Getting Started Guide
At-A-Glance
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Figure 2. Cisco Nexus 6004 Chassis
The Cisco Nexus 6001 (Figure 3) is a 1RU switch with 48 fixed 10 Gigabit Ethernet
SFP+ and four fixed 40 Gigabit Ethernet QSFP+ ports used as uplinks. The Cisco
Nexus 6001 is a multipurpose switch that is excellent for top-of-rack (ToR) access and
leaf node switching supporting 1 and 10 Gigabit Ethernet servers. The Cisco Nexus
6001 offers power supply grid redundancy and 1+1 redundancy through the use of
two power supplies.
Figure 3. Cisco Nexus 6001 Chassis
The Cisco Nexus 6004 and 6001 use a custom-built application-specific integrated
circuit (ASIC) to deliver Layer 2 and Layer 3 features at line rate. Using the state-of-
the-art Cisco ASICs, the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series supports the large buffer capacity
and low latency between ports required for latency-sensitive environments. Cisco
Nexus 6000 Series Switches support industry-leading fabric extender architecture
with Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders and the Cisco Nexus B22 Blade
Fabric Extender, In-Service Software Upgrade (ISSU), and Cisco FabricPath. Operating
efficiency and programmability are enhanced on the Cisco Nexus 6000 Series through
advanced analytics, Power-On Auto-Provisioning (POAP), and Python Tool Command
Language (TCL) scripting.
The Cisco Nexus 6004 in a 4RU form factor quadruples performance and density and
massively boosts bandwidth with the introduction of true 40 Gigabit Ethernet. The
Cisco Nexus 6001 delivers 1.5 times the density in a 1RU form factor with additional
true 40 Gigabit Ethernet. Table 1 lists performance and scalability enhancements in the
Cisco Nexus 6000 Series.
Table 1. Primary Performance and Scalability Enhancements
Product Feature Cisco Nexus 6000 Series Scale*
MAC address table 256K MAC and /Address Resolution Protocol
(ARP) addresses (exible)
IP unicast routes 32K (IPv4) or 8K (IPv6)
IP hosts 128K (IPv4) or 64K (IPv6)
IP multicast routes 32K (IPv4) or 16K (IPv6)
VLANs 4K
Access control lists (ACLs) 4K (exible)
Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP)
snooping groups
32K
Virtual Routing and Forwarding (VRF) instances 4K
Buer 25 million per 3 x 40-Gbps QSFP+ or 12 x
10-Gbps SFP+
Cisco Switched Port Analyzed (SPAN) 31; 16 can be Encapsulated Remote SPAN
(ERSPAN)
Hardware capability
* 1K =1024
The comprehensive feature set of the Cisco Nexus 6004 make it well suited for
direct-attach 10 Gigabit Ethernet access and high-density fabric extender aggregation
deployments, leaf and spine architectures, and compact aggregation to build scalable
Cisco Unified Fabric in the data center. The Cisco Nexus 6001 is the right choice for
ToR deployments such as direct-attach 10 Gigabit Ethernet server-access and fabric
extender aggregation deployments and leaf and spine designs to build scalable Cisco
Unified Fabric in data centers.