4500X Management Fa1 in VSS

[aleksander.olsen]

Hi

I recently got our new 4500X delivered and I'm trying to wrap my head around how the Fa1 out of band management works in VSS mode compared to how the 2960 out of band management ports work and behave.

The 2960's in stacked mode only have one of the stack members ports active at any given time.

The 4500 in VSS seem to have both ports active at the same time, but only the active virtual switch's fa1 is actually working. So it seems like if I unplug the active virtual switch fa1, it does not automatically use the fa1 of the standby like you sould expect with 2960 stacking. The only way I can get the standby Fa1 active, is to do a reload of the current active switch (with fa1 unplugged) and wait for the standby to go active. Then the fa1 of the new active will work.

Hopefully someone can help me understand this better.

Currently running 03.04.02.SG.151-2.SG2

Thank you in advance

[Jon Marshall · Accepted solution]

Aleksander

You are correct, you can only use the management port on the active supervisor. From the 4500 configuration guide  -

SSO Model

On a redundant chassis, management port behavior differs from that of a standard Ethernet port in that each supervisor engine possesses a management port, and only the port on the active supervisor engine is enabled. The management port on the standby supervisor engine is always disabled; it cannot switch any kind of traffic.

When a switchover occurs, the management port of the standby supervisor engine (now, active) is enabled and can be used to switch traffic, while the management port on the "old" active supervisor engine is disabled.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/lan/catalyst4500/15.1.2/XE_340/configuration/guide/sw_int.html#wp1119735

so only when the standby supervisor becomes active can you use the management port on that supervisor.

Jon