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This chapter describes the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform (CSP) and includes the following topics:
The Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform product family includes the Cisco Nexus 1010, Cisco Nexus 1010-X, Cisco Nexus 1110-S, and the Cisco Nexus 1110-X.
The Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform product family product family comprises networking appliances that can host from 6 up to 14 Cisco Nexus 1000V virtual service blades (VSBS) on a Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform.
The Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform product family supports VSBs like Cisco Nexus 1000V Virtual Supervisor Module (VSM), Cisco NetScalar 1000v, Network Analysis Module (NAM), Virtual Security Gateway (VSG), and Data Center Network Management Module (DCNM).
The Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform provides dedicated hardware for the VSM. From a network management perspective, the hosted VSMs appear as a cluster. Each VSM and its associated VEMs make up one virtual switch. VSMs that were hosted on VMware virtual machines can be hosted on a Cisco Nexus 1010, Cisco Nexus 1010-X, Cisco Nexus 1110-S, or Cisco Nexus 1110-X appliance. This allows you to install and manage the VSM like a standard Cisco switch. The services (VSM, VSG, DCNM, or NAM) managed by the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform product family are called virtual service blades.
This section includes the following topics:
Table 1-1 describes the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform product family hardware features.
For a complete description and specifications, see the “Technical Specifications” section.
Note The VSB density is 6 to 10 on the 1110-S and 10 to 14 on the 1110-X.
This section describes the front panel of a Cisco Nexus 1010 and Cisco Nexus 1010-X.
For a complete description of LED indicators, see the “Status LEDs” section.
Figure 1-1 Front panel of a Cisco Nexus 1010
This section describes the front panel of a Cisco Nexus 1110-S and Cisco Nexus 1110-X.
Figure 1-2 Font Panel Features
This section describes the rear panel of a Cisco Nexus 1010.
For a complete description of LED indicators, see the “Status LEDs” section.
Figure 1-3 Rear panel of a Cisco Nexus 1010
10/100 Ethernet CIMC management port (RJ-45)1 Used for configuration of the Cisco Integrated Management Controller (CIMC) software only. Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform software is configured using the serial connector port (number 4). The Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform only supports Gigabit ports. |
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Used with the supplied thumb drive for transferring a script file. |
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Used for out-of-band terminal access or serial over LAN access for Cisco Nexus 1010 and Cisco Nexus 1010-X software configuration. |
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This section describes the rear panel of a Cisco Nexus 1110-S and Cisco Nexus 1110-X. Figure 1-4 shows the rear panel features. See labels 2 and 3 of Figure 1-4 to distinguish between the Cisco Nexus 1110-S and Cisco Nexus 1110-X.
Figure 1-4 Rear Panel of a Cisco Nexus 1110-S and Cisco Nexus 1110-X
Note For details about configuring the ports on the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform, refer to Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform Software Installation and Upgrade Guide
The Cisco Integrated Management Controller (CIMC) is a software interface included with the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform. CIMC allows you to configure serial over LAN (SoL) access and set up remote management in the event the device becomes unreachable. When installing the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform, you have the option of configuring the CIMC interface. To configure the CIMC software while installing the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform, see the “Installing a Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform with CIMC” section.
Virtual Service Blades on the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform can offload their security processing capacity to a dedicated external processor to improve their performance. Depending on their deployment models, different VSBs may require more or less processing capacity than the others on the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform.
In order to meet the security processing requirements of the VSBs, starting this release, the Cisco Nexus 1110-X, supports the Cavium Nitrox Crypto Compression card also known as the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) card, as a Field Replacement Unit (FRU) to enable the secure socket layer and crypto acceleration.
Note The UCS firmware should be upgraded for an SSL card to be supported. For details, see the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform Software Configuration Guide, Release 5.2(1)SP1(7.1).
The SSL card provides a total of 30 GBps of SSL offload capacity that is shared by all the VSBs on the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform. The Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform slices the security processor card and allocates the corresponding capacities to the VSBs, based on their bandwidth requirement. However, you have to configure the VSBs to utilize the allocated slice of the security processor card. For detailed information about Configuring SSL and Crypto Offload Capability in a Virtual Service Blade, see the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform Software Configuration Guide, Release 5.2(1)SP1(7.1).
The Cisco Nexus 1110-X is shipped with two Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCIe) slots with Cisco UCS VIC 1225 (UCSC-PCIE-CSC-02) or the10G Dual Port VIC (dual port 10G card) and the Intel 1G Quad Port NIC (Quad port 1G card) inserted by default. Starting this release, the Dual port 10G card and the Quad port 1G card can be replaced by the SSL card. You can add an SSL card without service interruption.
This section describes the steps to install the SSL card on your Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform.
Step 1 Power down the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform and then disconnect the power cords to each power supply. The system is powered down when the LEDs on each power supply are off.
Step 2 Disconnect the up-links from the network.
Step 3 Slide the Cisco Nexus 1110-X out from the rack, and remove its top panel.
Step 4 Once you remove the top panel, you can see the Cisco Nexus 1110-X with its default configuration. The PCIe2 slot has the Quad port 1G card and the PCIe1 slot has the Dual port 10G card.
Step 5 You have two options. You can either replace the Quad port Intel NIC by the SSL card in the PCIe slot 2, or you can replace the Dual port VIC card with the SSL card in the PCIe1 slot.
Step 6 Once the SSL card is installed in the desired PCIe slot, slide the lid of the Cisco Nexus 1110-X back, restore all the configurations and power on the device. To view a video of the installation, see the Hardware Installation Video.
Step 7 Once the SSL card is installed, you can configure it using the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform Software CLI. For detailed information about enabling a 10G Card on the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform, see the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform Software Configuration Guide, Release 5.2(1)SP1(7.1).
The following are the guidelines for using the SSL card on the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform.
1. The SSL card is supported as a Field Replacement Unit (FRU) only on the Cisco Nexus 1110-X.
2. Multiple VSBs on a single Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform can offload their security processing to a single security processor.
3. The SSL card is supported only on a new deployment and you cannot upgrade your existing Cisco Nexus 1110-X pair to a crypto enabled Cisco Nexus 1110-X pair. However, you can convert the existing Cisco Nexus 1110-X to a crypto enabled appliance by replacing the Quad Port Card or 10G card with an SSL card and reinstalling the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform software. For information about installing the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform software, see the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform Software Installation and Upgrade Guide, Release 5.2(1)SP1(7.1) .
Note All the existing configuration and the VSBs on your Cisco Nexus 1110-X will be lost when you reinstall the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform software.
4. If the security processor card used by a VSB gets disabled, the VSB moves to the shutdown state in the following cases:
– When the presence of an SSL card is not detected after a system reboot.
Note When a Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform is paired with a new HA appliance, and the HA Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform does not have an SSL card, the VSB will be moved to the shutdown state on the newly paired HA appliance
To get started with the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform, you first install the hardware appliance and connect it to the network. This document includes procedures for doing this. This document also includes crucial safety information and prerequisite information for each step of the hardware install.
Note There are some changes to the hardware installation process in this release. Starting this release, the Dual port 10G card and the Quad port 1G card can be replaced by the SSL card.
You can use either of the following processes to install the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform hardware. The difference is whether you include CIMC configuration.
Once you install the hardware and connect it to the network, you can configure the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform product family management software which includes migrating existing VSMs from a VM to the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform appliance as virtual service blades (VSBs), or creating and configuring new VSBs. Detailed information about configuring the software is found in the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform Configuration Guide .
For an overview of the complete installation process, see the “Flow Chart: Installing and Configuring the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform” section.
For detailed steps of an installation workflow, see http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/nexus1000/cloud_services_platform/521_SP1_71/workflow/cisco_nexus_1110_csp_installation_workflow.html.
Figure 1-5 and Figure 1-6 show the basic steps for installing and configuring the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform product family.
Figure 1-5 Flow Chart: Installing and Configuring the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform
Figure 1-6 Flow Chart: Installing and Configuring the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform
The procedures for installing the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform hardware are included in this document. For details about configuring the Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform, refer to Cisco Nexus Cloud Services Platform Software Installation and Upgrade Guide.