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Cisco NX-OS data centre lab 1 of 15

NX-OS features and the management plane

Bring a factory-fresh Nexus switch under management: learn how NX-OS is put together, use the management VRF, switch on features, connect a first host, and add secure access, SNMP and syslog.

Run this lab

It needs Lite: its 3 nodes are set to 4 vCPU and 7,680 MB in total. That fits the free demo too.

In your workspace: Shared, then Cisco Nexus NX-OS data centre guided labs, then 01 - NX-OS features and the management plane

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Level
Beginner
Time
About 60 minutes
Nodes need
4 vCPU, 7,680 MB
Smallest plan
Lite

The scenario

Ashgrove Colocation is opening hall 3, and your first Nexus switch has just been racked. All it has is a name and an admin login. Before it carries any tenant traffic it has to be reachable, accountable and known to the monitoring system. OPS is your workstation on the management LAN. It's already collecting syslog on UDP 514.

ItemValue
N1 mgmt0192.168.100.1/24, in VRF management
OPS192.168.100.10/24
Management gateway192.168.100.254 (a future router, not in this lab)
VLAN 10 SERVERS10.10.10.0/24. Vlan10 is 10.10.10.1. H1 is 10.10.10.11 on Ethernet1/5.
Local usernetops, password Netops-Lab1, role network-operator
SNMPRead-only community ashgrove-ro
SyslogTo OPS, severity 6, through VRF management

What you’ll practise

  • Describe how NX-OS differs from classic IOS: features, VRFs and port defaults
  • Put mgmt0 in the management VRF, and reach it from a workstation
  • Enable and read features
  • Connect a host through a VLAN, an access port and an SVI
  • Add a role-limited user, SNMP and syslog, and test each one from outside
  • Filter output with pipes, including JSON and XML

The tasks

  1. Start the lab
  2. Look around
  3. The management VRF
  4. Features
  5. The first host
  6. Access and monitoring
  7. Read and save

The Lab Tasks pane has the scenario, these tasks, the checks to run, hints and the full solution.

Topology and devices

The network as it opens in EVE-NG, drawn from the lab’s own canvas, and the image each node runs.

Topology of NX-OS features and the management plane3 nodes and 1 network, 3 links. Every link is listed as text below the diagram.N1H1OPSMGMTeth0e5eth0e0
3 nodes and 1 network, with the interface names each link uses.
Every link, as text
  • N1 e5 to H1 eth0
  • N1 e0 to MGMT (network)
  • OPS eth0 to MGMT (network)
Nodes in NX-OS features and the management plane, with the image each runs and the vCPU and RAM it’s set to
NodeDeviceImage in Add NodeSet to
N1Cisco Nexus 9000vnxosv9k-9300v-9.3.102 vCPU, 6,144 MB
H1Alpine Linuxclbalpinebase-alpine-base-3-20-31 vCPU, 512 MB
OPSEVE-NG GUI server (Docker)eve-gui-server:latest1 vCPU, 1,024 MB

How to open this lab

  1. Sign in to your workspace at lab.cloudlabbox.com.

  2. In File Manager, open Shared, then the folder Cisco Nexus NX-OS data centre guided labs.

  3. Open 01 - NX-OS features and the management plane and start its nodes, then open Lab Tasks for the scenario and the steps.

The lab is read-only. You can start the nodes and configure the devices, but changes to the topology can’t be saved. To change it, rebuild it in your own folder.

More Cisco NX-OS data centre labs

All Cisco NX-OS data centre labs

Related labs in other courses

CloudLabBox is independent of Cisco. The lab follows exam topics and isn’t vendor training material; vendor names identify the exams and the images in the workspace.