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link aggregation between 3750 and intel nic

dburd
Level 1
Level 1

someone out there must be doing this. the dual port intel nic has 3 modes which all say they are compatible with the cisco's etherchannel. don't know which one is best either. unless it just doen't work well, then maybe that's why i can't find any info on it. i just want more bandwidth to this one server - and i thought a hardware solution would be better than MS load balancing.

5 Replies 5

pflunkert
Level 4
Level 4

What modes you have on the NIC? It should be similar as mode on, LACP active and passive. So you must decide to use the same mode on both sides. I don't have any experiences with the INTEL Nic, but i would try LACP on both sites. Configure on the switch channlel-group 1 mode active and the same behaviour on the NIC. When this don't work try to configure the mode on. As Trunk protocol use 802.1q.

Regards

Peter

i did get it to establish a link using LACP in "active" mode, but load balancing across the ports only occurs on the outbound traffic (from server to cisco). inbound traffic only traverses one port. Since the 3750 is processing the traffic destined for the nic, it's the one that should be load balancing that traffic between the ports.

Hello,

have you tried the Intel Link Aggregation option ?

You might want to check this document, it talks about the various teaming modes and when to use them:

Networking and Communications

Advanced Networking Services - Teaming

http://www.intel.com/support/network/sb/cs-009747.htm

HTH,

Georg

www.solutionfinders.nl

That is correct, I am trying to use the Intel "teaming" feature on a Dual IntelPro1000 MT nic. I have been able to get it to partially work using "active" mode on the cisco (lacp) and "Dynamic 802.3ad" on the intel. Both devices show aggregate link established. But only outbound traffic to the cisco is load balanced across both ports, inbound from the cisco to the intel only traverses one port. Not the best since this is a fileserver that both reads and writes just about equally..

The intel docs say I should be able to setup an old fashioned Cisco EtherChannel - which I am assuming means that I can setup a PAgP grouping on the cisco by using the "desirable" keyword. So I delete the work LACP grouping and create a new one in the same way except I use "desirable". Change the Intel to use "Static FEC/GEC/802.3ab", yet there is no option to specify GEC instead of 802.3ab, so I assume again that it's supposed to negotiate that with the cisco which is set to use PAgP. Even after reboots and reconnects, both devices never show that the ports are aggregated and I get aggravated.

i need help...

Hi,

what you describe looks like the normal behaviour. EtherChannel balances the traffic load across the links in a channel by reducing part of the binary pattern formed from the addresses in the frame to a numerical value that selects one of the links in the channel. EtherChannel load balancing can use MAC addresses or IP addresses, source or destination addresses, or both source and destination addresses. The selected mode applies to all EtherChannels configured on the switch. You configure the load balancing and forwarding method by using the port-channel load-balance global configuration command.

With source-MAC address forwarding, when packets are forwarded to an EtherChannel, they are distributed across the ports in the channel based on the source-MAC address of the incoming packet. Therefore, to provide load balancing, packets from different hosts use different ports in the channel, but packets from the same host use the same port in the channel.

With source-IP address-based forwarding, when packets are forwarded to an EtherChannel, they are distributed across the ports in the EtherChannel based on the source-IP address of the incoming packet. Therefore, to provide load-balancing, packets from different IP addresses use different ports in the channel, but packets from the same IP address use the same port in the channel.

With destination-IP address-based forwarding, when packets are forwarded to an EtherChannel, they are distributed across the ports in the EtherChannel based on the destination-IP address of the incoming packet. Therefore, to provide load-balancing, packets from the same IP source address sent to different IP destination addresses could be sent on different ports in the channel. But packets sent from different source IP addresses to the same destination IP address are always sent on the same port in the channel.

With source-and-destination IP address-based forwarding, when packets are forwarded to an EtherChannel, they are distributed across the ports in the EtherChannel based on both the source and destination IP addresses of the incoming packet. This forwarding method, a combination of source-IP and destination-IP address-based forwarding, can be used if it is not clear whether source-IP or destination-IP address-based forwarding is better suited on a particular switch. In this method, packets sent from the IP address A to IP address B, from IP address A to IP address C, and from IP address C to IP address B could all use different ports in the channel.

A router is a single-MAC-address device, source-based forwarding on the switch EtherChannel ensures that the switch uses all available bandwidth to the router. The router is configured for destination-based forwarding because the large number of workstations ensures that the traffic is evenly distributed from the router EtherChannel.

Use the option that provides the greatest variety in your configuration. For example, if the traffic on a channel is going only to a single MAC address, using the destination-MAC address always chooses the same link in the channel. Using source addresses or IP addresses might result in better load balancing.

The command is port-channel load-balance {dst-ip | dst-mac | src-dst-ip | src-dst-mac | src-ip | src-mac}

The default is src-mac.

When the traffic come from one device such a client or router (through vlan routing), you must use only one link. Elect one of these load-distribution methods:

dst-ip—Load distribution is based on the destination-host IP address.

dst-mac—Load distribution is based on the destination-host MAC address of the incoming packet. src-dst-ip—Load distribution is based on the source-and-destination host-IP address.

src-dst-mac—Load distribution is based on the source-and-destination host-MAC address.

src-ip—Load distribution is based on the source-host IP address.

src-mac—Load distr is based on the source-MAC address of the incoming packet.

Regards

Peter