Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Release Notes for Release 5.0(3)N2(2) (June 2011)

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Cisco Nexus 5000 Series and Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Release Notes, for Cisco NX-OS Release 5.0(3)N2(2) and Release 5.0(3)N2(1)
New and Changed Features
Fibre Channel over Ethernet N-Port Virtualization
Beginning with Cisco NX-OS Release 5.0(3)N2(1), Fibre Channel over Ethernet N-Port Virtualization
(FCoE NPV) is supported on the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series switches. The FCoE NPV feature is an
enhanced form of FIP snooping that provides a secure method to connect FCoE-capable hosts to an
FCoE-capable FCoE forwarder (FCF) switch. The FCoE NPV feature provides the following benefits:
• FCoE NPV does not have the management and troubleshooting issues that are inherent to managing
hosts remotely at the FCF.
• FCoE NPV implements FIP snooping as an extension to the NPV function while retaining the
traffic-engineering, VSAN-management, administration and trouble-shooting aspects of NPV.
• FCoE NPV and NPV together allow communication through FC and FCoE ports at the same time.
This provides a smooth transition when moving from FC to FCoE topologies.
For more information, see the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series NX-OS SAN Switching Configuration Guide,
Release 5.0(3)N2(1).
Flex Links
Beginning with Cisco NX-OS Release 5.0(3)N2(1), Flex Links are supported on Cisco Nexus 5000
Series switches. Flex Links are a pair of a Layer 2 interfaces (switchports or port channels), where one
interface is configured to act as a backup to the other. Flex Links are typically configured in
service-provider or enterprise networks where customers do not want to run STP. Flex Links provide
link-level redundancy that is an alternative to Spanning Tree Protocol (STP). STP is automatically
disabled on Flex Links interfaces.
Note To configure flex links, you must remove the LAN_ENTERPRISE_SERVICES_PKG,
LAN_BASE_SERVICES_PKG and then reload the switch.
For more information, see the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series NX-OS Layer 2 Switching Configuration Guide,
Release 5.0(3)N2(1).
Configurable Hash Polynomial
Beginning with Cisco NX-OS Release 5.0(3)N2(1), the Cisco Nexus 5500 Platform switches support 8
hash polynomials that can be used for compression on the hash-parameters. Depending on variations in
the hash parameters for egress traffic flows from a port channel, different polynomials could provide
improved load distribution results.
For more information, see the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series NX-OS Layer 2 Switching Configuration Guide,
Release 5.0(3)N2(1).
Orphan Port Shutdown
Beginning with Cisco NX-OS Release 5.0(3)N2(1), you can suspend a non-virtual port channel (vPC)
port when a vPC secondary peer link goes down. A non-vPC port, also known as an orphaned port, is a
port that is not part of a vPC.
For more information, see the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series NX-OS Layer 2 Switching Configuration Guide,
Release 5.0(3)N2(1).