Cisco Support Community Presents

Tech-Talk Series
Nexus vPC
(Virtual Port Channel)

Vivek Ruhil

Pradeep Malik

CCIE SP #40530

CCIE R&S, SP #25302

Advance Services

Advance Services

Vinay Kumar
CCIE R&S #35210
HTTS

vPC Definition
Virtual Port Channel
L2

Si

Physical Topology

Si

Logical Topology
Non-vPC

vPC

Benefits of vPC
STP
Domain
SW1

vPC
Domain

SW2
SW4

SW5

STP Failure

SW3
SW6

vPC Terminology
vPC Peer-keepalive
link
vPC Domain

vPC peer-link
CFS protocol

vPC peer
vPC
vPC
vPC
member
member
port
port

Orphan
Ports

vPC
vPC
member
port

vPC Operation

MAC_C

MAC_C

5
N7K-2

N7K-1

N7K-2

N7K-1

5
2
3
N5K-2

N5K-1

CFS

N5K-2

N5K-1

1
MAC_A

MAC_A

vPC Consistency Check

Type 1

Type 2

vPC Configuration
Following steps are needed to build a
vPC (Order does Matter!)

Define domains
Establish Peer Keepalive
connectivity
Create a Peer link
Reuse port-channels and Create
vPCs
Make Sure Configurations are
Consistent
vPC member
Routed Interface
Host Port

5 6

7 8

vPC Configuration Contd.

N7K1-LAB
N7K1-LAB
N7K1-LAB
N7K1-LAB
N7K1-LAB
!
N7K1-LAB
N7K1-LAB
!
N7K1-LAB
N7K1-LAB
N7K1-LAB
N7K1-LAB

N7K2-LAB (config )#feature vpc

(config )#feature vpc
N7K2-LAB (config )#vpc domain 10
(config )#vpc domain 10
N7K2-LAB (config-vpc-domain)# peer-keepalive
(config-vpc-domain)# peer-keepalive destination N7K-2-IP
destination N7K-1-IP
(config-vpc-domain)#system-priority 2000
N7K2-LAB (config-vpc-domain)#system-priority
(config-vpc-domain)#role priority 1000
2000
N7K2-LAB (config-vpc-domain)#role priority 500
(config)# interface port-channel 10
!
(config-if)# vpc peer-link
N7K2-LAB (config)# interface port-channel 10
N7K2-LAB (config-if)# vpc peer-link
(config)# interface ethernet2/2
!
(config-if)# channel-group20
N7K2-LAB (config)# interface ethernet2/2
(config)# interface port-channel 20
N7K2-LAB (config-if)# channel-group20
(config-if)# vpc 20
N7K2-LAB (config)# interface port-channel 20
N7K2-LAB (config-if)# vpc 20

SW-LAB (config)# interface

ethernet2/2
SW-LAB (config-if)# channelgroup20
!
SW-LAB (config)# interface
ethernet1/2
SW-LAB (config-if)# channelgroup20

vPC Verification
N7K-LAB(config)# show vpc brief
Legend:
(*) - local vpc is down, forwarding via
vPC peer-link
vPC domain id
: 10
Peer status
: peer adjacency
formed ok
vPC keep-alive status
: peer is alive
Configuration consistency status
: success
vPC role
: primary
Number of vPC configured
:1
vPC Peer-link status
-------------------------------------------------------------------id Port Status Active vlans
-- ---- ------------------------------------------------------1 Po10 up 1,11,35,99
vPC status
--------------------------------------------------------------------id Port Status Consistency Reason
Active vlans
-- ---- ------ ----------- --------------------------

N7K-LAB(config)# show vpc peer-keepalive

vPC keep-alive status
: peer is alive
--Peer is alive for
: (310) seconds,
(29) msec
--Send status
: Success
--Last send at
: 2013.08.14
11:42:00 176 ms
--Sent on interface
: mgmt0
--Receive status
: Success
--Last receive at
: 2013.08.14
11:42:01 5 ms
--Received on interface
: mgmt0
--Last update from peer
: (0) seconds, (818)
msec
vPC Keep-alive parameters
--Destination
: 10.0.0.2
--Keepalive interval
: 1000 msec
--Keepalive timeout
: 5 seconds
--Keepalive hold timeout
: 3 seconds
--Keepalive vrf
: management
--Keepalive
udp
port
: 3200
show vpc
role
--Keepalive
tos
: 192
show vPC
statistic peer-keeplive
show vpc consistency-parameters
show vpc consistency-parameters interface port-channel
20

vPC Failure Scenarios

vPC Design Recommendation

Recommendation for vPC
Peer Link
1. The vPC Peer Link should be formed
of a minimum of 2 x 10GE links on
separate linecards
2. The 10GE ports should be
configured to operate in dedicated
bandwidth mode

Recommendation for
vPC Peer Keep-alive Link
1. Dedicated Link (1Gbps is
sufficient) using dedicated VRF

2. mgmt0 interface (shared link

with management traffic)

3. Routed over L3 infrastructure

(least preferred)

Recommendation for vPC Member

Ports
1. Port-channel mode: on, off, or active
2. Link speed per channel
3. Duplex mode per channel
4. Trunk mode per channel

3. Configure vPC Peer Link ports as

STP 'Network' ports to enable
Spanning Tree Bridge Assurance on
these links (assuming BA is enabled
globally).

5. Native VLAN

4. Enable UDLD on vPC Peer Links

8. Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) mode ,Interface &

global Settings

5. Running a dedicated VLAN / SVI

across the peer link to cater for
uplink failure (e.g. to the core) may
also be desirable.

9. STP region configuration for Multiple Spanning

Tree

6. VLANs allowed on trunk

7. Tagging of native VLAN traffic

10. Enable/disable state per VLAN

11. Loop & Root guard
12. Bridge Assurance setting