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Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switch CLI Software Configuration Guide
OL-16597-01
Chapter 1      Product Overview
Typical Deployment Topologies
IOC Topology
Figure 1-3 shows a typical I/O consolidation (IOC) scenario for the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series switch. 
Figure 1-3 I/O Consolidation Topology
The Cisco Nexus 5000 Series switch connects to the server ports using FCoE. Ports on the server require 
converged network adapters. For redundancy, each server connects to both switches. Dual-port CNA 
adapters can be used for this purpose. The CNA is configured in active-passive mode, and the server 
needs to support server-based failover. 
On the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series switch, the Ethernet network-facing ports are connected to two Catalyst 
6500 switches. Depending on required uplink traffic volume, there may be multiple ports connected to 
each Catalyst 6500 switch, configured as port channels. If STP is enabled in the data center LAN, the 
links to one of the switches will be STP active and the links to the other switch will be STP blocked. 
The SAN network-facing ports on the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series switch are connected to Cisco MDS 9000 
Family switches. Depending on required traffic volume, there may be multiple Fibre Channel ports 
connected to each MDS 9000 Family switch, configured as SAN port channels. 
SAN-A LAN Core SAN-B
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