Layer 2 Etherchannel with ip based load balancing possible?

[vincehgov]

Hi, I've been reading as many Cisco papers as I could and cannot find a statement anywhere that says that in order to do load balancing based on IP addresses you must configure the port-channel interface as a layer 3 interface.

Can a Layer 2 Etherchannel load balance using the IP addresses in the packets or will it not have visibility into layer 3 information.

Vince

[manish arora]

Hi Vince,

Check this link out :-

Load Balancing and Forwarding Methods

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/lan/catalyst3560/software/release/12.2_52_se/configuration/guide/swethchl.html

Manish

[vincehgov]

Sorry Manish,

I'm reading the section but I don't see where it says that Layer 2 etherchannels cannot use IP address based load balancing.

Vince

[manish arora · Accepted solution]

Hi Vince,

I think i misunderstood your question at first, the layer 2 etherchannel can and will load balance across an etherchannel based on source/dest ip ( if the hashing is set to that mode ). It will create a hash based on those parameters and assign the flow to a link till the time that link is available.

Manish

[vincehgov]

Ok great.  Thank you Manish.