Cisco 6500 VSS Configuration Example

Hello Justin

VSS requires that VSLs are configured on 10Gbps ports only. Not only this, but these ports must either be on the supervisor itself or on one of several switching modules. You can find more info about this at the following Cisco documentation:

Look at the section titled “VSL Hardware Requirements”.

Now the reason that only specific ports can be used is because the requirements of the VSL are very specific. A VSL link has the following characteristics:

  • The VSL gives control traffic higher priority than data traffic so that control messages are never discarded.
  • When a VSL is configured, all existing configurations are removed from the interface except for specific allowed commands
  • When VSL is configured, the system puts the interface into a restricted mode. This means that only specific configuration commands can be configured on the interface.

All of these restrictions and limitations are there in order to ensure that the link created between the two switches is sufficient to provide the necessary communication for VSS to function.

I hope this has been helpful!

Laz

Ethernet port can be
located on the supervisor engine module or on one of the following switching modules:
• WS-X6708-10G-3C or WS-X6708-10G-3CXL
• WS-X6716-10G-3C or WS-X6716-10G-3CXL
• WS-X6716-10T-3C or WS-X6716-10T-3CXL

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