Enable the Adapter-FEX feature on each of the switches that the server is connecting to.

Configure the switch to support Adapter-FEX.

Using the network adapter configuration utility on the server, enable Network Interface Virtualization (NIV) mode on the network adapter. See the documentation of your specific server network adapter for details. To complete the configuration, you might have to reboot the server to reset the network adapter.

• For the Cisco UCS P81E or Cisco UCS VIC1225 Virtual Interface Card, refer to the Cisco UCS Virtual Interface Card documentation in the Cisco UCS C-Series Servers Integrated Management Controller CLI Configuration Guide.

• For the Broadcom BCM57810 Convergence Network Interface Card, refer to your source for Broadcom Corp. documentation.

When connecting the server network adapter to the enabled VNTag mode Ethernet port on a switch or to a FEX, a handshake is initiated. An exchange of information about NIV capabilities takes place and communications begin in VNTag mode. The switch passes the list of configured port-profiles (type vethernet) down to the adapter. These port-profile names are displayed in the server network adapter’s configuration utility as options for selection.

Only port-profile names are passed to the server network adapter. The configurations in the port-profile are not passed to the server network adapter.

If the server network adapter is not connected to the switch, it is still possible to configure the virtual network interface cards (vNICs) on the server. However the port-profile names are not available on the adapter.

Using the network adapter configuration utility on the server, create the appropriate number of vNICs. Create each vNIC with the appropriate properties, such as unique channel number, MAC address, uplink failover properties, or port-profile names.

Note	After the initial handshake and negotiation, the list of port-profiles configured on the switch are automatically available on the server adapter. You can associate these port-profile names to the vNICs.

Note

For each vNICs or virtual hub bus adapter VHBAs on the Cisco Nexus 5000 series switches, configure a unique virtual Ethernet (vEthernet or vEth) interface. For example, vNIC1's vEth would be vEth1 on both Cisco Nexus 5000 series switches and vNIC2 would be vEth2 on Cisco Nexus 5000 series switches. Since each vNIC maps to a single unique vEth, it is then synced between both Cisco Nexus 5000 series switches MAC tables.

Each vNIC has a unique channel number associated with it. A vNIC is identified on the switch by the bind command that associates a physical port and the vNIC’s channel number to a vethernet interface. Refer to the documentation of your specific server network adapter for details.

• For the Cisco UCS P81E or Cisco UCS VIC1225 Virtual Interface Card, see the Cisco UCS Virtual Interface Card documentation in the Cisco UCS C-Series Servers Integrated Management Controller CLI Configuration Guide.

• For the Broadcom BCM57810 Convergence Network Interface Card, refer to your source for Broadcom Corp. documentation.

When VNtag connectivity is established, only port-profile names (type vethernet) are passed to the server network adapter. The configurations in the port-profile are not passed to the server network adapter.

The port-profiles names are displayed in the server network adapter’s configuration utility as options for selection.

After you configure the vNICs on the server network adapter, you might have to consider the following to complete the configuration.

• Reboot the server and reset the server network adapter.

• Reload the drivers.

See the documentation for your specific server network adapter for details.

When the configuration is complete, the server network adapter and the switch re-establishes a link and performs the initial handshake and negotiation process. The server network adapter and the switch also establish higher level control plane connectivity using the Virtual Interface Configuration (VIC) protocol.

Note	The VIC protocol allows you to provision and manage virtual interfaces on a remote device.

When the VIC protocol connectivity is established, the server network adapter requests that the switch create a Vethernet interface for each vNIC that is configured on the server network adapter. The server network adapter also passes the following attributes over the uplink in addition to the create Vethernet interface request:

• Port-profile name

• Channel number

• Active/standby status

The switch responds by creating a Vethernet interface for each vNIC on the server network adapter and associates the port-profile and channel number to the Vethernet interface.

The server bootup process might be held at the BIOS configuration phase until the Vethernet creation has completed. After the Vethernet is created, the bootup process resumes and the operating system is loaded. See to the documentation for your specific adapter for details.

The global configuration command, no vethernet auto-create, stops the Vethernet interfaces from being automatically created. If the switch is not configured with the vethernet auto-create command, you must configure the Vethernet interfaces manually with the appropriate binding and port-profile configurations.

Vethernet interfaces created by the switch are numbered automatically as they are created. These vethernet numbers start from 32769. The switch picks the lowest unused number when creating a Vethernet interface.

When you manually create Vetethernet interfaces, you may select any number for the Vethernet. However, as a best practice, you should choose a number that is less that 32678.

The server network adapter makes requests to the switch to create vethernet interfaces one at a time.

Vethernet interfaces that are created with a request to create the VIC protocol interface are kept in the running-configuration. When the running-configuration is saved, the Vethernet interfaces and their configurations are saved in the startup-config.

When the switch is reloaded, the switch loads the startup-config and the Vethernet interface is created statically from the startup-config. When the VNTag interface is initialized and the server network adapter makes a request for Vethernet creation, the already existing Vethernet interface is used.

Note	You can delete a Vethernet interface from the system with the no interface vethernet veth-id command. Since vethernet interfaces are saved in the startup-config, a best practice is to save the running-config to the startup-config.

When a server network adapter is connected to a VNTag-mode Ethernet interface on a switch, the Vethernet interfaces are created automatically. However, Vethernet interfaces can also be created manually from the configuration mode with the interface vethernet veth-id command.

Note	When manually configuring Vethernet interfaces, use the no vethernet auto-create command to disable the automatic creation of Vethernet interfaces.

When a server network adapter is connected and a request to create a Vethernet is received, the switch checks for a manually configured Vethernet interface that matches the channel number of the Vethernet creation request. If the manually configured Vethernet interface already exists, the manually configured Vethernet interface is used and a new Vethernet interface is not created.

Conflicts with port-profile names might occur between the configuration of a Vethernet interface that was manually configured or one that was saved in the start-up config and the configuration on the server network adapter.

For example, the server network adapter might associate the vNIC with channel number 5 to the port-profile user_backup, but the switch might associate the Vethernet interface bound to channel number 5 to the port-profile user_data.

When a conflict of this kind occurs, the configuration from the server network adapter takes precedence and overwrites the configuration on the switch.

Note	When a port-profile is associated to a vNIC, but the port-profile does not exist on the switch, the Vethernet creation and initialization fails.

In a vPC topology, the configuration of a specific Vethernet interface must be identical on both the switches. If there is a mismatch in the configurations on the switches, the resulting configuration conflict causes the Vethernet interfaces to fail.

When a conflict of this kind occurs, you must resolve the conflict manually before the Vethernet interface can be brought up successfully.

When a server network adapter is relocated from one physical interface on a switch to another identical switch, new Vethernet interfaces are created and are bound to the new physical interface. The original Vethernet interfaces that were bound to the original physical interfaces exist until they are deleted.

When a new server is connected to the physical interface where the original server was connected, the Vethernet interfaces are reused (assuming that the Vethernet interfaces were not deleted). However, this action might cause a conflict between the configuration on the switch and the configuration on the server network adapter.

Note	When a server network adapter is moved from one server to another, the server network adapter configuration, such as the information about vNICs, moves with the server network adapter. The configuration is saved on the server network adapter.

In a vPC topology, Vethernet numbers for a vNIC must be identical on both vPC peers. Moving a server that has a server network adapter from one physical interface to another for one of the vPC peers without first deleting the Vethernet interfaces on that switch, results in new Vethernet interfaces with different numbers. This results in having the two vPC peers to be not synchronized. Vethernet creation failure occurs when the vPC peers are not synchronized. As a best practice, the original Vethernet interfaces should be deleted before the server is connected to the new physical interface.

When a new port-profile of type vethernet is added, it is immediately passed to all connected server network adapters and becomes available. Similarly, when a port-profile is removed, its name is withdrawn from every connected server network adapter.

Note	Because only port-profile names are passed to the server network adapter, changing the configuration within a port-profile does not trigger any information to be passed to the server network adapter.

Note	When a newly added port-profile is used, such as being associated with an existing or new vNIC, you might need to reboot the server to reset the server network adapter. See the documentation for the your specific adapter for details.

When a port-profile is deleted, all Vethernet interfaces that are associated with it are brought down.