Cisco Nexus 6000 Series Release Notes, Cisco NX-OS Release 7.x

Cisco Nexus 6000 Series Devices

The Cisco Nexus 6000 Series includes 10- and 40-Gigabit Ethernet density in energy-efficient compact form factor switches. The Cisco Nexus 6000 Series Layer 2 and Layer 3 set allow for multiple scenarios such as direct-attach 10- and 40-Gigabit Ethernet access and high-density Cisco Fabric Extender (FEX) aggregation deployments, leaf and spine architectures, or compact aggregation to build scalable Cisco Unified Fabric in the data centers.

Cisco Nexus 6000 Series products use the same set of Cisco application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and a single software image across the products within the family, which offers feature consistency and operational simplicity. Cisco Nexus 6000 Series switches support robust Layer 2 and Layer 3 functions, industry-leading FEX architecture with Cisco Nexus 2000 and Cisco Nexus B22 Blade FEX, in-service software upgrades (ISSUs), and Cisco FabricPath. Operational efficiency and programmability are enhanced on the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series through advanced analytics, PowerOn Auto Provisioning (POAP), and Python/Tool Command Language (Tcl) scripting.

The Cisco Nexus devices include a family of line-rate, low-latency, lossless 10-Gigabit Ethernet, Cisco Data Center Ethernet, Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), and native Fibre Channel devices for data center applications.

For information about the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series, see the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series Platform Hardware Installation Guide.

Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders

The Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extender (FEX) is a highly scalable and flexible server networking solution that works with the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series devices to provide high-density and low-cost connectivity for server aggregation. Scaling across 1-Gigabit Ethernet, 10-Gigabit Ethernet, and 40-Gigabit Ethernet, unified fabric, rack, and blade server environments, the FEX is designed to simplify data center architecture and operations.

The FEX integrates with its parent Cisco Nexus device, which allows zero-touch provisioning and automatic configuration. The FEX provides a single point of management that supports a large numbers of servers and hosts that can be configured with the same feature set as the parent Cisco Nexus 6000 Series switch, including security and quality of service (QoS) configuration parameters. Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) is not required between the Fabric Extender and its parent switch, because the Fabric Extender and its parent switch allow you to enable a large multi-path, loop-free, active-active topology.

Software is not included with the Fabric Extender. Cisco NX-OS software is automatically downloaded and upgraded from its parent switch. For information about configuring the Cisco Nexus 2000 FEX, see the “Configuring the Fabric Extender” chapter in the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series Layer 2 Switching Configuration Guide.

Hardware Supported

The Cisco NX-OS software supports the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series switch. You can find detailed information about supported hardware in the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series Hardware Installation Guide.

Table 2 shows the hardware supported by Cisco NX-OS Release 7.x software.

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(14)N1(1)

There are no new software features in this release.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(14)N1(1)

There are no new hardware features in this release.

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(13)N1(1)

There are no new software features in this release.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(13)N1(1)

There are no new hardware features in this release.

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(12)N1(1)

There are no new software features in this release.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(12)N1(1)

There are no new hardware features in this release.

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(11)N1(1)

Secure Erase

The Secure Erase feature is introduced to erase all customer information for Nexus 6000 series switches from Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(11)N1(1).

From this release, you can use factory reset command to erase customer information.

Secure Erase is an operation to remove all the identifiable customer information on Cisco NX-OS devices in conditions of product removal due to Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA), or upgrade or replacement, or system end-of-life.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(11)N1(1)

There are no new hardware features in this release.

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(10)N1(1)

There are no new software features in this release.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(10)N1(1)

There are no new hardware features in this release.

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(9)N1(1)

There are no new software features in this release.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(9)N1(1)

There are no new hardware features in this release.

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(8)N1(1)

There are no new software features in this release.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(8)N1(1)

There are no new hardware features in this release.

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(7)N1(1b)

There are no new software features in this release.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(7)N1(1b)

There are no new hardware features in this release.

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(7)N1(1a)

There are no new software features in this release.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(7)N1(1a)

There are no new hardware features in this release.

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(7)N1(1)

There are no new software features in this release.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(7)N1(1)

There are no new hardware features in this release.

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(6)N1(1)

There are no new software features in this release.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(6)N1(1)

There are no new hardware features in this release.

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(5)N1(1)

There are no new software features in this release.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(5)N1(1)

There are no new hardware features in this release.

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(4)N1(1)

There are no new software features in this release.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(4)N1(1)

There are no new hardware features in this release.

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(3)N1(1)

There are no new software features in this release. The following CLI is introduced in this release:

hardware v6-ns ll-gl-ucast-enable

Note For the hardware v6-ns ll-gl-ucast-enable command to become functional, you need to clear the IPv6 routes, using the clear ipv6 route vrf all* command after configuring the hardware v6-ns ll-gl-ucast-enable command.

RMAC Learning

Starting with Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(3)N1(1), RMAC Learning feature is also supported on FabricPath VLANs with the knob mac address-table router-mac learn-enable.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(3)N1(1)

There are no new hardware features in this release.

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(2)N1(1)

Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(2)N1(1) includes bug fixes and the following software features and enhancements:

• Soft Reload
• Auto Negotiation

Soft Reload

The Soft Reload feature provides a best effort mechanism for a switch to gracefully be brought up with minimal impact to production traffic when a process crash occurs. You can also use the soft-reload command to trigger a manual soft reload of the switch.

For more information about the Soft Reload feature, refer to the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Security Configuration Guide, Release 7.x.

Auto Negotiation

The following commands are introduced on the Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders:

• The no negotiation auto command is enabled on the Cisco Nexus 2232PP, 2248PQ, and 2348UPQ Fabric Extenders.

Note You can disable auto negotiation with a 1-Gigabit Ethernet SFP-based interface, using the no negotiation auto command in global configuration mode.

• The speed 100 command is enabled on the Cisco Nexus 2348UPQ Fabric Extender’s GLC-T SFP module to support 100 megabit speed for the SFP module.
• The speed auto 100 command is enabled on the Cisco Nexus 2248TP-E Fabric Extender to advertise 100 megabit speed during the auto negotiation in the FEX.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(2)N1(1)

There are no new hardware features in this release.

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(1)N1(1)

There are no new software features in this release.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(1)N1(1)

Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(1)N1(1) supports the following new hardware:

QSFP-4X10G-LR-S

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(0)N1(1)

Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(0)N1(1) includes bug fixes and the following software features and enhancements:

• Lightweight DHCPv6 Relay Agent (LDRA)
• Implicit Bind vFC
• LACP Fast Hello
• Enhancements to CB-QoS-MIB
• L3 over vPC
• 63-Character Hostname
• EXEC Banner
• 128-Character VLAN Name
• Login Block Per User
• VRRPv3 Enablement
• GIR Enhancement
• PIM SSM with vPC
• Netconf Enhancements
• Reserved VLAN Range
• L3 FEX Scale Enhancement
• Runtime Protection as part of CSDL (X-SPACE)
• Product Security Baseline (PSB) Enhancements
• Product Security Baseline (PSB) 5.0 Passphrase Enhancements
• Support for Usernames Starting with _(underscore)
• Chef and Puppet Support
• SHA-512 Algorithm Support for Verifying OS
• NTP Authentication Key Length Enhancement
• ACL-Object Group

Note When you upgrade from an older NX-OS release to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(0)N1(1), then an additional configuration line, no lacp suspend-individual, is seen in the show command output of the show running-config interface port-channel number command. See CSCut55084 for more details.

Lightweight DHCPv6 Relay Agent (LDRA)

The Lightweight DHCPv6 Relay Agent (LDRA) forwards DHCPv6 messages between clients and servers when they are not on the same IPv6 link. The LDRA feature allows relay agent information to be inserted by an access node that performs a link-layer bridging (non-routing) function. The relay agent information is primarily used to identify client facing interfaces.

Implicit Bind vFC

This feature enables you to create a virtual Fibre Channel (vFC), and implicitly bind it to an Ethernet interface or a port-channel using a single command. You must make sure that the vFC identifier matches the Ethernet interface or port-channel identifier. The Ethernet interface can be a module (slot/port) or a Fabric Extender (FEX) interface (chassis/slot/port).

LACP Fast Hello

This feature is enhanced to change the LACP short-timeout value for the lacp fast rate command to modify the duration of the LACP Fast Rate timeout. Earlier to this enhancement, even when the rate is set to fast (1 second), the timeout was still 15 seconds. This enhancement introduces a configurable short-timeout with a range of 3 to 15 seconds.

Enhancements to CB-QoS-MIB

Beginning with Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(0)N1(1), the following cbQoSMIB tables are also supported by QoS policies:

• cbQosClassMapStats
• cbQosMatchStmtStats
• cbQosQueueingStats

L3 over vPC

Beginning with Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(0)N1(1), a layer 3 device can form peering adjacency between both the vPC peers in a vPC domain. Traffic sent over the peer link will not have TTL decremented. The L3 device can form peering adjacency with both vPC peers. This enhancement is not applicable for vPC+ and is applicable only for unicast (not multicast).

63-Character Hostname

Starting with Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(0)N1(1), the character limit for a switch name and a host name is increased from 32 to 63 alphanumeric characters.

EXEC Banner

Starting with Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(0)N1(1), the EXEC banner is displayed after a user logs in to a switch. This banner can be used to post reminders to the network administrators.

128-Character VLAN Name

Beginning with Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(0)N1(1), the length of a VLAN name that you can configure has been increased from 32 to 128 characters.

Login Block Per User

The Login Block Per User feature helps detect suspected Denial of Service (DoS) attacks and slows down dictionary attacks. You can configure login parameters to block logins per user. This feature is applicable only for local users.

VRRPv3 Enablement

VRRP version 3 (VRRPv3) enables a group of switches to form a single virtual switch to provide redundancy and reduce the possibility of a single point of failure in a network. The LAN clients can then be configured with the virtual switch as their default gateway.

GIR Enhancement

Starting with Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(0)N1(1), the default mode for GIR is “isolate”. Use the system mode maintenance command to put all the enabled protocols in maintenance-mode. The switch will use the isolate command to isolate the protocols from the network. The switch will then be isolated from the network but is not shut down.
You can use GIR to perform maintenance and software upgrade of the switches and the connected FEXs. A FEX group is added to optimize the procedure to bring up or take down the FEX.

PIM SSM with vPC

Starting with Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(0)N1(1), PIM SSM traffic is supported.

Netconf Enhancements

Network Configuration Protocol (NETCONF) (RFC 4741) is an IETF network management protocol that provides mechanisms to install, manipulate and delete the configuration of network devices. Cisco NX-OS Release supports the following capabilities in NETCONF on Nexus 5000 and 6000 platforms:

• get-config
• copy-config
• validate
• Enhancements in edit-config to support Default Operation and Operations (Actions); Rollback on Error, Stop on Error and Continue on Error; Candidate config.
• commit
• lock
• unlock
• Logging of all the Netconf operations and its status in syslog.

Reserved VLAN Range

Starting with Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(0)N1(1), the number of reserved VLANs has been increased from 80 to 82. The VLAN range is from 3968 to 4049. The two new VLANs are 4048 and 4049.

L3 FEX Scale Enhancement

The L3 FEX support for N6004EF has increased from 24 to 32 with this release. For more details, refer to the Verified Scalability guide for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(0)N1(1).

Runtime Protection as part of CSDL (X-SPACE)

The general category of runtime protections describes many technologies and techniques. Runtime protections provide increased resiliency to a product while it is running, typically allowing the software to detect and correct certain types of undesirable behavior, or allowing the product to terminate or restart to regain its integrity. These technologies help defend against malicious software gaining a foothold in a system.

– No-Execute (X-SPACE)—Marks certain areas of memory as “no execute”, that is, it cannot be executed on the CPU. This is normally enabled on areas of memory that are writable, thus preventing an attacker from writing memory during exploitation of a vulnerability, and then subsequently executing the written data. The internal program name in Cisco is X-Space.

X-SPACE cannot be disabled by the customer and has no impact on the normal functioning of the Cisco Nexus 5000/6000 switches.

Product Security Baseline (PSB) Enhancements

Beginning with Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(0)N1(1), as part of the PSB 5.0 mandatory requirements adherence, the following password authentication commands were introduced:

• change-password—Non-admin users can use the change-password command to authenticate with the old password and then enter the new password.
• password secure-mode—The password secure-mode command is enabled by default; non-admin users must use the old password for authentication before changing the password. Admin users can disable the password using the no password secure-mode command and then change the password without authenticating with old password.
• show password secure-mode—This command displays if secure-mode is enabled or not.

Product Security Baseline (PSB) 5.0 Passphrase Enhancements

Beginning with Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(0)N1(1), as part of the PSB 5.0 mandatory requirements adherence, the following PSB passphrase enhancements were introduced:

• Passphrase time values—With every username command (except 'admin'), there is a username passphrase configuration command, which lists the lifetime, warn time, and grace time of the passphrase.
• Lock user-account—An administrator can lock or unlock any user account using the username username lock-user-account and unlock locked-users commands. The show locked-users command displays all the locked users.
• Invalid username logging—The administrator can ensure non-logging or logging of invalid usernames in logs during an authentication failure. By default, invalid usernames during an authentication failure are not logged.

Support for Usernames Starting with _(underscore)

Effective from Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(0)N1(1), usernames starting with _(underscore) is supported.

Chef and Puppet Support

Starting from Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(0)N1(1), Cisco Nexus 5600 and Cisco Nexus 6000 series switches will support open agents, such as Chef and Puppet. However, open agents cannot be directly installed on these platforms. Instead, they run in a special environment—a decoupled execution space within a Linux Container (LXC)—called the Open Agent Container (OAC). Decoupling the execution space from the native host system allows customization of the Linux environment to suit the needs of the applications without impacting the host system or applications running in other Linux Containers.

SHA-512 Algorithm Support for Verifying OS

Beginning with Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(0)N1(1), support for SHA-512 algorithm has been added. The show file <filename> command will display an option to calculate the sha512sum and the show file bootflash:file sha512sum command will display the sha512 checksum for the input file.

NTP Authentication Key Length Enhancement

Beginning with Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(0)N1(1), you can use up to 32 alphanumeric characters for the MD5 string.

ACL-Object Group

ACL-Object group feature enables you to create a rule, where you can specify the object groups instead of IP addresses or ports. Using object groups while configuring IPv4 or IPv6 ACLs can help reduce the complexity of updating ACLs when you want to add or remove addresses or ports from the source or destination of rules. For example, if three rules are referencing the same IP address group object, you can add an IP address to the object instead of changing all the three rules.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(0)N1(1)

Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(0)N1(1) supports the following new hardware:

• Cisco Nexus 2348TQ-E FEX (N2K-C2348TQ-E).
• Cisco Nexus 2248PQ support for CVR-QSFP-SFP10G (FET-10G, SFP-10G-SR, SFP-10G-LR, SFP-10G-ER, AOC).

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.2(1)N1(1)

NX-OS Patching

NX-OS patching provides the following:

• Allows customer to deploy patch for point fixes.
• Unlike engineering specials, ISSU is maintained. Customer can install patches and then do ISSU to next release.
• Both binaries and libraries can be patched.
• Only SUP services can be patched.
• Software patching using process-restart/reload or ISSU.

Actual deployment of patches might vary based on platform. For example, on some platform, if the process to be patched cannot be restarted, then the patch will be deployed either by reload or ISSU and on the other hand, software can be patched simply by restarting the process for process-restart patch.

Behavior Change in LACP Suspend-Individual

This release has the following behavior change:
When you upgrade from an older NX-OS release to Cisco NX-OS release 7.2(1)N1(1), then an additional configuration line, no lacp suspend-individual, is seen in the show command output of the show running-config interface port-channel number command. See CSCut55084 for more details.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.2(1)N1(1)

There are no new hardware features in this release.

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.2(0)N1(1)

Cisco NX-OS Release 7.2(0)N1(1) includes bug fixes and the following software features and enhancements:

• Secure Login Enhancements
• Auto-Config: Support for Routable Loopback Address
• Extend DHCP Server Support
• LLDP Support for VM Tracker
• PoAP Diagnostics
• NX-API Support
• Dynamic VLAN Based on MAC-Based Authentication (MAB)
• NTP over IPv6 Support
• QoS ACL Statistics Per Entry
• Shared Buffer QoS Command
• vIP HSRP Enhancement
• QoS Drop Counter History
• FEX HIF as SPAN Destination
• VTPv3/VTP Pruning
• ACL-Based QoS Classification Offload
• Queue Limit Change
• Auto-Config: Logging of Profile Instantiation for Compliance and Accounting
• Border Leaf Conversational Learning
• Four-Port vPC
• Egress Multicast Buffering
• RMAC Learning
• Behavior Change in vn-segment Configuration

Secure Login Enhancements

The following requirements are supported for Cisco NX-OS release 7.2(0)N1(1):

• Configuring Login Parameters (Secure Login feature)
• Restricting Sessions Per User (Per User Per login)
• Password should use algorithm (Hash or Symmetric-key) for secure writing (SHA256 password hashing).
• Password length configuration (Min, Max)
• Enabling the password prompt for user name.
• Configuring Shared Key Value for using RADIUS/TACACS.

Auto-Config: Support for Routable Loopback Address

This feature provides support for the VRF profile to be updated on the leaf resulting in the loopback routable IP address being auto-configured under that vrf as well as advertised using MP-BGP to all leaf nodes.

Extend DHCP Server Support

This feature enables you to have common DHCP servers (for example, Microsoft Windows) for IP address assignments within dynamic fabric automation (DFA).

LLDP Support for VM Tracker

Starting with Cisco NX-OS release 7.2(0)N1(1), Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) is supported on VM Tracker.

PoAP Diagnostics

PoAP failure can be detected with locator LED. When the PoAP process starts, the locator-LED will flash the pattern 21 (flashing twice, short pause, flashing once, long pause) to indicate that PoAP is in progress.

NX-API Support

On Cisco Nexus devices, command-line interfaces (CLIs) are run only on the device. NX-API improves the accessibility of these CLIs by making them available outside of the switch by using HTTP/HTTPS. You can use this extension to the existing Cisco Nexus CLI system on the Cisco Nexus 5000 and 6000 Series devices. NX-API supports show commands and configurations.

NX-API supports JSON-RPC.

Dynamic VLAN Based on MAC-Based Authentication (MAB)

The Cisco Nexus 5000 and 6000 series switches supports dynamic VLAN assignment. After the 802.1x authentication or MAB is completed; before bringing up the port, you may want to (as part of authorization) allow the peer/host to be placed into a particular VLAN based as a result of the authentication. The RADIUS server typically indicates the desired VLAN by including tunnel attributes within the Access-Accept message. This procedure of getting the VLAN an binding it to the port constitutes to Dynamic VLAN assignment.

NTP over IPv6 Support

The Network Time Protocol (NTP) is a protocol designed to time-synchronize a network of machines. IPv6 support is added for NTP in the Nexus 5000 and 6000 series switches. This allows IPv6 NTP servers/peers to be configured for time synchronization.

ACL-Based QoS Classification Offload

The ACL-based QoS Policy Offload is supported on the N2348TQ and N2348UPQ Fabric Extender 6x40G QSFP 48x10G SFP+ FEX.

Shared Buffer QoS Command

The queue-limit queue-size bytes is extended to set the queue limit size for 40G interfaces also.

vIP HSRP Enhancement

This feature is enhanced to support the following:

• Support for HSRP VIP configuration to be in a different subnet than that of interface subnet.
• Enhanced ARP to source with VIP from SUP for hosts when hosts are in VIP subnet or referenced by static route to VLAN configuration.
• Periodic ARP synchronization support to VPC peer.
• Allows use of the VIP address as L3 source address and gateway address for all communications with DHCP server.

QoS Drop Counter History

To correlate the QoS drops with the potential buffer usage a new set of commands are introduced. The drop history on each interface is recorded and implemented in the following commands:

• show hardware internal bigsur port interface qos-drop-history brief
• show hardware internal bigsur all-ports qos-drop-history brief
• show hardware internal bigsur port interface qos-drop-history details
• clear hardware internal bigsur port interface qos-drop-history details

FEX HIF as SPAN Destination

This feature enables HIF and Virtual Ethernet (Veth) ports as SPAN destination.

VTPv3/VTP Pruning

VTP Version 3 (VTPv3) was introduced in Cisco NX-OS release 7.2(0)N1(1) and has the following features:

• Provides interoperability with switches configured with VTP version 1 or 2.
• Allows only the primary server to make VTP configuration changes.
• Supports 4K VLANs.
• Permits feature-specific primary servers. A switch can be a primary server for a specific feature database such as MST or for the entire VLAN database.
• Provides enhanced security with hidden and secret passwords.
• Provides interoperability with private VLANs (PVLAN). PVLANs and VTPs are no longer mutually exclusive.

QoS ACL Statistics Per Entry

This feature supports QoS ACL statistics per-entry to verify per QoS class-map classification. Counters are shown per ACE for Qos ACL, and statistics per QoS ACL entry can be viewed.

Queue Limit Change

Cisco Nexus N2348UPQ Fabric Extender (48x10G SFP+ 6x40G QSFP Module) is supported from Cisco NX-OS release 7.2(0)N1(1).

Auto-Config: Logging of Profile Instantiation for Compliance and Accounting

The enhanced syslogs are generated when profile apply, profile un-apply, and profile refresh are performed and it contains details about the host that triggers the profile events.

Border Leaf Conversational Learning

You can enable conversational learning on all leaf nodes by using the fabric forwarding conversational-learning all command. For this to work, the subnet needs to be instantiated on the leaf. But in case of a border leaf, this is not true as the border leaf might not have any hosts connected to it.

Four-Port vPC

In Cisco Nexus 5600 and 6000 Series Switches, the 4-port vPC provides the capability to associate the vFC interface to an individual member of a port-channel that has multiple port members. This feature is supported only for Cisco Nexus 2300 Series switches that are connected to Cisco Nexus 5600 and 6000 Series switches.

Egress Multicast Buffering

The Cisco Nexus 5600 and 6000 Series Switches support Egress Multicast Buffering, which is a process that provides additional cells to multicast traffic at Egress. When there is heavy multicast traffic at Egress, buffer space (cells) is borrowed from the unicast pool. The pool provides a specific number of cells to enhance the traffic and minimize traffic drops at Egress side.

RMAC Learning

On Cisco Nexus 5600 and 6000 series switches, the RMAC Learning feature allows the default MAC address (RMAC) of a VLAN interface to be dynamically learned on another VLAN interface over a bridged interface.

Behavior Change in vn-segment Configuration

Beginning with Cisco NX-OS Release 7.2(0)N1(1), modifying vn-segment of a VLAN with existing vn-segment configuration is disabled. From this release onwards, you must remove the existing vn-segment configuration under the VLAN, and then configure the new vn-segment.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.2(0)N1(1)

There are no new hardware features in this release.

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(5)N1(1b)

There are no new software features for this release.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(5)N1(1b)

There are no new hardware features in this release.

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(5)N1(1)

There are no new software features for this release.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(5)N1(1)

There are no new hardware features in this release.

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(4)N1(1)

There are no new features for this release. Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(4)N1(1) includes the following enhancements:

Serviceability Enhancements

Sup-region TCAM Monitoring

The Sup-region Ternary Content-Addressable Memory (TCAM) Monitoring feature is a monitoring mechanism that enables detection, reporting, and correction of sup-region TCAM entry corruption.

The following Sup TCAM commands are introduced in this release:

• hardware sup-tcam monitoring enable
• hardware sup-tcam monitoring timer-expiry
• hardware sup-tcam monitoring trigger-detection
• show platform afm info sup-tcam monitoring info
• show platform afm info tcam access stats

For more information about sup-region TCAM monitoring, refer to the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Security Configuration Guide, Release 7.x.

Forwarding Manager PSS Consistency Checker

To detect any inconsistencies in the Forwarding Manager Persistent Storage Service (PSS), use the following Forwarding Manager PSS consistency checkers before performing a nondisruptive upgrade:

• show platform fwm info pss runtime_consistency
• show platform fwm info pss runtime_consistency_report

For more information about Forwarding Manager PSS consistency checkers, refer to the Cisco Nexus 6000 Troubleshooting Guide.

Forwarding Manager L2MP Hardware Software Consistency Checker

The Forwarding Manager Layer 2 Multipathing (L2MP) hardware and software consistency checker provides inputs on inconsistencies between the L2MP data structures and the corresponding hardware–programmed entries. Use the following Forwarding Manager L2MP hardware–software consistency checkers to view the inconsistencies:

• show consistency-checker l2mp
• show consistency-checker l2mp module

For more information about Forwarding Manager L2MP hardware–software consistency checker, refer to the Cisco Nexus 6000 Troubleshooting Guide.

FEX ISSU Upgrade Enhancement

The install fex fex-id command is introduced to address a Fabric Extender’s nondisruptive upgrade failure during a regular upgrade.

For more information about FEX ISSU upgrade, refer to the Cisco Nexus 5000/6000 Series NX-OS Fabric Extender Command Reference Guide.

From Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(4)N1(1) onwards, if one or more FEXs fail during a nondisruptive upgrade process, the install process will display the upgrade failure of that particular FEX, but will continue the upgrade process for other FEXs.

Link Debounce Time Enhancement

The link debounce link-up time command is introduced to configure the debounce linkup time for an interface.

For more information about link debounce, refer to the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Interfaces Command Reference.

Hardware Unicast VOQ Enhancement

The hardware unicast voq-limit-sup command is introduced to limit the number of control packets that can be buffered on a supervisor before the packets can be sent to egress ports. The hardware unicast voq-limit-sup command helps in managing the virtual output queuing (VOQ) to prevent one blocked receiver from affecting traffic that is being sent to other noncongested receivers (head-of-line blocking).

For more information about the hardware unicast voq-limit-sup command, refer to the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS QoS Command Reference.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(4)N1(1)

There are no new hardware features in this release.

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(3)N1(2)

There are no new software features in this release.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(3)N1(2)

There are no new hardware features in this release.

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(3)N1(1)

There are no new software features in this release.

Note Although this release has no new features, the following is a changed behavior:
When you upgrade from an older NX-OS release to Cisco NX-OS release 7.1(3)N1(1), then an additional configuration line, no lacp suspend-individual, is seen in the show command output of the show running-config interface port-channel number command. See CSCut55084 for more details.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(3)N1(1)

There are no new hardware features in this release.

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(2)N1(1)

There are no new software features in this release.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(2)N1(1)

There are no new hardware features in this release.

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(1)N1(1)

Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(1)N1(1) includes bug fixes and the following software features and enhancements:

• Flex link Support
• IEEE 1588v2 PTP
• ERSPAN v3 with PTP Timestamp
• CoPP (Control Plane Policing) Extended Rate
• Class-Based Quality-of-Service MIB (cbQoSMIB)
• Intelligent Traffic Director (ITD)
• Remote Integrated Service Engine (RISE)
• 100 Mbps Support on 2348TQ and 2332TQ

Flex link Support

Flex links are a pair of a Layer 2 interfaces (switch ports or port channels) where one interface is configured to act as a backup to the other. The feature provides an alternative solution to the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP). You can disable STP and still retain basic link redundancy. Flex links are typically configured in service provider or enterprise networks where customers do not want to run STP on the switch. If the switch is running STP, flex links are not necessary because STP already provides link-level redundancy or backup. Flex Links are supported only on Layer 2 ports and port channels, not on VLANs or on Layer 3 ports.

IEEE 1588v2 PTP

PTP is a time synchronization protocol for nodes distributed across a network. Its hardware timestamp feature provides greater accuracy than other time synchronization protocols such as the Network Time Protocol (NTP). PTP is a distributed protocol that specifies how real-time PTP clocks in the system synchronize with each other.

Note PTP is not supported on 100G CLEM.

ERSPAN v3 with PTP Timestamp

Encapsulated remote switched port analyzer (ERSPAN) is used to transport mirrored traffic in an IP network. ERSPAN supports source ports, source VLANs, and destinations on different switches, which provide remote monitoring of multiple switches across your network. ERSPAN uses a generic routing encapsulation (GRE) tunnel to carry traffic between switches.

ERSPAN consists of an ERSPAN source session, routable ERSPAN GRE-encapsulated traffic, and an ERSPAN destination session. You separately configure ERSPAN source sessions and destination sessions on different switches.

There are two types of ERSPAN—Type II (default) and type III. Type III supports all of ERSPAN type II features and adds the following enhancements:

• Provides timestamp information in the ERSPAN Type III header that can be used to calculate the packet latency among edge, aggregate, and core switches.
• Identifies possible traffic sources using the ERSPAN Type III header fields.
• ERSPAN Type III provides configurable switch IDs that can be used to identify traffic flows across multiple switches.

CoPP (Control Plane Policing) Extended Rate

Beginning with Cisco Nexus 7.1(1)N1(1) release, you can configure an extended CoPP committed information rate (CIR) limit of up to 61,440 Kbps for each customized CoPP profile.

Class-Based Quality-of-Service MIB (cbQoSMIB)

This feature provides the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) MIB that enables retrieval of class-map and policy-map configuration and statistics.

Intelligent Traffic Director (ITD)

Intelligent Traffic Director (ITD) is an intelligent, scalable clustering and load-balancing engine that addresses the performance gap between a multi-terabit switch and gigabit servers and appliances. The ITD architecture integrates Layer 2 and Layer 3 switching with Layer 4 to Layer 7 applications for scale and capacity expansion to serve high-bandwidth applications.

ITD provides adaptive load balancing to distribute traffic to an application cluster. With this feature on the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series switches, you can deploy servers and appliances from any vendor without a network or topology upgrade.

Remote Integrated Service Engine (RISE)

Cisco RISE is an architecture that logically integrates an external (remote) service appliance, such as a Citrix NetScaler Application Delivery Controller (ADC), so that the appliance appears and operates as a service module (remote line card) within the Cisco Nexus switch. The Cisco NX-OS software in which RISE is supported supports the Cisco Nexus 5500, 5600, and 6000 Series switches.

100 Mbps Support on 2348TQ and 2332TQ

The Cisco Nexus Release 7.1(1)N1(1) supports 100 Mbps speed on the host interfaces of Cisco Nexus 2348TQ and 2332TQ.

To see the autonegotiation matrix details for the N2K-C2348TQ-10GE and N2K-C2332TQ-10GE fabric extenders, refer to the section titled Speed and Duplex Mode in the “Configuring the Fabric Extenders” chapter of Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Layer 2 Switching Configuration Guide, Release 7.x.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(1)N1(1)

Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(1)N1(1) supports the following new hardware:

• Cisco Nexus N5648Q—Support for 48 QSFP 40G ports. It has 24 fixed QSFP ports and support for two GEM slots that can support an additional 12 QSFP ports per GEM slot.
• Cisco Nexus N2332TQ—FEX supporting 32 10GBaseT host ports and 4 QSFP+ network ports.

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(0)N1(1b)

There are no new software features in this release.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(0)N1(1b)

There are no new hardware features in this release.

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(0)N1(1a)

Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(0)N1(1a) includes bug fixes and the following software features and enhancements:

• BPDU Guard Enhancement
• CTS with FabricPath
• Dynamic ARP Inspection Enhancement
• IPv6 vPC/vPC+ Keepalive Support
• Graceful Insertion and Removal (GIR) Enhancement
• ISSU Modifications
• Long Distance Support
• MET Sharing
• Open Management Infrastructure
• Password Length Enhancement
• Syslog Message as SNMP Trap
• Unified Fabric Solution (previously called Dynamic Fabric Automation (DFA))
• VLAN Translation
• VM Tracker
• vPC Border Leaf Support

BPDU Guard Enhancement

BPDU Guard can be can be activated on disallowed edge trunk VLANs. This is done by configuring both sides of the link as either trunks or access interfaces.

CTS with FabricPath

The Cisco TrustSec security architecture has been extended to support Cisco FabricPath environments including those using vPC+. CTS packet classification can occur before or as traffic enters the fabric, at which point packet tags are preserved through the fabric for the purpose of applying security policy to the data path.

Dynamic ARP Inspection Enhancement

Dynamic ARP Inspection (DAI) can validate ARP packets against user-configured ARP access control lists (ACLs). DAI can be configured to drop ARP packets when the IP/MAC addresses in the packets are invalid. This is done by configuring ARP-based ACLs.

IPv6 vPC/vPC+ Keepalive Support

IPv6 support for vPC/vPC+ provides IPv6 capabilities for the vPC/vpc+ keepalive from the mgmt0 out-of-band interface as well from the build-in front ports via SVI.

Graceful Insertion and Removal (GIR) Enhancement

Provides the ability to gracefully eject a switch and isolate it from the network so that debugging or an upgrade can be performed. The switch is removed from the regular switching path and put into a maintenance mode. Once maintenance on the switch is complete, you can bring the switch into full operational mode.

ISSU Modifications

In service software updates (ISSUs) are limited to the three previous releases.

Note Two-level upgrades can be done to get to the latest Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(0)N1(1a). For example, the customer can upgrade from Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N2(X) to 7.0(3)N1(1), 7.0(4)N1(1) or 7.0(5)N1(1), and then to 7.1(0)N1(1a).

Long Distance Support

Long distance support (20 km/10G & 3 km/40G) for FCoE.

MET Sharing

Improves efficiency in the usage of Multicast Expansion Table (MET) entries in the hardware.

Open Management Infrastructure

Open Management Infrastructure (OMI) is no longer supported.

Password Length Enhancement

The following commands have been added to provide the ability to configure the minimum and maximum length of a password:

• userpassphrase min-length length
• userpassphrase max-length length
• show userpassphrase length

Syslog Message as SNMP Trap

The following features has been added:

• User Interface for Persistent Logging
• Syslog SNMP Traps
• History Logging
• Syslog Message Format

Unified Fabric Solution (previously called Dynamic Fabric Automation (DFA))

This software release is the second release to support enhancements to Cisco's Unified Fabric Solution.

Unified Fabric focuses on simplifying, optimizing, and automating data center fabric environments by offering an architecture based on four major pillars: Fabric Management, Workload Automation, Optimized Networking, and Virtual Fabrics.

Each of these pillars provides a set of modular functions that can be used together, or independently, for ease of adoption of new technologies in the data center environment.

Note Each vPC pair must use different vPC Domain ID within a given fabric. Together with unique Fabric Identifier (per fabric) will ensure unique SOO generated by vPC leaf node throughout entire domain.

Complete details on the Unified Fabric Solution architecture can be found at: http://www.cisco.com/go/dfa

VLAN Translation

Allows for the merging of separate Layer 2 domains that might reside in a two data centers that are connected through some form of Data Center Interconnect (DCI).

VM Tracker

• Supports automatic VLAN provisioning.

vPC Border Leaf Support

• Supports redundant border leafs in a vPC+ pair.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(0)N1(1a)

Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(0)N1(1a) supports the following new hardware:

• Cisco Nexus 2348TQ FEX (N2K-C2348TQ-10GE)
• 100G LEM (N5696-M4C)

– To enable 100G LEM N5696-M4C, the required BIOS version is 2.8.0 or above for EF chassis. If the LEM’s BIOS version is lower than 2.8.0, ISSU is required as it facilitates a built-in BIOS update procedure.

– For EF-CR chassis, the required BIOS version is 2.1.0 or above.

– For Microcontroller Firmware—The required version is 1.2.0.2 or above for EF-CR chassis and 1.1.0.4 or above for EF chassis.

– For N5696Q, native support has been added for 100G LEM N5696-M4C.

– Added support for 100G LEM N5696-M4C with N6004EF chassis. 100G LEM N5696-M4C module must have BIOS version 2.8.0 or above for N6004EF chassis.

• H7 Power Supply Support—support for forward air flow (FAF) (NXA-PHV-1100W) and reverse air flow (RAF) (NXA-PHV-1100W-B) with both AC and DC power source.
• LR4 Optics—WSP-Q40GLR4L (QSFP40G-LR4-LITE)
• CXP-100G-SR10
• CXP-100G-SR12

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(8)N1(1)

There are no new software features in this release.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(8)N1(1)

There are no new hardware features in this release.

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(7)N1(1)

There are no new software features in this release.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(7)N1(1)

There are no new hardware features in this release.

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(6)N1(1)

There are no new software features in this release.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(6)N1(1)

There are no new hardware features in this release.

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(5)N1(1a)

There are no new software features in this release.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(5)N1(1a)

There are no new hardware features in this release.

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(5)N1(1)

There are no new software features in this release.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(5)N1(1)

There are no new hardware features in this release.

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(4)N1(1)

There are no new software features in this release.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(4)N1(1)

Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(4)N1(1) supports the following new hardware feature:

• Cisco Nexus 2348UPQ support for QSA (FET-10G, SFP-10G-SR, SFP-10G-ER)
• Cisco Nexus 6004 EF Chassis Module 12Q 40GE Ethernet/FCoE (N6004-M12Q)

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(3)N1(1)

Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(3)N1(1) is a maintenance release that includes bug fixes and the following software features and enhancements:

• Dynamic FCoE Using DFA
• FEX Based ACL Classification

Dynamic FCoE Using DFA

Dynamic Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) using DFA enables I/O consolidation. It permits both LAN and SAN traffic to coexist on the same switch and the same wire.

FEX Based ACL Classification

The FEX-based ACL Classification feature uses TCAM resources on a FEX to perform ACL-based packet classification of incoming packets on the switch. When QoS policies are processed on a FEX, the policies are enforced on the switch and on the associated FEX or FEXs.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(3)N1(1)

Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(3)N1(1) supports the following new hardware:

• Cisco Nexus 2348UPQ FEX (N2K-C2348UPQ)

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(2)N1(1)

Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(2)N1(1) is a maintenance release that includes bug fixes and the following software features and enhancements:

• Buffer Utilization Histogram

Buffer Utilization Histogram

The Buffer Utilization Histogram feature enables you to analyze the maximum queue depths and buffer utilization in the system in real time.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(2)N1(1)

No new hardware features have been added.

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(1)N1(1)

Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(1)N1(1) is a maintenance release that includes bug fixes and the following software features and enhancements:

• ACL Logging for IPv6 ACLs
• Dynamic FCoE Using FabricPath
• Layer 2 CTS Support

ACL Logging for IPv6 ACLs

The ACL logging feature allows you to monitor IPv6 ACL flows and to log dropped packets on an interface.

Dynamic FCoE Using FabricPath

Dynamic FCoE extends the capability and reliability of storage networks by leveraging FabricPath technology to create logical separation of SAN A and SAN B. FCoE VFCs and Interswitch-Links (ISLs) are dynamically configured, simplifying multihop FCoE deployments in leaf-spine topologies.

Layer 2 CTS Support

The Cisco TrustSec security architecture builds secure networks by establishing clouds of trusted network devices. Cisco TrustSec also uses the device information acquired during authentication for classifying, or coloring, the packets as they enter the network. This packet classification is maintained by tagging packets on ingress to the Cisco TrustSec network so that they can be properly identified for the purpose of applying security and other policy criteria along the data path.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(1)N1(1)

Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(1)N1(1) support the following new hardware:

• Cisco Nexus 5672UP
• The Cisco Nexus 6004 Unified Port Linecard Expansion Module - N6004X-M20UP
• Cisco Nexus B22IBM FEX - N2K-B22IBM-P

New Software Features and Enhancements in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(0)N1(1)

Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(0)N1(1) is a major release that includes bug fixes and the following software features and enhancements:

• Anycast HSRP
• Data Analytics
• Dynamic Fabric Automation
• Early Warning for FIB Exhaustion
• ECN with WRED
• ERSPAN with ACL Filtering
• FabricPath Operations, Administration, and Management
• Intermediate System to Intermediate System Protocol
• Layer 2 Bidirectional Forwarding Detection
• Multi-Destination Switch Port Analyzer
• Multi-Destination Tree
• OpenFlow v1.0
• Overload Bit
• Port Channel Max Links
• Q-in-Q VLAN Tunneling
• Sampled NetFlow
• Switch Port Analyzer with ACL Filtering
• Static/Dynamic Network Address Translation
• TCAM Carving
• VN-Segment
• Web Cache Control Protocol v2
• POAP Transit

Anycast HSRP

Anycast HSRP is a FabricPath-based feature in which the traditional HSRP can be extended to an n-Gateway solution with all the gateways actively forwarding traffic. This feature supports active load balancing of traffic among all the gateways configured apart for redundancy. A maximum of 4 Gateways is supported.

Data Analytics

This feature provides the capability of advanced analytics for network visibility and management. Critical analytics for network monitoring is supported including Latency Based SPAN, SPAN on Drop, Micro-Burst Monitor and Switch Latency.

Latency-based SPAN can be used to monitor any packet from an interface when the latency on that interface exceeds the configured threshold.

SPAN on Drop can be used to configure SPAN on particular packets which would otherwise get dropped due to congestion, and is used for known unicast packets.

Micro-Burst Monitoring is supported per port both in ingress and egress direction and can be selectively enabled or disabled in either direction.

Switch Latency provides instantaneous latency and histogram data between a pair of ports and provides minimum, average, and maximum latency between the slected pairs of ports.

Dynamic Fabric Automation

This software release is the first release to support Cisco's Evolutionary Data Center Fabric solution called Dynamic Fabric Automation (DFA). DFA is evolutionary and is based on the industry leading Unified Fabric solution.

DFA focuses on simplifying, optimizing and automating data center fabric environments by offering an architecture based on four major pillars namely Fabric Management, Workload Automation, Optimized Networking and Virtual Fabrics. Each of these pillars provide a set of modular functions which can be used together or independently for easiness of adoption of new technologies in the data center environment.

Complete details on the DFA architecture can be found at: http://www.cisco.com/go/dfa

Early Warning for FIB Exhaustion

When the Forwarding Information Base (FIB) table is 90% full, the following messages is displayed:

FIB_TCAM_RESOURCE_EXHAUSTION:FIB TCAM usage is at 90 percent.

ECN with WRED

Currently, the congestion control and avoidance algorithms for Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) are based on the idea that packet loss is an appropriate indication of congestion on networks transmitting data using the best-effort service model. When a network uses the best-effort service model, the network delivers data if it can, without any assurance of reliability, delay bounds, or throughput. However, these algorithms and the best-effort service model are not suited to applications that are sensitive to delay or packet loss (for instance, interactive traffic including Telnet, web-browsing, and transfer of audio and video data). Weighted Random Early Detection (WRED), and by extension, Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN), solves this problem.

ERSPAN with ACL Filtering

With ERSPAN traffic the destination is remote and the overall impact of bandwidth congestion can be significant. The ERSPAN with ACL filtering feature allows you to filter ERSPAN traffic so that you can reduce bandwidth congestion. To configure ERSPAN with ACL filtering, you use ACL’s for the session to filter out traffic that you do not to span. An ACL is a list of permissions associated to any entity in the system; in the context of a monitoring session, an ACL is a list of rules which results in the spanning of traffic that matches the ACL criteria, saving bandwidth for more meaningful data. The filter would apply on all sources in the session (VLAN or interface).

FabricPath Operations, Administration, and Management

Support for Fabric Path Operations, Administration and Management has been added in this software release.

Intermediate System to Intermediate System Protocol

Intermediate System to Intermediate System (IS-IS) is an Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) based on Standardization (ISO)/International Engineering Consortium (IEC) 10589. Cisco Nexus devices support Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) and Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6). IS-IS is a dynamic link-state routing protocol that can detect changes in the network topology and calculate loop-free routes to other nodes in the network. Each router maintains a link-state database that describes the state of the network and sends packets on every configured link to discover neighbors. IS-IS floods the link-state information across the network to each neighbor. The router also sends advertisements and updates on the link-state database through all the existing neighbors.

Layer 2 Bidirectional Forwarding Detection

The Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) provides fast forwarding-path failure detection times for media types, encapsulations, topologies, and routing protocols. You can use BFD to detect forwarding path failures at a uniform rate, rather than at variable rates for different protocol hello mechanisms. BFD makes network profiling and planning easier and re-convergence time consistent and predictable.

Multi-Destination Switch Port Analyzer

Local Switch Port Analyzer (SPAN) and SPAN-on-Drop sessions can support multiple destination ports. This allows traffic in a single local SPAN session or a SPAN-on-Drop session also to be monitored and sent to multiple destinations.

Multi-Destination Tree

A Multi-Destination Tree (MDT), also referred to as a forwarding tag or ftag, is a spanning-tree used for forwarding packets within a topology. A topology has two MDTs/ ftags: topology 0 has ftag 1 and 2, topology 1 has ftag 3 and 4.

OpenFlow v1.0

The OpenFlow feature is a specification from the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) that defines a flow-based forwarding infrastructure (L2-L4 Ethernet switch model) and a standardized application programmatic interface (protocol definition) to learn capabilities, add and remove flow control entries and request statistics. OpenFlow allows a controller to direct the forwarding functions of a switch through a secure channel.

One Platform Kit (OnePK)

Support has been added for One Platform Kit (onePK) Turbo API. OnePK is a cross-platform API and software development kit that enables you to develop applications that interact directly with Cisco networking devices. onePK provides you access to networking services by using a set of controlled APIs that share the same programming model and style. For more information, see the following URL:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/partner/prod/iosswrel/onepk.html

Overload Bit

Intermediate System to Intermediate System (IS-IS) uses the overload bit to tell other routers not to use the local router to forward traffic but to continue routing traffic destined for that local router.

Port Channel Max Links

The Port Channel Max Links feature defines the maximum number of bundled ports allowed in an LACP port channel.

Q-in-Q VLAN Tunneling

A Q-in-Q VLAN tunnel enables a service provider to segregate the traffic of different customers in their infrastructure, while still giving the customer a full range of VLANs for their internal use by adding a second 802.1Q tag to an already tagged frame.

Sampled NetFlow

The Sampled NetFlow feature samples incoming packets on an interface. The packets sampled then qualify to create flows. Sampled NetFlow reduces the amount of export data sent to the collector by limiting the number of packets that create flows and the number of flows. It is essential when flows are created on a line card or external device, instead of on the forwarding engine.

Switch Port Analyzer with ACL Filtering

The Switch Port Analyzer (SPAN) with Access Control List (ACL) filtering feature allows you to filter SPAN traffic so that you can reduce bandwidth congestion. To configure SPAN with ACL filtering, you use ACL’s for the session to filter out traffic that you do not want to span. An ACL is a list of permissions associated to any entity in the system; in the context of a monitoring session, an ACL is a list of rules which results in spanning only the traffic that matches the ACL criteria, saving bandwidth for more meaningful data. The filter can apply to all sources in the session.

Static/Dynamic Network Address Translation

Network Address Translation (NAT) enables private IP internetworks that use non-registered IP addresses to connect to the Internet. NAT operates on a device, usually connecting two networks, and translates private (not globally unique) IP addresses in the internal network into legal IP addresses before packets are forwarded to another network. You can configure NAT to advertise only one IP address for the entire network to the outside world. This ability provides additional security, effectively hiding the entire internal network behind one IP address.

TCAM Carving

You can create and administer up to 16 templates to resize the regions in ternary content-addressable memory (TCAM).

VN-Segment

The VN-Segment feature defines a new way to "tag" packets on the wire replacing the traditional 802.1Q VLAN tag. This feature uses a 24-bit tag also referred to as a Virtual Network Identifier (VNI). CE links (access and trunk) carry traditional VLAN tagged/untagged frames. These are the VN-Segment Edge ports.

Web Cache Control Protocol v2

WCCPv2 specifies interactions between one or more Cisco NX-OS routers and one or more cache engines. WCCPv2 transparently redirects selected types of traffic through a group of routers. The selected traffic is redirected to a group of cache engines to optimize resource usage and lower response times.

POAP Transit

The poap transit command is used if you are performing POAP over fabricpath. When POAP starts, fabricpath interface is converted to classical Ehternet (CE). The neighbor (transit) nodes uses the poap transit configuration for the initial traffic. This command was introduced in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(0)N1(1) and is used in global configuration mode. By default, this command is enabled on devices running 7.x images. To disable the poap transit command, use the no poap transit command.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(0)N1(1)

Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(0)N1(1) supports the following new optics:

• QSFP-H40G-AOCxM (1/2/3/5/7/10m)
• QSFP-40G-SR-BD
• SFP-10G-AOCxM (1/2/3/5/7/10m)
• QSFP-40G-LR4
• PSF1PXA3.5MBU
• PSF1PXA4MBU
• QSFP-4X10G-AOCxM (1/2/3/5/7/10m)

Upgrade and Downgrade Guidelines

The following guidelines apply to Cisco NX-OS Release 7.x for Cisco Nexus devices:

Note Before you upgrade or downgrade your Cisco NX-OS software, we recommend that you read the complete list of caveats in this section to understand how an upgrade or downgrade might affect your network, depending on the features that you have configured.

Note If a supported upgrade or downgrade path is not taken, then certain configurations, especially related to unified ports, Fibre Channel (FC) ports, breakout, and FEX may be lost.

Note Upgrading Cisco NX-OS Software by changing the boot-variables and performing a reload is not supported in Cisco Nexus 5000 and 6000 Series Switches. This may result in loss of configuration and forwarding issues.

Note Doing a disruptive upgrade between incompatible images can result in loss of configurations such as unified ports, Fibre Channel (FC) ports, breakout, and FEX configurations, and VLAN database (VTP mode client/server). See CSCul22703 for details.

Note In some Cisco Nexus 5672, 56128, and 5696 switches, nondisruptive upgrade may fail and will need manual intervention to recover the systems. See CSCux76799 for details.

Note If you are performing a nondisruptive upgrade from Cisco NX-OS release 7.0(6)N1(1) to 7.0(7)N1(1) and later release, or from Cisco NX-OS release 7.0(6)N1(1) to a 7.1, 7.2, or 7.3 release, then you must reload the switch for the CSCur26244 fix to be effective; alternatively, you must perform a disruptive upgrade.

Note When a switch is connected to Cisco Nexus 2348UPQ, 2348TQ, and 2332TQ Fabric Extender, and if you perform a nondisruptive upgrade to Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(7)N1(1), 7.1(2)N1(1), 7.2(0)N1(1), or 7.3(0)N1(1) and later, then you must reload the mentioned FEXs after the nondisruptive upgrade for the CSCut90356 fix to be effective; alternatively, you must do a disruptive upgrade for these releases.

Note When you upgrade from an earlier release to Cisco NX-OS releases 7.1(3)N1(1), 7.1(3)N1(2), 7.1(4)N1(1), 7.1(5)N1(1), 7.2(1)N1(1), 7.3(1)N1(1), 7.3(2)N1(1) and later releases with the config-sync feature enabled, changes to the default LACP suspend-individual configuration might cause interface configuration to get locked out. See the bug CSCvh75595 for more details.

Note If you want to upgrade from a release, that is not listed in the “Current Cisco NX-OS Release” column under the “Supported Upgrade and Downgrade Paths for a Cisco NX-OS Release 7.x” section to the latest Cisco NX-OS release version, then you must first upgrade to a release that is listed in the “Current Cisco NX-OS Release” column and then to the latest release version.

Note In a vPC topology STP disputes occur in upstream devices when:

- you upgrade one node of the Cisco Nexus 5500/6000 series device from Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0 or earlier release versions to Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0 versions
- the other node still runs Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0 or earlier release versions
- vPC primary switch is upgraded first to Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0 versions

It is recommended that you upgrade both the nodes to Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0 version to overcome this known issue. This issue is seen only when there is a NX-OS mismatch in the vPC pair of Cisco Nexus 5500/6000 series devices. This issue is resolved in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(6)N1(1).
See CSCuo74024 for details.

Note In a vPC topology STP disputes occur in upstream devices when:

- the upgraded switch is operating as vPC primary
- you upgrade from Cisco NX-OS Release 5.2 version to Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0 version
- STP BPDU packets are sent from the root towards vPC secondary node, and then synced across peer-link to vPC primary
- vPC secondary is already upgraded to the Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0 version
- you perform non-disruptive ISSU upgrade

This is a known issue. It is recommended that you try performing a disruptive upgrade to overcome this issue. See CSCuo74024 for details.

Note When you upgrade from Cisco NX-OS releases 7.3(3)N1(1), 7.3(2)N1(1), and 7.3(1)N1(1), ensure to upgrade to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(8)N1(1) and then to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(13)N1(1).

Supported Upgrade and Downgrade Path for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(14)N1(1)

Table 4 shows the upgrade and downgrade possibilities for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(14)N1(1). For more information, see the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide, Release 7.3(14)N1(1).

For other 7.3 releases, see the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide specific for that release at:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/switches/nexus-6000-series-switches/products-installation-guides-list.html.

Note If you want to upgrade from a release on Cisco NX-OS release 7.1 train or earlier, you must first upgrade to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(8)N1(1) and then to 7.3(14)N1(1). If you want to upgrade from a release on Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(4) to 7.3(7b), you must first upgrade to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(8)N1(1) and then to 7.3(14)N1(1). If you want to upgrade from a release on Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(8) or later, you can upgrade to 7.3(14)N1(1).

Note If you upgrade from an earlier release to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(2)N1(1), the older BIOS version will be upgraded to the current release BIOS version. For the new BIOS version to take effect, you need to reload the device.

Note If Cisco Nexus 5624Q and 5648Q switches have an older BIOS version, then ISSU to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(2)N1(1) may be disruptive for some releases. To avoid the disruptive upgrade, upgrade the BIOS version manually before you upgrade the release version. For assistance, please contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC).

Starting with Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(2)N1(1), during a nondisruptive upgrade if any port on a Cisco Nexus switch or a peer switch retries for an errdisable recovery for more than two times, then the port will be brought down, that is, it will not be recovered after two retries. The port will be recovered after the completion of the nondisruptive ISSU.

Supported Upgrade and Downgrade Path for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(13)N1(1)

Table 4 shows the upgrade and downgrade possibilities for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(13)N1(1). For more information, see the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide, Release 7.3(13)N1(1).

For other 7.3 releases, see the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide specific for that release at:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/switches/nexus-6000-series-switches/products-installation-guides-list.html.

Note If you want to upgrade from a release on Cisco NX-OS release 7.1 train or earlier, you must first upgrade to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(8)N1(1) and then to 7.3(13)N1(1). If you want to upgrade from a release on Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(4) to 7.3(7b), you must first upgrade to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(8)N1(1) and then to 7.3(13)N1(1). If you want to upgrade from a release on Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(8) or later, you can upgrade to 7.3(13)N1(1).

Note If you upgrade from an earlier release to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(2)N1(1), the older BIOS version will be upgraded to the current release BIOS version. For the new BIOS version to take effect, you need to reload the device.

Note If Cisco Nexus 5624Q and 5648Q switches have an older BIOS version, then ISSU to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(2)N1(1) may be disruptive for some releases. To avoid the disruptive upgrade, upgrade the BIOS version manually before you upgrade the release version. For assistance, please contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC).

Starting with Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(2)N1(1), during a nondisruptive upgrade if any port on a Cisco Nexus switch or a peer switch retries for an errdisable recovery for more than two times, then the port will be brought down, that is, it will not be recovered after two retries. The port will be recovered after the completion of the nondisruptive ISSU.

Supported Upgrade and Downgrade Path for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(12)N1(1)

Table 5 shows the upgrade and downgrade possibilities for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(12)N1(1). For more information, see the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide, Release 7.3(12)N1(1).

For other 7.3 releases, see the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide specific for that release at:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/switches/nexus-6000-series-switches/products-installation-guides-list.html.

Supported Upgrade and Downgrade Path for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(11)N1(1)

Table 9 shows the upgrade and downgrade possibilities for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(11)N1(1). For more information, see the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide, Release 7.3(11)N1(1).

For other 7.3 releases, see the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide specific for that release at: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/switches/nexus-6000-series-switches/products-installation-guides-list.html.

7.In-service software downgrade (ISSD) from Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3.x to any earlier releases is not supported. All incompatible configurations will be lost in the target release. Performing a downgrade will also result in loss of certain configurations such as unified ports, breakout, and FEX configurations. See CSCul22703 for details. For more information on restoring the configuration, see the “Restoring the Configuration” section in the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide, Release. You cannot upgrade non-disruptively to Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(11)N1(1) from Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(7)N1(1) because of the issue due to CSCvt58479.  If you upgrade from an earlier release to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(2)N1(1), the older BIOS version will be upgraded to the current release BIOS version. For the new BIOS version to take effect, you need to reload the device. Starting with Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(2)N1(1), during a nondisruptive upgrade if any port on a Cisco Nexus switch or a peer switch retries for an errdisable recovery for more than two times, then the port will be brought down, that is, it will not be recovered after two retries. The port will be recovered after the completion of the nondisruptive ISSU.

Supported Upgrade and Downgrade Path for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(10)N1(1)

Table 9 shows the upgrade and downgrade possibilities for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(10)N1(1). For more information, see the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide, Release 7.3(10)N1(1).

For other 7.3 releases, see the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide specific for that release at:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/switches/nexus-6000-series-switches/products-installation-guides-list.html.

8.In-service software downgrade (ISSD) from Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3.x to any earlier releases is not supported. All incompatible configurations will be lost in the target release. Performing a downgrade will also result in loss of certain configurations such as unified ports, breakout, and FEX configurations. See CSCul22703 for details. For more information on restoring the configuration, see the “Restoring the Configuration” section in the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide, Release. Note You cannot upgrade non-disruptively to Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(10)N1(1) from Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(7)N1(1) because of the issue due to CSCvt58479.  Note If you upgrade from an earlier release to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(2)N1(1), the older BIOS version will be upgraded to the current release BIOS version. For the new BIOS version to take effect, you need to reload the device. Starting with Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(2)N1(1), during a nondisruptive upgrade if any port on a Cisco Nexus switch or a peer switch retries for an errdisable recovery for more than two times, then the port will be brought down, that is, it will not be recovered after two retries. The port will be recovered after the completion of the nondisruptive ISSU.

Supported Upgrade and Downgrade Path for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(9)N1(1)

Table 9 shows the upgrade and downgrade possibilities for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(9)N1(1). For more information, see the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide, Release 7.3(9)N1(1).

For other 7.3 releases, see the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide specific for that release at:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/switches/nexus-6000-series-switches/products-installation-guides-list.html.

9.In-service software downgrade (ISSD) from Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3.x to any earlier releases is not supported. All incompatible configurations will be lost in the target release. Performing a downgrade will also result in loss of certain configurations such as unified ports, breakout, and FEX configurations. See CSCul22703 for details. For more information on restoring the configuration, see the “Restoring the Configuration” section in the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide, Release. Note You cannot upgrade non-disruptively to Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(9)N1(1) from Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(7)N1(1) because of the issue due to CSCvt58479.  Note If you upgrade from an earlier release to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(2)N1(1), the older BIOS version will be upgraded to the current release BIOS version. For the new BIOS version to take effect, you need to reload the device. Starting with Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(2)N1(1), during a nondisruptive upgrade if any port on a Cisco Nexus switch or a peer switch retries for an errdisable recovery for more than two times, then the port will be brought down, that is, it will not be recovered after two retries. The port will be recovered after the completion of the nondisruptive ISSU.

Supported Upgrade and Downgrade Path for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(8)N1(1)

Table 9 shows the upgrade and downgrade possibilities for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(8)N1(1). For more information, see the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide, Release 7.3(8)N1(1).

For other 7.3 releases, see the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide specific for that release at:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/switches/nexus-6000-series-switches/products-installation-guides-list.html.

Note You cannot upgrade non-disruptively to Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(8)N1(1) from Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(7)N1(1) because of the issue due to CSCvt58479. 

Note If you want to upgrade from a release on Cisco NX-OS release 7.1 train or earlier, you must first upgrade to Cisco NX-OS release 7.1(4)N1(1) and then to 7.3(8)N1(1). If you want to upgrade from a release on Cisco NX-OS release 7.2 train or earlier, you must first upgrade to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(2)N1(1) and then to 7.3(8)N1(1).

Note If you upgrade from an earlier release to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(2)N1(1), the older BIOS version will be upgraded to the current release BIOS version. For the new BIOS version to take effect, you need to reload the device.

Note If Cisco Nexus 5624Q and 5648Q switches have an older BIOS version, then ISSU to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(2)N1(1) may be disruptive for some releases. To avoid the disruptive upgrade, upgrade the BIOS version manually before you upgrade the release version. For assistance, please contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC).

Starting with Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(2)N1(1), during a nondisruptive upgrade if any port on a Cisco Nexus switch or a peer switch retries for an errdisable recovery for more than two times, then the port will be brought down, that is, it will not be recovered after two retries. The port will be recovered after the completion of the nondisruptive ISSU.

Supported Upgrade and Downgrade Path for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(7)N1(1b)

Table 11 shows the upgrade and downgrade possibilities for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(7)N1(1b). For more information, see the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide, Release 7.3(7)N1(1b).

For other 7.3 releases, see the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide specific for that release at:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/switches/nexus-6000-series-switches/products-installation-guides-list.html.

Note You cannot upgrade non-disruptively to Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(7)N1(1b) from Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(7)N1(1) because of the issue due to CSCvt58479. 

Note If you want to upgrade from a release on Cisco NX-OS release 7.1 train or earlier, you must first upgrade to Cisco NX-OS release 7.1(4)N1(1) and then to 7.3(7)N1(1b). If you want to upgrade from a release on Cisco NX-OS release 7.2 train or earlier, you must first upgrade to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(2)N1(1) and then to 7.3(7)N1(1b).

Note If you upgrade from an earlier release to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(2)N1(1), the older BIOS version will be upgraded to the current release BIOS version. For the new BIOS version to take effect, you need to reload the device.

Note If Cisco Nexus 5624Q and 5648Q switches have an older BIOS version, then ISSU to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(2)N1(1) may be disruptive for some releases. To avoid the disruptive upgrade, upgrade the BIOS version manually before you upgrade the release version. For assistance, please contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC).

Starting with Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(2)N1(1), during a nondisruptive upgrade if any port on a Cisco Nexus switch or a peer switch retries for an errdisable recovery for more than two times, then the port will be brought down, that is, it will not be recovered after two retries. The port will be recovered after the completion of the nondisruptive ISSU.

Supported Upgrade and Downgrade Path for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(7)N1(1a)

Table 11 shows the upgrade and downgrade possibilities for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(7)N1(1a). For more information, see the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide, Release 7.3(7)N1(1a).

For other 7.3 releases, see the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide specific for that release at:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/switches/nexus-6000-series-switches/products-installation-guides-list.html.

Note You cannot upgrade non-disruptively to Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(7)N1(1a) from Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(7)N1(1) because of the issue due to CSCvt58479. 

Note If you want to upgrade from a release on Cisco NX-OS release 7.1 train or earlier, you must first upgrade to Cisco NX-OS release 7.1(4)N1(1) and then to 7.3(7)N1(1a). If you want to upgrade from a release on Cisco NX-OS release 7.2 train or earlier, you must first upgrade to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(2)N1(1) and then to 7.3(7)N1(1a).

Note If you upgrade from an earlier release to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(2)N1(1), the older BIOS version will be upgraded to the current release BIOS version. For the new BIOS version to take effect, you need to reload the device.

Note If Cisco Nexus 5624Q and 5648Q switches have an older BIOS version, then ISSU to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(2)N1(1) may be disruptive for some releases. To avoid the disruptive upgrade, upgrade the BIOS version manually before you upgrade the release version. For assistance, please contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC).

Starting with Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(2)N1(1), during a nondisruptive upgrade if any port on a Cisco Nexus switch or a peer switch retries for an errdisable recovery for more than two times, then the port will be brought down, that is, it will not be recovered after two retries. The port will be recovered after the completion of the nondisruptive ISSU.

Supported Upgrade and Downgrade Path for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(7)N1(1)

Table 12 shows the upgrade and downgrade possibilities for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(7)N1(1). For more information, see the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide, Release 7.3(7)N1(1).

For other 7.3 releases, see the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide specific for that release at:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/switches/nexus-6000-series-switches/products-installation-guides-list.html.

Note If you want to upgrade from a release on Cisco NX-OS release 7.1 train or earlier, you must first upgrade to Cisco NX-OS release 7.1(4)N1(1) and then to 7.3(7)N1(1). If you want to upgrade from a release on Cisco NX-OS release 7.2 train or earlier, you must first upgrade to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(2)N1(1) and then to 7.3(7)N1(1).

Note If you upgrade from an earlier release to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(2)N1(1), the older BIOS version will be upgraded to the current release BIOS version. For the new BIOS version to take effect, you need to reload the device.

Note If Cisco Nexus 5624Q and 5648Q switches have an older BIOS version, then ISSU to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(2)N1(1) may be disruptive for some releases. To avoid the disruptive upgrade, upgrade the BIOS version manually before you upgrade the release version. For assistance, please contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC).

Starting with Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(2)N1(1), during a nondisruptive upgrade if any port on a Cisco Nexus switch or a peer switch retries for an errdisable recovery for more than two times, then the port will be brought down, that is, it will not be recovered after two retries. The port will be recovered after the completion of the nondisruptive ISSU.

Supported Upgrade and Downgrade Path for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(6)N1(1)

Table 13 shows the upgrade and downgrade possibilities for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(6)N1(1). For more information, see the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide, Release 7.3(6)N1(1).

For other 7.3 releases, see the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide specific for that release at:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/switches/nexus-6000-series-switches/products-installation-guides-list.html.

Note If you want to upgrade from a release on Cisco NX-OS release 7.1 train or earlier, you must first upgrade to Cisco NX-OS release 7.1(4)N1(1) and then to 7.3(6)N1(1). If you want to upgrade from a release on Cisco NX-OS release 7.2 train or earlier, you must first upgrade to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(2)N1(1) and then to 7.3(6)N1(1).

Note If you upgrade from an earlier release to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(2)N1(1), the older BIOS version will be upgraded to the current release BIOS version. For the new BIOS version to take effect, you need to reload the device.

Note If Cisco Nexus 5624Q and 5648Q switches have an older BIOS version, then ISSU to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(2)N1(1) may be disruptive for some releases. To avoid the disruptive upgrade, upgrade the BIOS version manually before you upgrade the release version. For assistance, please contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC).

Starting with Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(2)N1(1), during a nondisruptive upgrade if any port on a Cisco Nexus switch or a peer switch retries for an errdisable recovery for more than two times, then the port will be brought down, that is, it will not be recovered after two retries. The port will be recovered after the completion of the nondisruptive ISSU.

Supported Upgrade and Downgrade Path for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(5)N1(1)

Table 14 shows the upgrade and downgrade possibilities for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(5)N1(1). For more information, see the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide, Release 7.3(5)N1(1).

For other 7.3 releases, see the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide specific for that release at:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/switches/nexus-6000-series-switches/products-installation-guides-list.html.

Note If you want to upgrade from a release on Cisco NX-OS release 7.1 train or earlier, you must first upgrade to Cisco NX-OS release 7.1(4)N1(1) and then to 7.3(5)N1(1). If you want to upgrade from a release on Cisco NX-OS release 7.2 train or earlier, you must first upgrade to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(2)N1(1) and then to 7.3(5)N1(1).

Note If you upgrade from an earlier release to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(2)N1(1), the older BIOS version will be upgraded to the current release BIOS version. For the new BIOS version to take effect, you need to reload the device.

Note If Cisco Nexus 5624Q and 5648Q switches have an older BIOS version, then ISSU to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(2)N1(1) may be disruptive for some releases. To avoid the disruptive upgrade, upgrade the BIOS version manually before you upgrade the release version. For assistance, please contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC).

Starting with Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(2)N1(1), during a nondisruptive upgrade if any port on a Cisco Nexus switch or a peer switch retries for an errdisable recovery for more than two times, then the port will be brought down, that is, it will not be recovered after two retries. The port will be recovered after the completion of the nondisruptive ISSU.

Supported Upgrade and Downgrade Path for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(4)N1(1)

Table 15 shows the upgrade and downgrade possibilities for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(4)N1(1). For more information, see the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide, Release 7.3(4)N1(1).

For other 7.3 releases, see the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide specific for that release at:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/switches/nexus-6000-series-switches/products-installation-guides-list.html.

Note If you want to upgrade from a release on Cisco NX-OS release 7.1 train or earlier, you must first upgrade to Cisco NX-OS release 7.1(4)N1(1) and then to 7.3(4)N1(1). If you want to upgrade from a release on Cisco NX-OS release 7.2 train or earlier, you must first upgrade to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(2)N1(1) and then to 7.3(4)N1(1).

Note If you upgrade from an earlier release to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(2)N1(1), the older BIOS version will be upgraded to the current release BIOS version. For the new BIOS version to take effect, you need to reload the device.

Note If Cisco Nexus 5624Q and 5648Q switches have an older BIOS version, then ISSU to Cisco NX-OS release 7.3(2)N1(1) may be disruptive for some releases. To avoid the disruptive upgrade, upgrade the BIOS version manually before you upgrade the release version. For assistance, please contact the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC).

Note Starting with Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(2)N1(1), during a nondisruptive upgrade if any port on a Cisco Nexus switch or a peer switch retries for an errdisable recovery for more than two times, then the port will be brought down, that is, it will not be recovered after two retries. The port will be recovered after the completion of the nondisruptive ISSU.

BIOS Revision for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(1)N1(1)

For Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(1)N1(1), the BIOS versions have been revised. The following table shows the latest BIOS versions for the various Cisco Nexus 5600 and Nexus 6000 series platforms.

Note For Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(2)N1(1) and later releases, the BIOS versions have not been revised, and the following table shows the latest BIOS versions for the various Nexus 5600 and Nexus 6000 series platforms.

.

BIOS Revision for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(0)N1(1)

For Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(0)N1(1), the BIOS versions have been revised. The following table shows the latest BIOS versions for the various Cisco Nexus 5600 and Nexus 6000 series platforms.

.

Supported Upgrade and Downgrade Path for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.2(1)N1(1)

Table 18 shows the upgrade and downgrade possibilities for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.2(1)N1(1). For more information, see the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide, Release 7.2(1)N1(1).

For other 7.2 releases, see the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide specific for that release at:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/switches/nexus-6000-series-switches/products-installation-guides-list.html.

Note Disruptive upgrade is required before configuring VLAN translation on FEX for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(0)N1(1a).

Supported Upgrade and Downgrade Paths for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(5)N1(1b)

Table 19 shows the upgrade and downgrade possibilities for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(5)N1(1b). For more information, see the Cisco Nexus 5500 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide, Release 7.1(5)N1(1b).

For other 7.1 releases, see the Cisco Nexus 5500 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide specific for that release at: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/switches/nexus-5000-series-switches/products-installation-guides-list.html.

Supported Upgrade and Downgrade Path for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(5)N1(1)

Table 20 shows the upgrade and downgrade possibilities for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(5)N1(1). For more information, see the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide, Release 7.1(5)N1(1).

For other 7.1 releases, see the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide specific for that release at:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/switches/nexus-6000-series-switches/products-installation-guides-list.html.

Note When you perform a nondisruptive upgrade from an earlier release to Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(4)N1(1), you might experience traffic loss in the Straight-Through FEXs on a vPC secondary device. This issue occurs when the max-lsp-lifetime command value is less than 90 seconds. We recommend that you increase the max-lsp-lifetime command value to more than that of the upgrade time or set a default value of 1200 seconds. To configure the max-lsp-lifetime command, you must first configure the fabricpath domain default command.

Note When you perform a nondisruptive upgrade from an earlier release to Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(4)N1(1), you might experience Forwarding Manager crash. See CSCva39744 and CSCuu81208 caveats for more details.

Note When you perform a disruptive upgrade from Cisco NX-OS release 7.0.x to 7.1.x, 7.2.x, or 7.3.x, with the hardware ethernet store-and-fwd-switching command configured, there might be some traffic loss. To avoid the above scenario, we recommend that you create a /mnt/pss/qd_sf_sdb file with content as 1 before upgrading. If you have upgraded from Cisco NX-OS release 7.0.x to 7.1.x, 7.2.x, or 7.3.x, with the hardware ethernet store-and-fwd-switching command configured, after the upgrade, remove the hardware ethernet store-and-fwd-switching command configuration, reconfigure the command again, and reload the switch. See CSCvj22890 for more details.

IBIOS Revision for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(4)N1(1)

For Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(4)N1(1), the BIOS versions have been revised. The following table shows the latest BIOS versions for the various Cisco Nexus 5600 and Cisco Nexus 6000 series platforms.

Note Refer to the Field Notice before performing an upgrade.

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Note For the BIOS upgrade to be effective, a reload is required. A switch requires a BIOS upgrade only if it encounters a PCI error issue. Refer to CSCUt56888.

Supported Upgrade and Downgrade Path for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(8)N1(1)

Table 22 shows the upgrade and downgrade possibilities for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(8)N1(1). For more information, see the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide, Release 7.0(8)N1(1).

For other 7.0 releases, see the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide specific for that release at:

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/switches/nexus-6000-series-switches/products-installation-guides-list.html.

Note Disruptive upgrade is required before configuring VLAN translation on FEX for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(0)N1(1b).

Note When you upgrade (ISSU upgrade or non-ISSU upgrade) from Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N2(7) to Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(6)N1(1) or later releases, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) OFFER packets get dropped. We recommend you disable the ip dhcp relay command and reconfigure it after the upgrade.

BIOS Revision for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(8)N1(1)

For Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(8)N1(1), the BIOS versions have been revised. The following table shows the latest BIOS versions for the various Cisco Nexus 5600 and Nexus 6000 series platforms.

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Limitations on the Cisco Nexus 6000

The limitations on the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series switch are as follows:

• Fan Speed Behavior
• SPAN Limitations on Fabric Extender Ports
• Layer 3 Limitations

Fan Speed Behavior

On a Cisco Nexus 6004 Extensible Fixed Switch, if you upgrade from an earlier release to Cisco NX-OS Release 7.1(4)N1(1) or later, the fan speed on all fans will increase and it will operate at 100%. This is according to the design and will not have any longevity issues. See CSCvc43776 for more information.

SPAN Limitations on Fabric Extender Ports

The SPAN limitations on Fabric Extender ports are as follows:

• On a Cisco Nexus device, SPAN destination port output remains less than 10G on a 10G port.
• On a Cisco Nexus device, if the SPAN source is a FEX port, the frames will always be tagged when leaving the SPAN destination.
• On a Cisco Nexus 6000 Series switch, if the SPAN source is an access port on a switch port or FEX port, the spanned frames at the SPAN destination will be tagged.
• On a Cisco Nexus 6000 Series switch, if the SPAN source is on an access port on the switch port, the frames will not be tagged when leaving the SPAN destination.
• Ports on a FEX can be configured as a tx-source in one session only.

If two ports on the same FEX are enabled to be tx-source, the ports need to be in the same session. If you configure a FEX port as a tx-source and another port belonging to the same FEX is already configured as a tx-source on a different SPAN session, an error is displayed on the CLI.

In the following example, Interface Ethernet100/1/1 on a FEX 100 is already configured as a tx-source on SPAN session-1:

If you add an interface Ethernet100/1/2 as a tx-source to a different SPAN session (session-2) the following error appears:

• When a FEX port is configured as a tx-source, the multicast traffic is spanned on all VLANs that the tx-source port is a member of. The FEX port sends out only multicast packets that are not filtered by IGMP snooping. For example, if FEX ports 100/1/1–12 are configured on VLAN 11 and the switch port 1/5 sends multicast traffic on VLAN 11 in a multicast group, and hosts connected to FEX ports 100/1/3–12 are interested in receiving that multicast traffic (through IGMP), then that multicast traffic goes out on FEX ports 100/1/3–12, but not on 100/1/1–2.

If you configure SPAN Tx on port 100/1/1, although the multicast traffic does not egress out of port 100/1/1, the SPAN destination does receive that multicast traffic, which is due to a design limitation.

• When a FEX port is configured as both SPAN rx-source and tx-source, broadcast non-IGMP Layer-2 multicast frames as well as unknown unicast frames originating from that port might be seen twice on the SPAN destination: once on the ingress and once on the egress path. On the egress path, the frames are filtered by the FEX to prevent them from going out on the same port on which they were received. For example, if FEX port 100/1/1 is configured on VLAN 11 and is also configured as SPAN rx-source and tx-source and a broadcast frame is received on that port, the SPAN destination recognizes two copies of the frame, even though the frame is not sent back on port 100/1/1.
• For releases prior to Cisco NX-OS release 7.2(0)N1(1), a FEX port cannot be configured as a SPAN destination. Only a switch port can be configured and used as a SPAN destination. FEX HIF as SPAN destination is supported from Cisco NX-OS release 7.2(0)N1(1) onwards.
• With a SPAN on Latency session, FEX ports cannot be configured as source or destination.

Layer 3 Limitations

Asymmetric Configuration

In a vPC topology, two Cisco Nexus 6000 Series switches configured as vPC peer switches need to be configured symmetrically for Layer 3 configurations such as SVIs, a peer gateway, routing protocol and policies, and RACLs.

Note vPC consistency check does not include Layer 3 parameters.

Open Caveats

Caveats describe unexpected behavior in a product. The Open Caveats section lists open caveats that apply to the current release and may apply to previous releases. A caveat that is open for a prior release and is still unresolved applies to all future releases until it is resolved.

The Bug Search Tool (BST), which is the online successor to the Bug Toolkit, is designed to improve the effectiveness in network risk management and device troubleshooting. The BST allows partners and customers to search for software bugs based on product, release, and keyword, and aggregates key data, such as bug details, product, and version. The tool has a provision to filter bugs based on credentials to provide external and internal bug views for the search input.

To view the details of a caveat whose ID you do not have, perform the following procedure:

1. Access the BST using your Cisco user ID and password at https://tools.cisco.com/bugsearch/

2. In the Bug search window that is displayed, enter the necessary information in the corresponding fields.

For more information about how to use the Cisco Bug Search Tool effectively, including how to set email alerts for bugs and to save bugs and searches, see the Bug Search Tool Help and FAQ page.

Table 24 lists descriptions of open caveats in Cisco NX-OS Release 7.x.