CISCO - From Spanning Tree To L2 Mulipath

From Spanning Tree to L2 Multipath
Jaromr Pila Consulting Systems Engineer

2010 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Confidential 1
Agenda
L2 challenges and limitations Spanning tree protocol - traditional approach Multichassis Etherchannel "Routing" at L2 - Fabricpath and TRILL
2011 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Cisco Public
Spanning Tree Protocol
BRKDCT-2049
Cisco Public
Traditional approach
L2 Requires a Tree
11 Physical Links
S2
Branches of trees never interconnect (no loop)
5 Logical Links
S1
S3
Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) typically used to build this tree Tree topology implies:
Wasted bandwidth increased oversubscription Sub-optimal paths Conservative convergence (timer-based) failure catastrophic (fails open)
2011 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public
What is Spanning-Tree ?
Why do we need it ?
A redundant connection kills a bridged network: No TTL at layer 2, A single packet can take the whole bandwidth Though, we want to keep parallel links for redundancy
Cisco Public
What is Spanning-Tree ?
Why do we need it ?
The Spanning-Tree is a layer-2 algorithm was originally designed by Radia Perlman while working for DEC in 1985. Adopted into IEEE 802.1D 1990 with updates in 1998 and 2004 This protocol provides the following: Loop-free network Keeps the redundancy in case of failure Operates in a plug & play fashion
Cisco Public
Spanning Tree Timers and reconfiguration time

Hello_time: time between two BPDUs Forward_delay: duration of Listening and Learning stages Max_age: For ports receiving BPDUs, time before the device sending BPDUs is considered lost Given the following configurable parameters: Hello time (Default: 2s, Range allowed 1 - 10) Max Age (Default 20s. Range allowed 6 - 40) Forward Delay (Default 15s. Range allowed 4 - 30)
the convergence time in the worst case is given by formula:

Max Age + (2 * Forward delay) = 50 s
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How to reduce the convergence time

Cisco solution:
BackboneFast UplinkFast PortFast
Bridge 1 ROOT
Bridge 2
Bridge 3
Bridge 4
Bridge 5
Bridge 6
Bridge 7
IEEE solution:
802.1w/RSTP (Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol)
Optimizing L2 Convergence
PVST+, Rapid PVST+ or MST
Rapid-PVST+ greatly improves the restoration times for any VLAN that requires a topology convergence due to link UP Rapid-PVST+ also greatly improves convergence time over backbone fast for any indirect link failures PVST+
Traditional spanning tree implementation
Rapid PVST+
Scales to large size (~10,000 logical ports) Easy to implement, proven, scales
MST
Permits very large scale STP implementations (~30,000 logical ports)
Not as flexible as rapid PVST+
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Layer 2 Hardening
Spanning Tree Should Behave the Way You Expect
Place the root where you want it
Root primary/secondary macro
LoopGuard STP Root
The root bridge should stay where you put it

RootGuard LoopGuard UplinkFast UDLD
RootGuard LoopGuard
Only end-station traffic should be seen on an edge port

BPDU Guard RootGuard PortFast
BPDU Guard or RootGuard PortFast
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Multichassis Etherchannel
BRKDCT-2049
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Feature Overview
How does it help with STP? (1 of 2) Before
STP blocks redundant uplinks VLAN based load balancing Loop Resolution relies on STP Protocol Failure
Primary Root Secondary Root
After
No blocked uplinks Lower oversubscription
EtherChannel load balancing (hash)

Loop Free Topology
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Feature Overview
How does it help with STP? (2 of 2) Reuse existing infrastructure
Build Loop-Free Networks
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Virtual Switching System (VSS)
BRKDCT-2049
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Catalyst 6500 Virtual Switching System

Overview Spanning Tree
10GE
Si Si Si
VSS (Physical View)

10GE
Si
VSS (Logical View)
802.3ad or PagP
802.3ad
802.3ad or PagP
802.3ad
Access Switch or ToR or Blades
Server
Server
Server
Simplifies operational Manageability via Single point of Management, Elimination of

STP, FHRP etc
Doubles bandwidth utilization with Active-Active Multi-Chassis Etherchannel

(802.3ad/PagP) Reduce Latency
Minimizes traffic disruption from switch or uplink failure with Deterministic subsecond
Stateful and Graceful Recovery (SSO/NSF)
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Virtual Switching System Architecture

Virtual Switch Link (VSL)
The Virtual Switch Link joins the two physical switch together and it provides the mechanism to keep both the chassis in sync
A Virtual Switch Link bundle can consist of up to 8 x 10GE links All traffic traversing the VSL link is encapsulated with a 32 byte Virtual Switch Header containing ingress and egress switchport indexes, class of service (COS), VLAN number, other important information from the layer 2 and layer 3 header Control plane uses the VSL for CPU to CPU communications while the data plane uses the VSL to extend the internal chassis fabric to the remote chassis
VS Header
L2 Hdr L3 Hdr
Data
CRC
Virtual Switch Link Virtual Switch Active

Virtual Switch Standby

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Virtual Switching System

Unified Control Plane
One supervisor in each chassis with inter-chassis Stateful Switchover (SSO) method in with one supervisor is ACTIVE and other in HOT_STANDBY mode Active/Standby supervisors run in synchronized mode (boot-env, running-configuration, protocol state, and line cards status gets synchronized) Active supervisor manages the control plane functions such as protocols (routing, EtherChannel, SNMP, telnet, etc.) and hardware control (Online Insertion Removal, port management)
CFC or DFC Line Cards CFC or DFC Line Cards
CFC or DFC Line Cards CFC or DFC Line Cards
CFC or DFC Line Cards
VSL
PFC
CFC or DFC Line Cards
SF
RP
SF
RP
PFC
Active Supervisor
CFC or DFC Line Cards CFC or DFC Line Cards CFC or DFC Line Cards
Standby HOT Supervisor
SSO Synchronization
CFC or DFC Line Cards CFC or DFC Line Cards CFC or DFC Line Cards
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Dual Active Forwarding Planes
Both forwarding planes are active Standby supervisor and all linecards including DFCs are actively forwarding
VSS#
show switch virtual redundancy
My Switch Id = 1 Peer Switch Id = 2

<snip> Switch 1 Slot 5 Processor Information : ---------------------------------------------Current Software state = ACTIVE <snip> Data Plane Active
Si
Si
Data Plane Active
Fabric State = ACTIVE Control Plane State = ACTIVE
Switch 2 Slot 5 Processor Information : ---------------------------------------------Current Software state = STANDBY HOT (switchover target) <snip>
Fabric State = ACTIVE Control Plane State = STANDBY
Switch1
Switch2
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Virtual Switch Domain
A Virtual Switch Domain ID is allocated during the conversion process and represents the logical grouping the 2 physical chassis within a VSS. It is possible to have multiple VS Domains throughout the network
VSS Domain 10
VSS Domain 20
VSS Domain 30
Use a UNIQUE VSS Domain-ID for each VSS Domain throughout the network. Various protocols use Domain-IDs to uniquely identify each pair.
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Multichassis EtherChannel (MEC)
Prior to the Virtual Switching System, Etherchannels were restricted to reside within the same physical switch. In a Virtual Switching environment, the two physical switches form a single logical network entity - therefore Etherchannels can now be extended across the two physical chassis
Standalone
VSS
Both LACP and PAGP Etherchannel protocols and Manual ON modes are supported
Regular Etherchannel on single chassis

Multichassis EtherChannel across 2 VSS-enabled chassis

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EtherChannel Hash for MEC
Etherchannel hashing algorithms are modified in VSS to always favor locally attached interfaces
Blue Traffic destined for the Server will result in Link 1 in the MEC link bundle being chosen as the destination path
Orange Traffic destined for the Server will result in Link 2 in the MEC link bundle being chosen as the destination path
Link 1
Link 2
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High Availability
Dual-Active Detection
If the entire VSL bundle should happen to go down, the Virtual Switching System Domain will enter a Dual Active scenario where both switches transition to Active state and share the same network configuration (IP addresses, MAC address, Router IDs, etc) potentially causing communication problems through the network
3 Step Process detection (using one or more of 1 Dual-Active three available methods - ePAgP, VLSP Fast
Hello, IP BFD) Switch1 Switch2
2 3
Recovery Period - Further network disruption is avoided by disabling previous VSS active switch interfaces connected to neighboring devices . Dual-Active Restoration - when VSL is restored , the switch that has all its interfaces brought down in the previous step will reload to boot in a preferred standby state Active Recovery Standby
VSL Active
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VSS Redundant Supervisor Support

Why Redundant Supervisors Are Needed
A Supervisor failure event will down the affected chassis decreasing the VSS bandwidth by 50% Certain devices may only single-attach to the VSS for various reasons
Service Modules/Servers Geographic separation of VSS chassis Costs $$
Si Si
Supervisor failure events therefore require manual intervention for recovery of the affected chassis
Uplinks are not active when the Supervisor is in ROMMON mode Undeterministic outage time Relies on manual process to install and convert the new Supervisor with current VSS configuration
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Quad-Sup Control Plane Redundant supervisors fully boot Cisco IOS to RPR-WARM redundancy mode Switch-1 Switch-2
SSO Active RPR -Warm
STANDBY COLD
Si
SSO Hot-Standby RPR -Warm
Si
VSL
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Virtual Switching System (VSS) Quad-Sup- Data plane

From data plane perspective the RPR-Warm supervisor operates similarly to a DFCenabled line card. Forwarding tables are in sync and data plane is active for module uplinks
Switch-1
Switch-2
Active Active
STANDBY COLD
Si
VSL
Active Active Si
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Active Supervisor Hardware Failure
Switch-1 Switch-2
1
Active VSS supervisor incurs a hardware failure
SSO Active
RPR-Warm
VSL
SSO
STANDBY COLD
SSO Hot Standby

RPR-Warm
Si
Si
100 %
Available Bandwidth
SW1
50%
SW2
= Line Cards Active 1
SW2
Duration
28
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Switch-1
Switch-2
1. SSO failover to the hot-standby supervisor in switch-2 2. Switch-1 reloads and comes back online. 3. 50% bandwidth is available during switch-1 reload
R
SSO
STANDBY COLD
SSO Active
Si
RPR-Warm
VSL
Si
100 %
= Reload
Available Bandwidth
SW1
50%
SSO
= SSO Switchover
SW2
SW2
SW2
= Line Cards Active
1
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Duration
29

Switch-1
3
1. Switch-1 comes online 2. Previous RPR warm supervisor resumes SSO hot standby state
Switch-2
3. The failed supervisor boots up in RPR warm mode.

4. 100% Bandwidth is available leveraging both switches
RPR Warm SSO Hot Standby
STANDBY COLD
Si
SSO Active RPR Warm
VSL
Si
100 %
Available Bandwidth
R
SW1
50%
SW1
= Reload
= Line Cards Active
SW2
SW2
SW2
SW2
1
Duration
30
VSS Software Upgrade

Full Image Upgrade Bandwidth Availability Graph
The following graphs illustrate the aggregate bandwidth available to the VSS
Fast Software Upgrade bandwidth availability until 12.2(33)SXI
Enhanced Fast Software Upgrade bandwidth availability 12.2(33)SXI and after
100%
100%
50%
50%
1
SW2
4
SW1/SW2
5
SW1
SW2
SW1
4 SW1
At step 3 during RPR switchover, bandwidth will be dropped to 0% for 1-2 minutes
With EFSU, a minimum of 50% bandwidth is available throughout the software upgrade process
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Enterprise Campus
A Virtual Switching System-enabled Enterprise Campus network takes on multiple benefits including simplified management & administration, facilitating greater high availability, while maintaining a flexible and scalable architecture
Reduced routing neighbors, Minimal L3 reconvergence
L3 Core
No FHRPs No Looped topology Policy Management
L2/L3 Distribution
Access
Multiple active uplinks per VLAN, No STP convergence
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Data Center
A Virtual Switching System-enabled Data Center allows for maximum scalability so bandwidth can be added when required, but still providing a larger Layer 2 hierarchical architecture free of reliance on Spanning Tree
Single router node, Fast L2 convergence, Scalable architecture
L2/L3 Core
Dual Active Uplinks, Fast L2 convergence, minimized L2 Control Plane, Scalable
L2 Distribution
Dual-Homed Servers, Single active uplink per VLAN (PVST), Fast L2 convergence
L2 Access
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Virtual Portchannel (vPC)
BRKDCT-2049
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Feature Overview
vPC Definition
Allow a single device to use a port channel across two upstream switches
Eliminate STP blocked ports and uses all available uplink bandwidth Dual-homed server operate in active-active mode Provide fast convergence upon link/device failure Reduce CAPEX and OPEX Available on all current and future generation cards
Logical Topology without vPC
Logical Topology with vPC

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Feature Overview
vPC Terminology
vPC Peer-keepalive link vPC Domain vPC peer-link
vPC Domain - pair of vPC switches vPC peer - vPC switch, one of the pair
CFS protocol
vPC member port - one of the set of ports that form a vPC
vPC - the combined port channel between the vPC peers and the downstream device vPC peer-link - link used to synchronize state between vPC peer devices, must be 10GbE vPC peer-keepalive link - the keepalive link between vPC peer devices (backup to the vPC peer-link)
vPC peer vPC vPC vPC member member port port
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Single-Sided vPC
root
vPC on the N7k Root
N7k01 2/9 2/10 2/9
N7k02 2/10
logical equivalent
2/1
Po51,2 N5k01
2/2
2/1
2/2
N5k02
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Double-Sided vPC
root
vPC on the N7k
Root
N7k01 2/9 2/10 2/9
N7k02 2/10
logical equivalent
2/1
2/2
2/1
2/2
Po51
N5k01
Po10
Peer Link N5k02
primary
secondary
regular STP priority

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Attaching to a vPC Domain

IEEE 802.3ad and LACP Definition:
Port-channel for devices for devices dual-attached to the vPC pair Provides local load balancing for port-channel members STANDARD 802.3ad port channel
Access Device Requirements

STANDARD 802.3ad capability LACP or static port-channels
Recommendations:
Use LACP when available for graceful failover and mis-configuration protection
vPC Regular member Portport channel port
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Attaching to a vPC Domain

Dual Homed vs. Single Attached
P
P S P S
Primary vPC Secondary vPC
1. Dual Attached
2. Attached via VDC/Secondary Switch

Orphan Ports
3. Secondary ISL Port-Channel

4. Single Attached to vPC Device

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Layer 3 and vPC Designs

Layer 3 and vPC Design
Use L3 links to hook up routers and peer with a vPC domain Dont use L2 port channel to attach routers to a vPC domain unless you statically route to HSRP address If both, routed and bridged traffic is required, use individual L3 links for routed traffic and L2 port-channel for bridged traffic
Switch Po2 Po2 Switch
7k1 Po1
7k2
P
L3 ECMP
Routing Protocol Peer Dynamic Peering Relationship
Router
Router
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Spanning Tree Recommendations

STP Interoperability
STP Uses:
Loop detection (failsafe to vPC) Non-vPC attached device Loop management on vPC addition/removal
Requirements:
Needs to remain enabled, but doesnt dictate vPC member port state
Logical ports still count
Best Practices:
Make sure all switches in you layer 2 domain are running with Rapid-PVST or MST (IOS default is non-rapid PVST+), to avoid slow STP convergence (30+ secs) Remember to configure portfast (edge port-type) on host facing interfaces to avoid slow STP convergence (30+ secs)
vPC vPC STP is running to manage loops outside of vPCs direct domain, or before initial vPC configuration
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HSRP with vPC

FHRP Active/Active
Support for all FHRP protocols in Active/Active mode with vPC No additional configuration required Standby device communicates with vPC manager produces to determine if vPC peer is Active HSRP/VRRP peer General HSRP best practices still applies When running active/active aggressive timers can be relaxed (i.e. 2-router vPC case)
HSRP/VRRP Active: Active for shared L3 MAC
HSRP/VRRP Standby: Active for shared L3 MAC
L3 L2
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Feature Overview
vPC and VSS Comparison
Functionality
Multi-Chassis Port Channel Loop-free Topology STP as a fail-safe protocol Control Plane Support for Layer 3 portchannels Control Plane Protocols 10GE ports in the Channel Device Configuration Non Disruptive ISSU Support
VSS (Virtual Switching System)

vPC (Virtual Port Channel)

Single Logical Node
Two Independent Nodes, both active
Single instance 8 Combined Configs
Instances per Node 16 Common Configs (w/ consistency checker)
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Layer 2 Multipath ... and what about if tree is not necessary
BRKDCT-2049
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Next step in model evolution - FabricPath

Layer 2 Multipathing
Finally removes Spanning Tree Protocol from the network after several evolutionary intermediate steps (STP+, VSS, vPC) Integrates legacy devices via vPC+
Increase bandwidth of L2 networks via multiple active links

L3 multipathing is common in IP networks, similar principles and protocols applied to L2 Cisco FabricPath - available for Nexus 7000 and for Nexus 5500 Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links (TRILL) Extensions to well-known protocols (IS-IS) Simple configuration
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FabricPath Introduction
BRKDCT-2049
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FabricPath IS-IS
FabricPath IS-IS replaces STP as control-plane protocol in FabricPath network Improves failure detection, network reconvergence, and high availability
Introduces link-state protocol with support for ECMP for Layer 2 forwarding
Exchanges reachability of Switch IDs and builds forwarding trees
STP BPDU
Minimal IS-IS knowledge required no user configuration by default

Maintains plug-and-play nature of Layer 2
STP BPDU
FabricPath IS-IS
STP
FabricPath
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Why IS-IS?
A few key reasons: Has no IP dependency no need for IP reachability in order to form adjacency between devices Easily extensible Using custom TLVs, IS-IS devices can exchange information about virtually anything Provides SPF routing Excellent topology building and reconvergence characteristics
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FabricPath and Classic Ethernet (CE) Interfaces

Classic Ethernet (CE) Interface Interfaces connected to existing NICs and traditional network devices Send/receive traffic in 802.3 Ethernet frame format Participate in STP domain Forwarding based on MAC table
Ethernet
FabricPath interface CE interface
Ethernet
FabricPath Header
STP FabricPath
FabricPath Interface Interfaces connected to another FabricPath device Send/receive traffic with FabricPath header No spanning tree!!! No MAC learning Exchange topology info through L2 ISIS adjacency Forwarding based on Switch ID Table
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Basic FabricPath Data Plane Operation

DSID20 SSID10 DMACB SMACA Payload
DSID20
SSID10 DMACB SMACA Payload
FabricPath interface CE interface
S10
Ingress FabricPath Switch
S20
Egress FabricPath Switch
Payload
DMACB SMACA Payload
SMACA
FabricPath Core STP STP
DMACB
DMACB SMACA Payload
Payload SMACA DMACB
MAC A
MAC B
Ingress FabricPath switch determines destination Switch ID and imposes FabricPath header Destination Switch ID used to make routing decisions through FabricPath core No MAC learning or lookups required inside core Egress FabricPath switch removes FabricPath header and forwards to CE
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FabricPath MAC Table

Edge switches maintain both MAC address table and Switch ID table Ingress switch uses MAC table to determine destination Switch ID Egress switch uses MAC table (optionally) to determine output switchport
S10 S20 S30 S40
FabricPath MAC Table on S100

MAC IF/SID e1/1 e1/2 S101 S200
Local MACs point to switchports Remote MACs point to Switch IDs
A B C D
S100
S101
FabricPath
S200
MAC A
MAC B
MAC C
MAC D
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FabricPath Routing Table

FabricPath IS-IS builds and manages Switch ID (routing) table All FabricPath-enabled switches automatically assigned Switch ID (no user configuration required) Algorithm computes shortest (best) paths to each Switch ID based on link metrics Equal-cost paths supported between FabricPath switches
S10 S20 S30 S40
FabricPath Routing Table on S100

One best path to S10 (via L1)
Switch S10 S20 S30 S40 IF L1 L2 L3 L4 L1, L2, L3, L4 L1 L2 L3 L4
Four equal-cost paths to S101
S101
FabricPath
S200
L1, L2, L3, L4
S100
S101
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Conversational MAC Learning

MAC B C IF/SID S200 (remote) e7/10 (local)
S300

MAC A B IF/SID e1/1 (local) S200 (remote)
S100
MAC C
FabricPath Core
S200 MAC A

MAC A B C IF/SID S100 (remote) e12/1(local) S300 (remote)
MAC B
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FabricPath Multidestination Trees

S10 Root for Tree 1 S20 S30 S40 Root for Tree 2
Multidestination traffic constrained to loop-free trees touching all FabricPath switches Root switch assigned for each multidestination tree in FabricPath domain Loop-free tree built from each Root and assigned a network-wide identifier (Ftag) Support for multiple multidestination trees provides multipathing for multi-destination traffic
Two trees supported in NX-OS release 5.1
S100
S101
FabricPath
S200
S100
S20
S100
S10
S10
S101
S30
S40
S101
S20
Root
S200
S40
Root
S200
S30
Logical Tree 1
Logical Tree 2
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S3
FabricPath
L2
Introducing VPC+
S1
L1
CE F1 F1 F1
po3
VPC+ F1
F1 S2 F1
VPC+ allows dual-homed connections from edge ports into FabricPath domain with active/active forwarding
CE switch, Layer 3 router, dual-homed server, etc. Physical
Host A
VPC+ requires F1 modules with FabricPath enabled in the VDC

Peer-link and all VPC+ connections must be to F1 ports Logical
F1 S1 F1 F1 S3
L1 L2
Host AS4L1,L2
F1 F1 F1 S2
VPC+ creates virtual FabricPath switch for each VPC+-attached device to allow loadbalancing within FabricPath domain
VPC+
Virtual Switch 4 becomes next-hop for Host A in FabricPath domain
S4
po3
Host A
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VPC+ Physical Topology

Peer link and PKA required Peer link runs as FabricPath core port VPCs configured as normal VLANs must be FabricPath VLANs
S10
S20
S30
S40
No requirements for attached devices other than channel support
S100
FabricPath
S200
MAC A
MAC B
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VPC+ Logical Topology
S10
S20
S30
S40
Virtual switch introduced
S1000
S100
FabricPath
S200
MAC A
MAC B
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VPC+ and Active/Active HSRP

With VPC+ and SVIs in mixed-chassis, HSRP Hellos sent with VPC+ virtual switch ID FabricPath edge switches learn HSRP MAC as reached through virtual switch Traffic destined to HSRP MAC can leverage ECMP if available
Either VPC+ peer can route traffic destined to HSRP MAC

HSRP Active
DSIDMC SSID1000
HSRP Standby
SVI
S10 S20
SVI
S30 S40
DMAC0002 SMACHSRP
Payload S1000
po1 po2
S100
FabricPath
S200
1/30
MAC A
MAC B
MAC C
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FabricPath & Standards
BRKDCT-2049
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IETF standard for Layer 2 multipathing

Driven by multiple vendors, including Cisco RFC ready for standardization FabricPath capable hardware is also TRILL capable
http://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/trill/
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What Is the Relationship between FabricPath and TRILL?

a set of Layer 2 multipathing technologies
FabricPath initial release runs in a Native mode that is Cisco-specific, using proprietary encapsulation and control-plane elements
Nexus 7000 F1 I/O modules and Nexus 5500 HW are capable of running both FabricPath and TRILL modes
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FabricPath & TRILL Feature Summary

FS-link is a superset of TRILL
FabricPath
Frame routing
(ECMP, TTL, RPFC etc)
TRILL
Yes No No No No Point-to-point OR shared
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Point-to-point only
vPC+ FHRP active/active Multiple topologies Conversational learning Inter-switch links
Base protocol specification is now a proposed IETF standard (March 2010)
Control plane specification will become a proposed standard within months
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Conclusion
BRKDCT-2049
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L2 domain control protocol evolution

STP is still most commonly used protocol and through the time it was enhanced and improved in many different areas Solutions based on MEC are removing some STP limitations but do not remove STP itself completely from the network
L2 multipath protocols using different forwarding approach are popping up

Co-existence of both approaches is expected to last long time
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Thank you.
Backup slides
BRKDCT-2049
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VSL Bandwidth Sizing & Considerations

The VSL is an Etherchannel
can include up to eight links
Si Si
VSL bandwidth should be greater than or equal to the largest bandwidth connection to a single attached device (downlink)
Consider the bandwidth on a per VSS chassis basis
Si
Si
Consider the bandwidth for any Service Modules and SPAN sessions Distribute the VSL interfaces across multiple modules for added resiliency Include at least one VSL interface from the Supervisor module for faster VSL bring-up during reloads
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Putting It All Together Host A to Host B

(1) Broadcast ARP Request
Multidestination Trees on Switch 10
Tree IF L1,L5,L9 L9 DSIDFF Ftag1 SSID100 DMACFF SMACA L5 L1 L2 L3 L6 L4 L7 L8 DSIDFF Ftag1 SSID100 L10 L11 L12 DMACFF SMACA
S10
Root for Tree 1
S20
S30
S40
Root for Tree 2
Ftag
1 2

Tree IF L1,L2,L3,L4 L4
Payload
L9
Broadcast
1 2
S100
S101
FabricPath
Payload
S200

MAC A IF/SID e1/1 (local)
DMACFF SMACA Payload
Tree
IF L9 L9,L10,L11,L12
Payload SMACA DMACFF
Ftag
MAC A
1 2
MAC B

MAC IF/SID
Learn MACs of directly-connected devices unconditionally
Dont learn MACs in flood frames
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(2) Unicast ARP Reply
Tree IF L1,L5,L9 L9 DSIDMC1 Ftag1 SSID200 L5 L1 L2 L3 L6 L4 L7 L8 DSIDMC1 Ftag1 SSID200 L10 L11 L12 DMACA SMACB
S10
S20
S30
S40
Ftag
1 2

Tree IF L1,L2,L3,L4 L4
DMACA SMACB Payload
L9
Ftag
1 2
S100
S101
FabricPath
Payload
S200

MAC IF/SID
Payload SMACB DMACA
Tree
IF L9 L9,L10,L11,L12
DMACA SMACB Payload
Unknown
MAC A
1 2
A
B
e1/1 (local)
S200 (remote)
MAC B

MAC IF/SID
If DMAC is known, then learn remote MAC
A
B e12/2 (local)
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(3) Unicast Data
Switch IF L11 DSID200 Ftag1 SSID100 L5 L1 L2 L3 L6 L4 L7 L8 DSID200 Ftag1 SSID100 L10 L11 L12 DMACB SMACA
S10
S20
S30
S40
S200
S200

Switch S10 S20 S30 S40 IF L1 L2 L3 L4
DMACB
SMACA
Payload
L9
Hash S100 S101
FabricPath
Payload
S200

DMACB SMACA Payload Switch IF Payload SMACA DMACB
S101
L1, L2, L3, L4

L1, L2, L3, L4
S200
S200
MAC A
S200
S200
MAC B

MAC
A

MAC A IF/SID S100 (remote) e12/2 (local)
IF/SID
e1/1 (local) S200 (remote)
B
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CISCO - From Spanning Tree To L2 Mulipath

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CISCO - From Spanning Tree To L2 Mulipath

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From Spanning Tree to L2 Multipath

Jaromr Pila Consulting Systems Engineer

2011 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Spanning Tree Protocol

2010 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Branches of trees never interconnect (no loop)

2011 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Spanning Tree Timers and reconfiguration time

the convergence time in the worst case is given by formula:

2011 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

How to reduce the convergence time

2011 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

The root bridge should stay where you put it

Only end-station traffic should be seen on an edge port

2010 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

EtherChannel load balancing (hash)

2011 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Build Loop-Free Networks

2011 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Virtual Switching System (VSS)

2010 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Catalyst 6500 Virtual Switching System

VSS (Physical View)

VSS (Logical View)

Access Switch or ToR or Blades

Access Switch or ToR or Blades

Access Switch or ToR or Blades

Simplifies operational Manageability via Single point of Management, Elimination of

Doubles bandwidth utilization with Active-Active Multi-Chassis Etherchannel

Virtual Switching System Architecture

Virtual Switch Link Virtual Switch Active

Virtual Switch Standby

Virtual Switching System

CFC or DFC Line Cards CFC or DFC Line Cards

CFC or DFC Line Cards CFC or DFC Line Cards

CFC or DFC Line Cards

CFC or DFC Line Cards

Standby HOT Supervisor

2011 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Virtual Switching System

show switch virtual redundancy

My Switch Id = 1 Peer Switch Id = 2

Data Plane Active

Fabric State = ACTIVE Control Plane State = ACTIVE

Fabric State = ACTIVE Control Plane State = STANDBY

2011 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Virtual Switching System Architecture

Virtual Switching System Architecture

Regular Etherchannel on single chassis

Multichassis EtherChannel across 2 VSS-enabled chassis

Virtual Switching System Architecture

2011 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

2011 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

VSS Redundant Supervisor Support

2011 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Virtual Switching System (VSS)

SSO Active RPR -Warm

SSO Hot-Standby RPR -Warm

2011 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Virtual Switching System (VSS) Quad-Sup- Data plane

2011 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Virtual Switching System (VSS)