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200-150 · Question #191

The MAC address table on a Cisco Nexus Server switch is full .What Layer 2 network behavior will occur while the network MAC address table remains full?

The correct answer is B. Frames with an unknown destination address will be flooded.. When a switch MAC address table is full, it can no longer learn new addresses, so only frames with destination MACs not present in the table are flooded; known destinations are still forwarded normally.

Cisco Data Center Networking Technologies

Question

The MAC address table on a Cisco Nexus Server switch is full .What Layer 2 network behavior will occur while the network MAC address table remains full?

Options

  • AAll frames will be flooded.
  • BFrames with an unknown destination address will be flooded.
  • CThe switch reset the Mac address table. removin all MAC addresses.
  • DThe stitch will remove all dynamically MAC address from the table

How the community answered

(47 responses)
  • B
    94% (44)
  • C
    2% (1)
  • D
    4% (2)

Why each option

When a switch MAC address table is full, it can no longer learn new addresses, so only frames with destination MACs not present in the table are flooded; known destinations are still forwarded normally.

AAll frames will be flooded.

Not all frames are flooded - only frames with destination MACs missing from the table are flooded; frames matching existing table entries are still unicast forwarded to their learned ports.

BFrames with an unknown destination address will be flooded.Correct

A full CAM table prevents new MAC address learning, causing frames with unknown destination addresses to be treated as unknown unicast and flooded out all ports except the ingress port. Frames whose destination MAC already exists in the table continue to be forwarded normally to the correct port.

CThe switch reset the Mac address table. removin all MAC addresses.

Cisco switches do not automatically reset or clear the entire MAC address table when it reaches capacity; that would cause a severe disruption and is not standard behavior.

DThe stitch will remove all dynamically MAC address from the table

The switch does not proactively remove all dynamically learned addresses when the table is full; existing entries expire only when their aging timer (default 300 seconds) elapses.

Concept tested: MAC address table overflow and unknown unicast flooding

Source: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/switches/catalyst-6500-series-switches/23563-143.html

Topics

#MAC address table#frame flooding#Layer 2 behavior#unknown destination

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