Refer to the exhibit. A port channel has been configured between a Cisco MDS and a Cisco Fabric Interconnect switch. Which interface(s) in the port channel carry the control plane traffic?

Question

Exhibit

Options

• Aper packet, balanced between interfaces fc1/9 and fc1/10
• Bfrom interface fc1/9
• Cfrom interface fc1/10
• Dper flow, balanced between interfaces fc1/9 and fc1/10

• A
  11% (6)
• B
  2% (1)
• C
  5% (3)
• D
  82% (46)

Explanation

In Fibre Channel (FC) port channels, traffic - including control plane traffic - is distributed across member links using per-flow (per-exchange) hashing, not per-packet. This means a given flow always travels the same physical link for frame ordering integrity, but different flows can land on either fc1/9 or fc1/10, so control plane traffic is balanced across both interfaces depending on the flow hash.

Why the distractors are wrong:

• A (per packet): Per-packet load balancing is not used in FC port channels because it would destroy frame ordering, which FC protocols require.
• B (only fc1/9) and C (only fc1/10): These imply a single active link carries all control plane traffic. Port channels exist precisely to utilize all member links - pinning everything to one interface defeats the purpose and is not how FC port channels operate.

Memory tip: Think "FC = Flow Consistent." Fibre Channel always balances per flow to stay consistent within an exchange. If you see "per packet" in an FC context, it's almost certainly wrong - packet reordering breaks FC.

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