Terminology; Vpc Terminology; Fabric Extender Terminology - Cisco nexus 5000 series Configuration Manual

Configuring Virtual Port Channels
A vPC provides the following benefits:
• Allows a single device to use an EtherChannel across two upstream devices
• Eliminates Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) blocked ports
• Provides a loop-free topology
• Uses all available uplink bandwidth
• Provides fast convergence if either the link or a switch fails
• Provides link-level resiliency
• Assures high availability

Terminology

vPC Terminology

The terminology used in vPCs is as follows:
• vPC—combined EtherChannel between the vPC peer devices and the downstream device.
• vPC peer device—One of a pair of devices that are connected with the special EtherChannel known as
• vPC peer link—link used to synchronize states between the vPC peer devices.
• vPC member port—Interfaces that belong to the vPCs.
• Host vPC port—Fabric Extender host interfaces that belong to a vPC.
• vPC domain—domain that includes both vPC peer devices, the vPC peer-keepalive link, and all of the
• vPC peer-keepalive link—The peer-keepalive link monitors the vitality of a vPC peer Cisco Nexus

Fabric Extender Terminology

The terminology used for the Cisco Nexus Fabric Extender is as follows:
• Fabric interface—A 10-Gigabit Ethernet uplink port designated for connection from the Fabric Extender
• EtherChannel fabric interface—An EtherChannel uplink connection from the Fabric Extender to its
OL-25842-01
the vPC peer link.
port channels in the vPC connected to the downstream devices. It is also associated to the configuration
mode that you must use to assign vPC global parameters. The vPC domain ID must be the same on both
switches.
device. The peer-keepalive link sends configurable, periodic keepalive messages between vPC peer
devices.
No data or synchronization traffic moves over the vPC peer-keepalive link; the only traffic on this link
is a message that indicates that the originating switch is operating and running vPCs.
to its parent switch. A fabric interface cannot be used for any other purpose. It must be directly connected
to the parent switch.
parent switch. This connection consists of fabric interfaces bundled into a single logical channel.
Cisco Nexus 5000 Series NX-OS Layer 2 Switching Configuration Guide, Release 5.1(3)N1(1)
Terminology
103