However, which option includes features that provide similar benefits in the absence of the Connectivity Management Processor?

The Connectivity Management Processor monitors the active supervisor module on a Cisco Nexus 7000 switch and will reboot the device in the event of a lights-out management issue.

However, which option includes features that provide similar benefits in the absence of the Connectivity Management Processor?
A . high-availability functionality from features such as vPC and NSF
B . traditional system connectivity models like SNMP, GUI, or SSH
C . Cisco FabricPath
D . VDC failover

View Answer

Answer: A

Explanation: vPC uses the vPC peer-keepalive link to run hello messages that are used to detect a dual-active scenario. A Gigabit Ethernet port can be used to carry the peer-keepalive messages. A dedicated VRF is recommended to isolate these control messages from common data packets. When an out-of-band network infrastructure is present, the management interfaces of the Cisco Nexus 7000 supervisor could be also used to carry keep-alive connectivity using the dedicated management VRF. When the vPC peer-link is no longer detected, a dual-active situation occurs, and the system disables all vPC port channel member on the "secondary" vPC peer (lower vPC role priority value). Also SVI interfaces associated to a vPC VLAN are suspended on the secondary switch. As a result, in this condition only the “primary” vPC peer actively forwards traffic on the vPC VLANs. Multiple peer-keepalive links can be used to increase resiliency of the dual-active detection mechanism.

Both the Cisco Catalyst 6500 and the Cisco Nexus 7000 offer a variety of high-availability features. Some of the primary features to highlight are In Service Software Upgrade (ISSU), Stateful Switchover (SSO), and Nonstop Forwarding (NSF). The operation and the behavior of these features are unique to the respective platform and can be independently executed without affecting the interoperability between the two platforms.

Reference: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/switches/catalyst-6500-series-switches/white_paper_c11_589890.html