Scalability Limits (Unidimensional)

Feature

3164Q Verified Limit

Forwarding Equivalence Classes (FECs)

128

Equal-cost multipaths (ECMPs)

16

FECs * ECMPs

1000

Flex counters for static MPLS in egress direction

4000

Flex counters per adjacency

2

Adjacencies

1024


Note

The maximum number of FECs and ECMPs cannot be configured at the same time. For example, if you have 128 FECs and all of those FECs have 8 ECMPs, you will have 128 * 8 = 1024 adjacencies, so egress statistics will be supported for all. In contrast, if you have 100 FECs and all of those FECs have 16 ECMPs, you will have 100 * 16 = 1600 adjacencies. Because a maximum of 1024 adjacencies are supported, the statistics might not work as expected.

Table 3. Layer 2 Switching Verified Scalability Limits (Unidimensional)

Feature

3164Q Verified Limit

MST instances

64

MST virtual ports

48,000

RPVST virtual ports

12,000

VLANs

3900

VLANs in RPVST mode

500

Total number of VLANs × ports with switchport isolated (3967 VLANs x 48 ports)

190,000

Note

The number of supported VLANs per vPC should be within the MST or RPVST virtual port count specified in this table, depending on the topology.

Table 4. Multicast Routing Verified Scalability Limits (Unidimensional)

Feature

3164Q Verified Limit

IPv4 multicast routes

8000 (Layer 2 + Layer 3)

Outgoing interfaces (OIFs)

40 (SVI + physical Layer 3)

IGMP snooping groups

8000

PIM neighbors

250


Note

The IPv4 multicast routes and the IPv4/IPv6 host routes share the same hardware table. Limits are provided for both the default line card mode and the max host line card mode.


Note
High availability (graceful restart and stateful switchover) is not supported when unicast or multicast aggressive timers are configured at any scale.
Table 5. Security Verified Scalability Limits (Unidimensional)

Feature

3164Q Verified Limit

DHCP snooping bindings

2048

IPv4 ingress ACLs

3070 (per network forwarding engine)

IPv4 egress ACLs

765 (per network forwarding engine)

IPv6 ingress ACLs

1530 (per network forwarding engine)

IPv6 egress ACLs

250 (per network forwarding engine)


Note

The ACL scalability limits also apply to policy-based ACLs (PBACLs).

Table 6. System Management Verified Scalability Limits (Unidimensional)

Feature

3164Q Verified Limit

MPLS Stripping

Labels

12,000

Ingress interfaces

48

Egress interfaces

16

PTP

10G physical ports enabled for PTP

44

sFlow

sFlow ports

64

SPAN and ERSPAN

Configurable SPAN or ERSPAN sessions

32

Active SPAN or ERSPAN sessions1

4

Active localized SPAN or ERSPAN sessions per line card2

4

Source interfaces per SPAN or ERSPAN session (Rx and Tx, Rx, or Tx)

48

Destination interfaces per SPAN session

1 (physical interface)

Source VLANs per SPAN or ERSPAN session

32

TAP Aggregation

Redirect interfaces in the redirect port list

12

Redirect port lists (or fan outs) per system

100

1 A single forwarding engine instance supports four SPAN or ERSPAN sessions. If the first three sessions have bidirectional sources, the fourth session might have hardware resources only for Rx sources, depending on the SPAN or ERSPAN source's forwarding engine instance mappings.
2 The number of SPAN or ERSPAN sessions per line card reduces to two if the same interface is configured as the bidirectional source in more than one session.
Table 7. Unicast Routing Verified Scalability Limits (Unidimensional)

Feature

3164Q Verified Limit

Unicast Routing

BGP neighbors

512 (IPv4 only)

512 (IPv6 only)

256 (IPv4) + 256 (IPv6)

EIGRP neighbors

128 (IPv4), 128 (IPv6)

EIGRP routes

20,000

HSRP groups

250

IPv4 ARP

48,000

IPv4 host routes

208,000

IPv6 host routes

40,000

IPv6 ND

40,000

IPv4 unicast routes (LPM)

128,000 (default system routing mode)

128,000 with no IPv6 routes (64-bit ALPM routing mode)

IPv6 unicast routes (LPM)

20,000 (default system routing mode)

80,000 with no IPv4 routes (64-bit ALPM routing mode)

IPv4 and IPv6 unicast routes (LPM) in 64-bit ALPM routing mode

x IPv6 routes and y IPv4 routes, where 2x + y <= 128,000

MAC addresses

80,000

OSPFv2 neighbors

256

OSPFv3 neighbors

256

VRFs

1000

VRRP groups per interface or I/O module

250

Policy-Based Routing (PBR)

Configured sequences per policy

256

Next-hop addresses per policy

32

IPv4 ACEs (unidimensional)

3072 (per network forwarding engine)

IPv6 ACEs (unidimensional)

1536 (per network forwarding engine)

IPv4 and IPv6s ACEs

2048 IPv4 + 256 IPv6

Interfaces with PBR policy

512

VRRPv3

VRRPv3 groups per interface

255

VRRPv3 groups with default timers

490

Pathways with one VRRPv3 group with default timer

489

VRRPv3 groups and pathways combined

490


Note

The IPv4 and IPv6 unicast routes share the same hardware table. Limits are provided for both the default line card mode and the max host line card mode.


Note

The IPv4/IPv6 host routes and the IPv4 multicast routes share the same hardware table. Limits are provided for both the default line card mode and the max host line card mode.


Note
High availability (graceful restart and stateful switchover) is not supported when unicast or multicast aggressive timers are configured at any scale.

Guidelines and Limitations for OSPF Verified Scalability Limits

  • To achieve the highest scale, we recommend that you use a single OSPF instance instead of multiple instances.
  • Each OSPFv2 and OSPFv3 scale value might vary when combined with other parameters.
  • The graceful restart timeout value might need to be increased in multidimensional scenarios.
Table 8. VXLAN Verified Scalability Limits (Unidimensional)

Feature

3164Q Verified Limit

VXLAN Flood and Learn

Virtual network identifiers (VNIs) or VXLAN-mapped VLANs

1000

Underlay multicast groups

128

Overlay MAC addresses

64,000

Remote VXLAN tunnel endpoints (VTEPs)

256

Ingress replication peers

256

Ingress replication Layer 2 VNIs

1000

MAC addresses for ingress replication

64,000

VXLAN VLAN logical port VP count

6000

VXLAN BGP eVPN

Layer 2 VNI

1000

Underlay multicast groups

128

VTEPs

256

BGP VTEP peers

256

MAC addresses

64,000

VXLAN VLAN logical port VP count

6000