Port Channel:
Multiple ports bundled together such that they appear as a single port. Port Channel runs between 2 devices. Port Channel utilizes LACP (Standard) or PAgP (Cisco Proprietary).
Virtual Port Channel:
Multiple ports bundled together such that they appear as a single port. In the case of vPC, the links are connected to two different Cisco Nexus devices and appear as a single Port Channel to a 3rd device.
A simple vPC setup is shown here:
This diagram provides an introduction to vPC terminology:
vPC – Port Channel between vPC peer and the downstream device.
vPC Domain – Pair of vPC Switches.
vPC Peer – A vPC switch in a common vPC Domain.
vPC Member Port – One of a set of ports to form vPC.
vPC Peer Link – Link used to synchronize state between vPC peer devices, must be 10G
vPC Peer Keepalive Link – Keepalive link between vPC peer devices.
vPC VLAN – Any of the VLANs carried over the vPC Peer Link.
Orphan Device – A device on a vPC VLAN but only connected to only one vPC Peer and not both.
Orphan Port – An orphan port is a interface that connects to an Orphan Device.
Reference: