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Nexus vPC Quick Notes

Very Good Video, covers load balancing options well.
Creating Port-Channel in Nexus Switches
https://youtu.be/u9T45zXqZHk?si=pHGoosYUPUF8LPfI

 

Best Walk Through. Source at bottom.

Configure Cisco Nexus vPC

 

Enabling Features:
First of all, let’s enable necessary features for vPC on both switches.

Nexus-1:
Nexus-1(config)# feature vpc
Nexus-1(config)# feature lacp

Nexus-2:
Nexus-2(config)# feature vpc
Nexus-2(config)# feature lacp

Keep Alive Link:
For keep alive link, we will use our management interfaces. However, for a larger enterprise network, management interfaces are used for out-of-band management. In that case, you will need to use other ports.

Nexus-1:
Nexus-1(config)# interface mgmt 0
Nexus-1(config-if)# ip address 10.1.1.1/30
Nexus-1(config-if)# no shutdown

Nexus-2:
Nexus-2(config)# interface mgmt 0
Nexus-2(config-if)# ip address 10.1.1.2/30
Nexus-2(config-if)# no shutdown

To verify the connectivity, we can ping from Nexus-1 to Nexus-2 management IP.

Nexus-1# ping 10.1.1.2 vrf management
PING 10.1.1.2 (10.1.1.2): 56 data bytes
36 bytes from 1.1.1.1: Destination Host Unreachable Request 0 timed out
64 bytes from 10.1.1.2: icmp_seq=1 ttl=254 time=1.098 ms
64 bytes from 10.1.1.2: icmp_seq=2 ttl=254 time=0.598 ms
64 bytes from 10.1.1.2: icmp_seq=3 ttl=254 time=0.536 ms
64 bytes from 10.1.1.2: icmp_seq=4 ttl=254 time=0.503 ms

vPC Domain:
Establish peer keep-alive link:

A vPC domain is a collection of vPC component. In this example, we will be using vPC domain 1. You can choose domain id between <1-1000>. And, also we will set priorities for both switches. Lower priority will become primary.

Nexus-1:
Nexus-1(config)# vpc domain 1
Nexus-1(config-vpc-domain)# role priority 20
Nexus-1(config-vpc-domain)# peer-keepalive destination 10.1.1.2 source 10.1.1.1 vrf management
Nexus-1(config-vpc-domain)#

Nexus-2:
Nexus-2(config)# vpc domain 1
Nexus-1(config-vpc-domain)# role priority 30
Nexus-2(config-vpc-domain)# peer-keepalive destination 10.1.1.1 source 10.1.1.2 vrf management
Nexus-2(config-vpc-domain)#

Peer Link:
The peer link exchanges state information and carries control traffic between peer nexus switches.

Nexus-1:
Nexus-1(config)# interface ethernet 1/1-2
Nexus-1(config-if-range)# channel-group 20 mode active
Nexus-1(config-if-range)# no shutdown

Nexus-1(config)# interface port-channel 20
Nexus-1(config-if)# no shutdown
Nexus-1(config-if)# switchport
Nexus-1(config-if)# switchport mode trunk
Nexus-1(config-if)# vpc peer-link

Nexus-2:
Nexus-2(config)# interface ethernet 1/1-2
Nexus-2(config-if-range)# channel-group 20 mode active
Nexus-1(config-if-range)# no shutdown

Nexus-2(config)# interface port-channel 20
Nexus-2(config-if)# no shut
Nexus-2(config-if)# switchport
Nexus-2(config-if)# switchport mode trunk
Nexus-2(config-if)# vpc peer-link

To verify, use need to use, “show vpc brief” command.

Nexus-1# show vpc brief
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
Per-vlan consistency status : success
Type-2 consistency status : success
vPC role : primary
Number of vPCs configured : 0
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 Po20 up 1

Member Ports:
Member ports are the ports where end device is connected. We need to configure port-channel for the end device.

Nexus-1:
Nexus-1(config)# interface eth 1/3
Nexus-1(config-if)# channel-group 30 mode active
!
Nexus-1(config-if)# interface port-channel 30
Nexus-1(config-if)# switchport
Nexus-1(config-if)# switchport mode access
Nexus-1(config-if)# switchport access vlan 30
Nexus-1(config-if)# vpc 30

Nexus-2:
Nexus-2(config)# interface eth 1/3
Nexus-2(config-if)# channel-group 30 mode active
!
Nexus-2(config-if)# interface port-channel 30
Nexus-2(config-if)# switchport
Nexus-2(config-if)# switchport mode access
Nexus-2(config-if)# switchport access vlan 30
Nexus-2(config-if)# vpc 30

Let’s verify VPC member.

Nexus-1# show vpc brief
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
Per-vlan consistency status : success
Type-2 consistency status : success
vPC role : primary
Number of vPCs configured : 1
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 Po20 up 1

vPC status
—————————————————————————-
Id Port Status Consistency Reason Active vlans
— ———— —— ———– —— —————
30 Po30 down* success success 30

Member port Po30 is added. It’s showing down, because the end device (port-channel) still not configured. You need to create a port-channel in below switch.

Orphan Ports:
Orphan Ports is the port, which are not under any VPC member ports. You can verify it by using “show vpc orphan-ports”.

Source:

https://zindagitech.com/what-is-vpc-and-steps-to-configure-in-nexus-switch/

https://www.letsconfig.com/how-to-configure-cisco-nexus-vpc/

 

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