Home Network Nexus or Not?

[routerdork]

Anyone have any experience with the Nexus 3000 series? I've got a chance to buy one for my home & lab switch. It's either this or go with a 3750G. The Nexus is of course a bit more money and I have no access to any code upgrades, etc. I'm assuming it is the Base license model so no routing. It won't do VXLAN  but neither will a 3750G. Are there any other things anyone has run into with it? Stability? My other option is a Nexus 5010 which is twice the cost of the 3048 and of course I don't have any 10G so that won't do much good without a FEX add-on.

[Reggle]

Holy sh*t!
Are those the ultra-low-latency 10 GE types?

They do simultaneous layer 2, layer 3 and layer 4 lookups of packets to keep latency low. 250 nanoseconds I believe. Aren't they like +10k USD?
Now that's nice for a LAN party with real-time games 

[routerdork]

It's a 3000 series so I'm guessing it's the 1st Gen model. I found a few of these on eBay for around $1,000 but I'll pay half. This is the actual part number N3K-C3048TP-1GE. I'm leaning towards it for the extra experience alone.

[wintermute000]

Or you can get a 3750G for 100 bucks. Flash IP Services FTW.
If you have or are planning to setup 10Gb go the 3k otherwise 3750G will give you a lot more features.
You can't exactly run FEX, fabricpath, vPC etc. off a single nexus...

[Reggle]

Doesn't seem to be the ultra-low-latency one. Still, a Nexus has lower latency than a Catalyst. And the buffers seem better.
If you intend to use it in production between servers, the Nexus may be better. If it's for labbing or campus, the 3750G has a lot more usable features (e.g. 802.1x for Campus).

[routerdork]

Or you can get a 3750G for 100 bucks. Flash IP Services FTW.
If you have or are planning to setup 10Gb go the 3k otherwise 3750G will give you a lot more features.
You can't exactly run FEX, fabricpath, vPC etc. off a single nexus...

3750G was what I was looking at before the guy mentioned the Nexus. I was looking at doing a small stack of a couple 24's/48's. Depends though if he can get me TS models for a good cost, I don't want to run PS models without any need for PoE at my house.

[Reggle]

If you can go PoE on a model without paying extra, do it. I'm happy I have it with the IP Phones and access points. Also, Arduino and Raspberry Pi have PoE modules.

[routerdork]

If you can go PoE on a model without paying extra, do it. I'm happy I have it with the IP Phones and access points. Also, Arduino and Raspberry Pi have PoE modules.

The change in wattage is pretty big and I don't have anything running 24/7 that is PoE. That being said, from what I'm seeing on eBay the PoE models are cheaper than the non-PoE. I'm guessing that is because there are more of them out there.

[Reggle]

Is it really that big of a difference? Watts? I never noticed but I have an 8-port running 24/7 here, not a full 48-port.

[routerdork]

You know after I look closer there isn't much difference if you aren't running any PoE devices, I was looking at the wrong table earlier. What is really funny is that the 48 port PoE model uses less wattage than a non-PoE model does at full or partial throughput. There is also very little difference in dB for the 24 port models. But the 48 port models can get up to 10dB louder for the PoE model. So in that case I might have to re-consider the PoE models. I do remember having a 3560 PoE model that was noisy, I could hear the fan running upstairs with 0 PoE connections and almost no load.

From the 3750 Series Data Sheet

Code Select Expand

A 3750G-48PS-S has a max wattage of 590W
A 3750G-48TS-S has a max wattage of 160W
A 3750G-24PS-S has a max wattage of 540W
A 3750G-24TS-S has a max wattage of 100W

At 100% throughput a 3750G-48PS-S uses a max wattage of 142W
At 100% throughput a 3750G-48TS-S uses a max wattage of 152W
At 100% throughput a 3750G-24PS-S uses a max wattage of 103W
At 100% throughput a 3750G-24TS-S uses a max wattage of 94W

At 5% throughput a 3750G-48PS-S uses a max wattage of 131W
At 5% throughput a 3750G-48TS-S uses a max wattage of 134W
At 5% throughput a 3750G-24PS-S uses a max wattage of 94W
At 5% throughput a 3750G-24TS-S uses a max wattage of 82W

[Dieselboy]

I got two 3048 Nexus running as our core network here. Without saying too much on this - I can help you out.

I've had zero issues with stability in the 2.5 years they've been here. I did have one issue with OSPF adjacencies and TAC said there was an issue on one of the Nexus FIBs, but we were running a code which was a bit old. A reboot fixed the issue if I can remember rightly. Then I upgraded the code later on.

Code Select Expand


CIN-3048-1# show version
Cisco Nexus Operating System (NX-OS) Software
TAC support: http://www.cisco.com/tac
Documents: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps9372/tsd_products_support_series_home.html
Copyright (c) 2002-2015, Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
The copyrights to certain works contained herein are owned by
other third parties and are used and distributed under license.
Some parts of this software are covered under the GNU Public
License. A copy of the license is available at
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html.

Software
  BIOS:      version 1.2.0
  loader:    version N/A
  kickstart: version 6.0(2)U4(4)
  system:    version 6.0(2)U4(4)
  Power Sequencer Firmware:
             Module 1: version v4.4
  BIOS compile time:       08/25/2011
  kickstart image file is: bootflash:///n3000-uk9-kickstart.6.0.2.U4.4.bin
  kickstart compile time:  2/11/2015 0:00:00 [02/11/2015 17:34:09]
  system image file is:    bootflash:///n3000-uk9.6.0.2.U4.4.bin
  system compile time:     2/11/2015 0:00:00 [02/11/2015 20:28:55]


Hardware
  cisco Nexus 3048 Chassis ("48x1GE + 4x10G Supervisor")
  Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU        P450 with 3665256 kB of memory.
  Processor Board ID FOC17230FF7

  Device name: CIN-3048-1
  bootflash:    2007040 kB

Kernel uptime is 319 day(s), 22 hour(s), 22 minute(s), 57 second(s)

Last reset at 847347 usecs after  Sat Feb 21 13:27:50 2015

  Reason: Disruptive upgrade
  System version: 6.0(2)U1(1a)
  Service:

plugin
  Core Plugin, Ethernet Plugin
CIN-3048-1#
[\code]

Code Select Expand


CIN-3048-1# show module
Mod Ports Module-Type                         Model                  Status
--- ----- ----------------------------------- ---------------------- ------------
1   52    48x1GE + 4x10G Supervisor           N3K-C3048TP-1GE-SUP    active *

Mod  Sw              Hw      World-Wide-Name(s) (WWN)
---  --------------  ------  ----------------------------------------------------
1    6.0(2)U4(4)     1.6     --

Mod  MAC-Address(es)                         Serial-Num
---  --------------------------------------  ----------
1    6c41.xxxxx to 6c41.xxxx        FOCxxxxxx7
[\code]

[wintermute000]

They're definitely great ToR switches, but for homelab, esp if you only have one, I would question the value, unless you so desperately want NX-OS exposure (without being able to actually do any of the NExus specific features - fabricpath, OTV, vPC...)

[routerdork]

Having two would be awesome but unfortunately that's a bit spendy for what I want to do. For now I'm not doing anything but I think I'll be doing a couple 3750G's if do switch.

[SimonV]

Is there any difference in feature set between 3750s and 3560, except for the stacking?

[routerdork]

Is there any difference in feature set between 3750s and 3560, except for the stacking?

None that I'm aware of. I thought I had read somewhere that they are identical minus the obvious stacking but I can't remember where that was.