What is VPC
A Virtual port channel (VPC) allows you to bundle physical links that are connected to two different chassis (Nexus 7000 / 5000).
This creates redundancy and increase bandwidth. A big advantage of using VPC is that you have redundancy without the using of spanning-tree, a port-channel covers faster from a link failure than spanning-tree.
Advantages of using VPC
- Allows a single device to use a port channel across two upstream devices.
- Eliminates Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) blocked ports.
- Provides a loop-free topology.
- Uses all available uplink bandwidth.
- Provides fast convergence if either the link or a device fails.
- Provides link-level resiliency.
- Assures high availability.
The terminology used in vPCs:
- vPC—The combined port channel between the vPC peer devices and the downstream device.
- vPC peer device—One of a pair of devices that are connected with the special port channel known as the vPC peer link.
- vPC peer link—The link used to synchronize states between the vPC peer devices. Both ends must be on 10-Gigabit Ethernet interfaces.
- vPC domain—This domain includes both vPC peer devices, the vPC peer-keepalive link, and all of the port channels in the vPC connected to the downstream devices.
It is also associated to the configuration mode that you must use to assign vPC global parameters.
- vPC peer-keepalive link—The peer-keepalive link monitors the vitality of a vPC peer.
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VPC configuration example
Nexus01:
Nexus01#config t
Nexus01(config)# feature vpc
Nexus01(config)# vpc domain 1
Nexus01(config-vpc-domain)# peer-keepalive destination 10.10.10.102
! The management VRF will be used by default
Nexus01(config)# interface ethernet 2/1-2
Nexus01(config-if-range)# switch mode trunk
Nexus01(config-if-range)# channel-group 10 mode active
Nexus01(config-if-range)# interface port-channel 10
Nexus01(config-if)# vpc peer-link
Nexus01(config)# interface ethernet 1/1
Nexus01(config-if)# switchport mode trunk
Nexus01(config-if)# channel-group 100 mode active
Nexus01(config)# interface port-channel 100
Nexus01(config-if)# vpc 100
Nexus01:
Nexus02#config t
Nexus02(config)# feature vpc
Nexus02(config)#
Nexus02(config)# vpc domain 1
Nexus02(config-vpc-domain)# peer-keepalive destination 10.10.10.101
! The management VRF will be used by default
Nexus02(config)# interface ethernet 2/1-2
Nexus02(config-if-range)# switch mode trunk
Nexus02(config-if-range)# channel-group 10 mode active
Nexus02(config-if-range)# interface port-channel 10
Nexus02(config-if)# vpc peer-link
Nexus02(config)# interface ethernet 1/1
Nexus02(config-if)# switchport mode trunk
Nexus02(config-if)# channel-group 100 mode active
Nexus02(config)# interface port-channel 100
Nexus02(config-if)# vpc 100
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Nexus01# show vpc
Legend:
(*) - local vPC is down, forwarding via vPC peer-link
vPC domain id : 1
Peer status : peer adjacency formed ok
vPC keep-alive status : peer is alive
Configuration consistency status: success
vPC role : primary
vPC Peer-link status
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id Port Status Active vlans
-- ---- ------ --------------------------------------------------
1 Po100 up 1,100-110
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