Using PowerOn Auto Provisioning
address of the switch. For example, using the MAC address of the management interface, 00:22:AA:BB:CC,
the name of the configuration file that the switch downloads is conf_001122AABBCC.cfg.
Location-Based Configuration File Selection
The switch can download a configuration file based on the switch's location. POAP uses the show cdp neighbor
interface command to derive the configuration file name. To download a configuration file based on the
location of the switch, you must indicate poap_config_file_mode = poap_location in the POAP configuration
script.
For example, Ethernet interface 1/1 on the Nexus 5500 Series switch is connected th Ethernet interface 1/2
on a Nexus 7000 Series switch. The configuration file name should be conf_N7k_eth1/2.cfg
Configuration Script Syslog Logging
The configuration script logs messages locally (on the console) to syslog. To configure logging to a remote
server, you need to add the option log-servers statement to the dhcpd.conf file on the DHCP server.
The logs identify the device by its serial number and MAC address in the format S/N[SSI151504TL]-
MAC[BA:DB:AD:BA:D8:7C].
Guidelines and Limitations for POAP
• The Cisco Nexus switch software image must support POAP for this feature to function.
• POAP does not support provisioning of the switch after it has been configured and is operational. Only
• If you use POAP to bootstrap a Cisco Nexus device that is a part of a vPC pair using static port-channels
• If you use POAP to bootstrap a Cisco Nexus device that is connected downstream to a Cisco Nexus
• Important POAP updates are logged in the syslog and are available from the serial console.
• Critical POAP errors are logged to the bootflash. The filename format is
• Script logs are saved in the bootflash directory. The filename format is date-time_poap_PID_script.log,
OL-30890-01
auto-provisioning of a switch with no startup configuration is supported.
on the VPC links, the Cisco Nexus device activates all of its links upon POAP startup. The dually
connected device at the end of the VPC links might start sending some or all of its traffic to the
port-channel member links connected to the Cisco Nexus device, and the traffic would be lost.
To work around this issue, you can configure LACP on the vPC links so that the links do not incorrectly
start forwarding traffic to the Cisco Nexus device that is being bootstrapped using POAP.
Series 7000 device through a LACP port-channel, the Cisco Nexus 7000 Series device defaults to suspend
its member port if it cannot bundle it as a part of a port-channel. To work around this issue, configure
the Cisco Nexus 7000 Series device to not suspend its member ports using the no lacp suspend-individual
command from interface configuration mode.
date-time_poap_PID_[init,1,2].log, where date-time is in the YYYYMMDD_hhmmss format and PID
is the process ID.
where date-time is in the YYYYMMDD_hhmmss format and PID is the process ID.
Cisco Nexus 5500 Series NX-OS Fundamentals Configuration Guide, Release 7.x
Location-Based Configuration File Selection
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