Live Policy Changes; Uplink Profiles; System Vlans - Cisco Nexus 1000V Series Deployment Manual
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Also See for Nexus 1000V Series:
- Troubleshooting manual (280 pages) ,
- Configuration manual (96 pages) ,
- Deployment manual (49 pages)
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Deployment Guide
When the newly provisioned virtual machine is powered on, a vEth interface is created on the Cisco Nexus 1000V
Series for each vNIC the virtual machine contains. The vEth inherits the definitions in the selected port profile.
The port profile concept is new, but the configurations in port profiles use the same Cisco syntax used to manage
switch ports on traditional switches. The network administrator defines a new port profile in switch configuration
mode. Then the network administrator applies the desired interface configuration commands. Then the port profile is
marked as enabled and as a VMware port group. This process of enabling the port profile and defining it as a
VMware port group pushes the port profile to VMware vCenter Server and it becomes available for use by the server
administrator within a few seconds.
Live Policy Changes
Port profiles are not static entities; they are dynamic policies that can change as network needs change. Changes to
active port profiles are applied to each switch port that is using the profile. This feature of port profiles is extremely
useful when applying new network policies or changing existing policy.
Uplink Profiles
Port profiles are not only used to manage vEth configuration; they are also used to manage the physical NICs within
a VMware ESX host. When a port profile is defined, the network administrator determines whether the profile will be
used to manage vEth interfaces or physical NICs. By default, the port profile is assumed to be used for vEth
management.
To define a port profile for use on physical NICs, the network administrator must apply the capability uplink option to
the profile. When this option is used, the port profile will be available only to the server administrator to apply to
physical NICs within an VMware ESX server.
Uplink port profiles are applied to a physical NIC when a VMware ESX host is first added to the Cisco Nexus 1000V
Series. The server administrator is presented with a dialog box in which the administrator can select the physical
NICs to be associated with the VEM and the particular uplink port profiles to be associated with the physical NICs. In
addition, the server administrator can apply uplink port profiles to interfaces that are added to the VEM after the host
has been added to the switch.
System VLANs
System VLANs are defined by an optional parameter that can be added in a port profile. When used, this parameter
causes the port profile to become a special system port profile that is included in the Cisco Nexus 1000V Series
opaque data. Interfaces that use the system port profile and that are members of one of the system VLANs defined
are automatically enabled, even if the VEM does not have communication with the VSM, upon VMware ESX bootup.
This behavior enables the use of critical host functions if the VMware ESX host boots and cannot communicate with
the VSM.
The control and packet VLANs must be defined as system VLANs. Definition of other VLANs as system VLANs, such
as those used for vswif and vmknic interfaces, may also be useful. VLANs used for general virtual machine data
should not be defined as system VLANs.
© 2009 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
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