Cisco Systems N3KC3048TP1GE, N3KC3064TFAL3 manual Private VLANs, Spanning Tree, STP Overview

Overview

Private VLANs

All ports, including the management port, are assigned to the default VLAN (VLAN1) when the device first comes up. A VLAN interface, or switched virtual interface (SVI), is a Layer 3 interface that is created to provide communication between VLANs.

The devices support 4094 VLANs in accordance with the IEEE 802.1Q standard. These VLANs are organized into several ranges, and you use each range slightly differently. Some of these VLANs are reserved for internal use by the device and are not available for configuration.

Note Inter-Switch Link (ISL) trunking is not supported on the NX-OS software for the Cisco Nexus 3000 Series.

Private VLANs

Private VLANs provide traffic separation and security at the Layer 2 level.

A private VLAN 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 isolated and community VLANs. Hosts on isolated VLANs communicate only with hosts in the primary VLAN. Hosts in a community VLAN can communicate only among themselves and with hosts in the primary VLAN but not with hosts in isolated VLANs or in other community VLANs.

Regardless of the combination of isolated and community secondary VLANs, all interfaces within the primary VLAN comprise one Layer 2 domain, and therefore, require only one IP subnet.

Spanning Tree

This section discusses the implementation of the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP). Spanning tree is used to refer to IEEE 802.1w and IEEE 802.1s. When the IEEE 802.1D Spanning Tree Protocol is referred to in the publication, 802.1D is stated specifically.

STP Overview

STP provides a loop-free network at the Layer 2 level. Layer 2 LAN ports send and receive STP frames, which are called Bridge Protocol Data Units (BPDUs), at regular intervals. Network devices do not forward these frames but use the frames to construct a loop-free path.

802.1D is the original standard for STP, and many improvements have enhanced the basic loop-free STP. You can create a separate loop-free path for each VLAN, which is named Per VLAN Spanning Tree (PVST+). Additionally, the entire standard was reworked to make the loop-free convergence process faster to keep up with the faster equipment. This STP standard with faster convergence is the 802.1w standard, which is known as Rapid Spanning Tree (RSTP).

Finally, the 802.1s standard, Multiple Spanning Trees (MST), allows you to map multiple VLANs into a single spanning tree instance. Each instance runs an independent spanning tree topology.

Although the software can interoperate with legacy 802.1D systems, the system runs Rapid PVST+ and MST. You can use either Rapid PVST+ or MST in a given VDC; you cannot mix both in one VDC. Rapid PVST+ is the default STP protocol for Cisco NX-OS for the Cisco Nexus 3000 Series.

	Cisco Nexus 3000 NX-OS Layer 2 Switching Configuration Guide, Release 5.0(3)U3(1)
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