Note: This is an older version of my command summary, the updated version is available at Migrating to Nexus 7000 from Catalyst 6500 and 4500 Switches as of NX-OS 6.0.
I’ve been looking at migrating some customers’ Catalyst 4500 and Catalyst 6500 switches to Nexus 7000 switches. I thought I would write up a comparison of common commands as an aid for the networking team.
Overall, the fundamental NX-OS 4.x CLI commands in are pretty similar to the 12.2 IOS CLI on Catalyst 4500 and 6500s. You can also use the “?” to get help and prompts, commands can be abbreviated, and the [Tab] key will auto-fill in unambiguous commands.
Some caveats: NX-OS does not support all the features of IOS, for example, acting as a DHCP server and NTP authentication.
IOS Commands (Nexus NX-OS Commands when different) |
Function |
| show version | Displays information about the currently running system software image and an overview of the installed hardware. |
| show module | Displays information about the installed modules including module number, module type, number of ports on each module, module MAC addresses, and the module status. |
| router(config)#do show command router(config)#show command ! or router(config)#do show command |
View existing configuration information from the configuration command prompt using show commands. Note: For NX-OS, the [Tab] key and “?” will work for Exec mode commands inside of configuration mode. The use of “do” in NX-OS is currently working, but is not documented. |
| router(config)# do Exec-command
router(config)# Exec-command |
View existing configuration information from the configuration command prompt. Note: For NX-OS, the [Tab] key and “?” will work for Exec mode commands inside of configuration mode. The use of “do” in NX-OS is currently working, but is not documented. |
| reload | Reloads the operating system for the entire deviceNote:
For the Nexus 7000, this command works only in the default VDC. |
| ! 6500 hw-module module slot reset ! 4500 no hw-module [slot | module] number power hw-module [slot | module] number power reload module mod-# |
Reloads a module in the device by turning power off then on.
Note: For the Nexus 7000, this command works only in the default VDC |
| service timestamps [debug | log] [uptime | datetime [msec]] [localtime] [show-timezone] [year] debug logging logging timestamp {microseconds | milliseconds | seconds} |
Apply a time stamp to debugging messages or system logging messages.Note:
In NX-OS, to enable debug logging configure ‘debug logging’ command. NX-OS does not have as many options for timestamps. |
| service password-encryption
! No equivalent NX-OS command |
Note: By default, NX-OS encrypts plain text passwords and enables password strength checking. |
| logging buffered [discriminator discr-name] [buffer-size] [severity-level]
|
Enable system message logging to a local buffer |
| username name {nopassword | password password | password encryption-type encrypted-password}
username user-id [password [0 | 5] password] |
Create and configure a user account. Note: By default, NX-OS encrypts plain text passwords and enables password strength checking. |
| aaa new-model aaa authentication login default group tacacs+ local aaa authentication login console none aaa authentication enable default none aaa authentication ppp default local aaa accounting exec default start-stop group tacacs+ aaa accounting commands 0 -15 start-stop group tacacs+ aaa accounting commands 15 default start-stop group tacacs+ aaa session-id common aaa authentication login default group tacacs+ local |
Configuring AAA. Note: Not all commands are supported on the NX-OS. |
| clock timezone zone hours-offset [minutes-offset] clock summer-time zone recurring [week day month hh:mm week day month hh:mm [offset]] clock timezone zone-name offset-hours offset-minutes clock summer-time zone-name start-week start-day start-month start-time end-week end-day end-month end-time offset-minutes |
Configure the time zone offset from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) as well as daylight savings time. |
| ip subnet-zero no ip source-route no ip bootp server ! No equivalent NX-OS command |
These commands are not available in NX-OS. |
| no ip domain-lookup ip domain-name [vrf vrf-name] name no ip domain-lookup |
Disable DNS lookup feature and configure a domain name. |
| ip ssh time-out seconds ip ssh authentication-retries tries ip ssh version 2ip feature ssh |
Enable an SSH server. Note: The Cisco NX-OS commands for SSH are different from the Cisco IOS commands. NX-OS software supports only SSHv2. |
| power redundancy-mode {redundant | combined}
power redundancy-mode {combined | insrc-redundant | ps-redundant | redundant} |
Configure the power supply redundancy mode |
| ! 6500 no power enable module mod-# ! 4500 no hw-module [slot | module] number power poweroff module mod-# |
Powers off a module from configuration mode. |
| redundancy mode sso main-cpu auto-sync standard! No equivalent NX-OS command |
Configure CPU redundancy. Note: : The Nexus 7000 supports dual supervisor modules to provide 1+1 redundancy for the control and management plane. Only one of the supervisor modules is active at any given time, while the other acts as a standby backup. No configuration commands are needed. |
| spanning-tree mode [pvst | mst | rapid-pvst]
spanning-tree mode [rapid-pvst | mst] |
Default mode for IOS is PVST; default mode for NX-OS is RPVST. Note: When you enter the command, all STP instances are stopped for the previous mode and are restarted in the new mode. |
| spanning-tree extend system-id
! No equivalent NX-OS command |
Enable the extended system ID feature on a chassis that supports 1024 MAC addresses. Note:
NX-OS does not use this command, the extended system ID is always automatically enabled in NX-OS devices. |
| spanning-tree vlan vlan-id priority value | Set the STP bridge priority |
| vlan internal allocation policy ascending
! No equivalent NX-OS command |
Configure the internal VLAN allocation scheme. Note: NX-OS does not support this command. |
| interface type slot/number switchport switchport mode access switchport access vlan vlan-id spanning-tree portfast [speed {10 | 100 | 1000 | auto [10 | 100 | 1000] | nonegotiate}] interfacetype slot/number |
Configure a Layer 2 access port. Note: NX-OS uses “Ethernet” as the type for all FastEthernet / GigabitEthernet / Ten Gigabit Ethernet interfaces. The VLAN in the vlan-id needs to be created so that the interface will come up. |
| interface type slot/number switchport switchport mode trunk [switchport trunk allowed vlan vlan-id] switchport trunk encapsulation [isl | dot1 | negotiate] [switchport trunk allowed vlan add vlan-id] [speed {10 | 100 | 1000 | auto [10 | 100 | 1000] | nonegotiate}]interface type slot/number |
Configure a Layer 2 trunk port. Note: NX-OS only supports 802.1Q encapsulation. |
| vlan vlan-# interface vlan-# no shutdown vlan vlan-# |
Configure a VLAN interface Note: In NX-OS, the interface-vlan feature needs to be enabled before an interface VLAN can be configured. The VLAN needs to be defined as well for the interface to come up. |
interface port-channel channel-# switchport switchport mode . . . interface type slot/number switchport channel-group group_number mode {active | auto | desirable | on | passive} feature LACP |
Configure a Layer 2 LACP port channel.Note:
In NX-OS, the LACP feature needs to be enabled before it can be used. |
| vtp domain domain-name | Configure the VTP domain name |
| vtp {server | client | transparent}vtp mode transparent | Configure the VTP mode. Note: NX-OS only support VTP transparent mode. |
| udld {enable | aggressive}feature udld | Enable UDLD globally on a device. |
| ip route prefix mask next-hop-address ip route ip-prefix/length next-hop-address |
Configure static routes. |
| ip access-list extended access-list-name [sequence-number] {permit | deny} protocol source source-wildcard destination destination-wildcard . . . ip access-list access-list-name [sequence-number] {permit | deny} protocol source destination . . . |
Create or configure an IPv4 ACL Note: NX-OS supports one type of IPv4 ACL which is similar to the named extended ACL in IOS. |
| ip access-list resequence access-list-name starting-sequence-number increment
resequence access-list-type access-list access-list-name starting-sequence-number increment |
Resequence an ACL. |
| router eigrp as-number
feature EIGRP |
Configure EIGRP routing. Note: In NX-OS, the EIGRP feature needs to be enabled before it can be used. You can use any case-sensitive alphanumeric string up to 20 characters as an instance tag. If you configure an instance-tag that does not qualify as an AS number, you must use the autonomous-system command to configure the AS number explicitly or this EIGRP instance will remain in the shutdown state |
| router(config-router)# network ip-address [wildcard-mask]interface type slot/number ip address ip-prefix/length ip router eigrp instance-tag
|
Configure a network in EIGRP. Note: For NX-OS, a network is configured in EIGRP by associating it through an interface the router uses to connect to the area. NX-OS uses CIDR notation for IP addresses, but can accept the ip-address mask format as well. |
| router ospf process-id
feature OSPF |
Configure OSPF routing. Note: In NX-OS, the OSPF feature needs to be enabled before it can be used. The instance-tag is locally assigned and can be any alphanumeric string or positive integer. |
| router(config-router)# network ip-address wildcard-mask area area-id interface type slot/number ip address ip-prefix/length ip router ospf instance-tag area area-id
|
Configure a network in OSPF. Note: For NX-OS, a network is configured in OSPF by associating it through an interface the router uses to connect to the area. |
| interface type slot/number ip address ip-address mask ip helper-address ip-address standby [group-number] ip ip-address standby [group-number] timers hellotime holdtime standby [group-number] priority priority standby [group-number] premptf eature hsrp |
Configure HSRP with an IP helper address to a DHCP server. Different command syntax is used. NX-OS also uses ‘hsrp’ as keyword, while IOS uses ‘standby’. Note: In NX-OS, the HSRP feature needs to be enabled before it can be used. To use the DHCP relay, DHCP services also has to be enabled. The HSRP holdtime needs to be at least 3x the hello time. NX-OS uses CIDR notation for IP addresses, but can accept the ip-address mask format as well. Prior to NX-OS 4.2(1), the service dhcp command enabled the DHCP Relay feature. In NX-OS 4.2(1) the command was changed to ip dhcp relay. |
| ip dhcp pool name
! No equivalent NX-OS command |
Configure a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) address pool on a DHCP server. Note: The NX-OS supports DHCP snooping, and DHCP relay, but does not support acting as a DHCP server. |
| ip multicast-routing
feature PIM |
Enable IP multicast routing |
| ipv6 unicast-routing interface type slot/number ipv6 address ipv6-prefix/prefix-length eui-64 interface type slot/number |
Enable IPv6 traffic forwarding on an interface. Note: NX-OS does NOT need to enable IPv6 routing globally. |
| ntp server ip-address
ntp enable |
Configure NTP. |
| ntp authenticate ntp authentication-key md5 value ntp trusted-key key-number ntp update-calendar ntp server ip-address key key-id
! No equivalent NX-OS command |
Configure NTP authentication options. Note: NX-OS does not currently support NTP authentication keys. |
monitor session session-# source interface type slot/number monitor session session-# destination interface type slot/number interface type slot/number |
Enable SPAN sessions on interfaces or VLANs |
| snmp-server community RW-string RW acl-# snmp-server community RO-string RO acl-# snmp-server enable traps snmp authentication linkdown linkup coldstart warmstart snmp-server enable traps tty snmp-server enable traps entity snmp-server enable traps port-security snmp-server enable traps config snmp-server host ip-address string snmp ifmib ifindex persist snmp-server community RW-string RW |
Enable common SNMP options. Note: NX-OS syntax differs. |
| tacacs-server host ip-address tacacs-server directed-request tacacs-server key [0 | 7] keyfeature tacacs+ tacacs-server host ip-address tacacs-server directed-request tacacs-server key [0 | 7] key |
Configure TACACS+ server |
I hope this gives you a useful overview of some common configuration and verification commands you may need when migrating.
Three useful Cisco documentation links for further information:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/datacenter/sw/4_1/nx-os/master/index/master_index.html
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps9402/products_installation_and_configuration_guides_list.html
http://docwiki.cisco.com/wiki/Cisco_Nexus_7000_NX-OS/IOS_Comparison_Tech_Notes <– just found this, includes multiple articles comparing Cisco NX-OS and Cisco IOS features.
— cwr
ps – Some earlier articles that might also be helpful:
It’s been some time, but I recall having tested that HSRP does indeed work between 4500/6500 IOS and NX-OS. To align the default standby group (which is 0) on Cisco IOS w/ NX-OS, you need to configure the [i]group-number[/i] as 0, as in [b]HSRP 0[/b].
Abuemran –
Sure, port-channel is even listed in the table.
After you enable [b]feature LACP[/b] you can configure [b]interface port-channel [i]channel-#[/i][/b]
Carole