Nexus 7000 and 2000 FEX Support with vPC

[gercedeno]

Hello All,

Could you please let me know if vPC is supported between a single 2232PP FEX and two 7000 switches running 6.0(1)? I have been researching this for an implementation I am doing for a client and was able to determine it was not supported with earlier versions of 5.0 when the FEX is connected via vPC as I described above, but I can't find anything related to version 6.0(1). I have done this for other clients with 5000 and 2000 switches, but I don't have too much experience with 7000 switches. Please advise.

Thank you,

Gerson

[Reza Sharifi]

Hi Gerson,

You are correct. it is not supported.  A 2000 series FEX can be connected to only one 7K not two.

HTH

[gercedeno]

Hi Reza,

Do you know if there is something in the works to overcome this limitation? Could you provide the documentation where Cisco confirms this limitation? I think the client misunderstod the architecture sessions they had with their Cisco account team prior to engaging our firm so I need the docs that I can use to prove this constraint to the client.

Thank you,

Gerson

[Reza Sharifi · Accepted solution]

Hi Gerson,

Unfortunately, this is misleading, since you can uplink one FEX to multiple NK5s with no problems.  You would  think the same is possible with the 7Ks, but that is not the case.  I asked the same exact question from our Cisco SE a couple of months ago.  They did not have an answer as when this feature may be added to the OS.  Try contacting your local SE or sales guy and see if they can ask the question for the 7K Business Unit (BU). unfortunately, the BUs are different when it comes to 5Ks vs 7Ks. so the same exact functions that you may see in 5K, may not be deployed in 7Ks and vice versa (hence this issue).

Looking at the release notes (below link) I do not see this function being added in ver 6. 

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/datacenter/sw/6_x/nx-os/release/notes/60_nx-os_release_note.html#wp445071

I will also ask the question again, and if Cisco has any update, I will let you know.

HTH

Reza

[gercedeno]

Hi Reza,

Thanks for the follow-up and assistance. I will contact my Cisco team for additional support on this limitation.

Thanks,

Gerson

[khambright]

vPC+ is now supported with the fex on the 7000's using 6.1 code.  This means fabricpath for it to work though.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/datacenter/sw/6_x/nx-os/release/notes/61_nx-os_release_note.html#wp511563