Cisco Nexus 7000 Design Manual page 43

•
•
For information on Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Switches configuration details, see:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/partner/products/ps9402/products_installation_and_configuration_guides
_list.html
VMware vCenter and vSphere
VMware vSphere 5.1 provides a platform for virtualization and comprises multiple components and
features. In this validation effort the following were used:
•
•
•
Enable Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) for infrastructure visibility and troubleshooting.
–
vPC considerations
Define a unique domain ID.
–
Set the priority of the intended vPC primary switch lower than the secondary (default priority
–
is 32768).
Establish peer keepalive connectivity. It is recommended to use the out-of-band management
–
network (mgmt0) or a dedicated switched virtual interface (SVI).
Enable vPC auto-recovery feature.
–
Enable IP ARP synchronization to optimize convergence across the vPC peer link.
–
Cisco Fabric Services over Ethernet (CFSoE) is responsible for synchronization of
Note
configuration, Spanning Tree, MAC and VLAN information which removes the requirement
for explicit configuration. The service is enabled by default.
– A minimum of two 10 Gigabit Ethernet connections are required for vPC peer-link
– All port channels should be configured in LACP active mode
NetApp controllers support LACP normal rate mode (Hello message every 30secs).
Note
Spanning tree considerations
Ensure the path cost method is set to long. This setting accounts for 10Gbe Ethernet links in
–
the environment.
The spanning tree priority was not modified. The assumption being this is an access layer
–
deployment.
– Loopguard is disabled by default.
BPDU guard and filtering are enabled by default.
–
Bridge assurance is only enabled on the vPC Peer Link.
–
Ports facing the NetApp storage controller and UCS are defined as "edge" trunk ports.
–
VMware ESXi—A virtualization layer that is run on physical servers that abstracts processor,
memory, storage, and resources into multiple virtual machines.
VMware vCenter Server—The central point for configuring, provisioning, and managing virtualized
IT environments. It provides essential data center services such as access control, performance
monitoring, and alarm management.
VMware vSphere SDKs—Feature that provides standard interfaces for VMware and third-party
solutions to access VMware vSphere.
VMware vSphere 5.1 on FlexPod with Nexus 7000 Using FCoE
FlexPod Implementation and Design
43