Comments on: Cisco Announces Nexus 4000 Switch for Blade Chassis

By: kevinbladeguy

kevinbladeguy — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:07:33 +0000

Thanks for the reply, Jason. I’ve added some new blog posts about the Nexus 4001I switch for IBM BladeCenter. It was announced on Oct. 20, 2009 and a lot of the “unknowns” have been cleared up. Thanks for reading.

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:59:16 +0000

An access switch to a distribution switch is too complex? Either option is supported as it is basically a Nexus 5000 with some hardware modifications. This is NOT a FEX (Nexus 2000).

Here is the info from IBM:

http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/tips0754.html

As mentioned above there is support for legacy 1GbE and 10GbE downlinks and CNA via DBC. From what I understand DBC is only supported on x86 blades today but not for AIX (VIO).

By: Savannah

Savannah — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 12:37:39 +0000

Awesome blog! I thought about starting my own blog too but I'm just too lazy so, I guess I'll just have to keep checking yours out. LOL,

By: kevinbladeguy

kevinbladeguy — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 02:34:15 +0000

Thanks for the insider’s insight, Chris. Since neither Dell or IBM has released any information about their Nexus 4000, I only posted what limited info I have. I suppose the idea is to connect the Nexus 4000 from each blade chassis to a Nexus 7000, because the idea of connecting a Nexus 4000 to a Nexus 5000 which then links into a Nexus 7000 is WAY to complex. It’d make more sense to do a pass-thru module.

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 22:55:37 +0000

Just want to clarify some things.

1. The Nexus 4000 is 10G up and 10G down, it can autonegotiate to 1G.
2. The Nexus 4000 is not simply a “fabric extender”. It is a full feature Unified Fabric switch which you can read more about at http://www.cisco.com.

By: Tnelson

Tnelson — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:44:12 +0000

Your blog is so informative … ..I just bookmarked you….keep up the good work!!!!