Teaming Need to configure on 4507-R for Blade Server

[m.zahooruddin]

Hi

We have some problem in our network with Blade server below is our scenario

Blade server has two switches with 8 port each, all port connected to Server Farm switch 4507-R. As per their request they need to configure teaming on 4507-R  to merge this 8 port in to one.

[Giuseppe Larosa]

Hello Mohammad,

they are probably asking for a L2 etherchannel, recommendation is to use LACP

all member ports need to be configured  in the same way

with

sh etherchannel summary

you can see if there are already bundles

int gix/y

switchport

switchport trunk enc dot1q

switchport trunk allowed vlan k,l,m

then you add

int gix/y

channel-group N mode active

after changes and when the bundle goes up you will need to make further changes on the bundle interface

so you will have an interface

int port-channel N

and you will make changes like adding vlans here

Hope to help

Giuseppe

[mdzahooruddin]

Thanks for reply

What exactly they required is 6 port need to configure as an Active and other 6 port need to configure as a passive

As per the answer do we need to use same channel-group number?

Is it ok if the port configure as an access port, since all port are in same VLAN or we need to configure trunk on each port?

We are using VSS to communicate that switch to backbone

[Giuseppe Larosa]

Hello Mohammad,

if you connect the two blade switches to a VSS you may be able to use a single channel group but only if the two blade switches form a sort of stack.

if this does not happen, it may be a good idea to connect each blade switch to each C6509 that is part of the VSS pair in order to be able to survive to one c6509 chassis failure.

You should investigate on how the two blade switches will be used: if one is used as primary and the other as standby and they are standalone you should use two channel groups each with its own number.

If the blade switches can be used at the same time thy should form a  sort of stack and a single channel-group should  be used. LACP allows to define some links as sort of backup and to use the first m links with other links as standby.

The problem with two channel-groups if both blade switches are used is that for the VSS some MAC addresses may be seen as flapping between the two etherchannels. For this reason it is important to understand how the blade switches will be used.

Hope to help

Giuseppe