Nexus 5596UP Question

[Amit Singh2000]

Hi Guys

     I have a very basic question around Nexus 5596UP switches.

One of my customer is looking to buy  two 5596UP switches for a DC and put in next to each other..

My question is that can these 5596UP switches be joined together as a stack ? or something similar to VSS  ?

I have seen people talk about vPC. But my understanding is that vPC is used to configure something similar to ether-channel but on two separate physical switches..Example Core 1 Core 2 separate physical switches but connected by inter-connect... And access switch connect to both core 1 and 2 for redundancy.these links from access-layer switch can be part of vPC so that none of the link goes into blocking mode to avoid loops etc.

Can Nexus 5596UP be joined together ?

Thanks in advance.

[Robert Burns]

Amit,

No the Nexus switches are not stackable.  As you metioned, they use vPC in place of technologies such as VSS.  This provides switch/asic/port level redundancy while maintaining separate independent control planes on each switch.

The 5596 can also make use of remote Fabric Extenders (FEXs) which are managed, configured & controlled by the parent N5K.  This extends the port count and reach of the N5K while keeping management unified.    You can also connect these FEXs to a pair of N5Ks for added redundancy.

Regards,

Robert

[Amit Singh2000]

Dear Robert

Your reply confirms that my understanding was right.

Thanks for your reply. My last question. Let's say I have two nexus 5596 switches. Sw1 and 2

And I have a stack of 3750 switches.

Can 3750 stack connect to sw1 and sw2 and ether-channel can be configured ?

Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPad App

[Robert Burns]

Indeed.  You can do a muti-chassis etherchannel from your 3750's up to each N5K using vPC.  Both the 3750 stack and a pair of vPC N5Ks function as a single "logical" switches, so you can definately create an etherchannel between them.

Robert

[jkilleda]

Hello Amitpal,

Nexus 5596UP Question

You can use VPC inorder to connect them together.