Trunk Port Uplink Configuration With Mlag At Top Of Rack; Figure 1. Topology Diagram: Top Of Rack Nexus 5K Using Vpc - Dell Force10 C150 Manual

Deploying the Dell Force10 MXL into a Cisco Nexus Network Environment

Trunk Port Uplink Configuration with MLAG at Top of Rack

The preferred deployment topology for an MXL in the access layer of a Cisco Nexus network is to use
the Nexus vPC feature between two top-of-rack peer switches to provide a multi-chassis LAG
connection to the MXL. While spanning-tree is still important to deploy to avoid loops forming due to
switch or server misconfiguration or mishap, the vPC provides more resilient connectivity and better
uplink throughput utilization for most applications. In this example, configuring the Nexus downlinks as
vPC interfaces will cause the two separate Nexus switches to appear as a single logical switch to the
MXL switch. This makes it possible to run active-active LAGs that are distributed across both Nexus
switches from the MXL switch.
Deploying the multi-chassis vPC feature requires establishing the vPC peer relationship between two
top-of-rack switches, configuring both halves of the multi-chassis LAG, and configuring the MXL's single
uplink LAG. In addition, instructions are given for enabling per-VLAN spanning tree and VLAN
membership configuration for the MXL.
All of the following configuration commands assume that the physical links between the involved
switches are already in place.
Establish the Nexus Top-of-Rack vPC Peer Relationship
In the example network the top-of-rack switches N5K1 and N5K2 are vPC peers with a four-link LAG
connected between them. The management address of each Nexus switch is used as the source and
destination address in order to establish the keepalive connection between them. Following are the
commands used to establish the peer relationship.
N5K1#configure
N5K1 (conf)#feature enable lacp
N5K1 (conf)#feature enable vpc
N5K1 (conf)#vpc domain 10
Figure 1. Topology Diagram: Top of Rack Nexus 5K using vPC
Nexus
N5K1
po10—po10
vPC peer link
Force10
MXL1
Nexus
N5K2
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