Specifications

Core Layer April 2014
85
The following configuration example shows you how to convert two standalone Cisco Catalyst 6500 or 6807-XL
switches to a Virtual Switching System (VSS). If you are migrating your switches from an existing in-service dual
chassis role to a VSS system, go to www.cisco.com and search on “Migrate Standalone Cisco Catalyst 6500
Switch to Cisco Catalyst 6500 Virtual Switching System” for information that describes how to do this migration.
For an in-depth VSS configuration guide and configuration options, go to www.cisco.com/go/cvd/campus and,
on the Cisco Validated Designs tab, look for the Campus 3.0 Virtual Switching System Design Guide.
When you set up the Virtual Switching System, connect 10-Gigabit or 40-Gigabit Ethernet links between the
chassis to provide the Virtual Switch Link (VSL). Always use at least two links.
You can use up to eight links as members of the VSL, and the links should be distributed across Supervisor
Engines or line cards for resiliency. This design uses the two 10-Gigabit Ethernet interfaces on each installed
Supervisor Engine. You connect the VSL interfaces together before you configure the VSS.
To aid in understanding the connections between switches supporting the VSS configuration, the following tables
can be used. The optional Fast-Hello connection is used in this design, but can be replaced or augmented by
functionality available when implementing Ehanced PAgP, which is not covered in this release. The PortChannel
interface numbers are arbitrary and should be adapted to best suit your deployment. The chosen values reflect
the highest values supported across all VSS platforms validated in this release.
Table 6 - Example VSS connections for the Cisco 6509-E chassis pair with two Supervisor Engine 2T
VSS connection
VSS Switch 1
Port (PortChannel)
VSS Switch 2
Port (PortChannel)
10-Gbps, VSL 1 Ten5/4 (Po63) Ten5/4 (Po64)
10-Gbps, VSL 2 Ten5/5 (Po63) Ten5/5 (Po64)
1-Gbps, Fast-Hello Gig9/24 Gig9/24
For additional resiliency and to allow support for an Enhanced Fast Software Upgrade (eFSU), a VSS quad-
supervisor Stateful Switchover (VS4O) setup can be created. The Supervisors must have fully meshed
connectivity to support minimal traffic disruption during software upgrades, as shown in the following example.
Table 7 - Example VSS connections for the Cisco 6807-XL chassis pair with four Supervisor Engine 2T, meshed VSL
connections
VSS connection
VSS Switch 1
Port (PortChannel)
VSS Switch 2
Port (PortChannel)
10-Gbps, VSL 1 Ten3/4 (Po63) Ten3/4 (Po64)
10-Gbps, VSL 2 Ten3/5 (Po63) Ten4/4 (Po64)
10-Gbps, VSL 3 Ten4/4 (Po63) Ten3/5 (Po64)
10-Gbps, VSL 4 Ten4/5 (Po63) Ten4/5 (Po64)
1-Gbps, Fast-Hello Gig7/48 Gig7/48
Step 1: If you are configuring a VSS quad-supervisor system, ensure that all four Supervisor Engines are
available and the same version of code is installed and set to boot for each one of them. To make configuration
easier by limiting the possible active console conections, leave only one Supervisor Engine fully inserted in each
chassis.