Fabric Extender Terminology
Some terms used in this document are as follows:
•
Fabric interface
—
A 10-Gigabit Ethernet uplink port that is designated for connection from the Fabric
Extender to its parent switch. A fabric interface cannot be used for any other purpose. It must be directly
connected to the parent switch.
A fabric interface includes the corresponding interface on the parent switch. This interface
is enabled when you enter the
switchport mode fex-fabric
command.
Note
•
Port channel fabric interface
—
A port channel uplink connection from the Fabric Extender to its parent
switch. This connection consists of fabric interfaces that are bundled into a single logical channel.
•
Host interface
—
An Ethernet host interface for connection to a server or host system.
Do not connect a bridge or switch to a host interface. These interfaces are designed to
provide end host or server connectivity.
Note
On Cisco Nexus 2348TQ and Nexus 2348UPQ FEX, if a port channel is used to connect
a parent switch with a Fabric Extender device, the port channels can have maximum of
8 ports.
The Nexus 2348 FEX devices have a total of 6 * 40 Gigabit Ethernet uplink ports towards
the parent switch. If these are used with native 40G uplinks port on a parent switch, then
there is no limitation. All 6 ports can be used in either single homed or dual homed
configuration. You can also use 40 Gigabit Ethernet uplink ports on the N2348 Fabric
Extender device with 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports on the parent switch when used with
the appropriate cabling. A maximum of 8 ports can be added to the port channel between
the parent switch and Fabric Extender device. If it is a dual homed setup, VPC to the
Fabric Extender device, only 4 ports per switch are allowed in the port channel.
Note
•
Port channel host interface
—
A port channel host interface for connection to a server or host system.
Fabric Extender Features
The Cisco Nexus 2000 Series Fabric Extender allows a single switch
—
and a single consistent set of switch
features
—
to be supported across a large number of hosts and servers. By supporting a large server-domain
under a single management entity, policies can be enforced more efficiently.
Some of the features of the parent switch cannot be extended onto the Fabric Extender.
Cisco Nexus 6000 Series NX-OS Layer 2 Switching Configuration Guide, Release 7.x
149
Configuring the Fabric Extender
Fabric Extender Terminology