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Systems & Data Center · Intermediate

Virtual Port Channel (vPC)

A Cisco Nexus feature that lets a downstream device form one port channel to two separate Nexus switches, which act as a single logical peer.

Definition

vPC provides active-active Layer 2 multipathing without blocking ports from spanning tree. It requires a vPC domain, a peer link and a peer keepalive link. Both peers stay independent control planes.

Example

A server bonds two NICs with LACP, one to each Nexus leaf, in a vPC.

Exam tip

vPC peers keep separate control planes, unlike stacking; consistency parameters must match on both.

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