Virtual Chassis And Virtual Chassis Fabric Support - Juniper QFX5110 Series Hardware Documentation

All 96 SFP+ ports on the switch (PIC 0) are supported. In this mode, the eight QSFP+ ports are not
supported and cannot be channelized. There is no packet loss for packets of any size in this mode.
Default mode
All 96 SFP+ ports on the switch (PIC 0) are supported. QSFP+ ports 96 and 100 can be channelized. If
ports 96 and 100 are channelized, the interfaces on ports 97, 98, 99, 101, 102, and 103 are disabled.

Virtual Chassis and Virtual Chassis Fabric Support

The QFX5100-96S switch operates as a standalone switch, as a member in a QFX Virtual Chassis, as a
member in a QFX5110 Virtual Chassis, as a spine or leaf device in a QFX5100 Virtual Chassis Fabric (VCF),
or as a leaf device in a QFX5110 VCF. QFX Virtual Chassis support up to 10 members; QFX5100 VCF
supports a total of 20 devices, of which 4 QFX5100 devices can be configured as spines. A QFX Virtual
Chassis is cabled in a ring topology, where a VCF is cabled in a spine and leaf topology.
Virtual Chassis
In a QFX Virtual Chassis, you can connect up to 10 standalone QFX5100-96S switches into a QFX Series
Virtual Chassis and manage the interconnected switches as a single chassis. The advantages of connecting
multiple switches into a Virtual Chassis include better-managed bandwidth at a network layer, simplified
configuration and maintenance because multiple devices can be managed as a single device, increased
fault tolerance and high availability (HA) because a Virtual Chassis can remain active and network traffic
can be redirected to other member switches when a single member switch fails, and a flatter, simplified
Layer 2 network topology that minimizes or eliminates the need for loop prevention protocols such as
Spanning Tree Protocol (STP).
As of Junos OS release 17.3R1, you can also connect a QFX5100-96S as a member in a QFX5110 Virtual
Chassis.
Virtual Chassis Fabric
The VCF provides a low-latency, high-performance fabric architecture that can be managed as a single
device. VCF is an evolution of the Virtual Chassis feature, which allows you to interconnect multiple devices
into a single logical device, inside of a fabric architecture. The VCF architecture is optimized to support
small and medium-sized data centers that contain a mix of 1-Gpbs, 10-Gpbs, and 40-Gbps Ethernet
interfaces.
A VCF is constructed using a spine-and-leaf architecture and topology. In the spine-and-leaf architecture,
each spine device is interconnected to each leaf device. A VCF supports up to 20 devices, of which 4
QFX5100 devices can be configured into spine devices. In a mixed environment with QFX5100-24Q,
QFX5100-98S and EX4300, use the QFX5100-24Q as the spine device and the QFX5100-96S and EX4300
as a leaf devices. You may use the QFX5100-96S as a spine in an all QFX5100-96S VCF or in a VCF that
has a mixture of QFX5100-96S and EX4300.
As of Junos OS release 17.3R1, you can also connect a QFX5100-24Q as a leaf device in a QFX5110 VCF.
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