Scribd
Upload
17 views5 pages

02 StackWise VSS VPC

The document discusses Cisco technologies including StackWise, VSS, and vPC, highlighting that each switch supports only one of these technologies. It explains the benefits and limitations of Port-Channel, VSS, and vPC, emphasizing their roles in redundancy, load balancing, and network efficiency. Additionally, it compares these technologies in terms of control planes, configuration, and platform compatibility.

Uploaded by

Ismail Kurnaz
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
17 views5 pages

02 StackWise VSS VPC

The document discusses Cisco technologies including StackWise, VSS, and vPC, highlighting that each switch supports only one of these technologies. It explains the benefits and limitations of Port-Channel, VSS, and vPC, emphasizing their roles in redundancy, load balancing, and network efficiency. Additionally, it compares these technologies in terms of control planes, configuration, and platform compatibility.

Uploaded by

Ismail Kurnaz
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 5

StackWise, VSS, and vPC:

The available Cisco technologies that support this are StackWise, VSS, and vPC. Now, a single
switch is not going to support all three of these. Different platforms of switches support
different options, and if a switch does support one, it will only be one. The switch will either
support StackWise, or it will support VSS, or it will support vPC, not two or three at the same
time. This is only supported on the higher-end switches. If you got one of Cisco's lower-end
switches, then this is not going to be supported.

Port-Channel:
Port-Channel is the simplest and oldest technology that combines two or more interfaces. In
return, it gives the benefits like load balancing across links, redundancy in case any link goes
down, increased bandwidth since you combined two or more links, and a single spanning-tree
view of the links. However, these benefits come at the cost of connecting all the links within a
bundle to a single device. And if that single device fails, you will lose everything connected to
that switch. However, port channels are still common in networks because of their simplicity
and vendor-neutral approach. This traditional port channel can’t bundle the links which are
connected to two different devices.

1 | P a g e Ahmad Ali E-Mail: ahmadalimsc@gmail.com , WhatsApp: 00966564303717


Cisco VSS:
Virtual Switching System (VSS) is a virtualization technology that pools multiple Cisco Catalyst
Switches into one virtual switch, increasing operational efficiency, boosting nonstop
communications, and scaling system bandwidth capacity. VSS was first available in the Cisco
6500 series and was later introduced to the Cisco 4500, the newer 4500X, 6800 Series switches
and the Catalyst 3850.
Cisco introduced Cisco Catalyst 6500 in late 1999’s with the MEC (multi-Etherchannel) feature,
which offered to combine two links in a bundle going to the two different 6500 switches. And
because the end device is cabled to two separate 6500 switches, it provided a better resiliency
than a simple port channel. This technology is called Cisco VSS (Virtual Switch System). That was
a huge advantage, and almost all enterprises purchased Cisco 6500’s due to this feature alone.

The Virtual Switching System (VSS) allows two Cisco Catalyst 6500 or 4500 chassis to bond
together so that is seen as a single virtual switch to the rest of the network. Other devices will
see the VSS configured 6500 as a single device which means it’s possible to use multi-chassis
etherchannel and protocols like spanning-tree will only see a single switch.

A VSS is a pair of combined 6500 switches acting as a single network element with redundancy
and load balancing over port-channels (etherchannels). One switch becomes the master or
active chassis and the other one becomes the VSS standby.

2 | P a g e Ahmad Ali E-Mail: ahmadalimsc@gmail.com , WhatsApp: 00966564303717


Cisco Stackwise:
Switch stacking is a feature of certain Cisco access layer switches which allows for the creation
of a single logical device from many individual devices via a backside stack port connected by
several stack cables. Stackable switches logically to become one switch.
Switch stacking technology make stack of physical switches act like one switch. The stacking
cables together make a ring between the switches. The switches connect in series, with the last
switch connecting again to the first. Switch stacking, STP, CDP and VTP run on one switch, not
multiple switches. Switch Stacking is one logical switch the port density is increase very much.
Switch stacking is a feature of certain Cisco access layer switches. Stackable switches logically
become one switch. The stacked switches effectively operate as a single larger switch.

Some network switches have the ability to be connected to other switches and operate
together as a single unit. These configurations are called "stacks", and are useful for quickly
increasing the capacity of a network.

Switches that support Stackwise use a special stacking cable to connect the switches to each
other. Each switch has two stacking connectors that are used to “daisy-chain” (loop) the
switches together. Each switch is connected to the one below it and the bottom switch will be
connected to the one on top.

3 | P a g e Ahmad Ali E-Mail: ahmadalimsc@gmail.com , WhatsApp: 00966564303717


vPC:
In the year 2008, Cisco introduced the Nexus series switches which also had the link bundling
(Multi-Etherchannel) feature similar to Cisco 6500 VSS, and it was called vPC. Finally, Cisco
officially launched vPC in 2009. The main difference between VSS and vPC is that VSS creates a
logical switch that combines the control and management plane of the two Cisco 6500 chassis.
On the other hand, in Cisco vPC, both Cisco Nexus switches have separate control planes and
are managed independently. It enables a device to view cables/links that are physically
connected to two separate Cisco Nexus switches as a single port channel. A switch, server, or
any other networking device that supports port channels can be that device. A vPC can provide
Layer 2 multipathing. The vPC feature is currently not supported by any Cisco Catalyst Series
Switches and is available only on the Nexus switches family.

4 | P a g e Ahmad Ali E-Mail: ahmadalimsc@gmail.com , WhatsApp: 00966564303717


Technology Area Port-Channel Cisco VSS Cisco vPC
Redundancy between two switches or between three between three
devices devices making a devices making a
triangle triangle
Software Cisco Catalyst Operating Cisco Catalyst Cisco NXOS only
system Operating
system
Platform Cisco Catalyst Switches only Cisco 6500 Cisco Nexus Series
series Catalyst Switches
Switches
Control Plane Separate control plane on Single control Two separate
single switch plane on two control plane
6500 switches
Etherchannel Static, PAgP, PAgP, LACP Static, PAgP, Static, LACP
Protocols support PAgP, LACP
Configuration Single Configuration on Single Two different
single Cisco Catalyst Configuration on configurations on
switch. two Cisco 6500 two nexus switches
switches.
STP as a failback Yes Yes Yes
Loop-free topology Yes Yes Yes
Multi-Chassis Port No Yes Yes
Channel
Maximum Physical 1 2 2
Nodes
No Disruptive ISSU Not required No Yes
support
Layer 3 port channel Yes Yes Limited
support
Heart beat link Not required VSL is used to CFS transmits
between devices transfer data and control messages
control messages through Peer Link,
between the and a Peer Link
active and monitor heartbeats
standby switches
HSRP required for HSRP is required Not required HSRP is required
Layer 3 redundancy
Separate Instance for Single instance on single On each physical On each physical
other protocols switch switch in the VSS switch in the VPC

5 | P a g e Ahmad Ali E-Mail: ahmadalimsc@gmail.com , WhatsApp: 00966564303717

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy