Cisco Nexus 1000v Switch
The Cisco Nexus 1000v Switch is an intelligent software switch for VMware ESX environments.
I have decided I should learn a bit more about this technology as very soon I will have to deploy it in a production environment.
So this is my Cisco Nexus 1000V home lab setup!
1 x VM Workstation V7.14
1 ESXi host V4.1
1 Nexus 1000V version 4.2.1
I already had the VM Workstation installed, so I installed an ESXI host which is quite a painless process, simpy download the iso from vmware and boot it.
To install the Cisco Nexus 1000V switch you need to Deploy an OVF template
From your Vshpere Client select File / Deploy from OVF Template, browse to the location of your Nexus image (you can get a trial from cisco for 60 days)
Click Next
Accept all the defaults, I went for Thick Provision about 3GB
I then tried to boot the switch and got a CPU outside min value error.
After a quick google I found the answer here:
The issue was fixed easily as I had allocatted more CPU than my host could provide
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1001637
Reduced the CPU allocation a little bit and then I got another error.
Memory resource allocation error
Another google, and found the answer was to reduce my memory reservation down a bit, 256 seemed to work ok
Ok now try and boot it and I got a “Your system does not suport 64 bit OS error” or something like that.
The fix is simple, change the OS to other Linux 32 bit
Finally the switch started to boot!
After some basic settings I am now looking at a Cisco Nexus 1000v switch running on ESXI4.1 running in VM Workstation on a Dell Laptop!
One final thing, I had assigned a management address on the switch on my VM network so I could manage this switch on my Laptop using Secure CRT
Fingers crossed…..YES!
So if you want to get the feel of NX-OS this is a quite simple and free way to try out the NEXUS switch.
However to fully get the benefits and actually switch some real traffic it has to be installed in V Centre
So I am now going to blow this away and setup a V Centre server add in 2 ESXi hosts and then install the Cisco Nexus 1000v on the VCentre server.
Next post will detail this process.
Looks like a good post here:
Roger
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