ip load sharing per packet using CISCO 4300

[mseyam83@yahoo.com]

Hello,

I've cisco routers 4321 and 4331 models and I want to apply load balance configuration but under interface I couldn't find the command ( ip load-sharing per-packet ) where it is available in old generation such as 1900, 2900.

is there equivalent command in 4321 and 4331 routers

thank you

[Joseph W. Doherty]

In general, it's a very, very bad idea to do load sharing per packet, Cisco may have removed the command from 4K ISRs.

[Georg Pauwen]

Hello,

I also think it is not available on any of the 'higher' platforms. Here is an excerpt from the release notes for 15M, and it underlines what Joseph said: bad idea.

Although per-packet load balancing is intended for use on the majority of Cisco IOS routers, it is not supported on the Cisco ASR 1000 (and higher) Series Aggregation Services Router. Also, per-packet load balancing can result in out-of-sequence (OOS) packet delivery errors on some routers, which can cause applications such as VoIP to malfunction. Therefore, per-packet load balancing is not recommended. For more information, see the release notes and caveats for your platform and software release.

[Richard Burts]

I agree with the suggestion that trying to do load sharing per packet is generally not a good idea. But the original poster asked a question and I believe that there might be an answer for it. I do not have a 4300 to check on but I believe that the issue for the original poster is that he is looking for an interface command ip load-sharing per-packet. But now the load sharing decision is made in cef. See if the global command ip cef load-share per-packet is supported on your router. 

HTH

Rick

[Joseph W. Doherty]

Rick raises a great point, that the CEF version of per packet load-sharing command may be present. (On a CEF platform, you would want to use the CEF version of the command to avoid "process switching".) It's very much worth trying to enter the command, to see if it's available, but again, generally you don't want to use if for the reason Georg's Cisco quote mentions (NB: not only is VoIP traffic impacted by OOS).

Also, I recall on some later Cisco platforms, CEF cannot be disabled. If this is the case on the 4K ISRs, it would make sense for Cisco to remove non-CEF commands.

Lastly, I recall on some IOS version upgrades, when some commands are removed from command entry, they might still appear in a running config if found in the startup config, although they all null.