Cisco Verified Scale Limits for DCNM User Guide
- June 15, 2024
- Cisco
Table of Contents
**Cisco Verified Scale Limits for DCNM User Guide
**
Verified Scale Limits for Cisco DCNM
This document describes the verified scale limits for Cisco DCNM 11.5(1) for managing LAN, SAN, and Media Controller fabrics. The values are validated on testbeds that are enabled with a reasonable number of features, and aren’t theoretical system limits for Cisco DCNM software or Cisco Nexus/MDS switch hardware and software. The values can increase over time with more testing and validation. When you try to achieve maximum scalability by scaling multiple features at the same time, results might differ from the values that are listed here.
Cisco DCNM LAN Fabric Deployment
All LAN deployments will be managed using the LAN Fabric installation mode. The LAN Fabric mode has various fabric templates that can be used for different kinds of data center deployments. For example, the Easy_Fabric template is used for VXLAN BGP EVPN deployments that primarily use Cisco Nexus 9000 and Cisco Nexus 3000Seriesswitches.Similarly, External and LAN_Classic fabric templates can be used for legacy 3-tier, Fabric Path, and other kinds of deployments.
Note
- We recommend that you deploy Cisco DCNM server in Native HA mode in a production setup.
- We recommend native HA deployment for DCNM servers in the DCNM cluster mode with 3 compute nodes.
- NIR scale with DCNM is 350 switches, independent of Managed/Monitored mode. Network Insights applications are only supported in cluster mode. Refer to Cisco Network Insightsfor Resources Application for Cisco DCNM User Guide.
Refer the following table if you are provisioning new VXLAN EVPN fabrics.
Table 1: Scale Limits For Provisioning New VXLAN EVPN Fabrics (Also referred to as “Greenfield” Deployment)
Description | Verified Limit |
---|
Fabric Underlay Overlay
Switches Note The maximum recommended number of switches per fabric when
DCNM is in managed mode is 150.| 80 – Managed by a DCNM server with no compute
nodes. The managed switches can be part of any of the fabrics: Easy, eBGP,
External orLAN_Classic.
350 – Managed by a DCNM server with three compute nodes. The managed switches
can be part of any of the fabrics: Easy, eBGP, External, orLAN_Classic.
750 – Monitored by a DCNM server with and without compute nodes. Monitored
switches are typically part of External or LAN_Classic fabrics with monitor
mode enabled.
Physical Interfaces| 30000
Layer-3 scenario: VRFs| 500
Description| Verified Limit
---|---
Layer-3 scenario: Networks| 1000
Layer 2 scenario: Networks| 1500
VRF instances for external connectivity| 300 Note 300 VRFs over 1000
Layer-3 network or 300 VRFs over 1500 Layer-2 network is supported.
Easy fabrics supported for one Multi-Site Domain (MSD)| 8
Endpoint Locator
Endpoints| 100000 across a maximum of 4 fabrics (in cluster mode with 3
compute nodes)
Virtual Machine Manager (VMM)
Virtual Machines (VMs)| 5500
VMware vCenter Servers| 4
IPAM Integrator application| 150 networks with a total of 4K IP
allocations on the Infoblox server
Kubernetes Visualizer application| A maximum of 159 namespaces along
with a maximum of 1002 pods
Note
There is no limit on the number of Multi-Site Domains (MSDs) that can be created.
Refer the following table if you are transitioning a Cisco Nexus 9000 Series switches based VXLAN EVPN fabric management to DCNM. Before the migration, your fabric was an NFM managed or CLI configured fabric.
Table 2: Scale Limits For Transitioning Existing Fabric Management to DCNM (Also referred to as “Brownfield Migration”)
Description | Verified Limit |
---|
Fabric Underlay and Overlay
Switches per fabric| 100
Physical Interfaces| 5000
VRF instances| 500
Overlay networks| 1000
VRF instances for external connectivity| 300
Endpoint Locator
Endpoints| 100000 across a maximum of 4 fabrics
Description | Verified Limit |
---|
Virtual Machine Manager (VMM)
Virtual Machines (VMs)| 5500
VMware vCenter Servers| 4
IPAM Integrator application| 150 networks with a total of 4K IP
allocations on the Infoblox server
Kubernetes Visualizer application| A maximum of 159 namespaces along
with a maximum of 1002 pods
Cisco DCNM LAN Fabric Deployment Without Network Insights (NI)
Note
For information about various system requirements for proper functioning of Cisco DCNM LAN Fabric deployment, see System Requirements.
Refer to Network Insights User guide for sizing information for Cisco DCNM LAN Deployment with Network Insights (NI).
To see the verified scale limits for Cisco DCNM 11.5(1) for managing LAN Fabric deployments, see Verified Scale Limits for Cisco DCNM.
Table 3: Upto 80 Switches
Node| CPU Deployment Mode| CPU| Memory| Storage|
Network
---|---|---|---|---|---
DCNM| OVA/ISO| 16vCPUs| 32G| 500G HDD| 3xNIC
Computes| NA| —| —| —| —
Table 4: 81–350 Switches
Node| CPU Deployment Mode| CPU| Memory| Storage|
Network
---|---|---|---|---|---
DCNM| OVA/ISO| 16vCPUs| 32G| 500G HDD| 3xNIC
Computes| OVA/ISO| 16vCPUs| 64G| 500G HDD| 3xNIC
Cisco DCNM SAN Management
This fabric is used for SAN topologies.
Description | Verified Limit |
---|---|
Switches | 80 |
Description | Verified Limit |
--- | --- |
Hosts or targets | 20000 |
Zone sets | 1000 |
Zones | 16000 |
SAN Insights
The table specifies values supported for Cisco DCNM SAN deployments.
Description | Verified Limit 1 |
---|---|
Cisco Nexus Dashboard | 60,000 ITLs/ITNs |
Cisco DCNM on OVA Virtual Appliances | 40,000 ITLs/ITNs |
Cisco DCNM on Linux (RHEL) | 20,000 ITLs/ITNs |
- Initiator-Target-LUNs (ITLs)
- Initiator-Target-Namespace ID (ITNs)
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