N7K - N9K vPC

[bill.greenwood]

I am working on an upgrade from Nexus 7010 running NX-OS version 5.1(4) to Nexus 9500 running version 9.2(3) and am looking to minimize downtime for the client.

My question: is is possible to create a vPC between the N7K and the N9K temporarily as we transition to the new hardware.  I know you can have minor version differences in the vPC peers while upgrading one of the devices, but this is a major difference.  Since everything is dual connected the idea is to remove the existing N7K secondary switch, add the N9K secondary and wait for it to come online and synchronize, move the connections from the powered down N7k to the online N9K secondary.  Then follow the same procedure for the configured primary switches.  Is this a workable plan or should we take the 15 minute outage a move all connections to the new N9K pair?

Looking for your guidance and recommendations.

Thanks,

Bill

[Mark Malone]

Hi
you cant form a VPC domain with 2 different switches like that 7 and 9 , how we did it migration way was create a separate 9ks VPC cluster so you have a 7k cluster and 9k cluster , connect a layer 2 link off each 9ks back to the 7ks , then use HSRP and set them all up in same group 7ks and 9ks walk over the layer 3 then and l2 , thats minimal outage as you can walk over devices leg A and B at a time but any orphan devices will still take a hit

[Reza Sharifi]

Bill,

I personally think this is too risky and too much of a workaround for something that may not even work without any down time. I think having a maintenance window and moving the connections from the 7ks to the 9ks is a good idea.. 

Good Luck!