Change Cisco FTD Etherchannel Interfaces

[PeymanSarayeli22142]

Hi Guys.

I hope you are doing well.

We have a pair of FTDs (2100) in Active/Standby mode. We created a port-channel on them which includes 2 electrical interfaces (Copper). Due to some decisions, we want to change this port-channel to use optical connections (Fibre + SFP).

As We remove the copper connections from the port-channel configuration and add the fiber ports into it and after deployment,

the connection breaks down between the FTDs and the respective switches (2 Nexus 9K also in H.A mode.)

I would appreciate it, if someone has experience to share in this regard.

Best,

Peyman Sarayeli

[balaji.bandi]

Are you looking to replace both Ethernet with Fibre ports ?

1. same speed ? if yes

i will add new interface SFP to same Port-channel and make sure all working as expected and remove Ethernet from Port-channel config once new SFP fibre links up and running ?

or am i miss understood your requirement ?

[PeymanSarayeli22142]

@balaji.bandi 

Yes I want to replace two copper ports with two fiber ports.

I was not sure if I can add ports of different media (Fiber) to the current ether-channel (Copper) and use them.

Considering that the fiber cables are not connected at the moment, when I add two fiber ports to the current port-channel configuration, it returns an error at the time of saving the changes as below:

"The member interfaces have mismatched speed capabilities"

I will try this method and update here.

Best,

Peyman

[balaji.bandi]

1. same speed ? if yes

this what my comment, are they same Speed - YES my steps valid.

If NO

you need small maintenance window, shutdown old Interface and add new Interfaces.

[PeymanSarayeli22142 · Accepted solution]

@balaji.bandi Thanks for your quick response.

According to this article, I found out that I cannot put a RJ-45 and a Fiber in to an etherchannel on FTDs.

Best,

Peyman

[balaji.bandi]

Agreed that could be limitation on FTD side (not on switch side) make sense ?

So you need to go with Plan B as in maintenance window move the ports.