An important part of the XNV feature is the ability to configure a switch port to support a particular VM. A Virtual Port Profile (VPP) identifies a policy file or ACL rule to associate with a VM entry in the authentication database. You can define both ingress and egress policies in VPPs to configure a port separately for each direction. When the VPP is configured for a VM entry and the VM is detected on a port, any associated policy or rule is applied to the port in the specified direction.
The XNV feature supports two types of VPPs, Network VPPs (NVPPs) and Local VPPs (LVPPs).
NVPPs are stored on an FTP server called a repository server. The XNV feature supports file synchronization between XNV-enabled switches and the repository server. One of the advantages of the repository server is centralized storage for NVPPs.
LVPPs must be configured on each switch. LVPPs are a good choice for simple network topologies, but NVPPs offer easier network management for more complex network topologies.