Cisco Nexus 1000V - Vpc Host Mode

Table 5: Port Channels with LACP Enabled and Static Port Channels
Static Port ChannelsPort Channels with LACP EnabledConfigurations
Not applicableEnable globallyProtocol applied
Can only be OnCan be either:
•
Active
•
Passive
Channel mode of links
816Maximum number of links in
channel
vPC Host Mode
You use vPC-HM mode to create a port channel when the switch is connected to multiple upstream switches
that are not clustered. In the Cisco Nexus 1000V, the port channel is divided into subgroups or logical smaller
port channels, each representing one or more uplinks to one upstream physical switch.
Links that connect to the same physical switch are bundled in the same subgroup automatically by using
information gathered from the Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) packets from the upstream switch. Interfaces
can also be manually assigned a specific subgroup.
When you use vPC-HM, each vEthernet interface on the VEM is mapped to one of two subgroups in a
round-robin method. All traffic from the vEthernet interface uses the assigned subgroup unless it is unavailable,
in which case the vEthernet interface fails over to the remaining subgroup. When the original subgroup
becomes available again, traffic shifts back to it. Traffic from each vEthernet interface is then balanced based
on the configured hashing algorithm.
When multiple uplinks are attached to the same subgroup, you must configure the upstream switch in a port
channel with the links bundled together. The port channel must also be configured with the channel-group
auto mode on (active and passive modes use LACP).
If the upstream switches do not support port channels, you can use MAC pinning to assign each Ethernet port
member to a particular port channel subgroup.
Do not configure vPC-HM on the Cisco Nexus 1000V when the upstream switch ports that connect to the
VEMs have vPC configured. If vPC is configured, the connection can be interrupted or disabled.
Note
Cisco Nexus 1000V for VMware vSphere Interface Configuration Guide, Release 5.x
53
Configuring Port Channels
vPC Host Mode