Here is a basic overview of ordering Nexus Dashboard for your infrastructure. We will start with the basics of the two options available:
- Physical Nexus Dashboard Cluster
- Main SKU: SE-CL-L3
- Additional compute nodes: SE-NODE-G2=
- Virtual Nexus Dashboard Cluster
- SKU: ND-VIRTUAL=
Questions and Answers
Q: Do I need to license Nexus Dashboard?
A: No, aside from the hardware costs associated with the physical cluster, both the virtual and physical clusters only require you define the number of months of support “Smart Net” when you order it. This is why, with virtual Nexus Dashboard, you see a small cost associated with it. This cost is not a license cost, it is merely the cost of the support.
Q: What if I don’t have the correct switch, or add-on, licenses for the feature I’m running?
A: Lets imagine you want to run NDO but your switches only have DCN Essentials licensing. In Nexus Dashboard, once you spin up NDO, you would be out of compliance as none of your switches have DCN Advantage licensing on them; thus, you would need to have your license level elevated to a minimum of DCN Advantage to come into compliance. This also applies to Nexus Insights, if you only have DCN Essentials or DCN Advantage, and no Day2OPs add-on licenses, you would be out of compliance to use the Nexus Insights service and would need to elevate your license level to DCN Premier or procure DAY2OPS add-on licenses to come back into compliance.
Q: What is a better option for DAY2OPS licensing in my network?
A: Given the standard life cycle of switches in data centers these days, DCN Premier licensing is cheaper than using a mixed option of DCN Advantage and adding DAY2OPS via an add-on license option.
Q: What licenses are required for Nexus Dashboard?
A: For Nexus Dashboard itself, there are no licenses for the platform itself. Instead, licensing is based on switches that determine what service(s) inside Nexus Dashboard you plan on running. Lets explore this
Licensing and Nexus Dashboard services
Nexus Dashboard itself is a platform, and inside this platform are services you can enable, I will also include the switch licenses which entitle you to use them, including add-on licenses to enable them should the switch level license you selected doesn’t entitle you to it:
- Nexus Dashboard Orchestrator (NDO)
- DCN Advantage (minimum level for NDO)
- DCN Premier (Includes NDO and all Day2Ops with Nexus Insights)
- Nexus Dashboard Insights (NI/NDI)
- DCN Premier
- N9K-ADD-T (Main SKU)
- D2OPS-(FXD or MOD)-(3 or 5)Y (Sub SKU)
- Nexus Dashboard Fabric Controller (NDFC)
- DCN Essentials (Minimal, included as well in Advantage and Premier)
- Nexus Dashboard Data Broker (NDDB)
- NXOS-NDB-(XF, M4, or M8-16)
- This is an add-on license to a Nexus Switch deployed as a Data Broker switch.
