Nexus 2000 pinning best practice

Question

As many known the Nexus 2000 series is a switch which allows a distributed fabric in DC networks. Pinning Nexus 2000 is quite a breeze. I was looking to seek discussion and a general consensus on what others do.

A simple N2K pin is as such.

fex 101
pinning max-links 1
description "FEX0101

Do many of you lock down what Nexus 2000 device can be assigned to a pin by providing "verification" of the pinned Nexus 2000.

fex 102
pinning max-links 1
description "SVRSW-01-102"
serial FOC240831BZ
type N2248TP

Does the additional configuration fall into you best practice configuration or is it a must have in your environment and do you add it as a layer of pseudo-physical security?

Answer 1

I believe this is considered best practice. Frankly, there's no reason not to. Given that the 2K is essentially just a line card that can be moved around arbitrarily, this is the only way to ensure that it always shows up in the same "slot" of the parent switch.

Answer 2

You absolutely should use the serial command. I'm less worried about what is pinned where, than what happens if a FEX is connected to the wrong port. We were moving some equipment around and two SFPs were swapped. These FEXen were connected to a pair of Nexus 5000 via vPCs and both FEX lost all their configuration. It was a fairly unpleasant experience, and I recommend against it, myself.