Cisco NX-OS is a network operating system presented as a solution to help network operations move at the speed of business, with comprehensive automation, extensive visibility, and flexible open architectures for data center networks. NX-OS is the network operating system for all fabric architectures, from traditional L2/L3 to overlay-based fabrics.Cisco NX-OS powers the modern data center.
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Ubuntu
Score 8.7 out of 10
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Ubuntu Linux is a Linux-based operating system for personal computers, tablets and smartphones. There is also a Server version which is used on physical or virtual servers in the data center.
This easy solution can be a great help for the big companies on easy multiple data processing and effective networking solutions for the various departments and also generating the real-time data reports with Cisco NX-OS is excellent. For the new users, it takes no time to become a pro on full manipulation of the features and offer the best and quality management services.
For a regular not tech savvy user, Ubuntu [Linux] is a piece of cake once installed, and for the tech savvy, super simple to install. And even for the not as tech savvy it is easy.
Server specs don't need to be great, it'll run on anything, though what cpu/memory you'll need depends on your use case.
I think one feature it does really well is the virtual port channel feature. We have a lot of switches around the place that don't necessarily do port channeling really well. The Nexus platform comes in using the VPC feature, we're able to have multiple servers and then user devices connected, which gives us a lot better resiliency and scalability. Availability, it's easy to use, easy to maintain. Downtime is almost minimal. I think without a particular feature we would be stuck, so it's very good.
I would really love it for Cisco to unify the syntax of their operating systems. Most network engineers will be the most familiar with classic Cisco IOS based platforms since they are widely deployed at the access layer. Since Cisco NX-OS is less frequently deployed, the syntax change adds a steep learning curve to a lot of network engineers.
Cisco NX-OS syntax, depending on the version, can be a bit counter intuitive. For example, most network engineers are familiar with the "interface range" command in Cisco IOS. In some versions of Cisco NX-OS, this command is omitted and instead you have to use something similar to "interface ethernet 1/1 - 4". Another good example, is the "show ip int vrf interfaces " command found in Cisco IOS. For some reason, in Cisco NX-OS, Cisco decided to change this to "show ip int brief vrf ". I wish Cisco would choose one universal version of the command on all platforms. More specifically, I wish Cisco NX-OS would use the same Cisco IOS command verbiage.
Since Cisco NX-OS appliances will typically be deployed in more critical parts of your network, such as data centers, I wish that Cisco NX-OS had built in commit-check mechanisms before applying critical configuration changes. For example, in one of my previous jobs, I worked with a network engineer that was very familiar with Cisco IOS but relatively new to the Cisco NX-OS platform. They were staging a new network device and they were uplinking it to some of our Nexus switches. Something wasn't working for them and they decided they needed to tag the native vlan on a specific trunk interface on one of our Nexus switches. While in interface configuration mode, under that specific interface, they typed "vlan dot1q tag native". This is a global command which means it effectively tags the native vlan on EVERY trunk interface on the switch. Because they were applying this command in interface configuration command, they were under the impression they were applying to that specific interface only. This caused an outage which I then had to fix. It would be extremely helpful if Cisco added some type of commit-check that would inform the user that they are about to apply this change globally to every interface trunk or if they didnt permit this type of command to be executed in interface configuration mode and force the user to apply it in global config mode instead.
I'd like to see Canonical REALLY betting on desktop Linux and move one step forward with innovation in that area to improve user adoption.
Desktop UI decisions have been not-so-happy in the past. The ability to move back and forth with Unity has pushed a lot of users in favor of options. Having REAL desktop environment options is something to improve as well.
Improvements in interoperability with other OSes would be very welcome. Sometimes it's just hard to communicate with MacOS or Windows across some protocols. Maybe it's due to the private nature of these protocols, but alternatives are around, we just need to compile and improve them.
NX-OS has many similarities with the traditional IOS which is quite beneficial when it comes to configuration and learning. As a native Linux system, there are a lot of tools and features that can be enabled for any use case.
I gave it 10 out of 10 because it allows me to do the work I need on a server, such as running a website and database, and making developments. In addition, thanks to its easy and useful interface during installation, it can be easily installed. In addition, thanks to its easily accessible documents, when a problem occurs, it can be solved easily and quickly.
Our switches running NX-OS have provided solid consistent throughput. We haven't had any issues with it not being able to handle what we threw at it. The latency is extremely low. It also has multiple management options that we hope to pursue in the future.
Cisco support never fails me. In terms of timely response, no one is on par with them. They really value the impact of having technical issues and potential business stoppage. Also, their support staff are well equipped with knowledge and skills and easily resolve the most common incidents. Most of the time, we can resolve an issue by just calling them once.
We did not use the managed commercial support, but instead relied on community forums and official documentation. Ubuntu is very well documented across both instructional documentation from the developers themselves as well as informal support forums [ServerFault, YCombinator, Reddit]. It's easy enough to find an answer to any question you may have
I am much more familiar with the commands in Cisco IOS as it has been around for many more years. I know why NX-OS is a different system and can see the benefits of the fibre channel integration, but I do not understand why the commands had to use a different syntax. With the Nexus switches you don't get a choice of operating system unfortunately.
A viable, free, widely used alternative to any modern operating systems on the market. Ubuntu [Linux] is constantly improved, has an enormous user base, a very good community. It's one of the most advanced Linux distributions of today, and can be highly customized to the point that almost any requirement can be filled with it.
Up to now, we haven't had a major ground-shaking attack on our networks but we take no chances by using NX-OS alongside a SIEM. All endpoints and workloads are secure so I would say we have plenty of trust in their security model.
Cisco NX-OS has provided extremely high availability in our organization; especially when we've had to perform upgrades. We've been able to leverage their ISSU technology to perform system upgrades/downgrades with no downtime
Cisco NX-OS has allowed us to leverage high throughput packet forwarding for all of our application needs. I can't remember the last time anyone has complained about slow application speeds in my environment.
