Troubleshooting Cisco Nexus Switches and NX-OS

The definitive deep-dive guide to hardware and software troubleshooting on Cisco Nexus switches

The Cisco Nexus platform and NX-OS switch operating system combine to deliver unprecedented speed, capacity, resilience, and flexibility in today’s data center networks. Troubleshooting Cisco Nexus Switches and NX-OS is your single reference for quickly identifying and solving problems with these business-critical technologies.

Three expert authors draw on deep experience with large Cisco customers, emphasizing the most common issues in real-world deployments, including problems that have caused major data center outages. Their authoritative, hands-on guidance addresses both features and architecture, helping you troubleshoot both control plane forwarding and data plane/data path problems and use NX-OS APIs to automate and simplify troubleshooting. Throughout, you’ll find real-world configurations, intuitive illustrations, and practical insights into key platform-specific behaviors.

This is an indispensable technical resource for all Cisco network consultants, system/support engineers, network operations professionals, and CCNP/CCIE certification candidates working in the data center domain.

- Understand the NX-OS operating system and its powerful troubleshooting tools

- Solve problems with cards, hardware drops, fabrics, and CoPP policies

- Troubleshoot network packet switching and forwarding

- Properly design, implement, and troubleshoot issues related to Virtual Port Channels (VPC and VPC+)

- Optimize routing through filtering or path manipulation

- Optimize IP/IPv6 services and FHRP protocols (including HSRP, VRRP, and Anycast HSRP)

- Troubleshoot EIGRP, OSPF, and IS-IS neighbor relationships and routing paths

- Identify and resolve issues with Nexus route maps

- Locate problems with BGP neighbor adjacencies and enhance path selection

- Troubleshoot high availability components (BFD, SSO, ISSU, and GIR)

- Understand multicast protocols and troubleshooting techniques

- Identify and solve problems with OTV

- Use NX-OS APIs to automate troubleshooting and administrative tasks

Vinit Jain, CCIE No. 22854 (R&S, SP, Security & DC), is a technical leader with the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) providing escalation support in areas of routing and data center technologies. Vinit is a speaker at various networking forums, including Cisco Live events globally on various topics. Prior to joining Cisco, Vinit worked as a CCIE trainer and a network consultant. In addition to his CCIEs, Vinit holds multiple certifications on programming and databases. Vinit graduated from Delhi University in Mathematics and earned his Master’s in nformation Technology from Kuvempu University in India. Vinit can be found on Twitter as @VinuGenie.

Brad Edgeworth, CCIE No. 31574 (R&S & SP), is a systems engineer at Cisco Systems. Brad is a distinguished speaker at Cisco Live, where he has presented on various topics. Before joining Cisco, Brad worked as a network architect and consultant for various Fortune 500 companies. Brad’s expertise is based on enterprise and service provider environments with an emphasis on architectural and operational simplicity. Brad holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Computer Systems Management from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas. Brad can be found on Twitter as @BradEdgeworth.

Richard Furr, CCIE No. 9173 (R&S & SP), is a technical leader with the Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC), supporting customers and TAC teams around the world. For the past 17 years, Richard has worked for the Cisco TAC and High Touch Technical Support (HTTS) organizations, supporting service provider, enterprise, and data center environments. Richard specializes in resolving complex problems found with routing protocols, MPLS, multicast, and network overlay technologies.