Aggregating Switch Links

[jmckechnie]

Hi,

Having recently set up an inter-switch etherchannel. I was wondering if there is any benefit of setting up etherchannels for my servers where they have teamed nic's?

I don't think there is as I believe you don't get any additional throughput.

But would be interested to hear opinions.

Thanks

J Mack

[andrew.prince]

Yes you can "group" ports together that face your servers, however although BOTH nics will be able to send traffic at the same time - only 1 nic will receive it.

So from a point of traffic coming from the server - great, traffic going to the server not so good, in my opionion.

HTH>

[Joseph W. Doherty]

Server teamed NICs can provide additional bandwidth to/from the server. How effectively depends on the teaming technology. For instance, I recall one teaming approach only used one link for traffic to the server, but all the links for traffic from the server. I also recall NIC teaming usually doesn't support as many ports as inter-switch Etherchannel. Next upsized (10x) single port, if available, usually provides more bandwidth.

NIC teaming is also one of the methods to provide network redundancy.

Also keep in mind physical capacity of most servers. Most, for some time now, can easily drive more than 100 Mbps (PCI NICs). Most can effectively drive gig (PCI-X NICs). Beyond single gig, current gen high performance servers can drive multiple gig or 10 gig (PCI-E NICs).

[edit]

PS:

Multi-homing is another option.