Chapter 7 Configuring San Port Channel; Configuring San Port Channels; Information About San Port Channels - Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Configuration Manual

Configuring SAN Port Channel
This chapter contains the following sections:
•

Configuring SAN Port Channels

SAN port channels refer to the aggregation of multiple physical interfaces into one logical interface to provide
higher aggregated bandwidth, load balancing, and link redundancy.
On Cisco Nexus 5000 Series switches, SAN port channels can include physical Fibre Channel interfaces, but
not virtual Fibre Channel interfaces. A SAN port channel can include up to eight Fibre Channel interfaces.

Information About SAN Port Channels

About E Port Channels
An E port channel refers to the aggregation of multiple E ports into one logical interface to provide higher
aggregated bandwidth, load balancing, and link redundancy. Port channel can connect to interfaces across
switching modules, so a failure of a switching module cannot bring down the port channel link.
A SAN port channel has the following functionality:
• Provides a point-to-point connection over ISL (E ports) or EISL (TE ports). Multiple links can be
• Increases the aggregate bandwidth on an ISL by distributing traffic among all functional links in the
• Load balances across multiple links and maintains optimum bandwidth utilization. Load balancing is
• Provides high availability on an ISL. If one link fails, traffic previously carried on this link is switched
OL-xxxxx-xx
Configuring SAN Port Channels, page 69
combined into a SAN port channel.
channel.
based on the source ID, destination ID, and exchange ID (OX ID).
to the remaining links. If a link goes down in a SAN port channel, the upper layer protocol is not aware
of it. To the upper layer protocol, the link is still there, although the bandwidth is diminished. The routing
tables are not affected by link failure.
C H A P T E R
Cisco Nexus 5000 Series NX-OS SAN Switching Configuration Guide
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