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Cisco released the newest update to the Nexus 1000V Distributed Virtual Switch.

I was anxiously awaiting the next release after running into some difficulties getting the previous version to implement seamlessly.  I actually even ran into the fabled PSOD when installing this at one customer.

With the growth of the Virtualized Datacenter, the need for a centralized network infrastructure has grown.  The Nexus 1000V has been the only way outside of the VMware DVS to do that, but the caveats have weighed heavily on IT departments' decisions to go forward with implementation.

So, enter the newest release of the 1000V code.

What does it improve?

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Here's a couple of the highlights from the update, but for full details see <a title="Cisco Nexus 1000V" href="http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/datacenter/nexus1000/sw/4_2_1_s_v_1_4/release/notes/n1000v_rn.html">here</a>

- You can now disable the HTTP Server

- There are enhancements made to Port Profiles

- Higher Maximums!!

- vPath

- Upgrade application for VSM and VEM

- Hardware adapter for iSCSI multipathing

- CBWFQ (Class-Based Weighted Fair Queueing)

- ACLs for Management Interfaces

- Ephemeral Port-Binding Type

Another big plus for me was vMotion.  With all the previous releases the VSM had to be excluded from DRS and vMotion tasks, however now with this release, vMotion is enabled and provides more resilient VSMs that are not tied to a specific host.

With this release the Nexus 1000V continues to grow in strength as a powerful DVS to maintain the virtual data center.  Hopefully the caveats that have been appearing in the past will be corrected.  Some of that is still to be seen, but I am hopeful that the 1000V will become what we all hoped it would be.

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