In a VSX pair, what is the purpose of the keepalive link?

In a VSX pair, what is the purpose of the keepalive link?

• A. Carries data traffic between switches
• B. Provides Layer 3 routing
• C. Monitors health and keeps the pair alive when the inter-switch link fails
• D. Serves as a management path to the fabric

Answer: (C)

In a VSX pair, two switches operate as a single fabric, so there’s a heartbeat channel between them to verify both are alive and in sync. The keepalive link is that lightweight control path: it continuously checks the health of the pair and, if the inter-switch link fails, helps maintain awareness of the peer so the fabric can avoid diverging and fail over safely. It’s not used for user data or Layer 3 routing, and it isn’t a management path for the fabric; its sole role is monitoring and keeping the pair together when the data path is interrupted.

In a VSX pair, two switches operate as a single fabric, so there’s a heartbeat channel between them to verify both are alive and in sync. The keepalive link is that lightweight control path: it continuously checks the health of the pair and, if the inter-switch link fails, helps maintain awareness of the peer so the fabric can avoid diverging and fail over safely. It’s not used for user data or Layer 3 routing, and it isn’t a management path for the fabric; its sole role is monitoring and keeping the pair together when the data path is interrupted.