Nexus 9000: ARP & MAC Table Sync Behavior with Non-vPC L2 Trunk
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Introduction
This document describes a behavior between the ARP and MAC table that can occur between two Nexus 9000 devices with a non-vPC Layer 2 trunk between the two wherein the ARP table remains populated while the MAC Address table will appear empty for a given host. This behavior will only occur when SVIs do not use user-defined MAC addresses and the vPC peer-gateway feature is configured under the vPC domain.
Requirements
General knowledge of vPC, peer-gateway and NX-OS.
Components Used
Nexus 3000s/Nexus 9000s
vPC
vPC Peer-Gateway
Non-vPC L2 Trunk
Non-vPC SVIs
No specific NX-OS version required
Topology
The Nexus 9000s in this setup are running NX-OS 7.0(3)I7(5).
Overview
Consider a scenario where ARP & MAC Address tables are empty between Host-A and N9K-B , and a ping is initiated from Host-A to N9K-B
Host-A# ping 192.0.2.3 PING 192.0.2.3 (192.0.2.3): 56 data bytes 36 bytes from 192.0.2.100: Destination Host Unreachable Request 0 timed out 64 bytes from 192.0.2.3: icmp_seq=1 ttl=254 time=1.011 ms 64 bytes from 192.0.2.3: icmp_seq=2 ttl=254 time=0.763 ms 64 bytes from 192.0.2.3: icmp_seq=3 ttl=254 time=0.698 ms 64 bytes from 192.0.2.3: icmp_seq=4 ttl=254 time=0.711 ms --- 192.0.2.3 ping statistics --- 5 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 20.00% packet loss round-trip min/avg/max = 0.698/0.795/1.011 ms
The ping from Host-A will cause the host to send an ARP Request for 9K-B. The ARP Request egresses out of Po21 on N9K-A (flooded on the VLAN) while also on Po20 (tunneled via CFS). The MAC address-table on 9K-B gets populated correctly and an ARP entry is inserted into the ARP table of N9K-B pointing to Po21 (the non-vPC L2 trunk) for Host-A's MAC Address of 0223.e957.6a3a.
N9K-B# show ip arp 192.0.2.100
Flags: * - Adjacencies learnt on non-active FHRP router
+ - Adjacencies synced via CFSoE
# - Adjacencies Throttled for Glean
CP - Added via L2RIB, Control plane Adjacencies
PS - Added via L2RIB, Peer Sync
RO - Re-Originated Peer Sync Entry
D - Static Adjacencies attached to down interface
IP ARP Table
Total number of entries: 1
Address Age MAC Address Interface Flags
192.0.2.100 00:01:07 0223.e957.6a3a Vlan150
N9K-B# show mac address-table address | i i 6a3a
* 150 0223.e957.6a3a dynamic 0 F F Po21
N9K-B# show ip arp detail | i 3a
192.0.2.100 00:03:22 0223.e957.6a3a Vlan150 port-channel21 <<<< Expected port-channel
The problem can be seen when the MAC Address for Host-A is removed from N9K-B's MAC Address Table
The MAC Address could be removed as a result of a variety of reasons such as: MAC aging, STP TCNs, clearing via CLI, etc.
N9K-B# show ip arp 192.0.2.100
Flags: * - Adjacencies learnt on non-active FHRP router
+ - Adjacencies synced via CFSoE
# - Adjacencies Throttled for Glean
CP - Added via L2RIB, Control plane Adjacencies
PS - Added via L2RIB, Peer Sync
RO - Re-Originated Peer Sync Entry
D - Static Adjacencies attached to down interface
IP ARP Table
Total number of entries: 1
Address Age MAC Address Interface Flags
192.0.2.100 00:00:29 0223.e957.6a3a Vlan150 <<< ARP remains populated
N9K-B# show mac address-table address 0223.e957.6a3a
Legend:
* - primary entry, G - Gateway MAC, (R) - Routed MAC, O - Overlay MAC
age - seconds since last seen,+ - primary entry using vPC Peer-Link,
(T) - True, (F) - False, C - ControlPlane MAC, ~ - vsan
VLAN MAC Address Type age Secure NTFY Ports
---------+-----------------+--------+---------+------+----+------------------
<empty, no MAC>
N9K-B# ping 192.0.2.100
PING 192.0.2.100 (192.0.2.100): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.0.2.100: icmp_seq=0 ttl=253 time=1.112 ms
64 bytes from 192.0.2.100: icmp_seq=1 ttl=253 time=0.647 ms
64 bytes from 192.0.2.100: icmp_seq=2 ttl=253 time=0.659 ms
64 bytes from 192.0.2.100: icmp_seq=3 ttl=253 time=0.634 ms
64 bytes from 192.0.2.100: icmp_seq=4 ttl=253 time=0.644 ms
--- 192.0.2.100 ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 packets received, 0.00% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 0.634/0.739/1.112 ms
Notice that pings are still successful; however, our ARP entry now points to Po20 (the vPC PL) instead of Po21 which is not the expected port-channel as VLAN 150 is a non-VPC VLAN:
N9K-B# show ip arp detail | i i 6a3a
Flags: * - Adjacencies learnt on non-active FHRP router
+ - Adjacencies synced via CFSoE
# - Adjacencies Throttled for Glean
CP - Added via L2RIB, Control plane Adjacencies
PS - Added via L2RIB, Peer Sync
RO - Re-Originated Peer Sync Entry
IP ARP Table for context default
Total number of entries: 2
Address Age MAC Address Interface Physical Interface Flags
192.0.2.100 00:15:54 0223.e957.6a3a Vlan150 port-channel20 <<< Not Po21 once the issue is triggered.
Brief event-histories on both N9Ks to demonstrate that packets are getting tunneled via CFS
N9K-B# show ip arp internal event-history event | i i tunnel
[116] [27772]: Tunnel Packets came with: vlan: 150, L2-SMAC :0223.e957.6a3a, L2-DMAC: 00be.758e.5677
[116] [27772]: Received tunneled packet on iod: Vlan150, physical iod: port-channel20
N9K-A# show ip arp internal event-history event | i i tunnel
[116] [28142]: Tunnel Packets sent with: vlan: 150, L2-SMAC :0223.e957.6a3a, L2-DMAC: 00be.758e.5677
[116] [28142]: Tunnel it to peer destined to remote SVI's Gateway MAC. Peer Gateway Enabled
Debugs on 9K-B that walk through this behavior as well
N9K-B# debug logfile TAC_ARP
N9K-B# debug ip arp packet
N9K-B# debug ip arp event
N9K-B# debug ip arp error
N9K-B# show debug logfile TAC_ARP | beg "15:31:23" 2018 Oct 11 15:31:23.954433 arp: arp_send_request_internal: Our own address 192.0.2.3 on interface Vlan150,sender_pid =27661 2018 Oct 11 15:31:23.955221 arp: arp_process_receive_packet_msg: Received tunneled packet on iod: Vlan150, physical iod: port-channel20 2018 Oct 11 15:31:23.955253 arp: arp_process_receive_packet_msg: Tunnel Packets came with: vlan: 150, L2-SMAC :0223.e957.6a3a, L2-DMAC: 00be.758e.5677 2018 Oct 11 15:31:23.955275 arp: (context 1) Receiving packet from Vlan150, logical interface Vlan150 physical interface port-channel20, (prty 6) Hrd type 1 Prot type 800 Hrd len 6 Prot len 4 OP 2, Pkt size 46 2018 Oct 11 15:31:23.955293 arp: Src 0223.e957.6a3a/192.0.2.100 Dst 00be.758e.5677/192.0.2.3 2018 Oct 11 15:31:23.955443 arp: arp_add_adj: arp_add_adj: Updating MAC on interface Vlan150, phy-interface port-channel20, flags:0x1 2018 Oct 11 15:31:23.955478 arp: arp_adj_update_state_get_action_on_add: Different MAC(0223.e957.6a3a) Successful action on add Previous State:0x10, Current State:0x10 Received event:Data Plane Add, entry: 192.0.2.100, 0000.0000.0000, Vlan150, action to be taken send_to_am:TRUE, arp_aging:TRUE 2018 Oct 11 15:31:23.955576 arp: arp_add_adj: Entry added for 192.0.2.100, 0223.e957.6a3a, state 2 on interface Vlan150, physical interface port-channel20, ismct 0. flags:0x10, Rearp (interval: 0, count: 0), TTL: 1500 seconds update_shm:TRUE 2018 Oct 11 15:31:23.955601 arp: arp_add_adj: Adj info: iod: 77, phy-iod: 91, ip: 192.0.2.100, mac: 0223.e957.6a3a, type: 0, sync: FALSE, suppress-mode: ARP Suppression Disabled flags:0x10
The ARP Reply ingresses 9K-A from Host-A then it is tunneled to 9K-B
You can see that 9K-A punts this to the SUP as you have peer-gateway enabled an 9K-A believes it needs to route on behalf of N9K-B although this is a non-vPC VLAN
N9K-A# ethanalyzer local interface inband display-filter arp limit-c 0 Capturing on inband 2018-10-11 15:32:47.378648 00:be:75:8e:56:77 -> ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff ARP Who has 192.0.2.100? Tell 192.0.2.3 <<<< 2018-10-11 15:32:47.379262 02:23:e9:57:6a:3a -> 00:be:75:8e:56:77 ARP 192.0.2.100 is at 02:23:e9:57:6a:3a
Notice that 9K-B never sees this ARP Reply natively
N9K-B# ethanalyzer local interface inband display-filter arp limit-c 0 Capturing on inband 2018-10-11 15:33:30.053239 00:be:75:8e:56:77 -> ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff ARP Who has 192.0.2.100? Tell 192.0.2.3 2018-10-11 15:34:16.817309 00:be:75:8e:56:77 -> ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff ARP Who has 192.0.2.100? Tell 192.0.2.3 2018-10-11 15:34:42.222965 00:be:75:8e:56:77 -> ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff ARP Who has 192.0.2.44? Tell 192.0.2.43 <snip>
N9K-B# ping 192.0.2.100 PING 192.0.2.100 (192.0.2.100): 56 data bytes 36 bytes from 192.0.2.3: Destination Host Unreachable Request 0 timed out Request 1 timed out Request 2 timed out Request 3 timed out Request 4 timed out --- 192.0.2.100 ping statistics --- 5 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100.00% packet loss
This behavior is due to SVI User Defined MAC Addresses not present in the configuration for non-vPC SVIs even when they are not being used for routing adjacencies over vPC.
Workaround is to change the MAC Address of the SVIs exhibiting the behavior
N9K-A(config)# int vlan 150 N9K-A(config-if)# mac-address 0000.aaaa.0030 N9K-A(config-if)# end N9K-B(config)# int vlan 150 N9K-B(config-if)# mac-address 0000.bbbb.0030 N9K-B(config-if)# end
9K-A never punts the ARP Reply to the SUP after the SVI MAC change therefore it does not get tunneled via CFS
N9K-A# ethanalyzer local interface inband display-filter arp limit-c 0 Capturing on inband 2018-10-11 15:36:11.675108 00:00:bb:bb:00:30 -> ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff ARP Who has 192.0.2.100? Tell 192.0.2.3
Please see Routing over vPC Topologies for information regarding L2 non-vPC trunks, routing adjacencies, and SVI User Defined MAC requirement.
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