This 350-601 practice question tests your understanding of network. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A Nexus 9000 switch is configured with VPC. The VPC keepalive link fails. What is the effect on the VPC domain?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
The secondary switch suspends its VPC member ports.
In a VPC domain, the keepalive link is used to monitor the liveness of the peer switch, but it does not carry data traffic. When the keepalive link fails, the secondary switch cannot confirm the primary is alive, so it suspends its VPC member ports to prevent a dual-active scenario. The primary switch remains active and continues forwarding traffic normally because it assumes the secondary has failed.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✗
Both switches suspend the VPC VLANs.
Why it's wrong here
Only the secondary suspends its VPC member ports; the primary continues forwarding.
✗
Both switches continue to forward traffic normally.
Why it's wrong here
Without keepalive, the secondary will suspend its VPC ports to prevent dual-active.
✓
The secondary switch suspends its VPC member ports.
Why this is correct
To avoid split-brain, the secondary switch suspends its VPC member ports while keepalive is down.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
The primary switch becomes orphan.
Why it's wrong here
The primary does not become orphan; it continues to operate normally.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Cisco often tests the misconception that a keepalive link failure causes both switches to stop forwarding or that the primary becomes orphan, but the correct behavior is that only the secondary suspends its VPC member ports to maintain a single active forwarding path.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, VPC uses a keepalive link (often a dedicated Layer 3 link) and a peer-link (for data and control traffic). If the keepalive fails but the peer-link is still up, the secondary switch uses the peer-link to detect the primary's presence and may not suspend ports immediately. However, if both links fail, the secondary suspends its VPC ports after the default timeout (3 seconds) to prevent dual-active forwarding, relying on the primary to handle all traffic.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A help-desk technician troubleshoots why a newly connected PC cannot reach shared printers on the same floor. The cable is good, the switch port is active, but the PC is in VLAN 20 and the printers are in VLAN 10. The uplink trunk only allows VLAN 10. A trunk being up does not mean every VLAN crosses it.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Network — This question tests Network — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: The secondary switch suspends its VPC member ports. — In a VPC domain, the keepalive link is used to monitor the liveness of the peer switch, but it does not carry data traffic. When the keepalive link fails, the secondary switch cannot confirm the primary is alive, so it suspends its VPC member ports to prevent a dual-active scenario. The primary switch remains active and continues forwarding traffic normally because it assumes the secondary has failed.
What should I do if I get this 350-601 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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