port channeling

[Network Pro]

Hiya,

1. if the servers NIC are teamed does it need port channeling or etherchanneling at the switch end ?

2. can i enable portfast on switchports that are used for servers (with / without etherchannel)

Thanks

[Majed Saeed]

hi sir ,,

1 - no need to configure port-channel for server nic teaming .

2 - you can apply portfast for any access port ( includes server ) .

hope this helpful .....

regds

majed .

[Network Pro]

if the nic are not teamed then it would be sending one mac address on two differnt ports (if not port channeled on switch) iisnt it ?

[cadet alain]

Hi,

if nics are not teamed then they would send  each a different  src mac address on each port they are connected to.

Regards.

Alain.

[Network Pro]

yes i understand that. so if they are teamed they are going to be sending the same mac address to the switch. so it shd be teamed at the switch end as well ? shoudnt they ?

[cadet alain]

Hi,

here is a very interesting doc that will answer your questions hopefully.

Alain.

[Network Pro]

thanks for the doc...its a big file...just had a glimpse and i think if you team on server it needs port channelling at the switch end. pls correct me if i am wrong...

Thanks

[cadet alain · Accepted solution]

Hi,

not necessarily it is only mandatory if you want inbound load-balancing otherwise NIC teaming alone will take care of outbound load-balancing and failover and there will only be one MAC address chosen from one of the physical members which will represent the NIC team.

All this is explained in the doc.

Regards.

Alain.

[Network Pro]

thanks

[flokki123]

hi,

you have to team the ports on the switch as well, as if you dont do that

a) the server would receive its own broadcasts and thus process needless traffic.

b) if spanning tree is enabled it would disable one port as the switch would receive the same mac address on two different ports.

HTH,

florian

[Network Pro]

hi,

thats exactly what i thought flokki123 but according to cadet_alain port channeling on the switch is nt needed. so now i am confused

[cadet alain]

Hi,

I'm not always right on all subjects but that was what the doc said :

"A team of adapters function as a single virtual network interface and does not appear any different to other network devices than a non-teamed adapter"

"For switch independent teaming modes, all physical adapters that make up a virtual adapter must use the unique MAC address assigned to them when transmitting data. That is, the frames that are sent by each of the physical adapters in the team must use a unique MAC address to be IEEE compliant"

You should read the doc  and the decide which technique you want to implement depending on your needs.

Regards.

Alain.

[flokki123]

hi,

iam pretty sure that the broacast thing could be a problem, as if you use LACP based on SRC-addresses a broadcast paket is send via one link and the switch doesnt know that this link belongs to a team, so it will send the broadcast paket back to the server via the other link of the team. the server will drop the paket but still has to process some traffic.

with the stp thing iam not sure.

but i would recommand using teaming on both sides, server and switch, so you wont have any problems and the load-balancing will work in both directions.

regards,

florian