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This chapter provides an overview of the interface types supported byDCNM .
This chapter includes the following sections:
•High Availability for Interfaces
•Licensing Requirements for Interfaces
DCNM supports multiple configuration parameters for each of the interface types supported. Most of these parameters are covered in this guide but some are described in other documents.
Table 1-1 shows where to get further information on the parameters you can configure for an interface.
|
|
|
---|---|---|
Basic parameters |
description, duplex, error disable, flow control, MTU, beacon |
Chapter 2, "Configuring Basic Interface Parameters" of this document |
Layer 2 |
Layer 2 access and trunk port settings |
Chapter 3, "Configuring Layer 2 Interfaces" of this document |
Layer 2 MAC, VLANs, private VLANs, Rapid PVST+, Multiple Spanning Tree, Spanning Tree Extensions |
Cisco DCNM Layer 2 Switching Configuration Guide, Release 4.0 |
|
Port security |
Cisco DCNM Security Configuration Guide, Release 4.0 |
|
Layer 3 |
medium, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses |
Configuring Layer 3 Interfaces, page 4-1 of this document |
bandwidth, delay, IP routing, VRFs |
Cisco NX-OS Unicast Routing Configuration Guide, Release 4.0 Cisco NX-OS Multicast Routing Configuration Guide, Release 4.0 |
|
Port Channels |
channel group, LACP |
Chapter 5, "Configuring Port Channels" of this document |
Security |
Dot1X, NAC, EOU, port security |
Cisco DCNM Security Configuration Guide, Release 4.0 |
This section includes the following topics:
Ethernet interfaces include access ports, trunk ports, private VLAN hosts and promiscuous ports, and routed ports.
This section includes the following topics:
•Private VLAN Hosts and Promiscuous Ports
An access port carries traffic for one VLAN. This type of port is a Layer 2 interface only. For more information about access-port interfaces, see Chapter 3, "Configuring Layer 2 Interfaces."
A trunk port carries traffic for two or more VLANs. This type of port is a Layer 2 interface only. For more information about trunk-port interfaces, see Chapter 3, "Configuring Layer 2 Interfaces."
Private VLANs (PVLANs) provide traffic separation and security at the Layer 2 level. A PVLAN is one or more pairs of a primary VLAN and a secondary VLAN, all with the same primary VLAN. The two types of secondary VLANs are called isolated and community VLANs.
In an isolated VLAN, PVLAN hosts communicate only with hosts in the primary VLAN. In a community VLAN, PVLAN hosts communicate only among themselves and with hosts in the primary VLAN but not with hosts in isolated VLANs or in other community VLANs. Community VLANs use promiscuous ports to communicate outside the PVLAN. Regardless of the combination of isolated and community secondary VLANs, all interfaces within the primary VLAN comprise one Layer 2 domain and require only one IP subnet.
You can configure a Layer 3 VLAN network interface, or switched virtual interface (SVI), on the PVLAN promiscuous port, which provides routing functionality to the primary PVLAN.
For more information on configuring PVLAN host and PVLAN promiscuous ports and all other PVLAN configurations, see the Cisco DCNM Layer 2 Switching Configuration Guide, Release 4.0.
A routed port is a physical port that can route IP traffic to another device. A routed port is a Layer 3 interface only and does not support Layer 2 protocols, such as spanning tree protocol (STP). For more information on routed ports, see the "Routed Interfaces" section on page 4-2.
You can use the management ethernet interface to connect the device to a network for remote management using a Telnet client, the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), or other management agents. For more information on the management interface, see the Cisco DCNM Fundamentals Configuration Guide, Release 4.0.
A port channel is a logical interface that is an aggregation of multiple physical interfaces. You can bundle up to eight individual links to physical ports into a port channel to improve bandwidth and redundancy. You can also use port channeling to load balance traffic across these channeled physical interfaces. For more information about port-channel interfaces, see Chapter 5, "Configuring Port Channels."
You can create virtual subinterfaces on a parent interface configured as a Layer 3 interface. A parent interface can be a physical port or a port channel. Subinterfaces divide the parent interface into two or more virtual interfaces on which you can assign unique Layer 3 parameters such as IP addresses and dynamic routing protocols. For more information on subinterfaces, see the "Subinterfaces" section on page 4-2.
A VLAN network interface is a virtual routed interface that connects a VLAN on the device to the Layer 3 router engine on the same device. You can route across VLAN network interfaces to provide layer 3 inter-VLAN routing. For more information on VLAN network interfaces, see the "VLAN Interfaces" section on page 4-3.
A virtual loopback interface is a virtual interface with a single endpoint that is always up. Any packet that is transmitted over a virtual loopback interface is immediately received by that interface. Loopback interfaces emulate a physical interface. For more information on subinterfaces, see the "Loopback Interfaces" section on page 4-4.
Tunneling allows you to encapsulate arbitrary packets inside a transport protocol. This feature is implemented as a virtual interface to provide a simple interface for configuration. The tunnel interface provides the services necessary to implement any standard point-to-point encapsulation scheme. You can configure a separate tunnel for each link. For more information, see Chapter 6, "Configuring IP Tunnels."
You can create multiple virtual device contexts (VDCs). Each VDC is an independent logical device to which you can allocate interfaces. Once an interface is allocated to a VDC, you can only configure that interface if you are in the correct VDC. For more information on VDCs, see the Cisco DCNM Virtual Device Context Configuration Guide, Release 4.0.
Interfaces support stateful and stateless restarts. A stateful restart occurs on a supervisor switchover. After the switchover, NX-OS applies the runtime configuration after the switchover.
IP tunnels require the Enterprise Services license. You must install this license on every DCNM system that enables IP tunnels. All other interfaces do not require a license. For more information about DCNM licensing, see the Cisco DCNM Licensing Guide.