On Friday, Cisco released version 1.2 of the Nexus 1000v virtual switch.  The new release not only fixes a number of bugs, it also adds new features, including a GUI for the initial configuration of the VSM. 

For those who still haven't jumped on board the virtual switch bandwagon, the Cisco Nexus 1000V is a distributed, layer 2 virtual switch that extends across many virtualized hosts.  It manages a Datacenter defined by the vCenter Server.  Each server in the Datacenter is represented as a linecard in Cisco Nexus 1000V and can be managed as if it were a line card in a physical Cisco switch.  The switch contains the following two components:

The new features with version 1.2 include:

• A GUI is provided for initial configuration of the VSM after installing the software. The GUI streamlines your configuration with creating the SVS connection between the VSM and vCenter, creating VMware port groups and LANs, etc.
• With Layer 3 control, a VSM can be Layer 3 accessible and control hosts that reside in a separate Layer 2 network.  All hosts controlled by a VSM, however, must still reside in the same Layer 2 network. Since a VSM cannot control a host that is outside of the Layer 2 network it controls, the host on which it resides must be controlled by another VSM.
• Virtual service domains (VSDs) allow you to classify and separate traffic for network services.  Interfaces within a VSD are shielded by a service VM (SVM) that provides a specialized service like a firewall, deep packet inspection (application aware networking), or monitoring.
• The iSCSI multipath feature sets up multiple routes between a server and its storage devices for maintaining a constant connection and balancing the traffic load. The multipathing software handles all input and output requests and passes them through on the best possible path.
• The Xtensible markup language (XML) application programming interface (API) lets you quickly develop client applications to manage and monitor the Cisco Nexus 1000V.
• DHCP snooping acts like a firewall between untrusted hosts and trusted DHCP servers
• Dynamic ARP Inspection (DAI) validates ARP requests and responses
• IP Source Guard filters traffic on interfaces and only permits traffic whose IP and MAC address matches that in the DHCP snooping database or static IP source entries that you configure.
• If one or more upstream switches do not support port channels, you can use MAC pinning to assign each Ethernet port member to a particular port channel subgroup. There are a maximum of 32 subgroups, so a maximum of 32 Ethernet port members can be assigned.
• You can use vPC-HM to configure a port channel subgroup so that traffic is forwarded only through its member ports by assigning (or pinning) the vEthernet interface, Control VLAN, or Packet VLAN to the subgroup

Find out more and read the release notes, here.