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Nexus 7010 vdc as a PE Router?

We preparing the network design for our new Data Center with a Virtualized Multi-Tenanted environement. I'm doing a VDC-core/VDC-agg model on the same chassis with 2 Redundant Cisco Nexus 7010.

I have my PE based on Cisco 7600, but my question: does a new VDC on my Nexus 7010 can act as a PE or DC Edge router providing a 10GE connectivity to the Internet? and can run routing protocols to the WAN/MPLS Cores?

Is there a limitation of running for example OSPF and BGP towards the cloud?

4 Replies 4

chriszibell
Level 1
Level 1

I would not suggest using a VDC as a PE/CE router when MPLS or a full internet table is a requirement. To my knowledge, the notes below (from Cisco) have not been resolved. The Nexus is a sweet chassis for datacenter distribution/aggregation but I'd stay away from putting it in a service provider environment, for now. (just my humble opinion)

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http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps9441/ps9402/ps9512/White_Paper_C22-439555.html

The Cisco Nexus 7000 Series does not initially support Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) and the Forwarding Information Base (FIB) table size initially is 128,000 entries, which can be considered limited if the user is contemplating an Internet routing application to support very large numbers of customers on one platform.
xxxxxxxx

I don't know if actually the Nexus 7000 still not support MPLS (latest version of NX-OS). For sure if i'm talking about PE, It's mandatory to have MPLS support as I have to do some import / export under VRFs and just with vrf-lite, this is not supported.

If I continue to use 7600 or 6500 as PE, acting as DC/WAN edge routers, is there a need to have a dedicated VDC for the core of our Data Center or I can use a collapsed core and aggregation?

Latest version does not support MPLS (wont come out until next quarter, I believe - 5.2 code

release).

It will not support MP-BGP until that time either, so at this point, you cannot use it as a PE in that sense, for importing routes via bgp from other PE boxes, into different vrfs on the PE box.

The best you can do is to run VRF-Lite, and you can run routing protocols inside the VRFs to other connected boxes.

But, as was mentioned, as an internet peering device, the route memory is not large enough to position this box as a BGP Internet Edge router.

Whether or not you need a separate core VDC at that point vs collapsed core/agg really comes down to your technical requirements for throughput and redundancy.  If you do not need an extreme amount of either, then a collapsed core/agg in this scenario should be fine.

Rob

Thanx Robert,

It's very clear. But I have another question if possible. I'm planning to interconnect my second Data Center and extending Layer 2 and Layer 3 connectivity across the 2 DCs.

I'm planning to use new devices as a collapsed DCI/WAN Edge. What will be the best devices to use (7600 or 6500 or ASR 1000). Can I continue to use the 7600 as a PE (and collapsed DCI/WAN Edge for LAN extension and routing service).

Regards.

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