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​Nexus 9000v - vPC (Virtual Port Channel)

Picture
vPC or Virtual Port Channel is an enhancement to port channels as we know them. There are other chassis virtualization techniques, like Stackwise and VSS or Virtual Switching System. Both of which aggregate 2 switches to appear as one. The drawback to those 2 techniques is the data plane and control plane are not separated. vPC separates the control and data plane from each other. 

Once operational, vPC makes two Nexus switches appear as a single device. There are some prerequisites, enable the feature first. Then define the vPC domain, define the peer keepalive. The interfaces that are used as the peer keepalive need to be placed into a VRF. The next is the peer link, which is setup over a port-channel. If the peer keepalive IPs can reach each other, the peer keepalive will be up and operational. 

The peers sync control plane over the peer link for MAC address propagation.

The interfaces facing the downstream switches are configured appropriately, like an access port or trunk link. The interfaces setup as a port channel. The port channel is then setup as a vpc and a number. 

The downstream switch is setup as a port channel facing the upstream switches.



N9K3
feature vpc
!
vrf context VPC
!
interface Ethernet1/5
  no switchport
  vrf member VPC
  ip address 10.1.1.3/24
!
vpc domain 10
  peer-keepalive destination 10.1.1.4 source 10.1.1.3 vrf VPC
!
interface port-channel34
  vpc peer-link
!
interface Ethernet1/8
  switchport mode trunk
  channel-group 10 mode active

interface Ethernet1/10
  switchport mode trunk
  channel-group 11 mode active
!
interface port-channel10
  switchport mode trunk
  vpc 10
! 
interface port-channel11
  switchport mode trunk
  vpc 11


N9K4
feature vpc
!
vrf context VPC
!
interface Ethernet1/5
  no switchport
  vrf member VPC
  ip address 10.1.1.4/24
  no shutdown
!
vpc domain 10
  peer-keepalive destination 10.1.1.3 source 10.1.1.4 vrf VPC
!
interface port-channel34
  vpc peer-link
!
interface Ethernet1/8
  switchport mode trunk
  channel-group 10 mode active
!
interface Ethernet1/10
  switchport mode trunk
  channel-group 11 mode active
!
interface port-channel10
  switchport mode trunk
  vpc 10
!
interface port-channel11
  switchport mode trunk
  vpc 11



N9K20
feature lacp
interface Ethernet1/1
  switchport mode trunk
  channel-group 10 mode active
!
interface Ethernet1/2
  switchport mode trunk
  channel-group 10 mode active


N9K22
​feature lacp
interface Ethernet1/1
  switchport mode trunk
  channel-group 11 mode active
!
interface Ethernet1/2
  switchport mode trunk
  channel-group 11 mode active




N9K3# show vpc 
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 
Per-vlan consistency status       : success                       
Type-2 consistency status         : success 
vPC role                          : primary                       
Number of vPCs configured         : 2   
Peer Gateway                      : Disabled
Dual-active excluded VLANs        : -
Graceful Consistency Check        : Enabled
Auto-recovery status              : Disabled
Delay-restore status              : Timer is off.(timeout = 30s)
Delay-restore SVI status          : Timer is off.(timeout = 10s)
Operational Layer3 Peer-router    : Disabled

vPC Peer-link status
---------------------------------------------------------------------
id    Port   Status Active vlans    
--    ----   ------ -------------------------------------------------
1     Po34   up     1,10                                                        
         

vPC status
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Id    Port          Status Consistency Reason                Active vlans
--    ------------  ------ ----------- ------                ---------------
10    Po10          up     success     success               1,10               
11    Po11          up     success     success               1,10               
         



N9K4# show vpc
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 
Per-vlan consistency status       : success                       
Type-2 consistency status         : success 
vPC role                          : secondary                     
Number of vPCs configured         : 2   
Peer Gateway                      : Disabled
Dual-active excluded VLANs        : -
Graceful Consistency Check        : Enabled
Auto-recovery status              : Disabled
Delay-restore status              : Timer is off.(timeout = 30s)
Delay-restore SVI status          : Timer is off.(timeout = 10s)
Operational Layer3 Peer-router    : Disabled

vPC Peer-link status
---------------------------------------------------------------------
id    Port   Status Active vlans    
--    ----   ------ -------------------------------------------------
1     Po34   up     1,10                                                        
         

vPC status
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Id    Port          Status Consistency Reason                Active vlans
--    ------------  ------ ----------- ------                ---------------
10    Po10          up     success     success               1,10               
11    Po11          up     success     success               1,10               



R9#ping 10.1.10.13 
Type escape sequence to abort.
Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 10.1.10.13, timeout is 2 seconds:
!!!!!
Success rate is 100 percent (5/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 75/109/142 ms
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  • Home
  • Technology VoD!
    • Cisco >
      • Route & Switch / Enterprise Infrastructure
  • Technology Breakdowns!
    • Route&Switch/Ent. Infra. >
      • L2 Technologies
      • L3 Technologies
      • VPN Technologies
      • Services >
        • IOS - Dynamic NAT
        • HSRP - IPv4 Setup
        • HSRP - Priority and Preemption
    • Service Provider >
      • IGPs (Interior Gateway Protocols)
      • First Hop Redundancy >
        • HSRP (Hot Standby Router Protocol) >
          • HSRP - IOS/IOS XE Setup
          • HSRP - IOS XR Setup
      • BGP (Border Gateway Protocol)
      • Inter AS Multicast (MSDP)
      • Intra-AS MPLS
      • Inter-AS MPLS
    • Security >
      • IOS Firewall
      • ASA Firewall
      • FirePOWER Threat Defense >
        • FTD - FTD NGFW Device Setup and FMC Integration
      • VPNs >
        • PKI
        • Site to Site VPNs
        • Remote Access VPNs >
          • IOS Remote Access
          • ASA Remote Access
    • Data Center >
      • Nexus 9000v >
        • Nexus 9000v - Enabling Features
        • Nexus 9000v - VLANs and Trunks
        • Nexus 9000v - LACP Port Channels
        • Nexus 9000v - vPC (Virtual Port Channel)
        • Nexus 9000v - OSPFv2
        • Nexus 9000v - VXLAN - Ingress Replication Flood and Learn
        • Nexus 9000v - IP Multicast
        • Nexus 9000v - VxLAN - Multicast Flood and Learn
        • Nexus 9000v - VxLAN - BGP EVPN with Multicast
        • Nexus 9000v - VxLAN - BGP EVPN w/Ingress Replication
        • Nexus 9000v - VxLAN - Inter-VxLAN Routing with BGP EVPN
        • Nexus 9000v - VXLAN - External Routing
      • Nexus 7000v
    • Palo Alto