Is it possible to successfully build a vPC domain between a Nexus 7010 with Sup 1 and a 7706 with a Sup 2?

[cherie13653]

Is it possible to successfully build a vPC domain between a Nexus 7010 with Sup 1 and a 7706 with a Sup 2?  This is for migration purposes only.  Client has 7010's with Sup 1 currently and migrating to the 7706s with Sup 2.  They are looking for minimal to zero downtime.  They want to shut down the secondary 7010 and connect the Peer Links and Keepalive links between the 7010 and the 7706 and establish the vPC domain and HSRP between the two.  Then move the devices connected to the secondary 7010 to the 7706.  Just trying to determine if the vPC domain will be up and operational in this scenario.Is it possible to successfully build a vPC domain between a Nexus 7010 with Sup 1 and a 7706 with a Sup 2?  This is for migration purposes only.  Client has 7010's with Sup 1 currently and migrating to the 7706s with Sup 2.  They are looking for minimal to zero downtime.  They want to shut down the secondary 7010 and connect the Peer Links and Keepalive links between the 7010 and the 7706 and establish the vPC domain and HSRP between the two.  Then move the devices connected to the secondary 7010 to the 7706.  Just trying to determine if the vPC domain will be up and operational in this scenario.

[Claudia de Luna]

I suspect going from the N7000 architecture to the N7700 architecture is a non starter but just to complete the picture, what are the respective line cards on both ends (N7000 and N7700)?.  I think there are better, safer ways to approach such a migration with minimal down time.  This seems to me to be double the work and won't allow you to fully test the N7700s.  I always recommend building the new infrastructure, testing, and then migrating via a Layer 2 link with the "new" 7700 svis participating in HSRP initially or at final cutover or one/some at a time.  This preserves the virtual gateway mac for the servers and minimizes down time.

[cherie13653]

The new line cards are N77-F348XP-23.  Not sure, what the existing cards are.  We were planning on building the new 7700 architecture and testing that prior to migration.

[admin11111]

So given that, the answer is no.  Since the N7010s have Sup 1s you won't be able to have F3 cards and so you will not be able to re-establish your VPC domain between a 7010 and a 7700 with "exactly the same hardware on both ends".   Given the difference in architecture  that might be the case even if you did have F3s on both ends since they are different cards.  Again, I would not recommend such a strategy even if it were possible.  I do alot of data center migrations and upgrades so I have some experience here.

[admin11111]

Thank you Claudia.

[Claudia de Luna]

Good luck with your migration!

[krabe]

I question that answer since vPC is software dependent feature not hardware.

Sent from my Windows Phone

[Claudia de Luna]

I can see where it might be easy to think that but its not strictly speaking true.  There are dependencies.  From the VPC Design Best Practices guide:

"vPC Peer link can be formed with M1 ports on both sides (M1 to M1), or F1 ports on both sides (F1 to F1), or F2 ports on both sides (F2 to F2). It is mandatory that both sides of vPC peer link are strictly identical.

As a consequence, it is not possible to mix F1 port on 1 side and M1 port on the other side (for instance)."