Over the last two days I have gotten the oppertunity to install the Nexus 1000V Virtual Distributed Switch. This is a very interesting platform. Unfortunately there are tons of new terminology, but the concepts are still very much the same.
The VSM is the Virtual Supervisor Module. This is a virtual machine (guest) that runs in ESX like any appliance or other guest operating system. It is in reality, NX-OS functioning like any supervisor module in a 4500 or 6500 switch, or similarly to the Nexus 5010 for those already familliar with Nexus hardware. A given Nexus 1000V can have up to two VSMs running, preferably on different physical hosts. The VSMs sync just like supervisor modules would.
The VEM is a Virtual Ethernet Module. This is a software component that is integrated with the ESX operating system (by patch management/RPM install techniques) and connects to the VSM for its configuration. This is analgous to a WS-X6148 line card or a Nexus 2148 Fabric Extender.
Once these components are up and running the system is a virtual blade chassis who's centralized configuration extends across all ESX servers in a datacenter. Way cool stuff. The Port-Profile configurations are exceedingly powerful and would be super kick-butt if they were integrated into the other switch platforms.
Some of the more confusing points are VPC/EtherChannel configuration, and some of the design practices.
More to come...
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