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Cisco Prime Network 4.0 User Guide
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Chapter 26 Monitoring Data Center Configurations
Cisco FabricPath
Cisco FabricPath provides the following features:
• Allows Layer 2 multipathing in the FabricPath network.
• Provides built-in loop prevention and mitigation with no need to use the Spanning Tree Protocol
(STP).
• Provides a single control plane for unknown unicast, broadcast, and mu ltic ast tra ffic.
• Enhances mobility and virtualization in the FabricPath network.
The system randomly assigns a unique switch ID to each device that is enabled with FabricPath. After
you enable FabricPath on the devices, you can configure an Ether net interf ace or a port channel interface
as a FabricPath interface. If one member of the port channel is in FabricPath mode, then all the other
members will also be in FabricPath mode. After you configure the interface as a FabricPa th inte rface, it
automatically becomes a trunk port, capable of carrying traffic for multiple V irtual Local Ar ea Networks
(VLANs).
Prime Network supports Cisco FabricPath on Cisco Nexus 5000 series and Cisco Nexus 7000 seri es
network elements. Figure 26-3 shows a Cisco FabricPath architecture.
Figure 26-3 Cisco FabricPath Architecture
This topic contains the following sections:
• Viewing Cisco FabricPath Configuration, page 26-9
• Monitoring Cisco FabricPath Configuration, page 26-10
279717
FP network
S3
B
CE
S1 S2
A
CE
FP network
S3
B
CE
S1 S2
A
CE
S4
vPC vPC+