ACI MAC pinning vs. non-port channel configuration

[Johannes Luther]

Hi ACI community,

quick question regarding the port channel policy with MAC pinning enabled.

What is is functional benefit compared to a redundant bare metal configuration (so a normal access port) with an active NIC on switch 1 port 1 and a standby uplink on switch 2 port 1?

When we're doing traditional networking, there is no port channel mode for MAC pinning. You simple configure two (orphan) ports with the same config on one or two switches - that's it. So what's the purpose of MAC pinning in ACI? I'm quite confident is works with a non Port channel / LAG interface config as well :)

[Remi Astruc]

Hello Johannes,

Your assumption is right. Port-Channel MAC Pinning is to be considered like individual ports from switches perspective.

That policy is mainly used in VMM domain to configure the Virtual Switch behavior, where the best practice is to set MAC Pinning on uplinks.

(By the way, that topic should be in ACI section)

Remi Astruc