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7-3
Cisco Nexus 7000 Series NX-OS Interfaces Configuration Guide, Release 5.x
OL-23435-03
Chapter 7 Configuring vPCs
Information About vPCs
Figure 7-1 vPC Architecture
You can use only Layer 2 port channels in the vPC. A vPC domain is associated to a single VDC, so all
vPC interfaces belonging to a given vPC domain must be defined in the same VDC. You must have a
separate vPC peer link and peer-keepalive link infrastructure for each VDC deployed. Consolidating a
vPC pair (two vPC peer devices of the same domain) in two VDCs of the same physical device is not
supported. The vPC peer link must use 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports for both ends of the link or the link will
not form.
You configure the port channels by using one of the following:
• No protocol
• Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP)
When you configure the port channels in a vPC—including the vPC peer link channel—without using
LACP, each device can have up to 8 active links in a single port channel. When you configure the port
channels in a vPC—including the vPC peer link channels—using LACP, each device can have 8 active
links and 8 standby links in a single port channel. (See the “vPC Interactions with Other Features”
section on page 7-20 for more information on using LACP and vPCs.)
Note You must enable the vPC feature before you can configure or run the vPC functionality.
Beginning with Cisco NX-OS Release 4.2, the system automatically takes a checkpoint prior to disabling
the feature, and you can roll back to this checkpoint. See the Cisco Nexus 7000 Series NX-OS System
Management Configuration Guide, Release 5.x, for information on roll backs and checkpoints.
After you enable the vPC functionality, you create the peer-keepalive link, which sends heartbeat
messages between the two vPC peer devices.
You can create a vPC peer link by configuring a port channel on one Cisco Nexus 7000 Series chassis
by using two or more 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports in dedicated mode. To ensure that you have the correct
hardware to enable and run vPC beginning with Cisco NX-OS Release 4.1(5), enter the show hardware
feature-capability command. If you see an X across from vPC, your hardware cannot enable the vPC
feature.
We recommend that you configure the vPC peer link Layer 2 port channels as trunks. Then, on another
Cisco Nexus 7000 Series chassis, you configure another port channel again using two or more 10-Gigabit
Ethernet ports in dedicated mode. Connecting these two port channels creates a vPC peer link in which
vPC peer link
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