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Management switches provide OOB management connectivity to all the connected devices, such as Cisco UCS FIs, Cisco ToR switches, management solution components, Dell storage devices, and Dell data protection devices.
The management network layer of the 3-Tier Platform includes at least one pair of Cisco Nexus 93108TC-FX3P or Cisco Nexus 92348GC-X management switches.
For systems with more than one pair of Cisco Nexus 93108TC-FX3P or 92348GC-X management switches, use a pair of 9336C-FX2 management aggregation switches to aggregate management traffic.
The following table shows the management network layer components:
Switch | Description |
Cisco Nexus 92348GC-X management | 1U form factor Supports 48 fixed, 100 Mbps, or 1,000 Mbps twisted-pair connectivity ports; four fixed 1 Gbps, 10 Gbps, or 25 Gbps SFP28; and two 40 Gbps, or 100 Gbps QSFP28 uplink ports for the management layer. |
Cisco Nexus 93108TC-FX3P | 1U form factor Supports 48 fixed, 100 Mbps, 1,000 Mbps, or 10 Gbps twisted-pair connectivity ports and 6 fixed, 40 Gbps or 100 Gbps QSFP uplink ports for the management layer Supports 10 Gbps, 25 Gbps, 40 Gbps, 100 Gbps connections for external uplinks |
Cisco Nexus 9336C-FX2 management aggregation | 1U form factor Supports 36 fixed, 100 Gbps QSFP28 connectivity ports to aggregate Cisco Nexus 93108TC-FX3P or Cisco Nexus 92348GC-X Supports 10 Gbps, 40 Gbps, or 100 Gbps SFP+ or QSFP28 connections for external uplinks |
The Cisco Nexus 92348GC-X management switches are deployed in pairs.
Port type | Number of ports | Speed |
Fixed | 48 | 100 Mbps, or 1 GbE Base-T |
SFP28 | 2 | 40 GbE or 100 GbE |
QSFP28 | 4 | 1 GbE, 10 GbE, or 25 GbE |
The following components connect to the Cisco Nexus 92348GC-X switches using Cat 6 connections at 100 Mbps, or 1 Gbps:
The Cisco Nexus 92348GC-X switches uplink to the external network using multimode fiber at 10 Gbps, 25 Gbps, or 40 Gbps.
If the Cisco Nexus 92348GC-X supports either a single system or multisystem management solution with a Unity XT 480 array that is configured with optical connectivity, the uplink connectivity options are limited to QSFP 10 GbE breakout ports using multimode fiber.
The Cisco Nexus 92348GC-X management switch supports four fixed 10 Gbps, 25 Gbps SFP28, or two 40 Gbps QSFP28 uplink ports for the management layer.
Two uplinks are required per management switch.
The base Cisco Nexus 93108TC-FX3P switches are deployed in pairs. Each switch provides 48 fixed ports with speeds of 100 Mbps, 1 GbE, or 10 GbE Base-T, and six QSFP28 ports to provide four 10 GbE, 25 GbE, 40 GbE, or 100 GbE connections.
The following components connect to the Cisco Nexus 93108TC-FX3P switches using Cat 6 connections at 100 Mbps, 1 Gbps, or 10 Gbps:
The Cisco Nexus 93108TC-FX3P switches uplink to the external network using multimode fiber at 10 Gbps, 25 Gbps, 40 Gbps, or 100 Gbps.
At least two uplinks to the external core per management switch are required.
The Cisco Nexus 9336C-FX2 switch provides thirty-six 40 Gbps or 100 Gbps QSFP28 ports. The 9336C-FX2 switch is used in the management plane to aggregate pairs of Cisco Nexus 92348GC-X or Cisco Nexus 93108TC-FX3P switches.
The management aggregation layer enables a larger scale for the management network and is needed only if the solution requires more than 96 management ports.
Each Cisco Nexus 92348GC-X switch or Cisco Nexus 93108TC-FX3P switch has one or two uplinks to each Cisco Nexus 9336C-FX2 switch. The 9336C-FX2 switch provides:
The 3-Tier Platform network layer supports small or large-scale environments.
For a single 3-Tier Platform with no management aggregation, the least complex management network deployment includes a pair of Cisco Nexus management switches that are connected directly to the external network in L3 mode.
The base management network topology allows management network Switch Virtual Interfaces (SVIs) and Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP) addresses to reside on the 3-Tier Platform management switches (L3) or on the external network (L2).
The following figure shows the base management network topology using a pair of Cisco Nexus management switches:
Figure 10. Base network topology with a Cisco management switch pair
For a single 3-Tier Platform, the management aggregation layer enables a larger scale for the management network.
The management network L3 SVIs and HSRP addresses can reside on the 3-Tier Platform management aggregation switches or on the external network. There is one uplink from each management switch to each management aggregation switch at 40 Gbps.
The following figure shows the network topology for the 3-Tier Platform with the management aggregation layer using a pair of Cisco Nexus management switches:
Figure 11. 3-Tier Platform with a management aggregation layer
The management aggregation switches provide the management network for multiple 3-Tier Platforms:
When adding a second 3-Tier Platform to an existing management plane, you can add two Cisco Nexus 9336C-FX2 management aggregation switches to the second 3-Tier Platform.
The following figure shows multiple Tier 3 systems with management aggregation using two pairs of Cisco Nexus management switches:
Figure 12. 3-Tier Platform Systems with management aggregation
The following table shows the LAN Layer 2 and 3 uplink model requirements for LAN licenses:
Table 33. License requirements for LAN layer uplink models
Management switch | LAN layer uplink model | License requirement |
Cisco Nexus 92348GC-X
| Layer 3 | LAN Enterprise Services license |
Layer 2 | No license required | |
Cisco Nexus 93108TC-FX3P | Layer 3 | Cisco NX-OS Essentials or NX-OS Advantage tiered license |
Layer 2 | No license required |
For solutions that include management aggregation switches, see the information about Cisco Nexus 9336C-FX2 Data Plane Switch software licenses in Software licensing. Only the management aggregation switch pair is licensed, if present.