Occasional confusing issues on Nexus 5000 Layer 3

Hi Guys

This is a short post as it is really more for my own benefit, i had a hell of a time getting a Nexus 5000 to work correctly due to some misunderstanding on my part with Nexus Licensing.

So, Nexus 5000 with a layer 3 daughtercard is ENTITLED automatically to LAN Base.

Now let's say you installed LAN-Enterprise, which is meant to come with all the features of LAN Base, they are actually seperate licenses and if you have one but not the other you will have very strange issues, I had an issue where VRRP would not recognise each other as neighbors even though it let me configure it! Unlike a 3750 for example when you have to say "ip routing" in order to have the device perform layer 3 routing, the nexus does not have any similiar command and infact you will be able to configure all the L3 features you want, they just won't work!

So if you have weird problems where the nexus 5000 won't route traffic even though you have the layer 3 daughtercard and entries in your route table, be sure to check you have the LAN Base image, it's free with the layer 3 daughtercard you are entitled to it :).  Check below to see where to get it from.


Feature                      Ins  Lic   Status Expiry Date Comments
                                 Count
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FM_SERVER_PKG                 No    -   Unused             -
ENTERPRISE_PKG                No    -   Unused             -
FC_FEATURES_PKG               No    -   Unused             -
LAN_BASE_SERVICES_PKG         Yes   -   In use Never       -
LAN_ENTERPRISE_SERVICES_PKG   Yes   -   Unused Never       -
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
!

If you don't have the LAN BASE license listed above you will be hosed, to get a copy just go to www.cisco.com/go/licensing, click on get demo, nexus 5000 and then select LAN Base license, you will see it's a permanent license you can install.