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newb question about the 6100 fabrics

Brent Rockburn
Level 2
Level 2

Hey,

What is the difference between the 6100's and the nexus switches?

I'm watching vids on UCS and it looks like both the networking and the fabric are on the 6100s Are the 6100s modules in the nexus switch? Are they completely serperate devices that site south of the Nxs switches?

Can someone give a breif explanation?

1 Accepted Solution

Accepted Solutions

Brent, the UCS Fabric Interconnects (FI's) are the aggregation point of all the connecting blade chassis & UCS rack servers.  Additionally the FI's run the UCS Managing software.  FI's are a separate device.  They just have the same physical look as the nexus 5K, but they are separate & unique devices. 

UCS can uplink into your Distribution or even Core Network switches.  These could very well be a pair of Nexus 5Ks, Nexus 7K, Cat6K or any non-Cisco switch.

Here's what a common UCS deployment would look like & sit in a DC network.

Here's another digram showing UCS uplinking to both Ethernet LAN & SAN Fabrics.

HTH,

Robert

View solution in original post

4 Replies 4

Robert Burns
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

Underlying architecture is identical with the following difference:

-FI's have increased memory (RAM)

-FI's have larger flash (Storage)

-FI's run UCSM software

Nexus 5Ks can NOT be "upgraded" or changed into Fabric Interconnects.  Also the expansion modules from the Nexus 5K are not compatible with the FI (6x00) and vice-versa.

Regards,

Robert

Sorry .. I don't think I was asking the right question. Are the does the 6100 sit inside the nexus 5010 as a module or are they seperate devices?

it was my understanding the the nexus switch is where it all comes together .. I thought the nexus switch was both the network aggregation point as well as where you plugged the fabric in that goes to the FEX cards on the chasis.

Does anyone have a diagram maybe with pics of where everything sits?

Brent, the UCS Fabric Interconnects (FI's) are the aggregation point of all the connecting blade chassis & UCS rack servers.  Additionally the FI's run the UCS Managing software.  FI's are a separate device.  They just have the same physical look as the nexus 5K, but they are separate & unique devices. 

UCS can uplink into your Distribution or even Core Network switches.  These could very well be a pair of Nexus 5Ks, Nexus 7K, Cat6K or any non-Cisco switch.

Here's what a common UCS deployment would look like & sit in a DC network.

Here's another digram showing UCS uplinking to both Ethernet LAN & SAN Fabrics.

HTH,

Robert

Awesome!! .. thanks that is exactly what I was wondering.

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