Cisco Nexus 5500 Series Release Notes, Cisco NX-OS Release 6.02

Cisco Nexus Devices

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 5500 Series, see the Cisco Nexus 5500 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 5500 Series devices to provide high-density and low-cost connectivity for server aggregation. Scaling across 1-Gigabit Ethernet, 10-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 number of servers and hosts that can be configured with the same feature set as the parent Cisco Nexus 5500 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 5500 Series Layer 2 Switching Configuration Guide.

Hardware Supported

The Cisco NX-OS software supports the Cisco Nexus devices. Starting with Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N1(2), the Cisco Nexus 5010 and 5020 switches are not supported. You can find detailed information about supported hardware in the Cisco Nexus 5500 Series Hardware Installation Guide.

Table 2 shows the hardware supported by Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(x) software.

Online Insertion and Removal Support

Table 4 shows the hardware and Cisco NX-OS Release 6.x software that supports online insertion and removal (OIR).

New Software Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N2(7)

There are no new software features in this release.

New Software Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N2(6)

There are no new software features in this release.

New Software Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N2(5a)

There are no new software features in this release.

New Software Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N2(5)

There are no new software features in this release.

New Software Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N2(4)

There are no new software features in this release.

New Software Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N2(3)

There are no new software features in this release.

New Software Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N2(2)

Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N2(2) is a maintenance release that includes bug fixes and the following software features and enhancements:

• Command Addition: cts role-based batched-programming

Command Addition: cts role-based batched-programming

Enabling CTS Batch Programming by entering the cts role-based batched-programming command enables faster programming on SGACLs associated with large numbers of SGT,DGT pairs.

New Software Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N2(1)

Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N2(1) is a maintenance release that includes bug fixes and the following software features and enhancements:

• Bidirectional Forwarding Detection
• Command Update: show lldp system -detail
• Default Interface
• Embedded Event Manager Support
• Network Time Protocol Server
• Policy Based Routing
• DHCPv4-relay and DHCPv6-relay
• FEX Host Interface Storm Control
• Scalability Enhancements
• SNMP Bridge-MIB and LLDP MIB
• vPC Shutdown
• vPC+ Routing Protocol Peering

Bidirectional Forwarding Detection

Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) is a detection protocol designed to provide fast forwarding-path failure detection times for media types, encapsulations, topologies, and routing protocols. Starting with Release 6.0(2)N2(1), the Cisco Nexus 5500 supports BFD for BGP, EIGRP, OSPF, PIM, HSRP, VRRP, and static routes.

Command Update: show lldp system -detail

The show lldp command now includes an optional keyword for displaying system details.

Default Interface

You can use the default interface command to clear the existing configuration of multiple interfaces and return them to default settings. The command can be used for interfaces such as Ethernet, loopback, VLAN network, port-channel, and tunnel interfaces. You can use the checkpoint keyword with the command to create a copy of the interface configuration before clearing it so that you can restore it later.

Embedded Event Manager Support

The Embedded Event Manager (EEM) monitors events that occur on your device and takes action to recover from or troubleshoot these events, based on your configuration. You can use EEM to create policies that consist of a set of actions to be taken in response to a specific event. EEM can be controlled through CLI commands or Vsh scripts.

Network Time Protocol Server

A Cisco Nexus 5500 switch can use the Network Time Protocol (NTP) to synchronize the network. Other devices can be configured to use the switch as an NTP time server. In an isolated network, the switch can be configured as an authoritative NTP clock source.

An NTP server usually receives its time from an authoritative time source, such as a radio clock or an atomic clock attached to a time server, and then distributes this time across the network. NTP is extremely efficient; no more than one packet per minute is necessary to synchronize two devices to within a millisecond of each other.

Policy Based Routing

The Cisco Nexus 5500 now supports policy-based routing (PBR). PBR allows you to configure a defined policy for IPv4 and IPv6 traffic flows, lessening reliance on routes derived from routing protocols.

DHCPv4-relay and DHCPv6-relay

Up to 32 DHCP server addresses can now be configured on an interface. Previously, the maximum number of configurable server addresses was 16.

FEX Host Interface Storm Control

HIF Storm control allows ingress traffic suppression for unknown multicast, broadcast, and unknown unicast traffic on Fabric Extender (FEX) Host Interface (HIF) ports and port channels.

Scalability Enhancements

As documented in the release specific Verified Scalability for Cisco Nexus 5500 Series documents, configuration limits (verified scalability) for several Layer 2 switching functions has increased. Verified and maximum limits have changed for some features, including:

• Channels/vPCs
• EtherChannels
• IGMP Snooping groups
• Logical interfaces (PVs)
• Number of FEX ports
• Number of switchports

SNMP Bridge-MIB and LLDP MIB

SNMP Bridge and LLDP MIBs have been published.

vPC Shutdown

You can use the vPC shutdown command to isolate a switch from the vPC complex. The switch can then be debugged, reloaded, or removed physically, without affecting the vPC traffic going through the nonisolated switch.

vPC+ Routing Protocol Peering

Added support for routing unicast and multicast protocol over vPC+.

New Software Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N1(2)

Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N1(2) is a maintenance release that includes bug fixes and the following software features and enhancements:

• 802.1x Authentication
• FEX NIF Storm Control
• IP-Directed Broadcast
• iSCSI TLV Configuration
• Port Channel Minimum Links

802.1x Authentication

Support added for the IEEE 802.1X, which provides a client-server-based access control and authentication protocol that restricts unauthorized devices from connecting to a LAN through publicly accessible ports. The authentication server authenticates each client connected to a switch port before making available any services offered by the switch or the LAN.

FEX NIF Storm Control

The NIF Storm Control feature allows configuration on a Satellite Fabric port to all the pinned FEX HIF ports regardless of whether it is a logical or a physical HIF. In addition, a new syslog message informs the user when a switch port that has a Storm Control configuration is starting to see a storm of broadcast, multicast, or unicast when it starts dropping packets. You see another syslog message when the storm stops.

IP-Directed Broadcast

You can use an IP-directed broadcast to send a broadcast from a device that is not directly connected to the destination IP subnet. An ACL name can be specified for the broadcast. (This resolves caveat CSCuh1963.)

iSCSI TLV Configuration

As documented in the Cisco Nexus 5500 Series NX-OS SAN Switching Configuration Guide, Release 6.x, NICs and converged network adapters connected to a Cisco Nexus 5500 Series switch can use iSCSI as a storage protocol and can be programmed to accept the configuration values sent by the switch leveraging data center bridging exchange protocol (DCBX). DCBX negotiates configuration and settings between the switch and the adapter through a variety of type-length-values (TLV) and sub-TLVs. This process allows the switch to distribute configuration values to all attached adapters from a centralized location instead of having to manually program CoS markings on each individual server and adapter.

Port Channel Minimum Links

Added support to configure a minimum number of links for the port channel so that when a certain number of port-channel member ports go down, the host-facing interfaces are suspended.

New Software Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N1(1)

Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N1(1) includes bug fixes and the following software features and enhancements:

• Ingress Policing
• Glean Throttling
• ACL Logging
• POAP Enhancement
• BGP Enhancement
• VRF Route Leaking
• FCoE over 10GBASE-T

Ingress Policing

Policing allows you to monitor the data rates for a particular class of traffic. When the data rate exceeds user-configured values, the switch drops packets immediately. Because policing does not buffer the traffic, transmission delays are not affected. When traffic exceeds the data rate, you instruct the system to drop the packets. You can define single-rate and two-color ingress policing.

Glean Throttling

When forwarding an incoming IP packet in a line card, if the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) request for the next hop is not resolved, the line card forwards the packets to the supervisor, referred to as glean throttling. The supervisor resolves the MAC address for the next hop and programs the hardware.

The Cisco Nexus 5500 Series device hardware has glean rate limiters to protect the supervisor from the glean traffic. If the maximum number of entries is exceeded, the packets for which the ARP request is not resolved continues to be processed in the software instead of getting dropped in the hardware.

When an ARP request is sent, the software adds a /32 drop adjacency in the hardware to prevent the packets to the same next-hop IP address from being forwarded to the supervisor. When the ARP entry is resolved, the hardware entry is updated with the correct MAC address. If the ARP entry is not resolved before a timeout period, the entry is removed from the hardware.

ACL Logging

The ACL logging feature allows the logging of packets that hit the IPv4 ACLs. The log messages are displayed on a flow basis. The flow is identified using a combination of the IP source address, destination address, L4 protocol, and the L4 source/destination ports on an interface. The log message is generated under the following conditions:

• INFO message—When a new flow is created
• WARNING message—When the packet threshold is reached for a flow
• Configurable INFO message—At the end of a periodic interval containing information on the number of packets to hit the flow. The interval default is 5 minutes.

The log keyword is not supported with any permit statement for PACL or RACL. The log keyword is supported only with deny statements.

Note When the number of flows exceed a threshold in the given interval, a warning message is logged, and that flow is not added to the logging cache.

POAP Enhancement

POAP enhancements include hostname- and MAC address-based configuration file selection, TCL or Python script logging, and a remote syslog facility.

BGP Enhancement

BGP enhancements include BGP Allow-AS-in, local-AS, prefix-peering, AS-path relax, and remove-private-AS.

VRF Route Leaking

Support for VRF route leaking enables the sharing of routes that were previously visible and available only in segmented networks.

FCoE over 10GBASE-T

FCoE configuration is supported over 10GBASE-T using Cat6a and Cat7 cables up to a distance of 30 m.

Open Management Infrastructure

The Open Management Infrastructure (OMI) agent is a web server that runs on the Cisco Nexus switch. It is based on the Common Infrastructure Model (CIM) standard, which is an open standard that defines a schema for representing managed resources (for example, CPUs, disks, networks, processes, and so on.). The OMI agent enables you to perform the following operations:

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N2(7)

No new hardware features have been introduced with this release.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N2(6)

No new hardware features have been introduced with this release.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N2(5a)

No new hardware features have been introduced with this release.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N2(5)

Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N2(5) supports the following new hardware:

• QSA Optics with 10G SR

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N2(1b)

Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N2(1b) supports the following new hardware:

• N2K-B22IBM-P—Cisco Nexus B22 Fabric Extender for IBM

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N2(1)

No new hardware features have been introduced with this release.

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N1(2)

Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N1(2) supports the following new hardware:

• 4-port QSFP+ Nexus N55-M4Q GEM
• New power supplies for Cisco Nexus 5596T and Cisco Nexus 5596UP switches:

– Cisco Nexus 1100 W AC front-to-back power supply (PID: NXA-PAC-1100W)

– Cisco Nexus 1100 W AC back-to-front power supply (PID: NXA-PAC-1100W-B)

– Cisco Nexus 1100 W DC front-to-back power supply (PID: N55-PDC-1100W)

• New transceivers:

– QSFP-4X10G-AC7M

– QSFP-4X10G-AC10M

– QSFP-40G-LR4

– SFP-H10GB-CU1.5M

– SFP-H10GB-CU2M

– SFP-H10GB-CU2.5M

– GLC-LH-SMD

– GLC-EX-SMD

New Hardware Features in Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N1(1)

Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N1(1) supports the following new hardware:

• Cisco Nexus 2248PQ 10-Gigabit FEX

New Hardware Features

This section describes the following new hardware:

• Cisco Nexus 2248TP-E Fabric Extender
• Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Expansion Modules
• ER Optics Support

Cisco Nexus 2248TP-E Fabric Extender

The new Cisco Nexus 2248TP-E Fabric Extender is a 1-RU, general purpose 100-Mb/1-G FEX that is optimized for specialized data center workloads such as data, distributed storage, distributed computing, market data, and video editing. The Cisco Nexus 2248TP-E FEX has 48x1 Gigabit Ethernet host ports and 4x10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks. It supports all of the existing features and topologies as the Cisco Nexus 2248 and the Cisco Nexus 2148 support. In addition, the Cisco Nexus 2248TP-E offers rich counters for troubleshooting and capacity monitoring. It has a user-configurable shared buffer, and it has a per-port ingress and egress queue limit.

For detailed information about the Cisco Nexus 2248TP-E FEX, see the Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Hardware Installation Guide.

Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Expansion Modules

Two new Generic Expansion Modules (GEM) are being released:

• Layer 3 GEM, N55-M160L3-V2
• Layer 3 I/O Module, N55-D160L3-V2

ER Optics Support

The 10-Gigabit Ethernet, extended range SFP+ module (SFP-10G-ER) supports a link length of up to 40 kilometers on standard single-mode fiber (SMF, G.652). All Cisco Nexus 5500 switches and all Cisco FEX models support the new SFP-10G-ER optic.

Note Cisco Nexus 2232 FEX does not support the SFP+ module on the HIF port.

New Software Features—Cisco Nexus 5500 Switch

Cisco NX-OS Release 5.1(3)N1(1) supports the following new software features only on the Cisco Nexus 5500 switch:

• Cisco FabricPath
• Cisco TrustSec
• Adapter FEX
• VM-FEX
• Support for FCoE on a Dual Homed FEX
• CoPP
• Enhanced vPC Support
• IP ARP Synchronization
• Management SVI

Cisco FabricPath

Cisco FabricPath is a set of multipath Ethernet technologies that combine the reliability and scalability benefits of Layer 3 routing with the flexibility of Layer 2 networks, which enables it to build scalable data centers. Cisco FabricPath offers a topology-based Layer 2 routing mechanism that provides an equal-cost multipath (ECMP) forwarding model. Cisco NX-OS Release 5.1(3)N1(1) supports one FabricPath topology.

The FabricPath feature provides the following:

• Allows Layer 2 multipathing in the FabricPath network.
• Provides built-in loop prevention and mitigation with no need to use the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP).
• Provides a single control plane for unknown unicast, unicast, broadcast, and multicast traffic.
• Enhances mobility and virtualization in the FabricPath network.

The FabricPath network uses the Layer 2 Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System (IS-IS) protocol to forward traffic in the network using the FabricPath headers. Layer 2 IS-IS is different than Layer 3 IS-IS; the two protocols work independently. Layer 2 IS-IS requires no configuration and becomes operational when you enable FabricPath on the device. The frames carry the same FTag that is assigned at ingress throughout the FabricPath network, and Layer 2 IS-IS allows all devices to have the same view of all the trees built by the system. Known unicast traffic uses the Equal Cost Multipath Protocol (ECMP) to forward traffic throughout the network. The system automatically load balances traffic throughout the FabricPath network by using ECMP and the trees.

Cisco FabricPath is supported on all Cisco Nexus 5500 switches (N5K-C5596UP-FA, N5K-C5548UP-FA, and N5K-C5548P-FA). The switch must be running Cisco NX-OS Release 5.1(3)N1(1). In addition, Cisco FabricPath requires the Enhanced Layer 2 license. For licensing information, see the License and Copyright Information for Cisco NX-OS Software document.

For detailed information about Cisco FabricPath, see the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series NX-OS FabricPath Configuration Guide.

Cisco TrustSec

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. The tag, also called the security group tag (SGT), allows the network to enforce the access control policy by enabling the endpoint device to act upon the SGT to filter traffic.

For more information about Cisco TrustSec, see the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series NX-OS Security Configuration Guide.

IEEE 1588 Time Synchronization

IEEE 1588 or Precision Time Protocol (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 Network Time Protocol (NTP).

A PTP system can consist of a combination of PTP and non-PTP devices. PTP devices include ordinary clocks, boundary clocks, and transparent clocks. Non-PTP devices include ordinary network switches, routers, and other infrastructure devices.

PTP is a distributed protocol that specifies how real-time PTP clocks in the system synchronize with each other. These clocks are organized into a master-member synchronization hierarchy with the grandmaster clock, the clock at the top of the hierarchy, determining the reference time for the entire system. Synchronization is achieved by exchanging PTP timing messages, with the members using the timing information to adjust their clocks to the time of their master in the hierarchy. PTP operates within a logical scope called a PTP domain.

Adapter FEX

Cisco is introducing Adapter-FEX support on the Cisco Nexus 5500 platform and on Cisco Nexus 2200 FEXes that are connected to a Cisco Nexus 5500 parent switch. The Cisco NX-OS Adapter-FEX feature provides the advantages of the FEX Link architecture with that of server I/O virtualization to create multiple virtual interfaces over a single Ethernet interface. This allows the deployment of a dual port NIC on the server and the ability to configure more than two virtual interfaces that the server sees as a regular Ethernet interface. The advantage of this approach is a reduction of power and cooling requirements and a reduction of the number of network ports.

The Adapter-FEX implementation is designed to work on a variety of FEX-capable adapters including the Cisco adapter for Cisco UCS C-Series Platform (UCS P81E VIC) and third-party adapters that implement VNTag technology. For additional, see Cisco UCS C-Series documentation.

Adapter-FEX supports FCoE when a VIC-enabled adapter is attached to a Cisco Nexus 2000 FEX or directly to a Cisco Nexus 5000 Series switch.

Adapter-FEX at the access layer needs a FEX-enabled adapter in a server that connects to a parent switch that supports Adapter-FEX functionality. There are two adapters that support Adapter-FEX functionality:

• Cisco UCS P81E Virtual Interface Card
• Broadcom NIV Adapter

Note Adapter FEX does not support SPAN and cannot be used as a SPAN source.

For detailed information about Adapter-FEX, see the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series NX-OS Adapter-FEX Configuration Guide.

VM-FEX

The VM-FEX is an extension of the FEX that extends to the VIC virtual interface card (VIC) in the server. It simulates ports and enables a high-speed link between the switch and the server. The VM-FEX consolidates the virtual and physical network. Each VM gets a dedicated port on the switch. In addition, the VM-FEX provides for vCenter management of Adapter-FEX interfaces.

The VM-FEX solution provides the following benefits:

• Policy-based VM connectivity
• Mobility of network and security properties
• A nondisruptive operation model

VM-FEX does not support SPAN and cannot be used as a SPAN source.

VM-FEX does not support FCoE in NPV mode. Support for this feature will be available when CSCts09434 is resolved, which is expected in the next maintenance release of VMware ESX 5.0.

For more information about VM-FEX, see the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series NX-OS Layer2 Switching Configuration Guide.

Support for FCoE on a Dual Homed FEX

The Cisco Adapter FEX with FCoE feature allows you to create an FCoE connection to a Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extender (FEX), which can then establish an FCoE connection to a server with a virtual interface card (VIC) adapter. The switch connects to the FEX through a virtual port channel (vPC) while the FEX connects to the server using a standard FCoE link between the FEX and the VIC adapter.

If you are using Enhanced vPC, the FEX can be associated with one and only one Cisco Nexus 5000 fabric for FCoE forwarding.

If you are using FabricPath, you must use a dedicated link for FCoE traffic.

If you are using a Cisco UCS C-Series Rack-Mount Server with a Cisco UCS P81E Virtual Interface Card (VIC):

• The VIC must be configured in Network Interface Virtualization (NIV) mode, which makes the two unified ports appear to the system as virtual host bus adapters (vHBAs).
• The VIC cannot be connected to the FEX through a VNP port. If this type of connection is used, NIV mode cannot be enabled on the VIC.
• The NIC mode on the Cisco UCS C-Series Rack-Mount Server must be set to active-standby.
• If you deploy FCoE over Adapter FEX on a server with a Cisco UCS P81E Virtual Interface Card (VIC) and that is running Windows 2008, you must install new versions of software drivers.

For more information about support for FCoE on Dual Homed FEX, see the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series NX-OS Fibre Channel over Ethernet Configuration Guide.

CoPP

Control Plane Policing (CoPP) provides QoS-based prioritization and protection of control plane traffic that arrives at the switch in the data plane, which ensures network stability, reachability, and packet delivery.

Cisco NX-OS Release 5.1(3)N1(1) provides several predefined CoPP policies that administrators can deploy for different environments. In these predefined CoPP policies, the classification of flows is predetermined and the policing rates for the flows is fixed. In addition, there is one flexible CoPP policy for cases where predefined policies do not address the needs of the deployment.

The CoPP implementation on Cisco Nexus 5500 Series switches provides three predefined COPP policies for different deployment environments.

• Default
• Scaled-Layer 2
• Scaled-Layer 3
• Customized Policy

The CoPP policies can be changed at run time like any other QoS configuration. Classification of flows is predetermined and cannot be modified. Policing rates for the flows is fixed and cannot be modified.

For additional information about CoPP, see the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series NX-OS Security Configuration Guide.

Enhanced vPC Support

Enhanced vPC (EvPC) provides a uniform access layer for any server to any FEX in hybrid deployments. In addition, EvPC provides data, control plane, and management plane redundancy. A new vPC option allows port channel connectivity to dual-homed FEXes.

The Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extender (FEX) that contains the port assigned to the vPC must be associated with the Cisco Nexus switch.

The CNA must be attached to the Cisco Nexus 2000 Series FEX rather than directly to the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series switch.

If you want to ensure backward compatibility for all previous configurations and supported topologies, you must configure the FEX in a straight-through FEX topology that does not use Enhanced vPC.

Note Enhanced vPC does not support SPAN and cannot be used as a SPAN source.

For more information about EvPC, see the Cisco Nexus 5000 Layer 2 Switching Configuration Guide.

IP ARP Synchronization

Cisco NX-OS Release 5.1(3)N1(1) introduces the ip arp synchronize command.When this command is enabled, faster convergence of address tables between the vPC peers is possible. This convergence is designed to overcome the delay involved in ARP table restoration when the peer-link port channel flaps or when a vPC peer comes back online.

Enabling ARP synchronization improves convergence times during the restart of a vPC peer when a Cisco Nexus 5000 Series switch acts as a default gateway. By default, ARP synchronization is not enabled.

For more information about IP ARP sync, see the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series NX-OS Layer 2 Switching Configuration Guide.

Management SVI

A switch virtual interface (SVI) is a VLAN of switch ports represented by one interface to a routing or bridging system. The SVI can be configured for routing, in which case it supports Layer 3 protocols for processing packets from all switch ports associated with the VLAN, or for in-band management of the switch.

Starting with Release 5.1(3)N1(1), the NX-OS switch has specific support for management SVIs. Having different SVIs for routing and management separates data traffic from management traffic, which can reduce competition for routing resources. If you are using an SVI for management purposes, we recommend that you specifically configure your SVI for management using the management command so that you can take advantage of this added functionality.

With this change, there are new guidelines and limitations for routed SVIs:

• Although the CLI does not prevent you from configuring routing protocols on a management SVI, we recommend that you do not configure them on management SVIs.
• Routed SVIs that are being used for management (that is, routed SVIs that have not been specifically configured for management using the management command) can still be used for management as long as the Layer 3 license is not installed.
• Management SVIs do not support configuration synchronization mode (config-sync). Configuration synchronization is performed using the mgmt 0 interface.
• RACL is not supported. Use VACL to filter the management traffic.

For more information about management SVIs, see the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series NX-OS Layer 2 Switching Configuration Guide.

New Software Features—Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switches

Cisco NX-OS Release 5.1(3)N1(1) supports the following new software features on all Cisco Nexus 5000 Series switches:

• ERSPAN
• Multicast VLAN Registration
• Port Security
• Boot from SAN with vPC
• Config-Sync Enhancements
• SNMP over IPv6
• Support for Eight Syslog Servers

ERSPAN

Encapsulated Remote Switched Port Analyzer (ERSPAN) introduces an additional level of flexibility to the powerful network monitoring capabilities of SPAN and RSPAN. ERSPAN allows the analyzer to be placed on one location and multiple switches can send mirrored traffic to this analyzer. Traffic from any port on the network on any remote switch can be analyzed without physically moving the analyzer tool.

• ERSPAN encapsulates SPAN traffic to IP-GRE frame format and allows remote monitoring traffic over an IP network.
• All Cisco Nexus 5000 Series switches, including Cisco Nexus 5500 switches, support ERSPAN.
• Cisco NX-OS Release 5.1(3)N1(1) supports an ERSPAN source session only; there is no support for an ERSPAN destination session. The Cisco Nexus 5000 Series switch hardware cannot deencapsulate an ERSPAN frame.
• ERSPN does not require a Layer 3 module and Layer 3 license.
• The Cisco Nexus 5010 and Nexus 5020 switches support two active ERSPAN sessions. The Cisco Nexus 5548P, Nexus 5548UP, and Nexus 5596UP switch support four active ERSPAN sessions.

For more information about ERSPAN, see the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series NX-OS System Management Configuration Guide.

Multicast VLAN Registration

Multicast VLAN Registration (MVR) allows a Layer 2 switch to deliver a multicast packet received from one VLAN to multiple receivers that reside in different VLANs, without Layer 3 replication.

MVR offers the following advantages:

• It reduces the overhead of Layer 3 multicast replication on a multicast router.
• It reduces the bandwidth consumption for the link between the Layer 2 switch and the multicast router.
• It reduces the multicast forwarding table size on the Layer 2 switch.

All models of Cisco Nexus 5000 Series switches support MVR.

For more information about MVR, see the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series NX-OS Layer 2 Switching Configuration Guide.

Port Security

Port security is a simple Ethernet MAC-based security feature that can restrict input to an interface by limiting and identifying MAC addresses of the end host that are allowed to access the port. Cisco NX-OS Release 5.1(3)N1(1) adds port security to the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series and Cisco Nexus 2000 Series, and it is available on both Cisco Nexus 5000 and Nexus 5500 switches. Port security supports the following features:

• It supports both physical ports and port channels.
• It supports vPC ports for the first time in Cisco NX-OS, and only in the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series. (Port security support for vPC ports is not available in the Cisco Nexus 7000 Series, although the port security feature itself is supported on that platform.)
• It supports EvPC ports.
• It does not support NIV ports.

A device maximum of 8192 secure MAC addresses in addition to one MAC address per port is supported. The interface maximum is 1025 MAC addresses per interface.

For additional information about the port security feature, see the Cisco Nexus 5000 NX-OS Security Configuration Guide.

FCoE Over Enhanced vPC

Beginning with the Cisco NXOS Release 5.1(3)N1(1) release, Cisco Nexus 5000 switches support FCoE on Enhanced vPC (eVPC). In a topology that uses FCoE with eVPC, the SAN fabrics must remain isolated. Therefore, each Cisco Nexus 2000 Fabric Extender in the system must be associated with one and only one Cisco Nexus 5000 Series switch. This guarantees that every time a Fabric Extender forwards FCoE traffic, it forwards it to the same Nexus 5000 switch.

For more information about FCoE over Enhanced vPC, see the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series NX-OS Fibre Channel over Ethernet Configuration Guide.

Boot from SAN with vPC

Cisco Nexus Series 5000 switches support SAN boot with vPC. A VFC interface must be bound to a vPC member physical interface (and not to the vPC port-channel interface itself) for a SAN boot to occur.

For more information about SAN boot with vPC, see the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series NX-OS Fibre Channel over Ethernet Configuration Guide.

Config-Sync Enhancements

Config-sync allows you to synchronize the configuration between a pair of vPC switches. It eliminates downtime due to vPC inconsistencies, simplifies vPC operations, and reduces administrative overhead.

The enhancements to config-sync in Cisco NX-OS Release 5.1(3)N1(1) remove the port channel configuration restriction that previously existed. All port channels and member interfaces should be configured inside a switch profile.

For more information about config-sync enhancements, see the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series NX-OS Layer 2 Switching Configuration Guide.

SNMP over IPv6

Cisco NX-OS Release 5.1(3)N1(1) supports SNMP over IPv6.

For more information, see the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series NX-OS System Management Configuration Guide.

Support for Eight Syslog Servers

In Cisco NX-OS Release 5.1(3)N1(1), you can configure up to eight syslog servers. You use the Cisco Fabric Services (CFS) to distribute the syslog server configuration; however, CFS distribution of the syslog server configuration is limited to three servers.

For more information, see the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series NX-OS System Management Configuration Guide.

Upgrade and Downgrade Guidelines

The following guidelines apply to Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N2(7) for Cisco Nexus devices:

• If host interface (HIF) port channels or EvPCs are configured in the system, and if the system was already upgraded to NX-OS Release 5.1(3)N1(1) or Release 5.1(3)N1(1a) from any release earlier than Release 5.1(3)N1(1), ensure that the system was reloaded at least once before you upgrade to Release 5.1(3)N2(1a) or Release 5.1(3)N2(1). If the switch was not previously reloaded, reload it and upgrade to Release 5.1(3)N2(1a) or Release 5.1(3)N2(1).
• When a Layer 3 license is installed, the Cisco Nexus 5500 Platform does not support an ISSU. Hot swapping a Layer 3 module, for example, the Layer-3 GEM (N55-M160L3-V2) or Version 2 Layer 3 daughter card (N55-D160L3-V2), is not supported. You must power down the Cisco Nexus device before removing or inserting a Layer-3 expansion module.
• 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.
• 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.

Supported Upgrade and Downgrade Paths for Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N2(7)

Table 6 shows the upgrade and downgrade possibilities for Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N2(7). For more information, see the Cisco Nexus 5500 Series NX-OS Software Upgrade and Downgrade Guide, Release 6.0(2)N2(7).

For other 6.0 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.

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 Doing a disruptive upgrade between incompatible images will result in loss of certain configurations such as unified ports, Fibre Channel (FC) ports, breakout, and FEX configurations. See CSCul22703 for details.

Note An upgrade from Cisco NX-OS release 5.2(1)N1(7) to 6.0(2)N2(3) or 6.0(2)N2(4) is disruptive and not supported. It is recommended to upgrade from Cisco NX-OS release 5.2(1)N1(6) to 6.0(2)N2(3) or 6.0(2)N2(4).

Note If you want to upgrade from a release, that is not listed in the “Current Cisco NX-OS Release” column of Table 6 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.

Limitations on the Cisco Nexus Device

The limitations on the Cisco Nexus device 5500 Series devices are as follows:

• SPAN Limitations on Fabric Extender Ports
• Checkpoint and Configuration Rollback Limitation

SPAN Limitations on Fabric Extender Ports

The SPAN limitations on Fabric Extender ports are as follows:

• 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 5500 Platform 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 on all VLANs for which the tx-source port is a member, is spanned. 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), 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, the broadcast, non-IGMP Layer-2 multicast, and 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.
• A FEX port cannot be configured as a SPAN destination. Only a switch port can be configured and used as a SPAN destination.
• Cisco NX-OS Release 5.1(3)N2(1) does not support SPAN on a VM FEX.

Checkpoint and Configuration Rollback Limitation

When FCoE is enabled, the checkpoint and configuration rollback functionality is disabled.

Upgrading and Downgrading Limitations

When upgrading and downgrading between Release 5.1(3)N2(1), Release 5.2(1)N1(1), and Release 5.2(1)N1(1a), you might see the following issues in switch profile mode:

• switchport command configuration issues

If you previously used the switchport access vlan command, the switchport trunk allowed vlan command, or the switchport trunk native vlan command to configure the switch profile mode, the configurations you created are not visible.

Note This problem is a configuration display issue only, and there is no traffic disruption.

Table 6 lists the situations where you might experience switchport command configuration issues and the workarounds.

• fex associate command issues

When in switch profile mode, the following commands are not visible:

– fex associate

Table 8 lists the situations where you might experience fex associate command issues and the workarounds.

Layer 3 Limitations

Asymmetric Configuration

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

Note The vPC consistency check does not include Layer 3 parameters.

SVI

When a Layer 3 module goes offline, all non-management SVIs are shut down. An SVI can be configured as a management SVI by entering the interface vlan command and configuring management. This configuration allows traffic to the management SVIs to not go through the Layer 3 module which maintains connectivity in case of a Layer 3 module failure.

Upgrading and Downgrading

When a Layer 3 license is installed, the Cisco Nexus 5500 platform does not support an ISSU. Layer 3 module hot swaps are not supported.

Cisco Nexus 5548P Daughter Card (N55-D160L3)

Before installing a Layer 3 daughter card (N55-D160L3) into a Cisco Nexus 5548P switch, you must upgrade to Cisco NX-OS Release NX-OS Release 5.0(3)N1(1c) or a later release, and then install the card into the chassis.

Open Caveats

Table 9 lists descriptions of open caveats in Cisco NX-OS Release 6.x.

The record ID links to the Cisco Bug Toolkit where you can find details about the caveat.

Resolved Caveats in Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N2(7)

Resolved Caveats in Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N2(6)

Resolved Caveats in Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N2(5a)

Resolved Caveats in Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N2(5)

Resolved Caveats in Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N2(4)

Resolved Caveats in Cisco NX-OS Release 6.0(2)N2(3)