etherchannel help

[munawar.zeeshan]

I have two connection from 2 different ISPs and they have given me one IP each that i have to define at my end.

I am planning to use load balancing and redundancy.so emplying etherchannel.But a bit confused. Please review the diagram atatched and advice if my design

can cater the requirments of etherchannel. Also give me some idea about config. That what to do at each device mentioned.

If some one has any suggestion with respect to hardware then that can also ne mention.(means i also have some other switches and 3825, 2811, 2851 router)

Infact i am interested to know weather i can do this with eather channel and how? what will be the gateways at each device and how to configure etherchannel

etc etc.

thanks

[fred.mancen]

Hi Munawar.

To set up a Etherchannel is easy; you just need to make sure that the ports you want to set up the channel have the exactly same config. Example:

interface FastEthernet1/0

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q

switchport trunk native vlan 10 (default is Vlan 1)

duplex full

speed 100

channel-group 1 mode on

So, you type the command below, to show the channel group summary:

R1#sh etherchannel 1 summary

Flags: D - down P - in port-channel

I - stand-alone s - suspended

R - Layer3 S - Layer2

U - in use

Group Port-channel Ports

-----+------------+-------------------------

1 Po1(SD) Fa1/0(D)

R1#

As simple as you see. You do not have to change any gateway settings, the Etherchannel acts as a single link and would not impact on the entire config. If you have more switches from different vendors, you can use a similar solution that is the Link Aggregation (LACP). Cisco switches use the proprietary solution, which is the Etherchannel.

Regards,

Fred.