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Cisco Nexus 7000 Series NX-OS Verified Scalability Guide

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Cisco Nexus 7000 Series NX-OS Verified Scalability Guide

This document describes the Cisco NX-OS configuration limits for the Cisco Nexus 7000 Series switches.

New and Changed Information

This table summarizes the new and changed verified scalability values for the Cisco Nexus 7000 Series switches.

Table 1 New and Changed Verified Scalability Values

Date

Description

Changed in Release

October 2012

Updated verified scalability values.

6.1.2

August 2012

Updated verified scalability values.

6.1

November 2011

Initial version of guide with information for shipping releases.

--

Introduction

The scalability of Cisco Nexus 7000 Series switches has been verified for the following features:
  • Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extender connectivity to Cisco Nexus 7000 Series switches
  • FabricPath
  • Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
  • Interfaces
  • Layer 2 switching
  • Locator/ID Separation Protocol (LISP)
  • Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)
  • Multicast routing
  • Overlay Transport Virtualization (OTV)
  • QoS
  • Security
  • System management
  • Unicast routing
  • Virtual device context (VDC)

To make the best use of this document, please take note of the following:

  • All numbers are per system unless noted otherwise. For example, a listed number of FCoE fabric logins can be in a single VDC or be a sum of fabric logins across all VDCs in the system. Any changes in the number of supported VDCs do not automatically imply changes in the supported scale for other features.
  • If the latest release has an updated value for a parameter but the previous release does not, specific information for the previous release is not available.
  • The values provided in this guide are uni-dimensional. They focus on the scalability of one particular feature at a time. Results might differ from the values listed here when trying to achieve maximum scalability with multiple features enabled.
  • The values provided in this guide should not be interpreted as theoretical system limits for Cisco Nexus 7000 Series hardware or Cisco NX-OS software. These limits refer to values that have been validated by Cisco. They can increase over time as more testing and validation is done.
  • Beginning with Cisco NX-OS Release 6.1, the values listed apply to Cisco Nexus 7000 Series switches with Supervisor 1, Supervisor 2, and Supervisor 2E (unless otherwise noted). If values differ across supervisors, the value for each supervisor is listed using the following notation: Supervisor 1 value / Supervisor 2 value / Supervisor 2E value.

Configuration Limits for Connecting Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders to Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Switches

Table 2 Configuration Limits for Connecting Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders to Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Switches
Parameter Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 6.1) Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 6.0) Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 5.2)
Number of Fabric Extenders supported per switch with Supervisor 1 or 2 (number of FEX / total number of FEX server interfaces) 32 / 1536 32 / 1536 32 / 1536
Number of Fabric Extenders supported per switch with Supervisor 2E (number of FEX / total number of FEX server interfaces) 48 / 2048 N/A N/A
Number of subinterfaces per Fabric Extender server interface 63 63 63
Number of VLANs per Fabric Extender 2000 2000 2000
Number of VLANs per Fabric Extender server facing interface 50 50 50

Configuration Limits for FabricPath

Table 3 Configuration Limits for FabricPath
Feature Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 6.1) Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 6.0) Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 5.2)
Number of VLANs per switch 2000 (Cisco NX-OS 6.1.1)

4000 (Cisco NX-OS 6.1.2)

 2000 2000
Number of core ports per switch 256 256 256
Number of edge ports per switch 256 256 256
Number of trees per switch 2 2 2
Number of topologies per switch 1 1 1
Number of multicast groups per switch 10,000 10,000 10,000
Number of Layer 2 IS-IS adjacencies per switch 256 256 256
Number of switch IDs 128 (Cisco NX-OS 6.1.1)

256 (Cisco NX-OS 6.1.2)

 128 64

Configuration Limits for FCoE

Table 4 Configuration Limits for FCoE
Parameter Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 6.1) Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 6.0) Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 5.2)
Number of FCoE hops 7 7 7
Number of zone members per fabric 16,000 16,000 16,000
Number of zones per fabric 8000 8000 8000
Number of zone sets per switch 500 500 500
Number of VSANs per fabric 80 80 80

Configuration Limits for Interfaces

Table 5 Configuration Limits for Interfaces
Feature Parameter Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 6.1) Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 6.0) Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 5.2) Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 5.1 and 5.0)
Port channels Number of port channels per system 528 528 528 256
Virtual port channels (vPCs)* Number of vPCs (total) per system 528 528 528 256
Number of vPCs (FEX) per system 528 528 528 N/A
Number of vPC+s (total) per system 244 244 244 Not tested
BFD Minimum interval x multiplier (peers over Layer 3 link or Layer 3 port channel with per-link mode) 50 msec x 3 50 msec x 3 50 msec x 3 50 msec x 3
Minimum interval x multiplier (peers over Layer 2 port channel and Layer 3 port channel without per-link mode) 250 msec x 3 250 msec x 3 250 msec x 3 250 msec x 3
Number of sessions per module with minimum interval 200 200 200 200
Number of sessions per system 1000 1000 1000 1000
Generic routing encapsulation (GRE) Number of GRE tunnels 1500 1500 1500 100
*The vPC configuration limits such as the number of vPCs and VLANs in a vPC domain depend on many different parameters. The following templates are validated in the latest Cisco NX-OS release:
  • 528 vPCs on a device with 50 VLANs on each vPC taken from a group of 528 VLANs defined on the device. Each VLAN is configured with a VLAN interface running an instance of the Hot Standby Routing Protocol (HSRP).
  • 260 vPCs on a device with 30 VLANs on each vPC taken from a group of 1000 VLANs defined on the device. Each VLAN is configured with a VLAN interface running an instance of HSRP.

In both cases, spanning tree mode is set to Rapid per-VLAN Spanning Tree+ (Rapid PVST+), and the spanning tree vPC count is below 12000.


Note

The use of other features that consume resources on the device can affect the vPC configuration limits.

Configuration Limits for Layer 2 Switching

Table 6 Configuration Limits for Layer 2 Switching
Feature Parameter Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 6.1) Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 6.0) Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 5.2)
Layer 2 infrastructure Number of Layer 2 table entries on M Series I/O modules 128,000 128,000 128,000
Number of Layer 2 table entries on F1 Series I/O modules 16,000 to 256,000 16,000 to 256,000 16,000 to 256,000
Number of Layer 2 table entries on F2 Series I/O modules 16,000 to 192,000 16,000 to 192,000 N/A
Number of EtherChannels 528 528 528
Spanning Tree Protocol Number of Multiple Spanning Tree (MST) instances per VDC 64 64 64
Number of virtual ports per switch (applicable to both MST and RPVST modes) 90,000 90,000 90,000
Number of Rapid per-VLAN Spanning Tree+ (RPVST+) logical ports per switch 16,000 16,000 16,000

Configuration Limits for LISP

Table 7 Configuration Limits for Map Server and Ingress Tunnel Routers (ITRs) and Egress Tunnel Routers (ETRs)
Feature Parameter Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 6.1) Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 6.0) Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 5.2)
Map server Number of mapping entries registered on a map server 10,000 10,000 1000
Number of RLOCs per EID mapping entry 8 8 8
Number of requests per second 200 200 200
ITR/ETR Number of dynamic EID mapping entries registered to a map server 250 250 250
Number of EIDs with static mapping entries registered to a map server (per address family and per VRF) 4 4 4
Maximum number of RLOCs per EID 8 8 8
Number of VRFs 300 300 300
Number of packets per second 30 Mpps 30 Mpps 30 Mpps

Configuration Limits for MPLS

Table 8 Configuration Limits for MPLS
Feature Parameter Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 6.1) Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 6.0) Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 5.2)
LDP and infrastructure Number of MPLS VPN labels with per-prefix label allocation 300,000 300,000 300,000
Number of MPLS VPN labels with per-VRF label allocation 1000 1000 1000
Maximum label depth for forwarding 4 4 4
Number of LDP sessions 200 200 200
Traffic engineering Number of MPLS TE head-end tunnels 4000 4000 4000
Number of MPLS TE mid-point LSPs (transit) 12,000 12,000 12,000
L3VPN Number of VPNs per system 1000 1000 1000
Number of VPN routes with per-prefix label allocation mode 300,000 300,000 300,000
Number of VPN routes with per-VRF label allocation mode 500,000 500,000 500,000
6PE/6VPE Number of IPv6 VPN routes 250,000 250,000 250,000
MVPN Number of multicast VRFs per system 200 200 200
Number of multicast VRF routes 50,000 50,000 50,000
Number of MDT groups per system1 1000 1000 1000
Number of MDT groups per VRF per PE 256 256 256

1All MDT encapsulations go to the same MDT tunnel.

Configuration Limits for Multicast Routing

Table 9 Configuration Limits for Multicast Routing
Feature Parameter Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 6.1) Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 6.0) Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 5.2)
Multicast routing and forwarding Number of IPv4 multicast routes (sparse) 32,000 32,000 32,000
Number of IPv6 multicast routes 2000 2000 2000
Number of multicast routes per switch in a vPC environment 15,000 15,000 15,000
Number of IPv4 multicast routes using generic routing encapsulation reverse path forwarding (GRE RPF) interfaces or outgoing interfaces (OIFs) / number of GRE OIFs per route 16,000 / 8 16,000 / 8 16,000 / 8
Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) Number of neighbors 1000 1000 1000
Number of neighbors / total routes per system with aggressive hello timers (5 seconds) 16 / 21,900 16 / 21,900 16 / 21,900
Multicast Source Discovery Protocol (MSDP) Number of MSDP Source-Active (SA) cache entries 12,000 12,000 12,000
IGMP Number of IGMP snooping entries 32,000 32,000 32,000

Configuration Limits for OTV

Table 10 Configuration Limits for OTV
Parameter Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 6.1) Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 6.0) Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 5.2) Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 5.1 and 5.0)
Number of extended VLANs per system across all configured overlays 256 256 256 128
Number of MAC addresses (across all overlays and all sites) per system 16,000 16,000 16,000 12,000
Number of MACs on one edge device 4000 4000 4000 4000
Number of edge devices per site 2 2 2 2
Number of OTV-connected sites 6 6 6 3
Number of OTV overlays (simultaneous) 10 10 10 3
Number of instances (instance-id) 1 1 1 1
Number of local multicast routes 2000 2000 2000 1000
Number of multicast data groups 256 256 256 100

Configuration Limits for QoS

Table 11 Configuration Limits for QoS
Parameter Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS Release 6.1) Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0) Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS Release 5.2)
Number of class maps per policy1 4096 4096 4096
Number of matches in a class map 1024 1024 1024
Number of policers 16,000 16,000 16,000
1 ACLs can be used to match packets in up to 128 class maps.

Configuration Limits for Security

Table 12 Configuration Limits for Security
Feature Parameter Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 6.1) Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 6.0) Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 5.2)
ACLs Maximum number of ACEs for application ACLs (used by NTP, SNMP, and VTY) 1000 1000 1000
ACL capture Number of sessions per system 1 1 1
DHCP Number of DHCP snooping total bindings 4000 Not tested Not tested
Number of DHCP relay agents (IPv4) 1000 Not tested Not tested
Number of VLANs for DHCP snooping 1000 Not tested Not tested
Number of DHCP relay addresses for SVI 16 Not tested Not tested

Configuration Limits for System Management

Table 13 Configuration Limits for System Management
Feature Parameter Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 6.1) Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 6.0) Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 5.2)
IP SLA Maximum number of probes configured 500 N/A N/A
SNMP Maximum SNMP host receivers configured for sending SNMP traps 6 6 6
Number of SNMP manager sessions for GET or SET replies 4 4 4
SPAN and ERSPAN Number of configured (not active) SPAN sessions per VDC 48 48 48
Number of active SPAN or ERSPAN source sessions per system 2 2 2
Number of active ERSPAN destination sessions per system 23 23 23
Number of source interfaces per SPAN or ERSPAN session 128 128 128
Number of destination interfaces per SPAN or ERSPAN session 32 32 32
Number of source VLANs per SPAN or ERSPAN session2 32 32 32
PTP/IEEE 1588 Number of clients behind a port 100 / 100 / 512 Not tested Not tested
2 If you specify a VLAN range greater than 32, the first 32 VLANs are added as source VLANs to the SPAN or ERSPAN session even if the VLANs have not been created. For example, if you specify a VLAN range of 1-40 for the SPAN or ERSPAN session, only VLANs 1-32 are added to the session. To add only specific VLANs within a range, you must add the VLANs explicitly.

Configuration Limits for Unicast Routing

Table 14 Configuration Limits for Unicast Routing
Feature Parameter Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 6.1) Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 6.0) Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 5.2)
OSPFv2 Number of neighbors / total LSAs3 300 / 15,000 300 / 15,000 300 / 15,000
Number of passive interfaces 500 500 500
Number of process instances per VDC 16 4 4
Number of process instances per system 16 16 16
Number of neighbors / total routes with aggressive timers (1s/3s) 16 / 6000 16 / 6000 16 / 6000
OSPFv3 Number of neighbors / total LSAs4 300 / 15,000 300 / 15,000 300 / 15,000
Number of passive interfaces 300 300 300
Number of process instances per VDC 16 4 4
Number of process instances per system 16 16 16
IS-IS Number of neighbors for IPv4 300 300 300
Number of neighbors for IPv6 300 N/A N/A
Number of process instances per VDC 4 4 4
Number of process instances per system 16 16 16
EIGRP Number of neighbors for IPv4 / total routes 300 / 15,000 50 / 15,000 50 / 15,000
Number of process instances per VDC 4 4 4
Number of process instances per system 16 16 16
Static Number of static routes 1000 1000 1000
BGP Number of peers (iBGP and eBGP, active) 1000 1000 1000
Number of AS-path entries 512 512 512
Number of prefix-list entries in a single prefix list 20,000 20,000 20,000
Number of prefixes per peer (one peer, eBGP or iBGP, IPv4) 900,000 900,000 900,000
Number of unique attributes stored in BGP database 512,000 512,000 512,000
Number of paths advertised with BGP addpath5 32 N/A N/A
HSRP Number of groups per interface or module (IPv4 or IPv6 or mixed) 500 500 500
Number of groups with default timers (3s/10s) for IPv6 1000 1000 1000
Number of groups with aggressive timers (1s/3s) for IPv6 1000 1000 1000
Number of groups with aggressive timers (1s/3s) and extended hold timer feature (in-service software upgrade [ISSU] / stateful switchover [SSO]) support for IPv6 1000 1000 1000
Number of groups with default timers (3s/10s) for IPv4 2000 / 2000 / 2000 (Cisco NX-OS 6.1.1)

2000 / 2000 / 3000 (Cisco NX-OS 6.1.2)

 2000 2000
Number of groups with aggressive timers (1s/3s) for IPv4 1000 1000 1000
Number of groups with aggressive timers (1s/3s) and extended hold timer feature (ISSU/SSO support) for IPv4 1000 1000 1000
VRRP Number of groups per interface or module 100 100 100
Number of groups with default timers (1s/3s) 255 255 255
GLBP Number of groups per interface or module (IPv4) 200 200 200
Number of groups with default timers (3s/10s) 1000 1000 1000
Number of groups with aggressive timers (1s/3s) 500 500 500
Number of groups with aggressive timers (1s/3s) and extended hold timer feature (ISSU/SSO support) 500 500 500
PBR Number of configured sequences per policy 23 (starting with Cisco NX-OS 6.1.3) Not tested Not tested
VRFs Number of VRFs per system6 1000 1000 1000
3 The number of LSAs equals the number of prefixes.
4 The number of LSAs equals the number of prefixes.
5 Only 16 paths are active and programmed to the hardware, as long as maximum-paths ibgp 16 is configured.
6 With each new VDC configured, the number of configurable VRFs per system is reduced by two as each VDC has a default VRF and management VRFs that are not removable. For example, with 8 configured VDCs on Cisco NX-OS Release 5.2, you can configure up to 984 VRFs per system (either all in one VDC or across VDCs).

Configuration Limits for VDCs

Table 15 Configuration Limits for VDCs
Feature Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 6.1) Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 6.0) Verified Limit (Cisco NX-OS 5.2)
VDCs with Supervisor 1 4 (including 1 default VDC) 4 (including 1 default VDC) 4 (including 1 default VDC)
VDCs with Supervisor 2 4+1 (with admin VDC feature) N/A N/A
VDCs with Supervisor 2E 8+1 (with admin VDC feature) N/A N/A
VDC resource templates 64 64 64