LACP & VPc

[rsrikant]

I would like to know the difference between LACP & VPC.

What is the difference between these 2 technologies ?

What is the advantages of these 2 technologies ?

[Reza Sharifi]

vPC is only supported on the Nexus series.

A virtual PortChannel (vPC) allows links that are  physically connected to two different Cisco Nexus™ 5000 Series devices  to appear as a single PortChannel to a third device. The third device  can be a Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extender or a switch, server, or  any other networking device. A vPC can provide Layer 2 multipathing,  which allows you to create redundancy by increasing bandwidth, enabling  multiple parallel paths between nodes and load-balancing traffic where  alternative paths exist.

See config guide:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps9441/ps9670/configuration_guide_c07-543563.html

VRRP, HSRP eliminate a single point of failure and provide redundancy.

The Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol (VRRP) is  an election protocol that dynamically assigns responsibility for one or  more virtual routers to the VRRP routers on a LAN, allowing several  routers on a multiaccess link to utilize the same virtual IP address. A  VRRP router is configured to run the VRRP protocol in conjunction with  one or more other routers attached to a LAN. In a VRRP configuration,  one router is elected as the virtual router master, with the other  routers acting as backups in case the virtual router master fails.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios-xml/ios/ipapp_fhrp/configuration/xe-3s/fhp-vrrp.html

HTH

[rsrikant]

thanks

Your explanation is more about VRRP & HSRP.

My query is over LACP. Let me know what is the exact difference between LACP & VPC.

[InayathUlla Sharieff]

Hi,

Please find complete answeres for your queries:

1- I would like to know the difference between LACP & VPC.

Answer:

LACP is the etherchannel configuration were as the VPC is the new concept which was introduced in the Nexus

A- "Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) is part of an IEEE specification (802.3ad) that allows you to bundle several physical ports together to form a single logical channel. LACP allows a switch to negotiate an automatic bundle by sending LACP packets to the peer. It performs a similar function as Port Aggregation Protocol (PAgP) with Cisco EtherChannel."

LACP is usually used where you need to channel the equipment of multiple vendors together. We for example use it to create a 4 Gig channel between a Nortel 8610 and a Cisco 3750.

In a purely Cisco environment there is no benefit to using LACP - you should probably use etherchannel with PAgP.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios/12_2sb/feature/guide/gigeth.html

B-A virtual PortChannel (vPC) allows links that are  physically connected to two different Cisco Nexus™ 5000 Series devices  to appear as a single PortChannel to a third device. The third device  can be a Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extender or a switch, server, or  any other networking device. A vPC can provide Layer 2 multipathing,  which allows you to create redundancy by increasing bandwidth, enabling  multiple parallel paths between nodes and load-balancing traffic where  alternative paths exist.

See config guide:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps9441/ps9670/configuration_guide_c07-543563.html

2- What is the difference between these 2 technologies ?

Answer:

LACP is used when you have to bundle the ports with different vendors.
Difference if VPC you can connect and bundle the ports and form a channel connecting  a single device to two upstream  switches.

3-What is the advantages of these 2 technologies ?

Answer:-
a- LACP: Not much as I can see as this is the protocol which is used to bundle the ports with cisco and other vendor. Were as Pagp is cisco proparitory.

b- VPC advantages:
Allows a single device to use a PortChannel across two upstream devices
• Eliminates Spanning Tree Protocol blocked ports
• Provides a loop-free topology
• Uses all available uplink bandwidth
• Provides fast convergence if either the link or a device fails
• Provides link-level resiliency
• Helps ensure high availability

More information can be obtain from the link: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps9441/ps9670/configuration_guide_c07-543563.html

HTH

Regards

Inayath

Please rate useful posts and remember to mark any solved questions as answered. Thank you.

[rsrikant]

Thanks

From your explanation below is my understanding.

LACP can be used for bundling the links to the same switch & it can not be used for bundling to different switches.

But VPC can be used to bundle the links between 2 different switches.

Let me know if my understanding is right.

[Bilal Nawaz]

Hello, lacp is just a negotiation protocol for bundling links from the same physical/logical switch to another host or switch.
Vpc is a technology whereby it allows you to have two separate switches, providing one bundle to a switch or host.

This is my understanding anyway.

Hope this helps

Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPhone App

[InayathUlla Sharieff]

Hi,

Yes your understanding if perfectly correct.

HTH

Regards

Inayath

Please rate useful posts and remember to mark any solved questions as answered. Thank you.