Lenovo RackSwitch G8272 Product Manual page 4

The RackSwitch G8272 with Enterprise NOS offers the following additional features:
Virtual Fabric
The RackSwitch G8272 can help customers address I/O requirements for multiple NICs while
reducing cost and complexity. By using Unified Fabric Port, you can carve a physical NIC into
multiple virtual ports (2 - 8 vPorts) and create a virtual pipe between the adapter and the switch for
improved performance, availability, and security.
Transparent networking capability
With a simple configuration change to Easy Connect Mode, the RackSwitch G8272 becomes a
transparent network device that is invisible to the core and eliminates network administration
concerns of Spanning Tree Protocol configuration and interoperability and VLAN assignments and
avoids any possible loops. By emulating a host NIC to the data center core, it accelerates the
provisioning of VMs by eliminating the need to configure the typical access switch parameters.
OpenFlow enabled
The RackSwitch G8272 offers benefits of OpenFlow. OpenFlow is the open API that enables the
network administrator to easily configure and manage virtual networks that control traffic on a "per-
flow" basis. It creates multiple independent virtual networks and related policies without dealing
with the complexities of the underlying physical network and protocols. The RackSwitch G8272 is
also the ideal switch to use with industry compliant OpenFlow controllers.
The following table compares high level features of the CNOS and ENOS.
Table 1. CNOS and ENOS high level feature comparison
Feature
Layer 2 switching
Layer 3 switching
EasyConnect mode
IP routing
Comprehensive IP v6 support
Unified Fabric Port
Converged Enhanced Ethernet
FCoE
OpenFlow SDN
Automated VM-aware network provisioning**
Real-time congestion monitoring with telemetry
Zero touch provisioning
REST API programming
Python scripting
* Not all ENOS features support IP v6 addressing, including DHCP, BGP, VRRP, and TACACS+/RADIUS/LDAP.
** Supported with the Nutanix software version 5.0.2 or higher; requires an AHV hypervisor.
Lenovo RackSwitch G8272
CNOS ENOS
Yes Yes
Yes Yes
No Yes
Yes Yes
Yes No*
No Yes
Yes Yes
No Yes
No Yes
Yes No
Yes No
Yes No
Yes No
Yes Yes
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