Caveats When Deploying Nexus9000v
As I’m building a VXLAN lab based on Nexus9000v, I ran into some caveats while deploying. Some things are related to ESX (vSphere) only while others apply to also other platforms.
The boot process for Nexus9000v is a bit special. It requires using a serial console to access switch prompt and from there booting the NX-OS image. There are a few steps to enable this in vCenter. For the VM that was deployed using the OVA, edit settings of the VM and go to Virtual Hardware -> Serial port 1:

Use the following settings:
- Use Network.
- Direction – Server.
- Port URI – telnet://<portnumber>.
Note that when selecting a port number, it must be a port above 1024.
Next, under VM Options, go to Advanced and select Edit Configuration…

Click Add Configuration Params and add the following entry:
efi.serialconsole.enabled with a value of TRUE:

The server also needs to have firewall ports open. This is done by going to Configure -> System -> Firewall:

Make sure that VM serial port is enabled.
Then, power on the device which will boot to Loader. Boot on the image stored on bootflash:
Loader Version 5.9.3.94 loader Continue reading