help choose the appropriate etherchannel load balance method

[nicanor00]

Hi

I have 2 network architectures :case A and case B  (found architecture below)

Case A : one server connected on the switch on each site

Case B : 3 server connected on the switch behind a router on each site

2 site are connected by 2 wireless link :each wireless link have 105 Mbps bandwith (I absolutly need the agregate bandwith 210)

Site headquarter is the principal site and site backup is use to backup data located on the principal site

I use Gbit cisco  2960 switch

I use etherchannel to agregate the 2 switch port (port 1 and port 2) where the 2 wireless link are connected

I configure src-mac for case A but all trafic is send only on one wireless link .

Please help me to choose the more appropriate load balance method to load balance traffic between the 2 link for the case A and for the case B

Please advise

Thanks in advance

[Joseph W. Doherty]

Disclaimer

The Author of this posting offers the information contained within this posting without consideration and with the reader's understanding that there's no implied or expressed suitability or fitness for any purpose. Information provided is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as rendering professional advice of any kind. Usage of this posting's information is solely at reader's own risk.

Liability Disclaimer

In no event shall Author be liable for any damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, damages for loss of use, data or profit) arising out of the use or inability to use the posting's information even if Author has been advised of the possibility of such damage.

Posting

Your Case A might be handled by port hashing, but unfortunately most Cisco platforms don't support it.

Your Case B isn't much better, as you only have 3 hosts on each side, and according to your drawing, they are behind routers, so you don't want to use MAC hashes.  If you don't have port hashing, next best choice might be src-dest-IP hashing.  Again, though, with just 3 hosts, your distribution will likely not be very balanced, especially over shorter time intervals.

To obtain best utilization of your links, you need some kind of better link bonding, such as MLPPP (unfortunately, usually won't scale to FE rates) or a hardware MUX.  Next best option, if you could route across the links, would be something like Cisco's OER/PfR which can dynamically load balance.