Cisco Nexus 1100 Series Virtual Services Appliances

The management VLAN is used for management of the Cisco Nexus 1100 Series VSA.
The control VLAN is a Layer 2 interface used for communication between the redundant Cisco Nexus 1100 Series appliances. This interface handles low-level control packets such as heartbeats as well as any configuration data that needs to be exchanged between the Cisco Nexus 1100 Series appliances.

Network Connectivity Options

The interfaces on the Cisco Nexus 1100 Series can be connected to the network in five ways.

Network Connection Option 1 uses the two LOM interfaces to carry all traffic types: management, control, packet, and data. In this configuration, each uplink connects to two different upstream switches to provide redundancy. Option 1 is preferred in cases in which customers are not using a Cisco NAM and therefore have little or no data traffic traversing the uplinks. It is commonly used when the Cisco Nexus 1100 Series is used only for VSMs; the simplest configuration and lowest risk of misconfiguration. The LOM ports are active-standby only and cannot be part of a PortChannel or virtual PortChannel (vPC).




Option 2 uses the two LOM interfaces to carry management, control, and packet traffic. The other four interfaces on the PCI card carry only data traffic. Option 2 is well suited for customers who are deploying a Cisco NAM in the Cisco Nexus 1100 Series. Option 2 provides the most dedicated bandwidth for Cisco NAM traffic. The 4-port network interface card (NIC) adapter does support PortChannel and vPC capabilities and can provide added bandwidth utilization and redundancy.








Option 3 uses the two LOM interfaces for management traffic only, and it uses the four interfaces on the PCI card to carry control, packet, and data traffic. It's well suited for customers who are deploying a Cisco NAM or VSG in the Cisco Nexus 1100 Series but require a separate management network. Recommended for most deployments because it provides the flexibility to handle both currently supported and future VSBs.




Option 4 uses the two LOM interfaces for management traffic, two of the four PCI interfaces for control and packet traffic, and the other two PCI interfaces for data traffic. Well suited for customers who want to use the Cisco NAM but require separate data and control networks.




Option 5 Users can now more flexibly deploy their VSBs on the Cisco Nexus 1100 Series. With this option, you do not need to specify which ports allow which types of traffic (management, control, or data traffic). One of the main advantages of this option is that you can define a VSB to use a particular interface. This flexible option is an excellent option for users who want more control over the design of the VSBs for optimized flexibility and redundancy.

Deployment Considerations

Typically, the Cisco Nexus 1100 Series is best deployed at the aggregation layer of the network so that it can host a larger set of servers. Deploying the Cisco Nexus 1100 Series on the Cisco Nexus 2000 Series provides a large pool of servers supported on a single point of management for those servers. Because the Cisco Nexus 1100 Series uses 1 Gigabit Ethernet interfaces to connect to the network, a fabric extender provides an optimal connectivity solution.

In the uplink type 1 topology, all traffic (management, control, and VSB data traffic) is switched out at an effective bandwidth of 1 Gbps. Both LOM ports on the Cisco Nexus 1100 Series, Ethernet interfaces 1 and 2, are teamed to form an active-standby pair. This uplink type is simplistic and does not require any PortChannel or LACP configuration on the upstream switches.

In the uplink type 2 topology below, management and control traffic is switched out of the first two Ethernet interfaces. Ethernet interfaces 1 and 2 are forwarding as an active-standby pair, just as in uplink type 1. However, VSB data traffic is carried out of Ethernet interfaces 3 through 6.

Uplink type 3 is physically identical to uplink type 2 because it uses all the Ethernet interfaces available. The difference is in the way that the traffic is carried across these interfaces. In this topology, management traffic is switched out of the first two Ethernet interfaces. Ethernet interfaces 1 and 2 are forwarding as an active-standby pair, just as in the other uplink types. However, both control and VSB data traffic is carried out of Ethernet interfaces 3 through 6.

In uplink type 4, The VSMs residing on the Cisco Nexus 1100 Series VSA and the hosts that are managed by the VSMs can be connected over Layer 2 or 3 as explained in the previous sections.


Uplink type 5 is for the flexible network option and can be a combination of any of the other uplink types.

Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Backup and Restore Procedures

Here are the high-level steps for the VSM installed on the Cisco Nexus 1100 Series VSA.

Backup Procedure
1. Shut down the secondary or standby VSM VSB.
2. Export that VSB to remote storage.
3. Back up the running configuration of the Cisco Nexus 1000V Series VSA to a remote server or site.
a. Copy the running configuration often or whenever network the configuration has changed.
4. Power back on the secondary or standby VSM.
Restore Procedure
1. Completely remove the Cisco Nexus 1000V Series VSB if it is still on the Cisco Nexus 1100 Series VSA.
2. Create a new Cisco Nexus 1000V Series VSB.
a. Import a backup Cisco Nexus 1000V Series instance to the new VSB.
b. Verify that the Cisco Nexus 1000V Series instance is operational.
3. Restore the backup network configuration as the running configuration.
a. Verify that the port profiles and configurations are correct.
b. Verify that the virtual machines are connected to the appropriate port profiles.
c. Create a backup configuration of the running configuration after the environment has stabilized.