Cisco Nexus Operating System (Cisco NX-OS) is for Cisco Nexus Ethernet switches and Cisco Multilayer Director Switches (Cisco MDS). The Cisco NX-OS Fibre Channel SAN switches evolved from the Cisco SAN-OS, which was originally developed for Cisco MDS switches. In this course, you will explore the Cisco NX-OS architecture, the CLI, Cisco NX-OS neighbor discovery, and connectivity tools.

First Hop Redundancy Protocol (FHRP) is a general term for a networking protocol that protects the default gateway. It allows two or more routers or Layer 3 switches to provide a backup for that address. If one first-hop router fails, the backup router will, within a few seconds, by default take over the address. You will learn about the challenges of first-hop redundancy and the solution using Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP), Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP), and Gateway Load Balancing Protocol (GLBP) as Layer 3 redundancy protocols.

A port channel is a technology that enables packets to transmit over several physical interfaces as if the interfaces were a single interface. Port channel technology logically bonds several physical connections into one logical connection. The process offers redundancy and load balancing while maintaining the combined throughput of physical devices.