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This chapter describes how to manage virtual device contexts (VDCs) on Cisco Data Center Network Manager (DCNM).
After you create a VDC, you can change the interface allocation, VDC resource limits, and the high availability (HA) policies. You can also save the VDC configuration on the physical device to the startup configuration or to a bootflash file.
This chapter includes the following sections:
•Information About Managing VDCs
•Licensing Requirements for Managing VDCs
•Field Descriptions for VDC Management
•Additional References for Managing VDCs
•Feature History for Managing VDCs
After you create a VDC, you can change the interface allocation, VDC resource limits, and the single-supervisor and dual-supervisor high availability (HA) policies. You can also save the VDC configuration of the physical device to the startup configuration or to a bootflash file.
This section includes the following topics:
When you create a VDC, you can allocate I/O interfaces to the VDC. Later, the deployment of your physical device might change and you can reallocate the interfaces as necessary.
Note Beginning with Cisco Release 5.2(1) for Nexus 7000 Series devices, all members of a port group are automatically allocated to the VDC when you allocate an interface.
The following Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Ethernet modules have four port groups that consist of 2, 4, 8, or 12 interfaces each, depending on the module: N7K-M148GS-11L, N7K-M148GT-11, N7K-M148GS-11, N7K-M132XP-12, or N7K-M108X2-12L. You must assign all interfaces in the corresponding port group to the same VDC. See the example for module N7K-M132XP-12 in Figure 4-1.
Figure 4-1 Example Interface Allocation for Port Groups on a Cisco Nexus 7000 Series 10-Gbps Ethernet Module (N7K-M132XP-12)
Table 4-1 shows the port numbering for the port groups.
On the Cisco Nexus 7000 Series 32-port, 10-Gbps Ethernet module (N7K-F132XP-15), you must allocate the interfaces on your physical device in the specified combination. This module has 16 port groups that consist of 2 ports each. You must assign the specified port pairs in the same VDC (see Figure 4-2).
Note You can configure the limit-resource line-card type command only from the VDC configuration mode and not from a VDC resource template.
Figure 4-2 Example Interface Allocation for Port Groups on a Cisco 7000 Series 10-Gbps Ethernet Module (N7K-F132XP-15)
Table 4-2 shows the port numbering for the port groups.
For more information on port groups on the Cisco Nexus 7000 Series 10-Gbps Ethernet modules, see the Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Hardware Installation and Reference Guide.
Note When you add or delete interfaces, the Cisco NX-OS software removes the configuration and disables the interfaces.
You can change the resource limits for your VDC individually as your needs change. You can change the following limits for the following resources:
•IPv4 multicast route memory
•IPv6 multicast route memory
•IPv4 unicast route memory
•IPv6 unicast route memory
•Port channels
•Switched Port Analyzer (SPAN) monitor sessions
•VLANs
•Virtual routing and forwarding instances (VRFs)
The HA policy determines the action that the physical device takes when the VDC encounters an unrecoverable field. You can change the HA policy for the VDC that was specified when you created the VDC.
Note You cannot change the HA policies for the default VDC.
A user with the vdc-admin or network-admin role can save the running configuration of all VDCs on the physical device to the startup configuration or can save the running configuration of a single VDC to a file in the bootflash directory.
The default VDC has a management MAC address. Beginning with Cisco Release 5.2(1) for the Nexus 7000 Series devices, subsequent nondefault VDCs that you create are assigned MAC addresses automatically as part of the bootup process.
You will see a syslog message if there are not sufficient MAC addresses to supply all the VDCs on the device.
In the current Cisco NX-OS VDC model, you can move interfaces to a given VDC. The interface that is moved is dedicated to that VDC and carries all control and data traffic. VDCs are not aware of the interfaces present in the other VDCs, which gives complete administrative fault-isolation to the user.
With FCoE technology, both Ethernet and FCoE traffic are carried on the same physical Ethernet interface. In the FCoE VDC, the physical layer protocols (except for CDP, LACP and UDLD, which are LAN protocols) are not enabled. If an FCoE-capable interface is moved to the FCoE VDC, carrying pure Ethernet traffic on that interface is not possible because the LAN protocols are not enabled. In order to carry both LAN and SAN traffic, a shared interface between the LAN and SAN VDCs is required.
The module-type (line card) based VDCs are supported in Cisco Nexus 7000 Series devices. Beginning with Cisco NX-OS Release 5.2(1), all modules are categorized into three types — M1, F1, and M1XL. By default, all three line card types are allowed in a VDC.
You can restrict the allocated ports based on the module-type configuration. When changing the module type for a VDC, the unsupported ports are moved to the unallocated pool. You cannot move a port to a VDC if the port type is not supported for that VDC.
Cisco DCNM supports the configuration of M1/F1 line cards on the VDC. When changing the allowed types on a VDC, Cisco DCNM removes the ports that are no longer supported and moves them to an unallocated pool.
Cisco DCNM enables users to manage unallocated ports and bind the unallocated ports to any other VDCs that support this port type. When a user tries to move a port to a new VDC, Cisco DCNM checks whether ports of that type are allowed inside the VDC.
You can assign an interface to be a shared interface only on the F Series module and not on the M Series module. For more information about FCoE VDCs, see the Cisco Nexus 7000 Series NX-OS Virtual Device Context Configuration Guide, Release 5.x.
Beginning with Cisco NX-OS Release 5.2 (1), the following components have been added to the Virtual Device screen to support shared interfaces:
•Summary Table
•VDC Setup Wizard
•Details Pane
•Interface Association Pane
The following table shows the licensing requirements for this feature:
The following platform supports this feature. For platform-specific information, including guidelines and limitations, system defaults, and configuration limits, see the corresponding documentation.
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Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Switches |
Figure 4-3 displays the VDC Summary dialog box.
Figure 4-3 VDC Summary Dialog Box
This section includes the following topics:
•Allocating Interfaces to a VDC
•Allocating a Storage VLAN on the Ethernet VDC
•Choosing Storage-Capable Interfaces
•Associating an Interface to an Storage VDC
•Saving All VDC Configurations to the Startup Configuration
•Saving the VDC Configuration to a Bootflash File
You can allocate one or more interfaces to a VDC. When you allocate an interface, you move it from one VDC to another VDC. The interfaces are in the down state after you move them.
Note When you allocate an interface, all configuration on the interface is lost.
Ensure that you have discovered the physical device using a username that has the network-admin role.
Step 1 From the Feature Selector pane, choose Virtual Devices.
Step 2 From the Summary pane, double-click the device to display the list of VDCs.
Step 3 Click the VDC to change.
The Details tab appears in the Details pane.
Step 4 From the Details pane, click Interfaces.
Step 5 Right-click in the Interfaces area and choose Add Interface from the drop-down list.
A new row appears.
Step 6 From the cell under Interface Name in the new row, click the down arrow to display the interfaces dialog box (see Figure 4-4).
Figure 4-4 Interfaces Dialog Box
Step 7 From the dialog box, you can enter the range of interfaces or select specific interfaces to allocate.
Step 8 Click OK.
Step 9 From the menu bar, choose File > Deploy to apply your changes to the device.
Step 10 (Optional) To change the configuration of an interface in the VDC, click the interface, then right-click, and choose Manage in the drop-down list.
You can select a VDC type.
Log in to the default VDC with a username that has the network-admin user role.
Step 1 From the Feature Selector pane, choose Virtual Devices.
Step 2 From the Summary pane, double-click the device to display the list of VDCs.
In the Virtual Devices screen, the Summary Table component is enhanced to support shared interfaces.
The Summary Table contains a new column Type to display the VDC type. This column is not editable.
Step 3 The following VDC types are displayed:
•Ethernet
•Storage
The default VDC type is Ethernet.
Administrator VDC is the VDC which enables you to perform switch wide administrative functions. There are no ports, port operations, or protocols associated with the administrator VDC. Unlike the default VDC, the only function of administrator VDC is to enable administrative operations on the switch and the customized VDCs. Therefore in the DCNM all the screen operations, port, and port related oprations will be disabled for Administrator VDC.
Note The administrator VDC feature is applicable only to the Cisco Nexus 7000 series switches with supervisor-2 line cards.
You can migrate from default VDC to administrator VDC using CLI commands.
Use the system admin-vdc command to migrate the default VDC to administrator VDC and to move all the ports to unallocated pool and to remove any other additional configuration.
You can use the system admin-vdc migrate migrated vdc command to migrate the default VDC to administrator VDC and move all the ports and port related configurations to the newly created migrated VDC.
DCNM will trigger a rediscovery immediateky after a default VDC is migrated to an administrator VDC, and all the administrator VDCs will be displayed in the topology with the `A' icon to identify them.
If no migration is performed then the default VDC is automatically turned into administraotr VDC and any additional confifuration is removed.
Note Administrtor VDC and Default VDC cannot exist together in a switch.
You can click on the Copy Run to Start and Copy Run to Start for All VDCs buttons to perform the respective actions.
The VDC wizard can be used to create a Ethernet VDC.
Log in to the default VDC with a username that has the network-admin user role.
Step 1 From the Feature Selector pane, choose Virtual Devices.
Step 2 From the Summary pane, double-click Virtual Devices.
The VDC Summary Table screen is displayed.
Step 3 Right-click on the Summary Table. The context menu appears.
Step 4 In the context menu, choose Create VDC. The VDC wizard appears.
Step 5 Specify the VDC name, VDC type, single supervisor HA policy, dual supervisor HA policy and the module type (see Figure 4-5).
Figure 4-5 VDC General Parameters Screen
Step 6 Click Next.
The Membership Interfaces screen appears.
Step 7 Specify the network interfaces (dedicated interfaces membership) to be allocated to the VDC (see Figure 4-6).
Figure 4-6 Interface Membership Screen
Step 8 Click Next.
The Resource Limits screen appears.
Step 9 (Optional) Specify the resource limits for the VDC (see Figure 4-7).
Figure 4-7 Resource Limit Screen
Step 10 Click Next.
The Authentication screen appears.
Step 11 Specify the authentication method for login (see Figure 4-8).
Figure 4-8 Authentication Screen
Step 12 Click Next.
The VDC Management screen appears.
Step 13 Specify the parameters to enable management of the VDC (see Figure 4-9).
Figure 4-9 Management of VDC Screen
Step 14 Click Finish to complete the Ethernet VDC setup wizard.
You can create an storage VDC. In storage VDC, you can allocate storage VLANs on Ethernet VDCs. The allocated storage VDC creates VLANs in the dedicated VLAN range. Shared interfaces uses storage VLANs to carry both Ethernet and storage traffic. It is required that the VLANs should be mutually exclusive between Ethernet and storage VDCs.
Note•Starting with the Cisco DCNM Release 6.1(1), if you donot have the license for storage VDC you can only add and delete storage VDCs. If you need to access the complete functionalities then it is mandatory that you procure a license.
•Starting with the Cisco DCNM Release 6.1(1), the storage VDCs can be discovered and managed.
Log in to the default VDC with a username that has the network-admin user role.
Step 1 From the Feature Selector pane, choose Virtual Devices.
Step 2 From the Summary pane, double-click Virtual Devices.
The VDC Summary Table screen appears.
Step 3 Right-click the Summary Table. The context menu appears.
Step 4 In the context menu, choose Create VDC. The VDC wizard appears.
Step 5 Specify the VDC name, VDC type, single supervisor HA policy, dual supervisor HA policy, and the module type (see Figure 4-10).
Figure 4-10 VDC General Parameters Screen
Step 6 Click Next.
The Storage VLAN Allocation screen appears.
Step 7 Specify the Storage VLANs to be allocated on the Ethernet VDC (see Figure 4-11).
Step 8 Click Next.
The Interface Membership screen appears.
Step 9 Add the dedicated and shared interfaces to the Storage VDC (see Figure 4-11).
Note The dedicated interface carries only Storage traffic and the shared interface carries both the Ethernet and the Storage traffic.
Figure 4-11 Interface Membership Screen
Step 10 Click Next.
The Resource Limit screen appears.
Step 11 (Optional) Specify the resource limits for the VDC (see Figure 4-12).
Figure 4-12 Resource Limit Screen
Step 12 Click Next.
The Authentication screen appears.
Step 13 Specify the authentication method for login (see Figure 4-13).
Figure 4-13 Authentication Screen
Step 14 Click Next.
The VDC Management screen appears.
Step 15 Specify the parameters to enable the management of the VDC (see Figure 4-14).
Figure 4-14 Management of VDC Screen
Step 16 Click Finish to complete the Storage VDC setup wizard.
You can allocate an storage VLAN on an Ethernet VDC using the VDC details pane. For information on storage, see the Cisco NX-OS FCoE Configuration Guide for Cisco Nexus 7000 and Cisco MDS 9500.
Log in to the default VDC with a username that has the network-admin user role.
Step 1 From the Feature Selector pane, choose Virtual Devices.
Step 2 From the Summary pane, double-click on Virtual Devices.
The Summary Table screen is displayed.
Step 3 In the Summary Table, choose the Storage VDC.
Step 4 In the Details pane, expand the Storage VLAN Allocation.
Step 5 Right-click on the table. The context menu is displayed.
Step 6 In the context menu, choose Add Row. A dialog box is displayed.
Step 7 From the dialog box, choose the Ethernet VDC and click OK.
Note You can associate only one Ethernet VDC with an Storage VDC for interface sharing.
Step 8 Specify the Storage VLANs in the newly added rows for the selected VDC.
Step 9 From the menu bar, choose File > Deploy to apply your changes to the device.
The specified VLANs will be allocated on an Ethernet VDC that is created only in an Storage VDC.
Beginning with Cisco NX-OS Release 5.2 (1), the interface table in details pane will have a new column "Shared". This column will show whether the interface is dedicated (or) shared. For information on Storage, see the Cisco NX-OS FCoE Configuration Guide for Cisco Nexus 7000 and Cisco MDS 9500.
Log in to the default VDC with a username that has the network-admin user role.
Step 1 From the Feature Selector pane, choose Virtual Devices.
Step 2 From the Summary pane, double-click the device to display the list of VDCs.
The Summary Table screen is displayed.
Step 3 In the Summary Table, select the Storage VDC.
Step 4 In the Details pane, expand Interfaces.
Step 5 Right-click on the interfaces table. The context menu is displayed.
Step 6 In the context menu, select Add Interface. A dialog box is displayed.
Step 7 From the dialog box, select the interfaces that you want to dedicate or share.
The dedicated interfaces will carry only the Storage traffic and the shared interfaces will carry both the Storage and the Ethernet traffic.
The Available Interfaces table shows the Storage capable interfaces in the Ethernet VDC.
You can add dedicated or shared Storage-capable interfaces with Storage VDC using the Interface association screen. For information on Storage, see the Cisco NX-OS FCoE Configuration Guide for Cisco Nexus 7000 and Cisco MDS 9500.
Log in to the default VDC with a username that has the network-admin user role.
Step 1 From the Feature Selector pane, choose Virtual Devices.
Step 2 From the Summary pane, double-click the device to display the list of VDCs.
The Summary Table screen appears.
Step 3 In the Summary Table, choose the Storage VDC.
Step 4 In the Details pane, expand Interfaces.
Step 5 Choose a desired interface in the association pane and right-click on the context menu.
Step 6 In the context menu, choose Add as Dedicated/Share Interface to add the selected interfaces as dedicated or shared interfaces to the Storage VDC.
You can change the limits on the VDC resources. Changes to the limits take effect immediately except for the IPv4 and IPv6 routing table memory limits, which take effect after the next VDC reset, physical device reload, or physical device stateful switchover.
Note You can have a maximum of two SPAN monitoring session on your physical device.
Ensure that you have discovered the physical device using a username that has the network-admin role.
Step 1 From the Feature Selector pane, choose Virtual Devices.
Step 2 From the Summary pane, double-click the device to display the list of VDCs.
Step 3 Click the VDC to change.
The Details tab appears in the Details pane.
Step 4 From the Details pane, click Resources.
Step 5 Double-click the limit to change and enter the new value.
Step 6 From the menu bar, choose File > Deploy to apply your changes to the device.
You can change the HA policies for a VDC. The VDC HA policies are as follows:
•Dual supervisor modules:
–Bringdown—Puts the VDC in the failed state. To recover from the failed state, you must reload the physical device.
–Restart—Restarts the VDC. This process includes shutting down all the interfaces within that VDC and stopping all the virtualized services processes. The Cisco NX-OS software restarts all the virtualized services saved in the startup configuration and brings the interfaces back up with the configuration saved in the startup configuration. Any configuration that you did not save in the startup configuration prior to the restart is lost.
–Switchover—Initiates a supervisor module switchover.
•Single supervisor modules:
–Bringdown—Puts the VDC in the failed state. To recover from the failed state, you must reload the physical device.
–Reload—Reloads the supervisor module.
Note The reload action affects all interfaces and all VDCs on the physical device.
–Restart—Restarts the VDC. This process includes shutting down all the interfaces within that VDC and stopping all the virtualized services processes. The Cisco NX-OS software restarts all the virtualized services saved in the startup configuration and brings the interfaces back up with the configuration saved in the startup configuration. Any configuration that you did not save in the startup configuration prior to the restart is lost.
Note You cannot change the HA policies for the default VDC.
Ensure that you have discovered the physical device using a username that has the network-admin role.
Step 1 From the Feature Selector pane, choose Virtual Devices.
Step 2 From the Summary pane, double-click the device to display the list of VDCs.
Step 3 Click the VDC to change.
The Details tab appears in the Details pane.
Step 4 From the Single Supervisor HA-Policy field, click the down arrow and choose an HA policy from the drop-down list.
Step 5 From the Dual Supervisor HA-Policy field, click the down arrow and choose an HA policy from the drop-down list.
Step 6 From the menu bar, choose File > Deploy to apply your changes to the device.
You can save the running configuration of all the VDCs on the physical device to the startup configuration.
Ensure that you have discovered the physical device using a username that has the vdc-admin or network-admin role.
Step 1 From the Feature Selector pane, choose Virtual Devices.
Step 2 From the Summary pane, double-click the device to display the list of VDCs.
Step 3 Right-click the device with the VDC configurations that you want to save.
Step 4 Choose Copy Run to Start for All Vdc(s).
Step 5 Click the icon in the bottom left corner of the screen.
The Status pane appears and shows whether the VDC configurations were copied successfully to the startup configuration.
You can save the running configuration for an individual VDC to a file in the bootflash directory.
Ensure that you have discovered the physical device using a username that has the vdc-admin or network-admin role.
Step 1 From the Feature Selector pane, choose Virtual Devices.
Step 2 From the Summary pane, double-click the device to display the list of VDCs.
Step 3 Right-click the VDC with the configuration that you want to save.
Step 4 Choose Copy Run to Bootflash file.
The Enter Bootflash File Name window appears.
Step 5 In the Bootflash File Name field, enter the name of the file to which the running configuration will be copied and click OK.
Step 6 Click the icon in the bottom left corner of the screen.
The Status pane appears and shows whether the VDC configuration was copied successfully to the bootflash file.
You can discover a nondefault VDC with user credentials that are different from the default VDC.
Ensure that you have set the correct logging severity levels in the VDC using the Cisco NX-OS device command-line interface (CLI) (see the Cisco DCNM Fundamentals Configuration Guide, Release 5.x).
Step 1 From the Feature Selector pane, choose DCNM Server Administration > Devices and Credentials.
Step 2 From the menu bar, choose Devices and Credentials > New Device.
A new line appears in the Devices list.
Step 3 Click the cell under IP Address in the new line and enter the IP address of the VDC to discover.
Step 4 Double click the cell under User Credentials in the new line and click the down arrow to display the user credentials dialog. Enter the user credentials information and click OK.
Step 5 From the menu bar, choose Devices and Credentials > Discover.
When you delete a VDC, the Cisco NX-OS software removes the configuration for all interfaces allocated to the VDC and returns the interfaces to the default VDC. Deleting a VDC stops all virtualized services and removes any configuration within that VDC.
Note You cannot delete the default VDC (VDC 1).
Ensure that you have discovered the physical device using a username that has the network-admin role.
Step 1 From the Feature Selector pane, choose Virtual Devices.
Step 2 From the Summary pane, double-click the device to display the list of VDCs.
Step 3 Click the VDC to delete.
Step 4 From the menu bar, choose Virtual Devices > Delete VDC.
The VDC disappears from the list in the Summary pane.
This section includes the following topics:
•Field Description: Virtual Devices: Summary Pane
•Field Description: Virtual Devices: virtual device: Details Tab: General Section
•Field Description: Virtual Devices: virtual device: Details Tab: Interfaces Section
•Field Description: Virtual Devices: virtual device: Details Tab: Resources Section
•Field Description: Virtual Devices: Create VDC: VDC General Parameters
•Field Description: Virtual Devices: Create VDC: Authentication
•Field Description: Virtual Devices: Create VDC: Management of VDC
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VDC Name |
Name of the VDC. |
HA Policy |
HA policy of the selected VDC. |
For additional information related to managing VDCs, see the following sections:
•Related Documents for Managing VDCs
Table 4-10 lists the release history for this feature.