Verified Scalability Limits

This document describes the Cisco NX-OS configuration limits for the Cisco Nexus 3600 platform switch.

Introduction

The values provided in this guide should not be interpreted as theoretical system limits for Cisco Nexus 3600 platform hardware or Cisco NX-OS software. These limits refer to values that have been validated by Cisco. They can increase over time as more testing and validation is done.

Verified Scalability Limits

The tables in this section list the verified scalability limits for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(3)F3(1). These limits are validated with a unidimensional configuration. The values provided in these tables focus on the scalability of one particular feature at a time.

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

Table 1. Interfaces Verified Scalability Limits (Unidimensional)

Feature

Verified Limit

DHCP servers/relay IPs per switch

5 (IPv4) + 5 (IPv6)1

Port channel member links

32

SVIs

410 (with HSRP), 2000 without HSRP2

vPCs

48
1 This limit has not been tested
2 This limit has not been tested
Table 2. Label Switching Verified Scalability Limits (Unidimensional)

Feature

Verified Limit

Forwarding Equivalence Classes (FECs)

1000

Equal-cost multipaths (ECMPs)

8

FECs ECMPs

4,000

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

Feature

Verified Limit

MAC addresses

192,000

MST instances

643

MST virtual ports

218,1854

RPVST virtual ports

13,7505

VLANs

40006

VLANs in RPVST mode

250
3 This limit has not been tested
4 This limit has not been tested
5 This limit has not been tested
6 This limit has not been tested
Table 4. Layer 3 Multicast Verified Scalability Limits (Unidimensional)

Feature

Verified Limit

IPv4 multicast routes

32,000 (Layer 3)

Outgoing interfaces (OIFs)

16 OIFs for 32K mroutes or 287 OIFs for 1000 mroutes

PIM neighbors

500
Table 5. Security Verified Scalability Limits (Unidimensional)

Feature

Verified Limit

IPv4 ingress access control entries (ACEs)

RACL-2048, PACL-1024 (without TCAM Carving) IPv4 52640 ACEs per system

IPv4 egress access control entries (ACEs)

N/A

IPv6 ingress access control entries (ACEs)

RACL-1024, PACL-1024 (without TCAM Carving) IPv4 25200 ACEs per system

IPv6 egress access control entries (ACEs)

N/A
Table 6. System Management Verified Scalability Limits (Unidimensional)

Feature

Verified Limit

SPAN and ERSPAN

Configurable SPAN or ERSPAN sessions

32

Active SPAN or ERSPAN sessions

32

Active localized SPAN or ERSPAN session per line card

32 sessions across ports on single line card

Active localized SPAN or ERSPAN session (Rx and Tx, Rx, or Tx)

32 sessions, 128 sources and 1 destination

Destination interfaces per SPAN session

1

Source VLANs per SPAN or ERSPAN

6
Table 7. Layer 3 Unicast Routing Verified Scalability Limits (Unidimensional)

Feature

Verified Limit

BFD sessions (echo mode)

288

BGP neighbors

256

HSRP groups

498

IPv4 ARP

80,000

IPv4 host routes

750,000

IPv6 host routes

62,000

IPv6 ND

32,000

IPv4 unicast routes (LPM)

192,000

IPv6 unicast routes (LPM)

62,000

OSPFv2 neighbors

1000

OSPFv3 neighbors

1000

OSPF/OSPFv3 LSA/LSDB size

100,000

OSPF/OSPFv3 areas

15

VRFs

1000

VRRP

VRRP groups per interface or I/O module

15

Deployment Case Studies

This section provides sample topologies for some common deployments. For each topology, the scalability numbers are the limits with all of the listed features enabled at the same time.


Attention

These numbers are not the maximum verified values if each feature is viewed in isolation. For these numbers, see the "Verified Scalability Limits" section.

Verified Scalability Limits (Multidimensional)

The tables in this section list the verified scalability limits for Cisco NX-OS Release 7.0(3)F3(1). These limits are validated with a multidimensional configuration. The values provided in these tables focus on the scalability of one particular feature at a time.

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

Table 8. MSDC Profile Verified Scalability Limits (Multidimensional)

Feature

Verified Limit

Number of 100G ports

2

vPC port channels

10

ISIS IPv4 /32 unicast routes

1,291

ISIS IPv6 /128 unicast routes

1,291

Multicast IPv4 SSM

10,000

VRF v4/v6

100

PIM neighbors

1,000

IGMP snooping database entries

240
Table 9. L2/L3 Boundary Verified Scalability Limits (Multidimensional)

Feature

Verified Limit

ECMP

16-way (Upstream)

VPC port channels

28

OSPFv2 neighbors

16

OSPFv3 neighbors

16

OSPF IPv4 /32 unicast routes

45,000

OSPF IPv4 VLSM unicast routes

1,000

OSPF IPv6 /128 unicast routes

25,000

OSPF IPv6 VLSM unicast routes

1,000

BFD sessions

230

VLAN

1,250

SVI

1,000

VRRP v4 groups

1,000 VRRS / 8 VRRPv3

VRRP v6 groups

1,000 VRRS / 8 VRRPv3

PIM neighbors

230

IPv4 (*,G) multicast routes

300

IPv6 (S,G) multicast routes

2,320

IGMP snooping database entries

6,300

Sflow enabled interfaces

45

UDLD enabled interfaces

48

SPAN sessions

1 local SPAN session

MVR VLANs

250

MVR receiver ports

10

MVR multicast groups

1,000