Hi,
You do not have to use the management interface for the vPC peer keepalive connection.
In fact Cisco’s Design and Configuration Guide: Best Practices for Virtual Port Channels (vPC) on Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Switches includes the use of the management interface as second in its order of preference. From page 27 of the design guide:
"Strong Recommendations:
When building a vPC peer-keepalive link, use the following in descending order of preference:
- Dedicated link(s) (1-Gigabit Ethernet port is enough) configured as L3. Port-channel with 2 X 1G port is even better.
- Mgmt0 interface (along with management traffic)
- As a last resort, route the peer-keepalive link over the Layer 3 infrastructure"
For the Nexus 5000 series, the "vPC Peer Keepalive" section on page 44 of the Data Center Access Design with Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switches and 2000 Series Fabric Extenders and Virtual PortChannels states:
"You can choose whether to route the peer keepalive over the mgmt0 interface or over an SVI:
- Routing the peer keepalive over mgmt0 has the advantage that the mgmt0 virtual route forwarding (VRF) instance is routed independently of the default VRF instance, and that this configuration is compatible with ISSU.
- Routing the peer keepalive from an SVI over a regular front-panel port provides the advantage that you can connect Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switches back to back if you want to do so; it also provides additional verification of the health of the ASICs through which the peer keepalive flows. It provides the disadvantage that the peer keepalive is routed according to the information contained in the default VRF instance (which may cause the traffic to use the peer link instead of a different path); in addition, ISSU is not compatible with this configuration"
Regards
