Fex and VPC

I'm am new to the whole datacenter design and I've recently taken over a data center set up. I'm trying to determine if my vPCs and port-channels are set up correctly. I've attached a drawing of the network set up. It seems pretty straight forward:
NIC teamed server with each NIC going to a separate FEX.
The FEX are straight through to the 5596s.
Using LACP on the switches and servers.
NX-OS 5.0(3)
My questions are 1) Is the FEX number only locally significant to the 5596 it's attached to? Should this number be the same or different on each 5596 or does it not matter? I haven't been able to find anything specifiying what this is supposed to be for this setup.
2) How can I verify the vPCs/portchannels are working properly?
Doing a 'show vpc' shows up/success on both switches.
'show port-channel summary' shows my channel as SU and my port as P.
Doing a 'show interface pXXX' shows my port-channel and vPC if I run the command on both 5596s but they each only show one member in the channel, which is the locally connected interface. I would think I'm supposed to see both interfaces channled together here.
If I take one interface down I don't get any messages on the other switch that the other side of the port-channel has dropped. It also seems like traffic isn't being equally distributed.
I hope this makes sense. I've been trying to figure this environment out for weeks. Just when I think I've got it, it doesn't act the way I'm expecting it to.

1) It does not matter if you have same FEX number on both switches. However, This will be a problem when you decide to implement Enhanced vpC where both FEX connected to both 5596 and servers are also connected to both FEXes.
2) show vpc is perfact command to verify. Another usefull command is show vpc consistancy-paramenter vpc 1902. If you have port down on any switch then you will see consitency parameter failed here.

Similar Messages

Question re. behaviour of single homed FEX with vPC

Hi Folks,
I have been looking at configuring Nexus 5Ks with FEX modules. Referring to the Cisco documentation;
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/datacenter/nexus5000/sw/layer2/513_n1_1/b_Cisco_n5k_layer2_config_gd_rel_513_N1_1_chapter_01001.html
In figure 3. showing a single homed FEX with vPC topology, I'm curious what happens if one of the 5Ks fail. For example if the 5K on the left hand side of the diagram fails do the ports on the attached FEX that the server is attached to drop? If not I would assume that the server has no way of knowing that there is no longer a valid path through those links and will continue to use them?
Many thanks in advance,
Shane.

Hello Shane.
Depending of type of the failureboth n5k can tace corrective actions and end host will always know that one of the port-channel members is down.
For example if one 5k will crash or will be reloaded - all connected fexes alre will go offline. FEX are not standalone switches and cannot work without "master" switch.
Also links which will go from fex to the end-host will be in vpc mode which means that all vpc redundancy features/advantages will be present.
HTH,
Alex

Adapter FEX and VM Fex

Hi!
I have a questions about Cisco Adapter FEX and VM Fex.
As i understand, Cisco Adapter FEX gives multiple vNIC on one mezzanine card, and each of them appears as virtual port on Fabric Interconnect.
Also, same thing for VM-FEX, each VM NIC appears as virtual port on Fabric Interconnect.
Am i right?
Thank you!

Adaptor FEX is I/O adaptor virtualization, which is agnostic to the OS and therefore works in virtualized as well as non virtualized environments.
VM-FEX (also called Hypervisor Bypass) is available for different Hypervisors
Cisco UCS Manager VM-FEX for Hyper-V CLI Configuration Guide, Release 2.2
Cisco UCS Manager VM-FEX for KVM CLI Configuration Guide, Release 2.2
Cisco UCS Manager VM-FEX for VMware CLI Configuration Guide, Release 2.2
Cisco UCS Manager VM-FEX for Hyper-V GUI Configuration Guide, Release 2.2
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Cisco UCS Manager VM-FEX for VMware GUI Configuration Guide, Release 2.2
Cisco UCS Manager VM-FEX for Hyper-V CLI Configuration Guide, Release 2.1
Cisco UCS Manager VM-FEX for KVM CLI Configuration Guide, Release 2.1
Cisco UCS Manager VM-FEX for VMware CLI Configuration Guide, Release 2.1
Cisco UCS Manager VM-FEX for Hyper-V GUI Configuration Guide, Release 2.1
Cisco UCS Manager VM-FEX for KVM GUI Configuration Guide, Release 2.1
Cisco UCS Manager VM-FEX for VMware GUI Configuration Guide, Release 2.1
Cisco UCS Manager VM-FEX for KVM CLI Configuration Guide
Cisco UCS Manager VM-FEX for KVM GUI Configuration Guide
Cisco UCS Manager VM-FEX for VMware CLI Configuration Guide
Cisco UCS Manager VM-FEX for VMware GUI Configuration Guide
example VM-FEX for VMware ESX
VM-FEX (previously known as VN-link) is a method to extend the network fabric completely down to the VMs. With VM-FEX, the Fabric Interconnects handle switching for the ESXi host's VMs. UCSM utilizes the vCenter dVS Application Programming Interfaces (API) to this end. Therefore, VM-FEX shows as a dVS in the ESXi host.
There are many benefits to VM-FEX:
Reduced CPU overhead on the ESX host
Faster performance
VMware DirectPath I/O with vMotion support
Network management moved up to the FIs rather than on the ESXi host
Visibility into vSphere with UCSM

What are different between software VM-FEX and hardware VM-FEX?

Hi everybody,
I am confuse software VM-FEX and hardware VM-FEX.
Does the software VM-FEX is Emulated mode and hardware VM-FEX is VMdirectpath mode?
If i design a VM-FEX, is there must have nexus 1000V or not ?
Is Nexus 1000V and VM-FEX must work together or select one of them?

Have a look at http://keepingitclassless.net/2013/06/cisco-vm-fex-and-the-nexus-1000v/
VM-FEX in hardware requires on the host side a VIC adaptor, and a UCS FI or N5k as a switch (and control plane)
VM-FEX in hardware has 2 submodes (PTS = Emulated Mode) and UPS (path Through)
VM-FEX makes use of the VEM module (same as N1K; it is operated in a different mode however)
VEM can do N1k local switching or VM-FEX path through, but not both !

VM-FEX and Nexus 1000v relation

Hi
I am a new in virtulaization world and I need to know what is the relation between Cisco Nexus 1000v and Cisco VM-FEX?, and when to use VM-FEX and when to use Nexus 1000v.
Regards

Ahmed,
Sorry for taking this long to get back to you.
Nexus 1000v is a virtualized switch and as such will require that any traffic coming in or leaving the VM will first need to pass through the virtualization layer, therefore causing a minimum delay that for some applications (VMs) can be catastrophic enough that may mean too much delay.
With VM-FEX you gain the option to bypass the virtualization layer with for example "Pass-Through" mode where the vmnics are really assigned and managed by the OS, minimizing the delay and making the VMs look as if they were directly attached, also, this offloads CPU workload in the mean time, optimizing the host/VM's performance.
The need for one or the other will be defined as always by the needs your organization/business has.
Benefits of VM-FEX (from cisco.com):
Simplified operations: Eliminates the need for a separate, virtual networking infrastructure
Improved network security: Contains VLAN proliferation
Optimized network utilization: Reduces broadcast domains
Enhanced application performance: Offloads virtual machine switching from host CPU to parent switch application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs)
Benefits of Nexus 1000v here on another post from Rob Burns:
https://supportforums.cisco.com/thread/2087541
https://communities.vmware.com/thread/316542?tstart=0
I hope that helps
-Kenny

Nexus 5548UP - HSRP and vPC, tracking required?

Hi,
We've got two Nexus 5548UPs that are vPC and HSRP peers.
I've had some feedback that I should incorporate the tracking function to close the vPC down in the case of a layer 3 problem, the thing is I'm not sure it's required. I can see in this article it recommends implementing tracking when your L2 peer-link and L3 interfaces are on the same module (which it is in my case).. http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/datacenter/sw/design/vpc_design/vpc_best_practices_design_guide.pdf
But in this article it says not to use tracking.. http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps9441/ps9670/design_guide_c07-625857.pdf
Any one got any real world experience and can offer some feedback.. I don't mind putting it in just want to understand why.
Thanks,
Nick.

Hi Nick
there is two tracking can be use din nexus enviroment
HSRP tracking and vPC tracking
for using one line card for the vPC peer link vPC tracking is recomnded
HSRP tracking is used to track L3 uplinks to the core
Using vPC with HSRP/VRRP object tracking may leads to traffic blackholing in case object tracking is triggered
its better to use separate L3 inter switch link instead of using HSRP tracking
hope this help

Difference between Port Channel and VPc

Hi Friends,
Could you please provide the difference between Port Channel and VPC.
Regards,
Zaheer

Read :)
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/switches/nexus-3000-series-switches/white_paper_c11-685753.html
Virtual PortChannel Technology
Virtual PortChannels (vPCs) allow links that are physically connected to two different Cisco® switches to appear to a third downstream device to be coming from a single device and as part of a single PortChannel. The third device can be a switch, a server, or any other networking device that supports IEEE 802.3ad PortChannels.
Cisco NX-OS Software vPCs and Cisco Catalyst® Virtual Switching Systems (VSS) are similar technologies. For Cisco EtherChannel technology, the term “multichassis EtherChannel” (MCEC) refers to either technology interchangeably.
vPC allows the creation of Layer 2 PortChannels that span two switches. At the time of this writing, vPC is implemented on the Cisco Nexus® 7000 and 5000 Series platforms (with or without Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extenders).

Difference between vpc peer-switch and vpc+

Hi, I would like to understand the difference between vpc peer-switch when used in vpc and vpc+ when used in fabricapath when both are delivered to achieve the same thing i.e making the 2 nexus switches look like a 1 logical switch to an other device connected to it.

Hi,
vPC+ overcomes a problem we would have when connecting non FabricPath devices to the FabricPath cloud in a resilient way using port-channels.
If you look at the first diagram below, when Host A sends traffic to Host B, it can be sent over either link of the port-channel and so can take the path via either S100 or S200. The problem with this is that from the perspective of the MAC address table on S300, the MAC address of Host A would be constantly flap between being sourced from S100 and S200.
What happens with vPC+ is that S100 and S200 create an emulated switch that effectively becomes the point of connection of the port-channel interface. This is seen in the second diagram as S1000. Now when traffic is sent from Host A it is always seen as originating from S1000 so there's no longer any MAC flapping.
Hope that helps.
Regards

Sound, voice chat, yahoo messenger and VPC 6

Okay perhaps off topic..perhaps not......how do I get sound to work in Yahoo messenger v 7 w/ voice chat via VPC 6 on an AL 15 Powerbook???
And does the AL 15 have a built in Microphone??

Does the microphone work while running VPC?
I don't know, but I think you can easily check. While you're running VPC, go into System Preferences > Sound > Input. (You can access System Preferences from the Apple menu in the upper left-hand corner of your screen. I'm assuming that you can do this while running VPC. If I'm wrong on this, please stop reading this worthless post. ;-))
Look at the meter that reads "input level," just above the slider that reads "input volume." If there's any significant ambient noise where you are, or if you speak at a decent volume out loud (it doesn't even have to be near the mic, which is located beneath the left speak grille), you should see the "input level" fluctuate if the mic's working properly. (The default setting for the "input volume" is midway on the slider. If it's all the way to the left, the mic will not pick up any sounds.)

Parallels and VPC

I have a new MacBook Pro with Parallels and need to install Windows on it. I wrote to Parallels tech help and asked if there was any way to get the Windows out of my old VPC, that I used in my old iBook. Got an answer suggesting that I use Parallels transporter to move the whole VPC into Parallels. My question is: I hated VPC because it was so incredibly slow, and was hoping Parallels on my new computer would work faster. Has anyone tried this routine of copying a VPC machine into Parallels, using their transporter? I don't really quite understand this. Would it mean I would still have to use VPC and it would still be slow? If I buy and install a new version of Windows on Parallels, will it work better and faster? Thanks for any advice.
<Post Relocated by Moderator>

VPC was slow because it had to (literally) translate from PPC to Intel code and back again.
Now that the Mac is Intel native, VPC is no longer necessary.
Depending on how you bought VPC, it may or may not have shipped with a separate Windows installer CD, but I think it's old enough, it may not have SP2 in the installer.
Parallels allows you to run windows in a window (just like VPC) but at Intel native speed. This allows easy data sharing between OS's
Becasue your machine is Intel based, you can boot your machine directly to either Windows or OS X.
If I understand the process, running windows through parallels will be slightly slower than booting direct to windows. (because windows will use all of both processors if booted directly; through parallels it does not do that.)

Running HSRP between N5k 's and vPC between N2k and server

Dear All,
I have the following existing setup, i would like to run HSRP between N5k1 and N5k2. Also would lilke to run vPC between N2k1,N2k2 to the server farm which are dual homed. Please find the diagram attached.
Please advise the step by step process along with the commands to be entered. Thanks for your help

Hi,
If you don't have many vlans, there is no need to load balance. Make one of the 5ks the primary for HSRP and the other one stand-by.
here is good link on how to configure it. Make sure to run HSRP version 2. This way you can mach the HSRP group IDs with your vlan IDs. Also give a higher priority to the active 5k and enable preemption.
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/switches/datacenter/nexus5500/sw/unicast/7_x/cisco_n5500_layer3_ucast_cfg_rel_6x/l3_hsrp.html
HTH

Cisco VSS Dual-active PAgP detection via Nexus and vPC

Hi!
We will soon implement Cisco nexus 5595 in our Datacenter.
However we will still be using a pair of C6500 in a VSS in some part of the network.
Today we are running dual-active detection via a PAgP Port-channel, but those Port-channels will be removed and the only Port-channel we will have is to a pair of Nexus 5596.
Does anyone know if we can run PAgP dual-active detection via this MEC/vPC?
Thank you for your time!
//Olle

Hi,
The easies way is to connect both links from the 6500s to only one of the Nexus switches. Than create a portchannel on both the 6500 and the Nexus.
The other option would be to connect the 6500s directly together via a gig link and use fast hello instead of epagp.
I would use fast hello since it is supported on the 6500s.
HTH

Latency between FEX and Nexus 9300

Does anyone know or tested latency from port to port on a Nexus FEX? We are seeing some weird/strange results to MTU above 1500. Everything has been configured for jumbo (9216). The FEX is a N2K-C2232PP-10GE and its attached to a Nexus9000 C9396PX 1/10G Module.
Port to Port Layer 2 on the FEX we are seeing around 76us
Traffic from the traffic generator connected to a FEX, to the traffic generator on the Nexus 9300, we are seeing around 74us
Traffic from the traffic generator connected to the Nexus 9300, to the traffic generator on the FEX, we are seeing around 2us.
Any ideas why the latency seems high in one direction? Same test on the 9300 only is fine also.

Ahmed,
Sorry for taking this long to get back to you.
Nexus 1000v is a virtualized switch and as such will require that any traffic coming in or leaving the VM will first need to pass through the virtualization layer, therefore causing a minimum delay that for some applications (VMs) can be catastrophic enough that may mean too much delay.
With VM-FEX you gain the option to bypass the virtualization layer with for example "Pass-Through" mode where the vmnics are really assigned and managed by the OS, minimizing the delay and making the VMs look as if they were directly attached, also, this offloads CPU workload in the mean time, optimizing the host/VM's performance.
The need for one or the other will be defined as always by the needs your organization/business has.
Benefits of VM-FEX (from cisco.com):
Simplified operations: Eliminates the need for a separate, virtual networking infrastructure
Improved network security: Contains VLAN proliferation
Optimized network utilization: Reduces broadcast domains
Enhanced application performance: Offloads virtual machine switching from host CPU to parent switch application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs)
Benefits of Nexus 1000v here on another post from Rob Burns:
https://supportforums.cisco.com/thread/2087541
https://communities.vmware.com/thread/316542?tstart=0
I hope that helps
-Kenny

UCS Uplinks and vPC

Hello,
I try to build virtual Portchannels on 2 Nexus 5548UP and 2 UCS 6248FI. With standalone links (without vPC) the communication between some ESX-Server and my Network is working. When I build vPCs on the N5k the vPC all portchannels (on N5K and FIs) are up.
The Portchannels are pinned to the vNICs and all looks fine. But there is no communication between my ESXs and my network. My configuration is like this:

Hi Roberts,
Are the VLANs allowed on the peer link? because if they work in standalone then that means trunk is fine but if they don't have them allowed on the peer link then it will stay up but wont talk

Nexus 5548 enhanced VPC capability

does the nexus 5548up running 5.0(3)N2(2b) support enhanced VPC? fabric VPC to the fex and vPC from the fex down to the host? if not, what minimum code version supports it? Thanks

You need NX-OS 5.1(3)N1(1) to run enhanced VPC.
Link:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/datacenter/nexus5000/sw/mkt_ops_guides/513_n1_1/n5k_enhanced_vpc.html
HTH

Fex and VPC

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