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using a fabric port from Leafs to connect to an external switch

Hi, We have a requirement to connect to an external switch from every leaf for SPAN purposes. As a result, it needs to be a 100 Gbps port, which are only the uplink/fabric ports. Can those ports be used?

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Robert Burns
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

Depending on the platform - typically yes.  You can "convert" unused uplinks to downlinks.  The proces is well documented.

BTW - why do you need every leaf connected?   A single SPAN port can be used to send any traffic from anywhere in the fabric.  If you're trying to create more of an inline TAP, that's another story.

Robert

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4 Replies 4

Robert Burns
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

Depending on the platform - typically yes.  You can "convert" unused uplinks to downlinks.  The proces is well documented.

BTW - why do you need every leaf connected?   A single SPAN port can be used to send any traffic from anywhere in the fabric.  If you're trying to create more of an inline TAP, that's another story.

Robert

If using a single span port, then the other leafs are going to be sending span traffic over the spine-uplinks. Idea is to avoid that, hence better to connect every leaf locally. 

Agree, but that's where a proper SPAN filter comes into play so you can filter only the traffic of interest.  Are you trying to SPAN all traffic continuously or just specific EPG/host traffic on demand?  Is the traffic going to a monitoring solution (ex. Splunk)?

Robert

all traffic all the time..

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