Cisco Data Center Networking (DCN) Licensing Ordering Guide
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How to order Cisco Nexus Dashboard
Cisco Nexus® Dashboard is a single console for full-lifecycle data center network automation, operations, and analytics across LAN, SAN, IP Fabric for Media (IPFM), Cisco Nexus Data Broker
This document covers the ordering of Cisco Nexus Dashboard appliances and related licensing.
Components include:
● Cisco Nexus Dashboard Platform: Physical compute, virtual Nexus Dashboard, and public cloud-hosted Nexus Dashboard. Nexus Dashboard platform does not require licensing; instead, the usage of Nexus Dashboard features is entitled through the licensing assigned to onboarded switches.
Ordering is made easy through two simple steps
Step 1: Choose the appropriate switch license.
For the full breakdown of what features are included in each tier, please reference the Cisco® Data Center Networking (DCN) Software Subscriptions page. You can order these subscription licenses for three-year, five-year, and seven-year terms. They are available under "Subscription Licenses" when you order a Cisco N9000 Series Switch.
Option 1: Cisco DCN Premier license
Option 2: Cisco DCN Advantage license
Option 3: Cisco DCN Essentials license
Step 2: Choose Cisco Nexus Dashboard Platform: physical, virtual, or cloud.
Cisco Nexus Dashboard Platform: The Cisco Nexus Dashboard physical appliances (ND-NODE-L4, ND-NODEG5S and ND-NODEG5L) are purpose-built to provide a suite of services. The Cisco Nexus Dashboard solution offers high availability, lifecycle management, and network automation. Cisco Nexus Dashboard can be deployed as 1, 3, or 6 node clusters, with additional nodes to operate as standby appliances for higher resiliency and faster recovery. Larger clusters may be required to provide the necessary hardware performance and scale.
Virtual Nexus Dashboard: Cisco Nexus Dashboard is available as a virtual appliance (ND-VIRTUAL=).
Nexus Dashboard hosted on public cloud: Available on AWS and Microsoft Azure platforms (ND-CLOUD-AWS=, ND-CLOUD-AZURE=). Please refer to the Nexus Dashboard services and deployment guide for more information.
Cisco Nexus Dashboard with native Splunk: Cisco Nexus Dashboard now offers native Splunk®, allowing for seamless data observability and analytics within your data-center environment (ND-SPLUNK).
Option 1: Cisco DCN Premier license
Cisco DCN Premier license is available under "Subscription Licenses" when you order a Cisco N9000 Series Switch.
Cisco DCN Premier subscription license three-year, five-year, and seven-year terms as part of ordering hardware Cisco DCN Premier license is also available without hardware under C1-N9K-ADD-T top level PID.
Cisco DCN Premier subscription license three-year, five-year, and seven-year terms ordered à la carte
Option 2: Cisco DCN Advantage license
A Cisco DCN Advantage license is available under "Subscription Licenses" when you order a Cisco N9000 Series Switch.
Cisco DCN Advantage subscription license three-year, five-year, and seven-year terms as part of ordering hardware
A Cisco DCN Advantage license is also available without hardware under a C1-N9K-ADD-T top-level PID.
Cisco DCN Advantage subscription license three-year, five-year, and seven-year terms ordered à la carte
Option 3: Cisco DCN Essentials license
A Cisco DCN Essentials license is available under "Subscription Licenses" when you order a Cisco N9000 Series Switch.
Cisco DCN Essentials subscription license three-year, five-year, and seven-year terms as part of ordering hardware A Cisco DCN Essentials license is also available without hardware under a C1-N9K-ADD-T top-level PID.
Cisco DCN Essentials subscription license three-year, five-year, and seven-year terms ordered à la carte
Step 2: Cisco Nexus Dashboard Platform
Cisco Nexus Dashboard Platform is a purpose-built physical appliance that is designed to run Cisco Nexus Dashboard. Cisco Nexus Dashboard will be preinstalled on the physical Nexus Dashboard before shipment. The latest 3rd-generation physical appliances come in two form factors – G5S (small) and G5L (large) – which have different scaling capacities. These appliances can be ordered as a cluster of three appliances or individually. Please see the Nexus Dashboard Capacity Planning tool for scaling information
Ordering Cisco Nexus Dashboard Platform 3rd-generation physical appliances
Option 2: Cisco Nexus Dashboard Platform (ND-CLUSTER-L4, ND-NODE-L4) physical compute
The Cisco Nexus Dashboard Platform is a purpose-built physical appliance that is designed to run Cisco Nexus Dashboard. Cisco Nexus Dashboard will be preinstalled on the physical Nexus Dashboard before shipment. These 2nd-generation physical appliances can be ordered as a cluster of three appliances or individually. Please see the Nexus Dashboard Capacity Planning tool for scaling information
Option 3: Cisco Virtual Nexus Dashboard (ND-VIRTUAL=)
Cisco Nexus Dashboard is available as a virtual appliance (ND-VIRTUAL=). One PID is required per cluster regardless of the number of virtual nodes. Please see the Nexus Dashboard Capacity Planning tool for scaling information
A support contract specific to Cisco Virtual Nexus Dashboard is not required. It is covered by the switch support.
Ordering Cisco Virtual Nexus Dashboard
Option 4: Cisco Nexus Dashboard hosted on public cloud (ND-CLOUD-AWS=, ND-CLOUD-AZURE=)
Please note that Cisco Nexus Dashboard hosted in the cloud is designed to be used with Nexus Dashboard capabilities but will have some scale limitations and connectivity requirements. Please check out the latest Nexus Dashboard deployment guides for more information.
Licenses can be purchased through Cisco Commerce and applied in AWS and Microsoft Azure.
Ordering Cisco Nexus Dashboard hosted on public cloud
Option 5: Cisco Nexus Dashboard with native Splunk (ND-SPLUNK)
Cisco Nexus Dashboard now offers native Splunk, allowing for seamless data observability and analytics within your data center environment. This capability enables users to leverage Splunk’s powerful diagnostic tools directly alongside their Cisco Nexus Dashboard.
Technical specifications and limitations
Hardware support: This capability is supported exclusively on the single-node appliance: ND-NODE-G5S. A new bundle (ND-SPLUNK) must be purchased.
Usage limits: Splunk is configured with a maximum daily ingestion limit of 10 GB and a data retention period of 30 days.
Licensing and ordering
License tier: This feature is included as part of the switch DCN Premier license tier.
Ordering eligibility for native Splunk
Partners are required to be both certified by Cisco and badged by Splunk with:
● Splunk Sell Associate or higher and Cisco Integrator Select or higher, or
● Splunk MSP or higher and Cisco Provider Select or higher
Distributor eligibility includes:
● Cisco Customer Experience (CX) specialization
● Cisco Advanced Security specialization
● Splunk Sell (Resell) and Manage (MSP) fundamentals enablement
● Cisco Enterprise Agreement (EA) accreditation: Distributor Center of Excellence for Enterprise Agreements
For the next steps in ordering (in this case, a native Splunk example), follow the instructions below to configure your order through Cisco Commerce:
Step 1: Select the new Major Line Bundle (MLB).
Step 2: Select Nexus Dashboard options such as Image and power supply.
Step 3: Select Splunk subscription by clicking on edit options.
Step 4: Edit the Terms for Splunk subscription.
Step 5: Update the billings to 36 months or an end date based on your current premier subscription.
Step 6: Verify the License details.
For additional Splunk licenses:
The native Splunk integration with your DCN switch Premier license supports up to 10GB/day of data ingest within Nexus Dashboard. For ingesting greater than 10GB/day within Nexus Dashboard or ingesting data from other products in your Cisco portfolio, please reach out to your Splunk account team for a complete Splunk Enterprise license.
● Cisco DCN software subscriptions
● Cisco NX-OS licensing options guide
● Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI®) ordering guide.
● Cisco Nexus Dashboard capacity planning and sizing calculator
● Cisco Enterprise Agreement (EA) 3.0 networking guide.
● Learn about Splunk licensing