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By }ohn Swaitz Nov 2u12

The following is going to allow you to exploie the Nexus commanu line inteiface
fiom youi own PC oi Nac. This piocess will not cieate a fully functioning Nexus
switch. Foi Bemonstiation puiposes, oui examples will use vNWaie woikstation as
oui viitualization enviionment. You coulu use Fusion, viitual Box, ESXi, oi any
othei viitual enviionment.

The viitual machine we aie cieating will be iunning the Cisco Nexus 1uuuv
softwaie. The 1uuuv is a viitual switch that we will uiscuss in uetail at a latei point.
The fiist thing we neeu to uo is to uownloau the Nexus 1uuuv fiom Cisco. This
iequiies a fiee Cisco login. Seaich the website foi 'nexus 1uuuv uownloau' anu
navigate the softwaie selection piocess.



The final file name will vaiy baseu on the veision numbei. 0nce uownloaueu, unzip
the aichive into its own foluei. The foluei of inteiest is calleu vSN (viitual
Supeivisoi Nouule). When cieating the viitual Nachine you will point to the IS0
insiue the vSN\Install uiiectoiy. Foi Example:
Nexus1uuuv.4.2.1.Sv2.1.1\vSN\Install\nexus-1uuuv.4.2.1.Sv2.1.1.iso.

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Launch vNWaie woikstation anu cieate a new viitual machine with the following
chaiacteiistics.







Select 0thei 64-Bit. Click Next. uive the viitual machine a name anu click Next.
Accept the uefault Bisk Capacity setting anu click next.





Click Customize haiuwaie, we must auu two auuitional netwoik auapteis.


Click next anu then click Finish.

Nake suie you select biiuging as the moue foi each aupatei.


Complete this piocess twice. The viitual machine shoulu have a total of S Netwoik
auapteis when you aie uone.



Change the amount of memoiy to at least 1 uB.



Click Close anu then Finish.






You have now cieateu a viitual machine with the neeueu piopeities to install the
Nexus 1uuuv vSN. Select youi viitual machine anu powei it on.






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When the viitual machine launches select "Install Nexus1uuuv anu biing up the new
image".



Aftei awhile, it will Entei Setup moue. Please answei as below.
Note: You will neeu to cieate a passwoiu foi the Aumin usei. It must be complex
(Contain mixeu letteis anu numbeis like: C1sco12S)

[#########################################] 100%
---- Basic System Configuration Dialog ----
This setup utility will guide you through the basic
configuration of
the system. Setup configures only enough connectivity for
management
of the system.
*Note: setup is mainly used for configuring the system
initially,
when no configuration is present. So setup always assumes
system
defaults and not the current system configuration values.

Press Enter at anytime to skip a dialog. Use ctrl-c at
anytime
to skip the remaining dialogs.
Would you like to enter the basic configuration dialog
(yes/no): yes

Enter HA role[standalone/primary/secondary]: standalone


Enter the domain id<1-4095>: 1

[########################################] 100%

switch(config)#

Taua! You now have a Nexus switch to play with!

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In this next section, we aie going to configuie some basic paiameteis to make oui
Nexus Switch opeiational. But, befoie we uo that we neeu to unueistanu how the
Nexus switch hanules management tiaffic. 0n a typical I0S switch, we cieate a
sepaiate vLAN foi management tiaffic anu that tiaffic flows thiough one of uata
poits. This allows foi the isolation of management tiaffic.

The Nexus seiies took this one step faithei. Insteau of viitual isolation via a vLAN,
they have physical isolation with a ueuicateu management poit.




NuNTu oi Nanagement Poit u is oui piimaiy methou of configuiing oui Nexus
iemotely. It is sepaiate fiom the uata poits. It has its own IP auuiess anu IP ioutes.
Nexus switches have the ability to cieate isolateu instances of iouting tables anu
moie. We will see this when we uiscuss viitual Bevice Contexts (vBC).

A typical list of initial configuiation tasks to enable basic management:

Set the Bost name
Put an IP auuiess n NuNTu
Enable NuNTu
Bisable Telnet
Enable SSB
Enable BTTP Seivei

Some of these aie uefault setting, but it is still goou piactice. When you fiist login
into the switch you notice you aie immeuiately place in piivilege moue:

login as: admin
Nexus 1000v Switch
Using keyboard-interactive authentication.
Password:
[...]
switch#

To entei configuiation moue the commanu is "configuie teiminal" (Sounu
familiai.). So let's set the hostname in this "familiai" enviionment.


Nexus# config t
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with
CNTL/Z.
Nexus(config)# hostname LilNexus
LilNexus(config)# switchname LilNexus
LilNexus(config)# end
LilNexus#

We see the familiai 'hostname' commanu, but also the much less familiai
'switchname' commanu, they both accomplish the same task.

The 'hostname' commanu come fiom the Nexus I0S heiitage, the 'switchname'
commanu comes fiom SAN-0S.

Let's look at the next pait of the configuiation to accomplish oui tasks:

switch(config)# Switchname n1000v
n1000v(config)# interface Mgmt0
n1000v(config-if)# ip address 192.168.1.109 255.255.255.0
n1000v(config-if)# no shutdown
n1000v(config-if)# exit

Aftei setting the hostname, we pioceeu to configuie the Nanagementu inteiface.
This is the inteiface we will be using to manage oui switch iemotely. The IP
Auuiess heie shoulu be one that is on the same subnet as youi laptop, but not
cuiiently in use. The 'no shutuown' commanu enables the inteiface foi use.

+AB

viitual Routing anu Foiwaiuing (vRF) allows IP iouteis to have multiple instances
of a iouting table on the same ioutei in the same time. In oui case, we want a ioute
that will only be useu by the management inteiface. This ioute is not available to
othei Etheinet inteifaces.

n1uuuv(config)# vif context management
n1uuuv(config-vif)# ip ioute u.u.u.uu 192.168.1.1
n1uuuv(config-vif)# exit

0ui NuNTu inteiface now has a uefault ioute pointing to 192.168.1.1.

Lastly, we will enable some piotocols foi iemote management. Thiee populai
management piotocols aie telnet, ssh, anu http. Bowevei, we will uisable telnet
since all tiaffic is tiansmitteu in plain text.

n1uuuv(config)# no telnet seivei enable
n1uuuv(config)# ssh key isa 1u24 foice
n1uuuv(config)# ssh seivei enable
n1uuuv(config)# featuie http-seivei

The key commanu foi ssh geneiate a 1u24 bit enciyption key that is useu to piotect
the uata.

At this point we have a veiy basic configuiation on oui Nexus switch, that woulu
enable us to uisconnect the console cable anu manage the uevice iemotely.